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I love Disney History. I enjoy learning about the Disney Company’s past and how Walt and his brother Roy did things to keep the studio afloat in the rough times and how they used their profits to make it grow after the Movies started taking off. I enjoy hearing about the recent history of the company also, so, the over the weekend I watched the second of the three documentaries I was given for Christmas. This one was called Waking Sleeping Beauty. It was about how Michael Eisner and Frank Wells brought the company back from the brink of a sell off to make it a thriving World-Wide name again. It talked about how this

was done by making animated features a priority again. At the time this was happening (from 1984- 1994) The Disney Theme Parks were being revitalized. There were more Resort Hotels being built in Florida and on May 1, 1989, The Disney MGM Studios opened. When the Disney MGM studios first opened it was a working film lot, with an amusement park built around it. There were a few “rides” but most of the attractions were shows and back-stage peeks. One of these back stage peeks is today’s Unknown Magic.

The Disney Animation Courtyard is an Unknown Magic, because of what is inside the Magic of Disney Animation building. The first attraction in the Animation Courtyard is a short film starring Mushu (Eddie Murphy) from Mulan. This show tells you how the animated movies are chosen and how they change through their production. From here you are led into an interactive area of the building where you can play some games, learn how to draw a Disney Character or meet some Characters (the last time we were there, the Cast from Up were greeting guests). These are all really neat things, especially if you are into the Disney animated Features, but the Unknown Magic of this building comes along as you wander around the building and look around.

As you walk through there are windows looking down on offices. These offices belong to some of the Disney Animators. When the Disney MGM Studios first opened, this area was a self guided tour. If you walked through this area then, you would have seen all of the offices full and a group of busy people. That is because when the studio first opened, this building was the primary location for the making of the Mulan and later Lilo and Stitch and Brother Bear. When these movies were being made, you could walk along the corridor and watch from above as the animators worked on sketches, models, and cells of their characters.

The offices although not used for making movies any longer are still set up as they were when the features were being made. The walls are covered with paint jars and the animators have their work spaces decorated with their favorite things and Disney Characters. This still is a very neat place to walk through.  In this building, even if they aren’t making features here any longer; it shows you how the older Disney Animated films were made and the work environment that they were made in.

Another neat thing about this area of the building is the statuettes and the sculptures they have from the features they have made. At one time, they even had the Oscar Awards that Walt Disney was given for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, all eight of them (he was given one regular size statue and seven miniature ones).

So, now you know there is a place in the Disney Hollywood Studios that can give you Magical Experiences by showing you a place where history and some Animated Disney films were made. These historical places are found in the Magic of Disney Animation building. You can still see how the Animators worked and if you’re lucky catch one doing a drawing and maybe it will help you to see how they created some of the Magic.