A Great new Experience at Disney Hollywood Studios; The Animation Academy

On this last trip to WDW we had one of the most fun, educational experiences and received one of the best souvenirs that I have taken away from WDW. We went to the Animation Academy. The Animation Academy can be found in the Magic of Animation attraction in the Disney Hollywood Studios. Once you watch Mushu tell you about about character creation, you exit out to a room that has really evolved from what it was originally. There is art work from the new Tangled movie, computer stations to color, add sounds or see what character you are most like. On top of that , there many meet and greet areas for the most current and some older characters. In among this multitude of animation experiences is, as mentioned above, one of the best half hours we have ever had at WDW. The Animation Academy. This is a side area in the room mentioned above that is right near the exit into the Disney Animation store. Here you queue up for a 15-20 minute lesson on how to draw a Disney Character. When the doors open up you walk into what can best be described as an Animation Classroom. At the front of the room is an artist desk with and large video screen hanging on the wall above it. An overhead projector shows you what the artist is doing. The Artist is a WDW Cast Member who was great. I believe his name was Rick. As we find a seat and sit, Rick tells us about the partnership of Disney and animation and how we were going to draw Mickey Mouse in this session. We were really excited to start. We all were sitting on the most ingenious swivel mounted stools and our desk was a well lit Mickey shaped drawing area with a piece of drawing paper. At the top of the lit part of the desk were a couple of raised pins. The paper had holes at top that fit over the pins as you draw. As you reach for the pencil you notice that there is no eraser. Uh-oh. But Rick assures us it will not be necessary. And we began to draw. Step by step we followed his instructions punctuated by historic facts about drawing Mickey over the years mixed with some humour. Our drawings progressed line by line and we all came out with pretty good Mickey Mouse portraits. This was so fun. This has just squeezed into my must-do's at DHS right after the top three; Toy Story Mania, Tower and RockNRoller Coaster. FYI, you can go through the store and past the Oscars exhibit and skip the Mushu show if you want.

This was great!!!