Disney: New drawing classes will feature Olaf animatronic

[Disney4me]

An animatronic version of Olaf, the carefree snowman from “Frozen,” will front a new drawing experience at the animation area inside Disney’s Hollywood Studios beginning this summer.

The theme park’s reimagined and renamed land will be known as the Walt Disney Studios, and that will include the Magic of Disney Animation building housing an Animation Academy experience called “Olaf Draws.”  The space will have animator desk-inspired workstations, and the Olaf figure will also be seated at one on stage, just as he was in the “Once Upon a Studio” short film released in 2023.

As it turns out, Olaf can’t draw, so prerecorded instructions from Disney animators will be presented to park guests in the experience.

“Olaf is learning with us,” Danny Handke, senior creative director with Walt Disney Imagineering, said in a Disney video posted on YouTube and on the official Disney Parks Blog.

Among the characters that will be sketched in the lineup of classes are Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Genie, Moana, Stitch, Ursula, Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde and Olaf. The sessions are instructed by directors and animators from a range of Disney productions, from “Aladdin” to “Zootopia 2.”

“If you have an artistic bone in your body and you’re enthusiastic about being a Disney animator, you’re going to learn a little bit here as well and have fun, too,” said Dan Abraham, a story artist and animator for Walt Disney Animation Studios.

“My hope is that that magic becomes even more elevated in terms of the type of experience you get by sitting this close to this incredible piece of technology that feels real, that looks real, that, hopefully, sounds authentic,” said Josh Gad, the actor who originally gave voice to Olaf in the films. He contributed new lines for the upcoming Hollywood Studios attraction.

“The guy who drew Olaf teaching Olaf how to draw Olaf? Wow, we are way beyond the looking glass here, people,” Gad — as Olaf — said in the video, which shows him in a recording session.

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Disney World visitors previously had access to drawing classes at the Animation Experience at Conservation Station at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. They were led by in-person instructors, but that area is now closed in preparation for a Bluey attraction also set to debut this summer.  There have also been drawing classes held during the Epcot International Festival of the Arts, which concluded this week.

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Other elements planned for the refreshed Walt Disney Studios section include the Drawn to Wonderland playground, character meet-and-greets, an “enchanted art” gallery and showings of “Once Upon a Studio,” which was co-directed by Abraham. “The Little Mermaid — A Musical Adventure,” a stage show that debuted in May, continues, and a new Disney Jr. show is planned for the space across the courtyard.

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