Pardon Our Pixie Dust is back, and the August 25 episode delivered three real reveals. Walt Disney Imagineering’s behind the walls video series checked in on the giant otters going into Disney’s Lakeshore Lodge, unveiled the entrance courtyard and Open House sign for The Magic of Disney Animation at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and gave a first look at the new walkway that will reconnect Avengers Campus and Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. We previewed the episode last month. Here is what it actually showed.
Addie The Otter Arrives At Lakeshore Lodge
The episode opens in The Wetlands, the outdoor recreation area beyond the lobby of the Disney Vacation Club resort opening in summer 2027 on Bay Lake. Imagineers walked the pool site as the first of two enormous otter figures, named Addie, was set in place. The otters anchor Otter Springs, a splash area for younger children where kids climb on the figures and slide down their tails. They are built to read as carved wood, and their look draws on Pocahontas. The second otter, Bonnie, comes later.
Disney has said the whole area takes its cue from a single line in Colors of the Wind, the one where Pocahontas counts the heron and the otter among her friends. That is also where Heron Shores, the dry climbing and play space, gets its name. The Wetlands additionally includes Daydream River, a lazy river, and Lakeshore Lagoon, a zero entry feature pool with a spiral waterslide, all of which appeared in concept art Disney released earlier this year.
The Atrium Courtyard Gets Its Open House Sign
At Hollywood Studios, senior producer Jackie Herrera walked through the former Animation Courtyard, now called the Atrium Courtyard, beneath the Sorcerer Hat and the Walt Disney Animation Studios lettering that already top the building. She then revealed the new entrance sign: a white banner with Open House hand lettered in blue, being painted by Mickey, Minnie, the Mad Hatter, Flounder and Moana. Perched at the top, adding a gold flourish, is the Lost Boy voiced by Robin Williams in Back to Neverland, the 1989 short that opened the original Magic of Disney Animation tour at what was then Disney-MGM Studios.
The Magic of Disney Animation opens September 14 with the Once Upon a Studio Theater, the Olaf Draws Animation Academy, a Drawn to Wonderland play area and character meet and greets, under senior creative director Danny Handke.
A Restroom That Faces Two Lands
The California segment answered a question fans have asked since the Avengers Campus expansion walls went up: how do you connect a Marvel land to a Pixar one? The new pathway includes a restroom building designed to belong to both. Approached from Cars Land it carries Radiator Springs details; approached from Avengers Campus it reads as an old Howard Stark era bunker. The walkway is set to reopen soon while the larger Avengers Campus construction continues.
Pardon Our Pixie Dust is hosted by Michael Hundgen, Walt Disney World’s portfolio executive creative producer, on the Walt Disney Imagineering YouTube channel. The episode arrives a week and a half after D23, where Imagineering announced the projects that will follow these, from Monstropolis to the Tomorrowland overhaul. LaughingPlace has the episode recap and Disney Food Blog has screenshots of the otters.
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