Six Disney characters will greet guests inside The Magic of Disney Animation at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and each one has been placed in the animation department that would have handled their work. Off the Page! is one of the experiences opening September 14, and Disney laid out the full character list on Wednesday.
Get a first look at some of the attractions inside the Magic of Disney Animation @WaltDisneyWorld
— LaughingPlace.com (@laughingplace) September 9, 2026
Who Is Where
Mulan appears in the Story department, posing in front of an oversized storyboard panel. Rapunzel is in Layout, in a setting built around the classic multiplane camera, where painted backgrounds and cels stack up in layers to create depth. Chip n’ Dale hold down Hand-Drawn Animation, Donald and Daisy are in Computer Animation, Goofy is in Lighting and Stitch is in Effects, which is the department that would have handled his water, fire and general destruction.
Donald and Daisy in Off the Page! inside The Magic of Disney Animation.
— Scott Gustin (@ScottGustin) September 9, 2026
The pairings are not random. Each room is meant to explain a stage of the animation pipeline while a character stands in the middle of it, so a photo stop doubles as a short lesson in how a film gets made. The experience is a direct collaboration between Walt Disney Imagineering and Walt Disney Animation Studios rather than an Imagineering project themed to animation.
Maquettes On The Shelves
Sketches are the obvious prop in a space like this, but the rooms also display maquettes, the small sculptures animators use to study a character from every angle so a drawing stays on model from shot to shot. Guests who look around while waiting for a photo will find a young Tarzan perched on a tree trunk and Taffyta Muttonfudge from Wreck-It Ralph, both unpainted and sitting on shelves rather than in cases.
A Working Studio That Inspired People
Dan Abraham, a director at Walt Disney Animation Studios and co-director of the Once Upon a Studio short that inspired the attraction, framed the space around what the original building did for the artists who worked in it.
“It’s so cool to have fun with characters that you’ve seen in these films, and you’re getting to see a bit of the history of the studio as well,” Abraham said in Disney’s announcement. “Back when this was a working animation studio, it inspired so many people to become animators. Hopefully, this new version will do the same.”
That history is literal in this building. Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida worked here until it closed in January 2004, with a hand in Mulan, Lilo and Stitch and Brother Bear, and guests could watch artists at their desks through windows. The original Magic of Disney Animation attraction closed on July 12, 2015, Star Wars Launch Bay moved in that December, and the whole courtyard shut on September 25, 2025 for the Walt Disney Studios Lot project.
Off the Page! joins Olaf Draws!, the Drawn to Wonderland playground and the Once Upon A Studio Theater when the attraction opens next week. The Animators’ Office that Imagineering walked through earlier this month sits at the end of the route.
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