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The Magic Of Disney Animation Soft Opened Three Days Early At Hollywood Studios

The Walt Disney Studios entrance sign at Disney's Hollywood Studios, with the Sorcerer Hat topped animation building visible beyond it

The Magic of Disney Animation began welcoming guests at Disney’s Hollywood Studios on Friday morning, three days ahead of the September 14 date Disney announced for the new attraction. The soft opening was not advertised in advance, and guests were lining up outside the building before the park’s 9 a.m. opening.

Soft openings carry no guarantees. Disney can end one at any point in the day, and preview hours do not have to match the posted schedule. For now the full collection of experiences is open.

Olaf Is Already The Bottleneck

The line for Olaf Draws! stretched back into the Reception area within the first hour. The drawing class is led by a new Audio Animatronics Olaf working alongside recorded instruction from Walt Disney Animation Studios artists. Only one lesson ran on Friday, the Mickey class, and each session lasts about 10 minutes.

Olaf Draws! will run on an in-person virtual waitlist as needed rather than at all times, and it is not in the My Disney Experience app. Guests check in with a cast member at the attraction and get a return time by text, which frees them to see the rest of the building or the rest of the park instead of standing in a line. There is not much physical queue space inside.

Alice And The White Rabbit Came Out To Play

Alice spent part of the day in Drawn to Wonderland, the indoor playground built from Mary Blair’s concept art, meeting the smallest guests inside the space rather than at a set greeting location. Characters turn up there occasionally rather than on a posted schedule.

The White Rabbit worked the courtyard outside for part of the day. With the other characters now stationed inside the building at Off the Page!, he had the Walt Disney Studios Lot to himself.

The Hexed Gallery Revives An Old Tradition

One element inside the building is a direct callback. For roughly a decade, guests could visit Walt Disney Presents to see developmental art from the next Walt Disney Animation Studios release, and before that the original Magic of Disney Animation did the same. The new version carries a full gallery devoted to the studio’s next film, which right now means Hexed.

The gallery holds concept art, story sketches, model sheets and design elements from the film, which opens in theaters November 25. Hexed follows a teenage girl named Billie, voiced by Hailee Steinfeld, who discovers magical abilities that pull her out of suburbia and into a witch realm called Hexe alongside her cautious mother Alice, voiced by Rashida Jones. Fawn Veerasunthorn and Jason Hand direct, with Josie Trinidad co-directing and Roy Conli and Yvett Merino producing. Veerasunthorn also appears in the recorded lessons at Olaf Draws! a few rooms away.

The Hours Change Twice In The First Two Weeks

Disney has posted an opening schedule that moves around before it settles. From September 14 through 17 the attraction runs 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. On September 18 and 19 it opens a half hour earlier at 8:30 a.m. From September 20 through 27 it returns to 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Then it contracts. Beginning September 28, The Magic of Disney Animation is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., a narrower window than Hollywood Studios itself keeps on most days. Guests arriving at rope drop or drifting back after dinner will find the doors shut, so slot it into the middle of a day rather than the edges.

What Is Inside The Building

The attraction gathers several experiences under one roof. Drawn to Wonderland is an indoor playground built from Mary Blair’s concept art for Alice in Wonderland, designed for children ages 6 months to 5 years, with the Mad Tea Party, the Mad Hatter’s house, the Queen of Hearts’ rose garden and the Cheshire Cat’s Tulgey Wood inside it. Off the Page! is a set of character meets organized by animation department, so Mulan appears in Story, Rapunzel in Layout and Stitch in Effects. The Once Upon a Studio Theater screens the 2023 short with added in theater effects, and an art gallery runs new animation created for the space.

An Animator’s Office sits among them, furnished with real artifacts pulled from the studio rather than themed props, and a Treasures Untold gallery holds costume and prop pieces tied to individual films.

A Building On Its Third Life

The structure has carried this name before. The original Magic of Disney Animation opened May 1, 1989, and closed July 12, 2015. Star Wars Launch Bay moved in that December and stayed until it closed permanently on September 25, 2025. The courtyard outside, rebuilt as the Walt Disney Studios Lot, opened to guests on May 20 of this year while the building itself stayed behind walls.

The exterior now takes its cues from the Roy E. Disney Animation Building in Burbank, down to the Sorcerer Hat on the roof, and the hat and the courtyard trees are lit at night. Disney’s own preview of the project describes portraits that come to life in the manner of Once Upon a Studio and a chance to sketch a character. With Friday’s soft opening, the last piece of the courtyard’s rebuild is in guest hands.

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