Watch 'Maestro': A Short Film From Walt Disney Animation Studios Interns

Walt Disney Animation Studios' 2019 interns created 'Maestro,' a visually stunning short film made in just a few months with guidance from veteran mentors behind Frozen and Zootopia. The project highlights the studio's internship pipeline and the next generation of Disney animators.

Every year, a lucky group of interns at Walt Disney Animation Studios gets a rare opportunity: to develop, design, and animate their very own short film. The 2019 class just unveiled the result of that journey, a visually dazzling short called Maestro, made in just a few months with mentorship from the artists behind Disney's biggest hits.

A Short Film Built from Scratch in Months

While a typical Walt Disney Animation Studios feature can take four or five years to make, the intern short is compressed into a matter of months. The 2019 team developed the story, designed characters, animated every shot, and composed an original score from scratch. Mentors from across the studio coached the interns through each department, from modeling and lighting to music.

Meet the Voices Behind Maestro

Composer Jeremy Zacuto, plus Patrick Yu Wang and Stephanie Chan (who handled character and prop modeling, look development, and lighting), shared what made the project so special. Zacuto called scoring a film a first for him: "I had never scored a short film, or any film before working on this short... or had to write a composition designed to drive the story of a film."

It was kind of like a dream for us that the famous artists who made Frozen, Zootopia, and many other Disney Animation features were actually sitting next to us and teaching us everything we needed without reservation.

Wang pointed to the mentorship as the heart of the experience. Chan echoed the sentiment: "This film would not be what it is without them. The mentors were so supportive and uplifting, and their warmth made me feel like home."

What This Means for Disney+ Fans

Maestro highlights a behind-the-scenes pipeline that rarely gets its spotlight, and it shows how the next generation of Disney animators is being developed. As Disney+ expands its catalog of originals and shorts, projects like this reinforce the studio's commitment to training the artists who will define Disney animation's future.