An Animatronic Olaf Will Teach You to Draw: Hollywood Studios Fans Get Their Animation Class Back
Disney's Hollywood Studios is bringing back drawing classes with "Olaf Draws!," an Animation Academy experience hosted by an audio-animatronic Olaf with new dialogue from Josh Gad. It anchors The Magic of Disney Animation, a reimagined Animation Courtyard area opening this summer with a theater, meet and greets and an indoor playground.
Olaf is getting a job at Disney's Hollywood Studios, and it involves a pencil. The park's reimagined Animation Courtyard will include "Olaf Draws!," a new Animation Academy style drawing class hosted by an audio-animatronic version of the Frozen snowman, complete with new dialogue recorded by Josh Gad. It is part of The Magic of Disney Animation, a larger animation-themed area expected to open this summer, as first reported by Fox 35 Orlando.
Key Details
- What: "Olaf Draws!," a character drawing class hosted by an animatronic Olaf
- Where: The Magic of Disney Animation, in the former Animation Courtyard at Disney's Hollywood Studios
- When: Expected to open this summer
- Characters to draw: Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Moana, Stitch, Ursula, Judy Hopps, Nick Wilde and Olaf
- Also in the building: An enchanted art gallery, the Once Upon A Studio Theater, the Off the Page meet and greet area, and the Drawn to Wonderland indoor playground
A snowman with his own animation desk
The class takes place in a room styled after an animator's studio. Guests sit at workstations inspired by real animation desks, and up on stage, at a drawing desk of his own, sits an animatronic Olaf. He hosts the session while Disney animators deliver the actual drawing instruction through prerecorded videos.
The figure is modeled on Olaf as he appears in Once Upon a Studio, the 2023 short where he sits at an animation table among a century of Disney characters. And he is not just decoration. In a video posted on the Disney Parks Blog, the team behind the project explains that Olaf learns to draw right alongside guests. "I have absolutely no idea how to draw, mostly because I'm a snowman," Olaf admits in the video.
Real Disney animators teach the lessons
The project is being introduced by Dan Abraham, a story artist and director at Walt Disney Animation Studios, and Danny Hanke, a senior creative director at Walt Disney Imagineering, who call themselves "the Dans" in the announcement video. The instructors guests will learn from are working Disney artists, and some of the pairings are striking.
"You've got veterans there that had worked on Aladdin. You've got Eric Goldberg teaching people how to draw the Genie. Like he's the guy that drew the Genie," Abraham says in the video. Other participating artists have worked on Encanto, Zootopia, Moana and the Frozen films.
That leads to the moment fans have already latched onto. "Wait, the guy who drew Olaf, teaching Olaf how to draw Olaf. Wow. We are way beyond the looking glass here, people," one of the Dans jokes in the video.
Inside The Magic of Disney Animation
"Olaf Draws!" is one piece of a larger overhaul of the old Animation Courtyard, now part of a refreshed Walt Disney Studios area. The Magic of Disney Animation building will also hold an "enchanted" art gallery where artwork appears to spring to life, the Once Upon A Studio Theater showing the Once Upon a Studio short, and the Off the Page meet and greet area, where guests can encounter characters such as Mulan, Rapunzel and Goofy.
The youngest visitors get their own space too: Drawn to Wonderland, an indoor playground inspired by the original concept art for Alice in Wonderland. Nearby, The Little Mermaid: A Musical Adventure, the stage show in the former Animation Courtyard, remains open.
Drawing classes return to Walt Disney World
Hollywood Studios has history here. Drawing classes were part of the park's original Magic of Disney Animation attraction, which closed in 2015, and longtime fans have missed sitting down with a pencil ever since. Animation Academy also ran at Conservation Station in Disney's Animal Kingdom, but that version has closed as Rafiki's Planet Watch is transformed into a Bluey experience, also arriving this summer.
The animation area lands amid a busy stretch for all four parks. Rock 'n' Roller Coaster closes March 1 to make way for a Muppets retheme at Hollywood Studios, EPCOT debuts the patriotic Soarin' Across America for the nation's 250th birthday, and Magic Kingdom is bringing back Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and the Buzz Lightyear attraction this spring after major refurbishments.
The Buzz
- Drawing classes are one of the most requested lost experiences at Walt Disney World, and this brings them back in a bigger form than before.
- A talking, drawing Olaf animatronic with new Josh Gad dialogue is exactly the kind of character technology fans dissect frame by frame.
- Eric Goldberg, the animator who created the Genie, teaching guests to draw him has fans treating the class list like a headliner lineup.
Why fans are buzzing
Take-home sketches from the old Animation Academy still hang framed in fan households, so the return of a real drawing class carries weight beyond a new show or shop. Adding an animatronic host who learns along with the room, voiced by Gad with fresh dialogue, turns a quiet sketch session into a character encounter. With an opening expected this summer, guests planning Hollywood Studios days should watch for exact dates and how class sign-ups will work once Disney shares operating details.