Drawn to Wonderland is built for ages 6 months to 5 years, Disney says

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Disney has put a number on who Drawn to Wonderland is for: children from 6 months to 5 years old. The indoor Alice in Wonderland playground inside The Magic of Disney Animation at Disney's Hollywood Studios opens September 14, split into four themed corners named for the Mad Tea Party, the Mad Hatter's house, the Queen of Hearts' rose garden and the Cheshire Cat's Tulgey Wood.

Drawn to Wonderland is built for ages 6 months to 5 years, Disney says

Disney has finally put a number on who the Alice in Wonderland playground inside The Magic of Disney Animation is meant for. Drawn to Wonderland is built for children from 6 months to 5 years old, according to the caption Disney Parks ran with a video of the space. The building opens at Disney's Hollywood Studios on Monday, September 14, and the same caption names the four themed corners the playground is divided into.

A vertical shot captures two purple and pink striped animatronics of the Cheshire Cat, one close-up and one further away, against a dark background.
A vertical shot captures two purple and pink striped animatronics of the Cheshire Cat, one close-up and one further away, against a dark background. Photo: youtube.com
A blue wizard hat sculpture is prominently displayed in front of a building with a beige facade and red accents.
A blue wizard hat sculpture is prominently displayed in front of a building with a beige facade and red accents. Photo: Blog Mickey
A Cheshire Cat figure with a wide grin and striped tail rests on a surface in a dimly lit setting.
A Cheshire Cat figure with a wide grin and striped tail rests on a surface in a dimly lit setting. Photo: youtube.com
A close-up shot features a purple and pink striped animatronic cat with a wide grin and yellow eyes, set against a dark background.
A close-up shot features a purple and pink striped animatronic cat with a wide grin and yellow eyes, set against a dark background. Photo: youtube.com
An animatronic of the Cheshire Cat with purple and pink stripes is depicted smiling with glowing yellow eyes in a dimly lit environment.
An animatronic of the Cheshire Cat with purple and pink stripes is depicted smiling with glowing yellow eyes in a dimly lit environment. Photo: youtube.com
A Cheshire Cat animatronic with glowing purple and pink stripes is displayed in a dark setting, with part of another animatronic visible on the left.
A Cheshire Cat animatronic with glowing purple and pink stripes is displayed in a dark setting, with part of another animatronic visible on the left. Photo: youtube.com

Key Details

The first age range Disney has given for any room in the building

Every earlier Disney description of Drawn to Wonderland stopped at a phrase. It was a space for young children, or for the youngest visitors, with no figures attached. The caption on this post fixes that: the playground is for children ages 6 months to 5 years old.

The bottom of that range is the part worth reading twice. Six months covers children who are months away from walking, an unusually young floor for a space inside a theme park. Nothing else announced for The Magic of Disney Animation carries an age band at all. The Olaf Draws! drawing class, the Off the Page! character greetings and the Once Upon a Studio theater have all been described without one.

A dark room with glowing purple and blue decorations features large artificial leaves and butterflies hanging from the ceiling.
A dark room with glowing purple and blue decorations features large artificial leaves and butterflies hanging from the ceiling. Still from the source video
A dimly lit indoor scene features hanging paper lanterns in various colors above a table set with teapots and cups, all against a dark background with abstract, whimsical shapes.
A dimly lit indoor scene features hanging paper lanterns in various colors above a table set with teapots and cups, all against a dark background with abstract, whimsical shapes. Still from the source video
An indoor scene features a decorative building on the left, illuminated by purple and pink lights, with a path on the floor featuring lighter colored shapes.
An indoor scene features a decorative building on the left, illuminated by purple and pink lights, with a path on the floor featuring lighter colored shapes. Still from the source video
A playground-like structure with stairs and railings is illuminated by colorful lights in a dark room with cloud-like ceiling decorations.
A playground-like structure with stairs and railings is illuminated by colorful lights in a dark room with cloud-like ceiling decorations. Still from the source video
A Cheshire Cat figure with purple and pink stripes is illuminated by neon lighting against a dark background.
A Cheshire Cat figure with purple and pink stripes is illuminated by neon lighting against a dark background. Still from the source video

Four corners of Wonderland

Disney's caption breaks the playground into four themed areas, each lifted from a different stretch of the 1951 film:

Disney's own image from The Mad Tea Party.
Disney's own image from The Mad Tea Party.

What children do in those four areas is climbing and wandering, in Disney's description, rather than queueing for anything. The caption puts it as young guests creating their own adventure around every corner, which is the language of a play structure rather than an attraction with a ride vehicle or a show schedule.

Mary Blair's artwork is the reference

When Disney confirmed the September 14 opening in July, it said the playground takes its look from Mary Blair's original concept art for Alice in Wonderland. Blair's paintings for the film are flat and blocked out in hard color, and the playground translates that into a room guests can walk into rather than a wall guests look at. Blair's work is also the basis of it's a small world, so the style already has a long history inside a Disney park, though it has usually been something guests ride past rather than climb on.

How big it is compared with everything else in there

Disney's own point of view walkthrough, posted five days before opening, runs 6 minutes 32 seconds across 12 chapters. Drawn to Wonderland takes 81 seconds of that, from 1:33 to 2:54, the longest single chapter in the tour and roughly a fifth of the runtime. Screen time is a rough proxy for floor space, but it is the only one available before the doors open, and it points to a play area that is a substantial room rather than a corner set aside for strollers.

The rest of the building was walked for Orlando media days before opening, which produced the Baymax and Olaf details: a balloon-inflating Baymax working as the party decorator, and a drawing class taught by an audio-animatronic Olaf. Drawn to Wonderland sits inside that same building, in the Walt Disney Studios Lot area of the park.

What this means for families with young children

Families traveling with a baby or a toddler now know that one room at Disney's Hollywood Studios was designed with that child in mind, and they know it opens Monday. Families whose children are past 5 are not shut out of the building, since the drawing class, the character greetings and the theater carry no age guidance, but the playground itself is not aimed at them.

Several practical questions are still open. Disney has not said whether Drawn to Wonderland has its own queue or a capacity limit, whether shoes come off, or whether an adult has to stay inside the play area with a child. Park hours and the day's schedule are posted at DisneyWorld.com.

Originally reported by youtube.com. GenieGrove rewrote this story; the original reporting is theirs.