Thirteen real artifacts fill the Animators' Office at The Magic of Disney Animation, opening September 14

By entgrove · September 8, 2026

Walt Disney Imagineering has walked fans through the Animators' Office inside The Magic of Disney Animation at Disney's Hollywood Studios, pointing out thirteen real artifacts in the room: a desk saved from the original Animation Academy, a Hercules production jacket, Chicken Little's glasses, a flea-market mirror found by the director of Once Upon a Studio and more. The attraction opens September 14, 2026 in the Walt Disney Studios Lot courtyard.

The Animators' Office inside The Magic of Disney Animation is furnished with the real thing. In a new walkthrough video, Imagineer Ben points out thirteen artifacts placed around the room, from a desk saved out of the original Animation Academy that once ran in the same building to a pair of Chicken Little's glasses and a magazine that was handed to Florida animators every week. The Magic of Disney Animation opens at Disney's Hollywood Studios on September 14, 2026.

A desk with a past in this building

The centerpiece is a desk that was saved from the original Animation Academy at Hollywood Studios, the drawing class that ran in this building when it housed the first Magic of Disney Animation. It now sits roughly where the screen-used speeder bike from Return of the Jedi stood when the space was Star Wars Launch Bay, the character meet-and-greet hall that occupied the building from 2015 until Imagineering gutted it for the new attraction. The desk is the kind of detail that is easy to miss without the story, and with it the room is anchored in the building's own history rather than a generic idea of a studio.

Nearby is a small replica of Disney's feature animation building in California, a nod to the studio whose real desks inspired the set. A mirror on display has a story of its own: Once Upon a Studio director Dan Abraham found it at a flea market, and it now has a permanent home in the attraction.

Gifts animators gave each other

Several of the props are things Disney animators actually exchanged. A set of ping-pong balls gifted to the feature animation group in California is displayed as a memento of that studio's culture. A copy of Rabbit Rabbit, a magazine handed out weekly to the animators who worked in this very building, sits in the office. Disney animators also drew caricatures of one another and left them on each other's desks, and a book collecting those drawings is on display. A stamp tied to a team gift from Mulan belongs to the same tradition.

That last one is a direct link to the building's history. Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida worked here from 1989 until 2004, and Mulan was the first feature produced primarily by the Florida studio, followed by Lilo and Stitch and Brother Bear. The weekly magazine and the Mulan stamp are artifacts of the people who drew in these rooms.

Costume pieces and production tools

Wardrobe and production items from specific films are placed around the office: a Moana crew hat, a Hercules production jacket and a pair of Chicken Little's glasses. Some of the smaller details answer questions guests would not think to ask. The small sticker tabs visible throughout the space are what animators used while flipping through pages of hand-drawn work, protecting the paper from tearing on the registration pegs that line up each frame. Red rubber bands turn up everywhere, too. Animators used them to bundle finished scenes once the drawing was done, and, as Ben admits in the video, to shoot at each other.

Not everything comes from a film. A mug on display was gifted to the architects who worked on the original building when it opened, tying the room to the structure itself and not only to the work made inside it.

The full list of thirteen

• A desk saved from the original Animation Academy at Hollywood Studios
• A building replica of Disney's feature animation facility in California
• Ping-pong balls gifted to the feature animation group in California
• A flea-market mirror found by Once Upon a Studio director Dan Abraham
• A copy of Rabbit Rabbit, the weekly magazine handed out to animators in the building
• A book collecting animators' caricatures of each other
• A Moana crew hat
• A Hercules production jacket
• Chicken Little's glasses
• A Mulan team gift stamp
• Paper tabs animators used to protect pages on registration pegs
• A mug gifted to the architects of the original building
• Red rubber bands animators used to bundle finished scenes

Ben also explained how the room's look came together. Early in development, the team photographed real desks inside Walt Disney Animation Studios in California, and those photographs shaped the finished set. The point, he said, is that small, specific details make a space feel lived in rather than themed.

How The Magic of Disney Animation got here

September 14: what to look for on opening day

The Magic of Disney Animation opens Monday, September 14, 2026 inside the Walt Disney Studios Lot courtyard at Disney's Hollywood Studios, in the building that has housed Disney animation in one form or another since 1989. The Animators' Office is one room within the larger attraction, alongside the Off the Page character meets and the Once Upon a Studio Theater. Guests who want to find all thirteen artifacts should start with the desk and work outward; the rubber bands and sticker tabs are everywhere once you know to look.