60 Disney Characters Just Celebrated a Major Disney’s Hollywood Studios Reopening

For over two decades, The Magic of Disney Animation stood as one of the more understated corners of Disney’s Hollywood Studios, quietly showing guests how their favorite characters came to life on screen before closing its doors back in 2015. The space was eventually replaced with Star Wars Launch Bay, leaving a gap in the park’s animation-focused offerings that Disney fans have wondered about ever since.

That gap has now officially been filled with something considerably bigger. Following a soft opening earlier in the month, the completely reimagined attraction made its full debut on September 14, arriving as part of a new land within the park called The Walt Disney Studios.

To mark the occasion, Disney assembled an unusually large gathering of characters for a rare group photo outside the new pavilion. Sixty different Disney Animation characters showed up for the celebration, a scale of character appearance that rarely happens outside of very special park events.

Among the characters spotted were several fan favorites who almost never make public appearances at the parks, including Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Bernard and Miss Bianca from ‘The Rescuers,’ Bolt, Merlin, Milo and Kida from ‘Atlantis: The Lost Empire,’ and Yzma from ‘The Emperor’s New Groove.’ Disney has indicated that some of these harder-to-spot characters may continue roaming the courtyard area even after the initial opening celebration wraps up.

60 Disney Animation characters celebrated the opening of The Magic of Disney Animation at Disney's Hollywood Studios. pic.twitter.com/hiRB63ppSM

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 14, 2026

The reimagined attraction is housed inside a building modeled after the real Roy E. Disney Animation Building in Burbank, California, complete with exterior lighting effects designed to evoke the working studio lot after dark. Inside, all sixty-five Walt Disney Animation Studios feature films are represented throughout the experience, including artwork from the studio’s upcoming 2026 release, “Hexed.”

The centerpiece of the new experience is the Once Upon a Studio Theater, where guests can watch an enhanced version of the Emmy Award-winning short film “Once Upon a Studio” that directly inspired the attraction’s redesign. Character portraits displayed both inside and outside the theater come to life throughout the presentation, mirroring the way the original short film brought decades of Disney characters together on screen. Director Dan Abraham worked alongside Walt Disney Imagineering’s Daniel Handke to bring that same sense of authenticity and excitement into the physical space.

Beyond the theater, guests can explore “Off the Page!,” an area built around meeting characters drawn from across Walt Disney Animation Studios history while learning more about the artistry behind each frame. The space is designed to highlight different stages of the animation process, pairing character meet-and-greets with photo opportunities throughout.

Younger guests and aspiring artists also have a dedicated space of their own in “Olaf Draws!,” where an animatronic version of the beloved ‘Frozen’ snowman leads guests through character drawing lessons alongside real Disney Animation artists and filmmakers featured throughout the experience.

Taken together, the new attraction represents one of the more significant additions to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in recent memory, blending nostalgia for the park’s original animation-focused roots with a genuinely modern, immersive approach to celebrating the studio’s history. With sixty characters turning out for opening day alone, Disney clearly intended for this relaunch to make a statement.

For longtime fans who remember the original attraction before its 2015 closure, this reimagined version offers a chance to revisit that same spirit with considerably more scale and detail than the space ever had before.

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