It’s not every day we get to say that a whole new land has opened in Disney World, but you can bet that when it happens, we are celebrating. Cue the balloons, streamers, confetti, and anything else that you need to party it up because we’re heading to Hollywood Studios.
Walt Disney Studios
Walt Disney Studios officially opened on May 26th, 2026. This land replaced the Animation Courtyard and Star Wars: Launch Bay. While we said a tearful goodbye to the original land, we’re grabbing our sketchbooks and getting ready to be animated.
Now that the walls are down, let’s take a look at everything!
Come on in!
The whole courtyard is nice and open with trees. While it’s busy right now, we think this will be a great space for relaxing in the future.
Donald Duck
Check out all the handprints on the cement! They’re dedicated to popular Disney characters, and there are so many to obsess over.
Handprints all over!
We’re obsessed with the little animals around, too.
Pua and Thumper in Walt Disney Studios
There are so many to check out and take photos with.
Mrs. Big and Sir Hiss
We got to see a lot of characters roaming around, too. We saw Donald Duck and Mulan…
Mulan
…Goofy…
Goofy
…Chip ‘n Dale…
Dale
…Stitch…
Stitch
…and Pluto.
Pluto
The Magic of Disney Animation will be opening later this summer and will be home to..
Sorcerer’s Hat is back!
…an indoor playground dedicated to Mary Blair’s original concept art of Alice in Wonderland…
©Disney
…and probably what most people are excited for, Olaf Draws! This experience will be led by Olaf with the help of real Disney animators as you learn how to draw fan favorite characters.
“Olaf Draws” Concept Art ©Disney
We are so excited to continue to explore the land and find all the hidden details. We’ll be dropping it all here right here at Disney Food Blog, so keep following for more!
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What’s old is new again. That area of the Studios was an actual working animation studio when the park first opened. They used to have animation workshops where park guests could get instruction from a Disney artist on how to draw a given character. Real animation work was done there, too. Some of the buildings on the Backlot Tour were actually used in shows and movies. I love this return to the original Disney MGM Studios park. ps – Bring back the Mickey ears on the water tower. WDW needs more magic like this.
I just can’t see kids sitting down for more than 20 m(nutes at this.