Disney Put Robin Williams' Back to Neverland Footage Inside the Genie Class at The Magic of Disney Animation

Take a seat for the Genie class at "Olaf Draws!" and the screens play clips from Back to Neverland, the 1989 film that served as the pre-show for the original Magic of Disney Animation. It starred Robin Williams alongside Walter Cronkite, and it explained animation by turning Williams into one of the Lost Boys from Peter Pan.

The animator teaching that class is Eric Goldberg, whom Disney lists with credits on Aladdin and Hercules. WDW News Today, which published photos and video of the full show, reports that Goldberg uses the clips to make a connection: the costume Williams wore in Back to Neverland is where Genie's vacation outfit at the end of Aladdin came from.

Williams died in 2014. His Lost Boy turned up again in the 2023 short Once Upon A Studio, in Olaf's scene, and Disney has since put the character on the poster for The Magic of Disney Animation and on the attraction's entrance sign. Now the film itself is playing inside the building.

Guests pass through a gallery of framed artwork to the Animation Academy door, where a trail of sparkles marks the Frozen scene WDW News Today says Olaf escaped from. Image: WDW News Today

The nine classes: Disney has now named the artist attached to each one. Mickey Mouse with director Dan Abraham (Once Upon A Studio, Baymax!); Minnie Mouse with animator Hyun Min Lee (Frozen 2, The Princess and the Frog); Donald Duck with animator Austin Traylor (Once Upon A Studio, Moana 2); Genie with animator Eric Goldberg (Aladdin, Hercules); Moana with story artist Samantha Vilfort (Encanto, Zootopia 2); Stitch with director and head of story Fawn Veerasunthorn (Wish, Raya and the Last Dragon); Olaf with director Trent Correy (Once Upon A Studio, Frozen 3); Ursula with animator Michael Woodside (Big Hero 6, Encanto); and Judy Hopps & Nick Wilde with director Byron Howard (Zootopia, Zootopia 2).

Inside the room

Olaf is an all-new Audio-Animatronics figure, seated at an animator's desk, with a nearby shelving unit of props. A large screen sits next to the desk, with more screens around the space so guests can watch the animator draw.

The guest desks are based on the ones Kem Weber designed for the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank in 1939. At the front of the room, sleigh-themed desks for children use color schemes based on Frozen characters. Everyone gets a pencil, with no eraser, and a drawing page branded "The Magic of Disney Animation."

Per WDW News Today, Oaken makes the announcements. Olaf is already sketching when guests walk in, introduces himself, and asks a few questions about the animation process before an animator appears on screen to start the lesson. At the end, Olaf shows off his own drawing.

Olaf sits on a copy of The Illusion of Life, the animation book written by Disney Legends Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. Image: Disney Parks Blog

The live artist question

Disney's own description spells out how the teaching works. The Disney Parks Blog says guests go "step-by-step through the creative process, guided by Disney Animation artists through recorded tips, techniques, and stories from inside the studio." The official "Olaf Draws!" poster hangs a footnote off its own tagline: "Learn to draw the Olaf way!" carries an asterisk that reads "with help from Walt Disney Animation Studios artists!"

WDW News Today put the change more bluntly, writing that "Unlike previous art classes at Walt Disney World, Olaf Draws! is not hosted by a live artist, drawing criticism from fans." The outlet notes the show does include the pre-recorded segments with Disney animators. It quotes no fan in that report, but it links the phrase to its own February story about the social media reaction to the live artist removal.

The same report notes the timing: "Olaf Draws!" opens after The Animation Experience at Conservation Station closed at Disney's Animal Kingdom, a space Bluey's Wild World has since taken over.

One piece of an older attraction did survive, and it is not the Animal Kingdom one. Disney says the animation desk in the Animator's Office is "preserved from the original Animation Academy at Hollywood Studios."

Easter eggs Disney is pointing at

The back of the marquee carries Olaf's tribute to the Jungle Cruise, lettered "Behold... the backside of sign!" Image: Disney Parks Blog

Disney is telling people to look at the back of the marquee before heading in, where Olaf has sketched his own tribute to the Jungle Cruise. Inside, Olaf sits atop The Illusion of Life, the animation book Disney Legends Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston wrote, with shelves nearby holding vintage VHS tapes, character maquettes, and a figurine of The Black Cauldron.

The references run through the rest of the building too. Disney says that "For the first time at Walt Disney World, all 64 animated feature films are represented throughout this imaginative, fan-first setting." Overhead in the reception area is a Lost and Found Department, holding items such as the Sundrop Flower from Tangled, Eeyore's tail, the Map Sphere from Treasure Planet, and a vase showing Hercules battling the Hydra. Figaro watches from above, occasionally flicking his tail. Disney says each paintbrush hanging from the chandelier overhead is "individually named by members of Walt Disney Animation Studios' Ink and Paint Department."

Dan Abraham, the Walt Disney Animation Studios director who co-directed Once Upon a Studio and teaches the Mickey class, framed the point of the place this way: "Back when this was a working animation studio, it inspired so many people to become animators... Hopefully, this new version will do the same."

The Magic of Disney Animation opens September 14 at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Sources

• Disney Parks Blog, Disney Animation-Inspired Experience Coming to Disney's Hollywood Studios
• WDW News Today, PHOTOS, VIDEO: Olaf Draws Full Show Featuring 'Back to Neverland' Clips at Magic of Disney Animation in Disney's Hollywood Studios
• Laughing Place, Photos/Video: Get a First Look Inside the New Magic of Disney Animation at Disney's Hollywood Studios

Image credits: "Olaf Draws!" poster, the Illusion of Life detail and the marquee backside by Disney, via Disney Parks Blog. Animation Academy entrance photo by WDW News Today.