This weekend the Destination D23 event took place at the Contemporary Hotel at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando Florida. The event features announcements, history panels, and fun.
On Saturday the Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products led a presentation taking guests on a tour of announcements and news from Disney Parks around the world. The presentation specifically focused on Walt Disney World where lots of big news was made including a tease of a new Indiana Jones and Encanto-themed land, major Epcot news including a surprise ride update, and details on a new Pirates of the Caribbean pub. There were also new details on the new Avengers Campus multiverse attraction coming to Disney California Adventure.
The last time I was in a room with energy like this was at the D23 Expo when Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that there would not just be one but two Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge lands coming to the United States parks.
While there was strong fan excitement for the new parks projects, the reveal that moved all four thousand attendees to deliver a minute-long standing ovation and had many in tears came from The Walt Disney Studios presentation that happened on Sunday morning. UPDATE! We now have a trailer for this project we can share.
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Big Reveal Moves Group to Standing Ovation
Disney is currently in the middle of the Disney100 anniversary celebration celebrating 100 years of the company. They are celebrating Disney100 at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Other divisions of the company also joined in on the action. During the presentation, we learned how the Walt Disney Animation Studios would celebrate the 100th anniversary of the studio.
Disney screened the new ‘Once Upon a Studio' short film which combines live-action, computer animation, and 2-D animation. Before I go into what the short film was actually about and the details that make it even more special I'll share my reaction and the reaction of the crowd to give you the option to avoid spoilers if you'd like.
Disney Animation just released the trailer for the new short which you can see here. Click the post on to our Facebook page to see the comments. People are loving this short even just by seeing the trailer!
The short starts off and immediately you can feel the care that went into making it. About two minutes in I had full goosebumps and had my first partial tear. Throughout the second half of the short, I felt intense overwhelming happiness. My tears were only interrupted by laughter at the perfectly timed jokes and references.
In the room surrounding me, I heard the same laughs and could feel the same intensified emotions. This emotion overflowed when the short film ended and the audience delivered a minute-long standing ovation for the directors when they returned to the stage.
This audience is predisposed to like the film because it so directly taps into the aspects of why we all love Disney Animation. That said, even those with just a passing general knowledge of the animated films will really enjoy this short.
Skip to next header text if you don't want any spoilers and to get details on where to watch!
In the short, it is group photo day and the characters from the history of Walt Disney Animation Studios are all getting together for a group photo (like the real world one above) to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the studio. The photos in the Animation Building come to life and the characters burst out of their frame into a live-action short.
Trent Correy and Dan Abraham directed the short and were on hand to share details about the new film. They shared that the animation in ‘Once Upon a Studio' is “100 percent brand new” throughout the short and that legacy Disney animators returned to the studio specifically to work on this film. Correy and Abraham shared with me that this was a lockdown passion project for them.
They spent months workshopping the idea between just the two of them before bringing it to Jennifer Lee, the Chief Creative Officer for Walt Disney Animation Studios. She was immediately in love with the project and helped them figure out how to make it happen.
The short features over 500 Disney Animation Studios characters – including the main star of every one of their films – and new or never-heard dialogue from over 40 actors. Actors ranging from Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, to Jeremy Irons, the voice of Scar in Lion King, to Dwayne Johnson, the voice of Maui in Moana all returned to record new dialogue. One of the directors of the short poured through 16 hours of unused recordings from when Robin Williams was the Genie.
In addition to the voice actors that recorded new dialogue, Disney Legend Richard Sherman recorded a snippet of ‘Feed the Birds' from Mary Poppins to bring into the short. He actually played the version of the song on the piano in Walt Disney's office that is still there on the Disney Studios lot in Burbank (see video above for some of the office and Sherman from another occasion). I get goosebumps now even thinking about specific moments in the short like this one.
The short film tugs at the heartstrings with perfectly timed jokes overlapping with a poignant reflection on the first 100 years of the studio. This short film is pure magic and perfectly encapsulates the stories at the heart of The Walt Disney Company. I am excited to see it once again.
Where Can You See This New Short Film
The new short film has not yet been released to the public but we will share it here when it is released. Be sure to join our Mickey Visit newsletter to be notified when you can see the new short.
Disney is expected to debut this short on or around October 16th in celebration of the Walt Disney Company's 100th anniversary. The short was initially planned to run in front of the new Wish animated film coming. If that's the case, I'll get to see it multiple times which is great news. Note – you'll soon be able to meet the star of Wish in Disney Parks.
The short will also be shown at a special week at the El Capitan Theater in September. Details here:
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I was one of the fans in the audience that lept to my feet at the end of the film. I can not wait to see the film again! I do not believe there was a dry eye in the house. This is the type of emotion that Walt knew how to create in his films. So good to see some of that Magic come back.