Beyond The Glass - Disney Animation Florida

Directed by Dane T. and recently uploaded to YouTube, Beyond The Glass: The WDW Animation Building is a new feature length documentary on the Orlando branch of the Walt Disney Animation Studios (known as Walt Disney Feature Animation at the time).  For me personally it's a trip down memory lane, as I started my animation career at Disney MGM Studios on "RollerCoaster Rabbit" back in the lat 1980s.  

Disney MGM Studios

"RollerCoaster Rabbit"

Back in the 1980s the Disney Animation Studio formed a part of the "Disney-MGM Studios", a park  attraction giving a behind-the-scenes look at animation production. 

Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida

The studio, Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida, was a real working studio that supported Disney's LA Studios, and eventually produced full features in Florida.  

2004 Closure

Sadly Walt Disney Animation Florida closed in 2004, with the attraction becoming more of an interactive animation exhibit and show. The animation attraction itself closed in 2015 to make way for the Star Wars Launch Bay.

Beyond The Glass: The WDW Animation Building

The new documentary is filled with footage and interviews from numerous animators who worked at the Disney’s MGM Studios’ Magic of Disney Animation attraction, and the studio showcased within.

Orlando, now often ignored as a production house for film and television, was once an up-and-coming studio city, with the animation facility being the most successful part of the studio-theme park, playing a big part in the high-profile Disney Animation Renaissance as a support facility, later expanded to produce Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, and Brother Bear in full at the Florida studio.

Located in MGM Studios at Walt Disney World the Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida building gave us some of the best Disney films ever created, including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King, Pocahontas. The building eventually was expanded, and Mulan, Lilo & Stitch, Brother Bear was fully animated at the studio. Hear from executives and animators about the history and what life was like in the "fishbowl".

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