Once Upon a Studio - Walt Disney Animation’s celebration of The Walt Disney Company’s 100th anniversary

[C to the J]

You all should check out Dan Abraham’s Instagram account. Dan’s the co-director of the short, and he’s got a lot of images that were made early in production, most of which didn’t make it to the final version.

I’d also check out this other Instagram account of a Disney fan/Cast Member. He’s been doing the challenge of posing with as many Disney characters as possible while holding his lithograph copy of the photo (which every other CM at the time received). He also found a way to include Willie the Giant in the photo (look through his posts and you’ll see what I mean).

 

[C to the J]

Here’s a WDAS-related video that brings up fun details about OUaS.

 

[C to the J]

After minutes and minutes of number crunching, I found that the total number of individuals in the picture is 513 (30 short of 543).

Mickey Mouse and the characters who inhabit his world and appear in multiple shorts (Minnie Mouse, Pete as Tiny Tom in Officer Duck, Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, Pluto, Goofy, Donald Duck, Clara Cluck, Huey, Dewey, Louie, Daisy Duck, Chip, Dale, Scrooge McDuck as Ebenezer Scrooge in Mickey’s Christmas Carol, Spike the Bee, Humphrey, Ranger J. Audubon Woodlore, Prof. Ludwig Von Drake) - 20

1920s (5)
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit - 1
The Skeleton Dance - 4

1930s (18)
Flowers and Trees - 2
The Three Little Pigs - 4
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - 10
Ferdinand the Bull - 1
The Ugly Duckling - 1

1940s (52)
Pinocchio - 9
Fantasia (Chernabog only appeared in the TV)

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice - 2 (3 brooms appeared in the short; one appeared in the picture)​

Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral) - 4​

Dance of the Hours - 3​

The Reluctant Dragon - 1
Dumbo - 2
Bambi - 4
Saludos Amigos

Pedro - 1​

Aquarela do Brasil - 1​

The Three Caballeros - 1
Make Mine Music

Casey at the Bat - 1​

Peter and the Wolf - 4​

Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet - 2​

Fun and Fancy Free

Bongo - 1​

Mickey and the Beanstalk - 1​

Melody Time

Once Upon a Wintertime - 2​

Johnny Appleseed - 1​

Pecos Bill - 3​

The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad

The Wind in the Willows - 5​

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow - 4​

1950s (47)
Cinderella - 9 (not counting the two bluebirds or the lady mouse, the latter of whom appears in the credits)
Alice in Wonderland - 9
Lambert the Sheepish Lion - 1
Susie the Little Blue Coupe - 1 (there’s no telling if Susie has a driver inside her)
Peter Pan - 14 (since Tinker Bell is nowhere in the picture)
Ben and Me - 2
Lady and the Tramp - 5
Sleeping Beauty - 6

1960s (89)
101 Dalmatians - 61 (I found there are 55 puppies, including the 5 Patch duplicates)
The Sword in the Stone - 4 (not counting the sugar bowl)
Mary Poppins - 4
Winnie the Pooh (and the Honey Tree) - 10 (that includes Piglet and Tigger, both of whom would be introduced in WtP and the Blustery Day)
The Jungle Book - 10

1970s (31)
The Aristocats - 8
Bedknobs and Broomsticks - 2
Robin Hood - 13
The Rescuers - 6 (Orville is in the short, but not in the picture, as I was led to believe)
Pete’s Dragon - 1
The Small One - 1

1980s (32)
The Fox and the Hound - 6
The Black Cauldron - 7
The Great Mouse Detective - 5
Oliver and Company - 7
The Little Mermaid - 7

1990s (71)
The Rescuers Down Under - 5 (Wilbur is in the picture, as I was led to believe)
Beauty and the Beast - 9 (not counting Fifi)
Aladdin - 9
The Lion King - 10
Pocahontas - 8
The Hunchback of Notre Dame - 8
Hercules - 8
Mulan - 7
Tarzan - 7

2000s (64)
Fantasia 2000

Rhapsody in Blue - 4​

Dinosaur - 5
John Henry - 1
The Emperor’s New Groove - 4
Atlantis: The Lost Empire - 8
Lilo and Stitch - 6
Treasure Planet - 6
Brother Bear - 4
Home on the Range - 3
Chicken Little - 4
Meet the Robinsons - 5 (counting Doris the robotic bowler hat, not counting Dr. Lucille Krunklehorn)
Bolt - 4
The Princess and the Frog - 8
Prep and Landing - 2

2010s (52)
Tangled - 5
The Ballad of Nessie - 2 (if you count MacQuack, Nessie’s rubber duckie)
Paperman - 1
Wreck-It Ralph - 6
Frozen - 8 (the six trolls in rolling rock form aren’t in the picture)
Feast - 1
Big Hero 6 - 7
Zootopia - 10
Inner Workings - 1
Moana - 4
Ralph Breaks the Internet - 3
Frozen II - 4

2020s (32)
Us Again - 2
Raya and the Last Dragon - 10
Encanto - 12
Strange World - 7
Wish - 1

Total:
20+5+18+52+47+89+31+32+71+64+52+32
= 513

What do you think? Did I leave anyone out?

 

[The Count]

Can't tell if anyone's been left out, but since you listed everything in chronological order I feel I should point out that The Rescuers (June 1977) preceeds Pete's Dragon (November 1977) in terms of releases. Hope this helps.

 

[C to the J]

Thanks for pointing that out. I updated the list just for that. I was more focused on the years than I was on the months.

 

[C to the J]

This piece of news recently popped up - the short seemingly inspired a point of interest coming to Disney’s Hollywood Studios next year: The Magic of Disney Animation!

In the poster, you can see Mickey and Minnie in their outfits Mickey’s Birthday Party, also worn in the short.

 

[C to the J]

The Walt Disney Studios area has opened up, and everything guests can see outside the main building is merely minimal compared to what’s coming up.

Read on to learn more!

Judging by the map, I’d say we’re in for a real treat later this summer. It may have been almost 3 years since the company’s centennial, but without question, Once Upon a Studio remains one of the most inspirational projects anyone has ever laid their eyes upon.

 

[C to the J]

The opening date for the building that houses TMoDA has recently been announced: September 14th!

Looking at the map of the interior, I can spot various characters who weren’t included in OUaS.

Assuming the inclusion of the following characters would have been doable, here’s where I’d picture them…

•Pablo (standing behind the four penguin waiters and in front of David and Nani)
•The Aracuan (sitting and waving in the tree lady’s left hand/branch where the paper airplane is caught)
•Willie the Giant (top left of the picture, kneeling down so only his head and upper body are visible)
•Prof. Owl (standing on the tree fellow’s right hand/branch)
•Orville (standing on Pedro’s wing where Gurgi, Creeper, and Wilbur are)
•Clopin (standing behind/between Frollo and Phoebus)
•Punkin, the yo-yo flamingo (somewhere behind Tantor and between Clayton and Oaken) - if you’re wondering where I got his name, I saw it on a page of a WDAS book titled Animation (or what it Story?).
•The Spring Sprite (behind Ferdinand and Humphrey and on Aladar’s right side)

I also spotted some others, but I figured they’d be optional…

•One of the vultures (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs)
•The little black Pegasus (Fantasia - Pastoral)
•Various critters (Alice in Wonderland)
•Abigail and Amelia (The AristoCats)
•Trigger (Robin Hood)
•Robin Williams as a Lost Boy (Back to Neverland) - as previously established, he did appear in the short.
•The Hatrack (Beauty and the Beast)
•Little Brother (Mulan)
•One of the Kakamora (Moana 1 and 2)

Let’s not forget the inclusion of characters who are already in the picture but take on different forms in the image of the map…

•Pete as Captain Pete in The Prince and the Pauper
•Genie in his tourist outfit
•Pegasus (the white one in Hercules) in baby form

Plus these characters who appeared after the short’s debut…

•Star (Wish)
•Gary De’Snake (Zootopia 2)
•Billie (Hexed*)

*I’ve a feeling a certain fandom won’t shut up about comparisons between this movie and a certain overrated show that features a creature resembling a Cubone, a worm-like creature with an owl face, and a pointy-eared, pale-skinned witch who shares a voice with Pacha’s wife, Chicha, but you get the idea.

 

[The Count]

What about the three-eyed Cheshire catlike creature also from Hexed frolicking amongst the miscellaneous Wonderland critters?

Haven't seen any of the latter films, I'm planning a movie-viewing marathon starting in August 2027 thanks to having almost all the entries on my list available on Disney + by then, although I'm interested in both Gatto and Ono Ghost Market.