First, I’d like to say hello to all the WDW Happy Place Family. I’ve been absent from the blog lately… my life in NC had been a little “non Disney,” but that has definitely changed. I’m going to share a couple of book reviews in the upcoming weeks, and my recent trip to DL for the Star Wars Half Marathon gave me many wonderful memories. I’d like to tell you about an AMAZING experience from the trip: a tour of the Walt Disney Studios.

The Walt Disney Studio is located in Burbank, CA, which is about 35 miles north of Anaheim. It is a working studio, where you will find operating soundstages (MasterChef was shooting the day we had our tour), animation studios, recording, editing, corporate offices and the Disney archives. Needless to say, it’s pretty much Disney history nirvana…

The tour began (after we checked in at the guard station—The Studios are not open to the general public) as our fantastic guide met us outside of the “Zorro” parking deck (before it was a parking deck, the Zorro TV show shot on a soundstage at that exact spot!). Immediately, he began to tell us many facts about the Studio site history. “The Disney Brothers Studio” started in 1923 in Walt’s uncle’s garage, and moved to its home on Hyperion (the name should ring a bell) Avenue in 1926. This site is where early classics were made, until the Studios moved to its current location in 1940.

The studios, initially, focused on animation. The Animation building was designed like an “H” with many windows so that animators would have plentiful ambient light. Walt’s office was on the third floor!! Although we did not go into his office, our guide took us along the main hallway on the first floor, where concept art, sketches, and storyboards from many classics lined the walls.

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In the central, oldest section of the Studios, other buildings which housed the other relevant departments were located adjacently, so that animation could be transferred rapidly to the Ink and Paint, the Camera and the Cutting buildings. Fun fact—there was a tunnel under the road between the Animation and Ink & Paint building so that the drawings wouldn’t have to get wet in the event of rain.

At one point, we saw the original Multiplane camera that was used to shoot Snow White. It was amazing to see how large this camera was; it boggles the mind how meticulous the original production must have been, to adjust not only the central animation cel, but to also adjust all the additional frames continuing the background. The camera mechanism was truly massive!

This large camera system was actually in the Frank G. Wells Building, a 5 story building completed in the late 1990s and originally home to Television Animation department. Now, it is home to the Disney Archives, where I could’ve spent a whole day… so many pieces of Disney history, from Walt’s employee ID card, to props from movies and television shows, pads of paper Walt pre-signed to hand out when he went into the park (remember the scene in Saving Mr. Banks?). Also in the display cases were the very first Mickey watch ever made, Various awards the studio received (Emmys, Oscars {we even held one!!}). And along one wall was the most massive collection of Disney books ever … from biographies to parks history to art collections and novels … even all the classic Golden books. Truly overwhelming!

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Outside of this building lies the breathtaking Disney Legends Plaza, which contains all the plaques listing the recipients of the Legends award over the years. If the inductee was alive when receiving the award, their handprints were also placed into the plaque (the ones below are the Sherman brothers and Julie Andrews) in addition to their signature, and the “category” of their contribution to the Disney oeuvre. This large plaza also has a Partners statue (like the ones in front of the castles), and the Roy O. Disney with Minnie Mouse bench statue that can be found in DL. At one end of the plaza is an enlarged version of the Legends award which honorees receive at their induction ceremony.

At the far end of the plaza lies the Team Disney building, or the Eisner building. It’s where the BigWigs play. We didn’t get to go in there, but I’m okay with that. It was a beautiful building, and I loved the exterior theming (the Seven Dwarves as the pillars… perfect).

There are several working stages (7) on the lot, and each were originally referred to by number. Stage 3 is the largest, and was home to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Many stages now have been renamed for important stars that are associated with its history—Stage 1 was the original stage for The Mickey Mouse Club, and was renamed for Annette Funicello; Stage 2 was home of Mary Poppins and Princess Diaries, so it has been retitled the Julie Andrews stage.

Other stops along the way included the Commissary (Starbucks coffee was a must), the Studios store, which had some very hard to find items (large Baymax plushes have been impossible to find) and exclusive Walt Disney Studios merchandise as well. Our tour group said our goodbyes to our magnificent host in front of the Hyperion Bungalow, a small building that was transported over from the Hyperion lot. Now, it is a meeting space and its exterior has been used as a backdrop in various movies and TV series over the years.

We crammed a lot into our 3 hour experience (it was originally scheduled to be 2 ½ hours,but our guide was JUST THAT AWESOME). I still have not been able to process all the information I received, and these few pictures cannot do justice to the day. I was EXTREMELY fortunate to have been able to experience this… It was magical!!

So, how did this opportunity come about? How can you have this experience? Want to “plus” your Disneyland trip just a little bit more? In part two, I will share a few more photos from the Studios tour, tell you HOW I scored this, and talk about a couple of other magical moments from our Burbank Day (except the freeway, ‘cause that wasn’t magical).