Wonderful World of Animation

Wonderful World of Animation: show at Disney's Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney World — showtimes, live status, and planning data on MouseHub.

Visitor sentiment

4.6· 24,530 Google ratings

People say this resort hotel offers themed rooms featuring characters from popular Disney movies, as well as family suites with multiple beds and bathrooms. They highlight the convenient access to the Skyliner, which provides transportation to Epcot and Hollywood Studios, and the fun, kid-friendly atmosphere with multiple pools and a splash pad. They also like the friendly and helpful staff, and the responsive housekeeping service.

Summarized with Gemini · Report summary

The MouseHub take

Wonderful World of Animation is a twelve-minute nighttime show that uses projection mapping to turn the face of the Chinese Theatre into a walk through more than 90 years of Disney and Pixar animation. It debuted on May 1, 2019, alongside Disney's Hollywood Studios' 30th anniversary. The sequences group themselves by theme, magic, family, adventure, and friendship, pulling moments from Sleeping Beauty, The Incredibles, Coco, and a long list of films that get little screen time anywhere else in the parks. Mickey Mouse opens it, and Mickey closes it.

It draws a lighter crowd than Fantasmic!, which is the practical case for seeing it. Visitors report walking up a few minutes before showtime and finding a spot, so it costs almost nothing to add to the end of a day. Stand straight on to the theater if you can, because the plaza trees clip the picture from the far left and right. Nobody sits, the crowd stands on pavement after a long park day, and once it fills in the smallest kids lose the bottom half of the building behind taller adults.

At a glance

Best for
Families with young kids who want an evening show without the noise and the crowd of a fireworks spectacular.
Skip if
You came for a full pyrotechnic show, or you need a seat to watch anything at the end of a park day.
Ride type
Nighttime projection show on the Chinese Theatre
Intensity
No height requirement. Twelve minutes standing outdoors, with bright projected light and a loud soundtrack.

The good

  • The projections wrap the theater itself
    Visitors single out how the animation follows the shape of the Chinese Theatre rather than treating the wall as a flat screen. The building is part of the picture.
  • It has run since the park's 30th birthday
    The show debuted May 1, 2019, in step with Disney's Hollywood Studios turning 30, and it has been the park's animation tribute ever since.
  • You can turn up minutes before it starts
    Visitors report walking into the viewing area shortly before showtime and still finding room. The hour of staking out a spot that other nighttime shows demand does not apply here.
  • The crowd stays loose
    The viewing area spreads out down the boulevard, so people describe room to breathe even at showtime. It closes the day without a scrum.
  • The montage digs out films you forgot
    Ninety years is a wide net, and the reel makes room for older hand-drawn work next to the recent Pixar hits.
  • The soundtrack does the emotional work
    Visitors keep coming back to the audio, the familiar voices and score stitched under the montage, as the part that lands.

The bad

  • Do not come for fireworks
    Guests who arrive expecting a full pyrotechnic spectacular say so afterward. The show spends its effort on the building, not the sky.
  • Trees eat the view from the sides
    Landscaping in the plaza blocks the facade if you stand well left or right, and visitors who end up there report missing whole sections.
  • There is nowhere to sit
    No amphitheater, no seating chart. You stand on pavement at the end of a full park day, which is the complaint that follows most of the praise.
  • Small kids lose the bottom of the picture
    The viewing area is flat, so once the crowd fills in, shorter guests watch the lower half of the theater through the people in front of them.

Veteran tips

  • Stand straight on to the theater
    The projection mapping is built to be read from the center. Off to either side the images skew, and the plaza trees start taking pieces out of them.
  • Wheelchairs and ECVs stay put
    Disney classifies this one as May Remain in Wheelchair/ECV, so nobody in your party transfers out of a chair or a scooter to watch.
  • Budget twelve minutes, not an evening
    The run time is twelve minutes. That is short enough to catch on your way toward the exit instead of planning the night around it.
  • Mickey opens and closes the show
    It starts and ends with Mickey Mouse, which is the bookend Disney built in on purpose. If someone needs a bathroom run, take it in the middle.
  • Back up the boulevard for an easier exit
    Visitors who stand further back describe a better read on the whole facade and a shorter fight toward the gates when it finishes.
  • Leave kids off your shoulders
    The viewing area is flat, so one child on shoulders blanks the show for several people behind. It comes up often from the guests stuck back there.
  • Point out Sleeping Beauty and Coco
    Named films in the montage include Sleeping Beauty, The Incredibles, and Coco, so there is something to name for kids who only know the recent ones.

MouseHub editorial, written from visitor reports and official Disney sources. Last reviewed .

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