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Disney Hung an Open House Banner at The Magic of Disney Animation, and Robin Williams' Lost Boy Is Painting the Swirl on It
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Disney Hung an Open House Banner at The Magic of Disney Animation, and Robin Williams' Lost Boy Is Painting the Swirl on It

Michael Travels
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There is a small yellow figure leaning over the top of the new sign at Disney's Hollywood Studios, hood up, paintbrush out, painting a gold swirl around the letter S. He is a Lost Boy. He is also, per WDW News Today, the Lost Boy Robin Williams played in 1989.

A yellow-hooded Lost Boy figure leans over a white banner reading Open House, holding a paintbrush that has drawn a gold swirl around the letter S
The Lost Boy leans over the banner with a brush, having drawn a gold swirl around the S in HOUSE. A silver paint can hangs from an oar at the right. Image: Walt Disney Imagineering, via WDWMagic

What Imagineering showed

Walt Disney Imagineering showed The Magic of Disney Animation's atrium courtyard entrance for the first time on Tuesday, August 25, in a new episode of its YouTube series Pardon Our Pixie Dust. WDW News Today reports that senior producer Jackie Herrera walked through the changes to the old Animation Courtyard before revealing the sign.

The banner itself is plain white, with OPEN HOUSE brushed across it in loose blue letters, and it is slung below the Walt Disney Animation Studios lettering on the building. It is strung between a row of character statues. The Mad Hatter and the Lost Boy hold paintbrushes, Mickey has a sheet of paper in one hand, and a single paint can dangles from the oar Moana is holding. Blog Mickey reads the props as staging: the characters posed mid-job, as though the banner had gone up moments before.

A white Open House banner strung between character statues below Walt Disney Animation Studios lettering on a yellow building
The finished display, with the Mad Hatter and Flounder at the left, the Lost Boy above the banner, and Moana holding an oar at the right. Image: Walt Disney Imagineering, via WDWMagic

Who is holding the banner

Blog Mickey lists the lineup as Mickey Mouse, the Mad Hatter, Flounder, Tinker Bell, Moana, Minnie Mouse and Robin Williams' Lost Boy. WDW News Today's version of the same list names Mickey Mouse, the Mad Hatter, Flounder, Moana and Minnie, with no Tinker Bell. The wide shots in Imagineering's video show those five plus the Lost Boy and nobody else, so the Tinker Bell in Blog Mickey's list appears to be an error.

The two outlets agree on the figure at the top. WDW News Today identifies him as Robin Williams' Lost Boy character from Back to Neverland, the 1989 film, and headlines its story on the reference. WDWMagic describes him more plainly as "Robin, a Lost Boy character from Peter Pan," and reports that Imagineering describes him as the character who "adds the magic" to the space. Blog Mickey quotes Imagineering the same way.

The courtyard around it

Per WDWMagic, the atrium courtyard is where guests enter The Magic of Disney Animation, and WDWMagic describes it as the bridge between the Walt Disney Studios courtyard outdoors and whatever waits indoors. Imagineering, per the same report, built it as a place to pause on the way in, with somewhere to take a picture, benches to sit on, and planting that runs to trees, flowers and foliage. The whole space takes its cue from the real Walt Disney Animation Studios in Burbank, which WDWMagic calls the actual open house setting of the short Once Upon a Studio.

Blog Mickey says the banner restates the idea Imagineering has built the area around since the start, the same conceit it reported after its hard hat tour in late May. The area is themed to suggest an animation studio whose artists have wandered off, leaving the drawn characters to run the place and welcome guests in.

A Disney cast member in an orange safety vest and a hard hat reading Jackie stands in front of the Open House banner, with tools spread along a green planter wall and the statues in place
Herrera in front of the banner during the reveal, with tools, straps and work gloves still spread along the top of the planter wall, cords running across the plaza, and the banner on a temporary frame. Image: Walt Disney Imagineering, via WDWMagic

Still wet

Blog Mickey's wider shot of the plaza suggests the finishing work is not over. A green planter wall curves around a reddish paved apron facing the statues, the newly planted trees are still braced by guy wires, and two Wet Paint signs are taped to the planter. Blog Mickey also notes that the sunken area that used to sit in front of the semicircle planter is gone, so the plaza is now level.

A wide view of the plaza in front of the Open House banner, with a green curved planter wall, a reddish paved plaza and two small Wet Paint signs
Two Wet Paint signs are taped to the face of the planter wall in front of the level plaza, with a staked young tree at the left. Image: Walt Disney Imagineering, via Blog Mickey

What opens September 14

The Magic of Disney Animation opens on September 14 at Disney's Hollywood Studios. WDWMagic lists what is inside: Olaf Draws!, the Off the Page! character meets, Drawn to Wonderland, an enchanted art gallery, and the Once Upon a Studio Theater. WDW News Today notes that the attraction's page is now live on the Walt Disney World website.

The road to this reveal runs back more than a year. Blog Mickey's timeline has Disney announcing the Walt Disney Studios Lot concept in July 2025, closing Animation Courtyard for good on September 25, 2025, installing the Sorcerer Mickey hat above the entrance in April 2026, and opening the Walt Disney Studios Lot courtyard to guests on May 20, 2026, with the attraction still shut. The September 14 date was announced on July 15.

Sources

Image credits: All images Walt Disney Imagineering, via WDWMagic and Blog Mickey.

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