During the opening ceremony of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Disney revealed a brand-new animated short to those in attendance, called “Once Upon A Studio“.

The short celebrates Disney’s 100th anniversary and sees Mickey Mouse trying to get together many of Disney’s characters for a group photo at the Roy E. Disney animation building on the Disney studio lot.  The short is around nine minutes long and features over four hundred characters, mixing together hand-drawn, CG and live-action.  As you might expect from trying to bring together so many characters, there is lots of mayhem with many characters, including Tiana, Peter Pan, Moana, Maui, Merlin, Elsa, Goofy, Winnie The Pooh and Flash.

Forty voice actors were brought back for the short, and Josh Gad took to social media to confirm that Olaf is going to be in the short, along with the Genie from “Aladdin”.

So excited to finally have the world see what the  @DisneyAnimation has created to celebrate the incredible 100 year legacy of the studio. I nearly cried when I was told Olaf would appear alongside the Genie, utilizing previously unheard audio from my idol #RobinWilliams

The short also includes a cameo by legendary 70-year animator Burny Mattinson, who passed away earlier this year.

“Once Upon A Studio” has been directed by Dan Abraham and Trent Correy.  It was also revealed that Eric Goldberg lead the hand-drawn animation for the short, while “Raya and the Last Dragon” supervising animator Andrew Feliciano oversaw the CG.

“This is a love letter to the medium, to Disney animation, and really a thank you to anyone in the audience that’s ever connected with a film over the last hundred years,”

“Once Upon A Studio” will be released, alongside an upcoming theatrical release, “Wish”, which hits cinemas on November 22nd 2023, so I’d assume it’ll arrive on Disney+ a little later.

Are you looking forward to watching “Once Upon A Studio”?  Let us know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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