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Art of Animation Resort Tour – Cars

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Today we complete our tour of Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. We had our first glimpse at the Finding Nemo section when the resort first opened. Recently we returned for a walking tour of the three other sections, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid and today we’ll visit Cars.

The Cars section is by far my favorite at the resort. It feels the most like you’re in the movie with life-size sets right out of Radiator Springs and nearly life-size cars right out of the movie. That probably explains why I took a ton of photos. There are just so many details, it takes a lot of photos to capture them all:

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Disney’s Art of Animation Resort – The Little Mermaid Walking Tour

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We recently toured The Lion King section of Art of Animation Resort. That was one of three sections with new buildings at the resort, but The Little Mermaid section is actually the finished versions of the old Legendary section of Pop Century that remained unfinished for nearly a decade.

But now it looks great. King Triton and Ursula loom large in giant sculptures and Ariel and her gang hold court throughout the resorts courtyard. It features exterior walk-ways and entrances like the hotels over in Pop century. There are over 600 cutout objects on the resort balconies.

In the gallery below, we continue our walking tour of the resort under the sea.

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Disney’s Art of Animation Resort – The Lion King Section Tour

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When Disney’s Art of Animation resort opened in 2012, it was the first new hotel to be opened on property in seven years. The resort took over what was the “Legendary Years” of Pop Century Resort, that had been sitting undeveloped for nearly 10 years. Some of the sections that had already started construction were left to rot becoming known as Disney’s “Ghost Hotel.”

The good news is that Disney took extra care to make Art of Animation a terrific resort. I’m particularly impressed with the resorts themed sections, which consist of Finding Nemo, Cars, The Lion King, and The Little Mermaid.

It had been a few years since I’d been back to the resort, but we stopped in for lunch and took a tour of the resort last week. Turns out the place still looks very good.

Head below a look at The Lion King section to get this tour started:

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Learn to Draw – Pluto

Mickey’s closest pal Pluto may be neglected by the most recent lineup of Mickey Mouse cartoons, but he still has plenty of fans. They should be very happy with the latest in Disney’s Learn to Draw videos series. Direct from the Magic of Disney Animation… Read More »Learn to Draw – Pluto

The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic Airs on ABC Tonight

Tune in to ABC tonight at 8pm for “The story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic.” Narrated by Josh Gad, the show goes behind the work of over 600 artists and technicians who worked two years to bring you the magic story of Anna… Read More »The Story of Frozen: Making a Disney Animated Classic Airs on ABC Tonight

Learn to Draw series: Ray the Firefly from “Princess and the Frog”

One of my favorite new video series from Disney is “Learn to Draw” where a Disney animator or character artist takes you through the steps of creating one of Disney’s iconic animated characters. Up next is everybody’s favorite Firefly from Disney’s “The Princess and the… Read More »Learn to Draw series: Ray the Firefly from “Princess and the Frog”

Aqualillies Perform “In-Sync” Routine at Art of Animation Resort

Recently the popular water ballet entertainment company Aqualillies performed a special “In-Sync” routine at the largest resort swimming pool at Walt Disney World — the Big Blue Pool, located appropriately in the “Finding Nemo” courtyard at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort. The professionally choreographed performance… Read More »Aqualillies Perform “In-Sync” Routine at Art of Animation Resort

Monsters University Concept Art at Magic of Disney Animation

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I’m looking forward to Pixar’s Monsters University, and since the third trailer contained a pretty big spoiler, I don’t mind sharing these concept art photos and character marquettes that have just been put on display at the Magic of Disney Animation in Disney’s Hollywood Studios:Read More »Monsters University Concept Art at Magic of Disney Animation