NEW! Female Firsts: Women in Early Animation

Benefitting from embedded digital media content, this walk-through the museum brings Walt’s inspirational message to life. Classes learn about his early failures, the art of animation, storytelling principles, and the technological innovations that made classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) possible.

In the galleries, students step into Walt’s shoes, using their imaginations as they discover exciting moments in Walt’s life and the history of animation. In the Learning Center, students star in their own short animated movie using an engaging stop-motion technique called “pixilation” to gain a hands-on understanding of the animation process.

In the galleries, students discover the importance of storytelling in animation by engaging in interactive activities focused on the concepts of character, setting, and plot. In the Learning Center, they will illustrate and animate a story using a zoetrope, a device that produces the illusion of motion in a sequence of drawings.

In the galleries, students learn the history of Audio-Animatronics® technology, first invented by WED Enterprises during the early 1960s. During this hands-on team workshop, students become Imagineers and are challenged to navigate Sphero SPRK robots using block computer programming.

In the galleries, students discover the importance of storytelling structure in animation by taking part in interactive activities focused on the concepts of character, setting, and plot, as they apply to film. In the Learning Center, they work collaboratively to write a story within eight frames and pitch their completed storyboards to the class.

In the galleries, students discover how Walt encouraged his staff to experiment with special effects technology to make animation more compelling and realistic, and how the resulting advancements inspired the industry as a whole. In the Learning Center, students experiment with a mini Multiplane Camera, explore how depth is created in animation, and create their own silent stop-motion shorts.

During this two-hour workshop, students learn about the innovation of synchronized sound and are challenged to match their animations with an exciting soundtrack of their own design. Students also experiment with a mini Multiplane Camera, explore how depth is created in animation, and create their own stop-motion shorts.

On this tour, our littlest students learn all about the importance of color in animation. In the galleries, they explore how color is used as a form of storytelling to set the mood of animated movies. In the Learning Center, they create their own color scripts to gain a better understanding of how the right colors can enhance a story.

Students take a tour of our newest special exhibition, Mickey Mouse: From Walt to the World, with gallery activities and group discussions centered around one-of-a-kind Mickey artworks and objects. In the Learning Center, students bring to life their own animated characters using a Crankie box —illustrated stories literally cranked around two scrolls with a viewing screen. Students are welcome to self-guide through the main museum galleries before or after the workshop finishes.