A Rare Look Inside Disney’s Animation Research Library

Animation can explain whatever the mind of man can conceive – Walt Disney

Perhaps my love of film has something to do with where I grew up. Los Angeles is home to some of the most renowned studios in the industry, with more artists, writers, filmmakers, actors, and musicians than any other city in the world. From the first conceptual idea to the big screen, I’ve always been fascinated by the entire creative process involved with making a film.

Over the past few years, I’ve had several opportunities to speak first hand with Disney’s filmmakers and animators.  When I think carefully about the fact that any film featuring hand-drawn animation is designed to play at 24 frames per second, I understand the amount of time, effort, and creativity involved with making such a film.

Once a film is released, what happens to all of those drawings?

They end up at Disney’s Animation Research Library!  This unique library houses one of the most complete collections of Disney animation artwork amongst the studios. One of it’s purposes is to serve as a resource for filmmakers conducting research during the early stages of the process. Perhaps they want to see how a prior film handled the creation of characters.  The library is also a resource for those who work on the product side, looking for original artwork of a particular character that will be featured on Disney merchandise.

This year, Disney celebrates 75 years of animation, and surprisingly, they are the only company to have the foresight to keep all of their original artwork. You can imagine the amount of history this place holds…over 65 million pieces to be exact. The facility is not open to the public (in fact, it’s location is not disclosed) and while I wasn’t able to take photos, we had a professional photographer capturing as much of the library as possible.

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No compensation was received for this post. I was invited to a press event where we toured the library.

Photos: Disney

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Caryn Bailey

Caryn is a NICU nurse by day, blogger by night and mom 24/7. She savors the warm Southern California sun and loves to travel, shopping, baking, reading and frequenting her local tea room. Caryn created the column Lavishly Green for Peekaboo Picks Magazine to share her best tips for going green in style, she is the Former editor for Family Review Network, former OC Family Magazine online contributor, former Orange County Moms Blog contributor, former Evenflo Savvy Parent contributor, former member of the Totsy Advisory Board and former freelance writer for CBS Los Angeles.

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