Podcast

Are Disney Villains Losing Their Edge? And What’s Behind the Olaf Outrage

Dis & Hers

March 2, 2026
36 min read

Are Disney Villains Losing Their Edge? And What’s Behind the Olaf Outrage

Big Disney changes (and even bigger opinions) are flying around this week. Eric and Lauren break down the final days of Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster as we know it, the latest Villains Land rumors that have fans debating “dark and scary” vs. “whimsical and family-friendly,” Joe Rohde’s newly announced book, and why “Olaf Draws” has sparked genuine backlash online.

Episode Highlights

Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster closes (and what the crowd reaction tells us)
Villains Land rumors: Emperor’s New Groove coaster, Maleficent boat ride, Hades dinner show, and an Ursula spinner?
Joe Rohde announces a new book: Floating Mountains: The Art of Imagineering the Impossible
“Olaf Draws” controversy: prerecorded instruction vs. live artist cast members

Are Disney Villains Losing Their Edge? And What’s Behind the Olaf Outrage Transcript

Eric Hersey: Welcome to Dis and Hers, the show about what’s happening in the Disney community from his, hers, and your perspective. I’m Eric.

Lauren Hersey: And I’m Lauren. In this week’s episode of Dis and Hers, we debate whether the closing of Rock and Roller Coaster is even wilder than the dinosaur shutdown, break down the new villains land developments uh making the project stronger or could it signal trouble and ask whether Joe Roie has become the most popular Disney Imagineer in 2026 and get into why some fans are genuinely angry about Olaf taking over the animation academy at Hollywood Studios. All right, so let’s go from 57 miles per hour in 2.8 eight seconds and let’s talk a rock and roller coaster.

Eric Hersey: Well, I think as as everyone should know right now, the Rock and Roller Coaster is no more. It is shut down. As of March 2nd, the coaster is no longer in operation. So, on March 1st, we saw plenty of people kind of hanging out down in the uh the Rock and Roller Coaster courtyard area and it wrapped gez all the way around all the way up to the Hollywood Tower of Terror. Did you see some of these lines?

Lauren Hersey: Oh yeah, absolutely. I saw the people that are like, “Oh, Hollywood Studios, I could walk right into the park.” And then like right there on that main drag, that’s where the line started and wrapped all the way around to Rock and Roller Coaster, which is significant. But if you missed the closing of Rock and Roller Coaster, have no fear. It’s not going far. It’s just being re-imagined as the Rock and Roller Coaster starring the Muppets instead of Aerosmith and we’re hearing rumblings of summer of this year.

Eric Hersey: Oh, yeah. And we had some friends down there, I think, on the streets. We’ve, uh, been fortunate and lucky enough to actually know a little bit more about the Rock and Roller Coaster than I think the next guy. Uh, I think I’ve produced a an entire hour-long uh, Patreon version of the making of the Rock and Roller Coaster with Jim Shull, who is kind of the the gentleman that created this, and I think he was down there this weekend.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, he was down there for the WDWNT event, Tom Coralis, I think, shutting down the ride because he was such a pivotal part of getting this ride off the ground to begin with. So, if you’re not familiar with Jim Shull, he is a retired Disney imagineer uh and served nearly three decades in that capacity.

Lauren Hersey: He really did help shape the rock and roller coaster. So, with imagineering projects, they typically don’t say like, “Hey, it was one guy that did it.” Um, but he was a huge part of uh focusing on the storytelling and the show design. Like that whole idea that you’re in a recording studio and then Aerosmith invites you to the show and then you jump into the super uh stretch limo and race across to LA. Like that was all Jim and there’s some little nods to his family. So he was a huge part of this.

Lauren Hersey: It’s also a big deal that this is closing because when this launched originally in 1999, it was a pretty big deal for the time. Like it was uh I don’t know if you remember this from like producing all those episodes, but it was really the first of its kind as far as like a high intensity launch coaster. It was one of the earliest coasters that had that onboard audio. I will never forget the story that he tells about Tom Morris driving down the like West Coast. Do you know what I’m talking about?

Eric Hersey: Yeah. Tom Morris had a like he was known for bringing a cassette player on like I think Space Mountain at the time. And that was one of the main main things that one of the ideas that’s like, “All right, we’re going to for sure put the uh music on this.” But yeah, of course it ended up with the Aerosmith and and yeah, Jim tells a a great deal of stories, but this was kind of the made the park more of a thrill ride like park, a section that’s not necessarily just made for the little kids. And I think that was a big deal to get, you know, the teenagers to get excited to go into the park.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah. And I think it was like the first to my knowledge of um like celebrity IP that was put into the park. So it was a big deal. Well, so now that the Rock and Roller Coaster in its original form has closed, I mean, like to me, I think that this is the like the end of an era of that type of imagineering that we got into in the ‘9s and early 2000s and that type of storytelling. Not to say one is better than the other, but is kind of closing that chapter. And a lot of those longtime Imagineers have since retired and we’re going to talk about, you know, Joe Rodie and later on in this episode, but we’re here to cover the fan community. We know that this was happening. What are people saying, Eric?

Eric Hersey: Well, it was kind of funny because I was prepping the show and I didn’t know necessarily when we were going to record this and and I kind of prepped it as if we’re going to record before the closing. So, I was grabbing some and and it was funny that there were elements and individuals saying, “Well, it’s not going to be as popular as Dinosaur because the park reservation system still showed a ton of reservations available for Hollywood Studios where Animal Kingdom was kind of closed down.” So, I grabbed a tweet here from Mattal Goar that says, “The demand for the closure of Rock and Roller Coaster doesn’t seem as high as the demand for the closure of Dinosaur and Animal Kingdom had zero reservations at this point.”

Eric Hersey: Now, we go on to find out that no, it was pretty pretty important. I mean, there was a lot of I don’t know if they sold out per se, but the lines definitely showcased that uh the Rock and Roller Coaster was important, but there was also a tweet from that one passholder that says, I think this is mostly has to do with the fact that Rock and Roller Coaster does not sit within a fandom group. Like, yes, it’s obviously has its fan, me included, but Dinosaur are so much bigger as a concept. It was just a pillar of that park. Meanwhile, Rockin was not. What’s your thoughts on that? Do you agree? Cuz I don’t know if I necessarily agree with that. I don’t think I don’t think Dinosaur was that much better than Rock and Roller Coaster.

Lauren Hersey: And I think that maybe what they’re saying is that it didn’t have that like niche group of fandom or like cuz I would not say that dinosaur was a pillar attraction. Like if we were talking about the safari like we talked about last um on the last episode like that’s a reason that people go to Animal Kingdom. Like I don’t know that people were planning their trips just to experience dinosaur. And I think that it was equally scary and terrifying for like children. So I I don’t know that like you could even say that one had broader fan appeal than another. Maybe the fact that one was a highintensity coaster and one was more of a, you know, intense uh dark ride. But that’s what I think. What do you think?

Eric Hersey: I think it’s I think it comes down to the park original dinosaur was one of the original lands or like original attractions where Rock and Roller Coaster was added after the fact. I think we kind of get more in an uproar. It seems like if it’s older it is. So although you know 1999 is 26 27 years ago, it it wasn’t one of the original attractions. So that might have something to do with it. And Dinosaur had its own little quirky moments. It was very had a pre-show and everything like that. And maybe being tied to an actual, you know, Aerosmith might have made Rock and Roller Coaster not have as much as a fandom. But as we found out the day before the closing, so this would have been February 28th, we had 75 80 minute weights as reported. And then it turns out that for the most part yesterday, I saw as high as 110.

Lauren Hersey: I didn’t see any direct posts about like this is the posted weight time, but like as far I mean like as far back as the main drag. I mean like and we’ve been at the parks when the weight’s been 60 minutes 75 minutes. It’s not even spilling out.

Eric Hersey: Yeah.

Lauren Hersey: of that of that area. But, you know, I don’t know, Eric, have you seen like I haven’t seen very many people that are like angry or outraged that it’s closing or getting this like re-the um like we saw with Muppets

Eric Hersey: cuz it’s still there. It’s it’s the same ride like that. We’re just doing an overlay and nobody at this point in time, I don’t know how many people are super uber giant Aerosmith fans. I think if anybody’s upset, it’s because this is what they know and they don’t necessarily like change. But if you had to vote Muppets versus Aerosmith, I think a lot of people are going to pick Muppets just because it is a more familyfriendly. It has the nostalgic vibe, kind of fits everything, and the ride will be pretty much the same. I don’t think they’re tearing anything down. And let’s be real, it’s a fastm moving coaster. It’s not like show scene and elements like we might get rid of some of the highway signs that are neon, you know? But I I don’t think that there’s going to be that much. which I think we’re all kind of excited about what’s happening and it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be down for super long. So, I think we all appreciate Rock and Roller Coaster for what it was and what it did for the park, but I think we’re also okay with this next evolution and this next chapter.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah. So, if you want to hear the evolution story of uh Rock and Roller Coaster, you can check that out uh on the network Disney Unpacked. It looked like we had posted this episode March 8th of 2024. So, you could get the abbreviated version for free on YouTube. It’s like 18 minutes or so. And then if you want the full deep dive, um that episode, it’s called the story of Rock and Roller Coaster from concept to coaster. And you can find that on Jim Hill Media um the Patreon.

Eric Hersey: Yeah. And just recently, I don’t know if you saw this, but yesterday on the day it closed, Jim Jim and Len were actually in the parks and they sat outside Hollywood Studios on in November and they recorded the basically another version more stories like that wasn’t actually in the first Unpacked, believe it or not. There were more than just the hourlong story. So that’s just an audio version. So that’s available over on Patreon. So we’re just cheap plugs away today.

Lauren Hersey: All right. So, another big change that is coming to our Florida parks, there’s tons of rumbling. I mean, this has taken over my feed about the expansion of Villains Land. And we had talked about um a little bit on the last episode that, you know, Len’s comment in the WDW magic forum got picked up and then it just spread like wildfire. like everybody was all over it. And then Jim’s co-host Drew Taylor with Finetuning did a really nice thorough article in the rap. So if you haven’t checked that

Eric Hersey: he’s the one that kind of broke it all like this newest latest story. I mean, we know Len Len got people talking, but Drew the next day is when it actually came out and he dropped the the rap story that just kind of blew up everywhere. And for those who have not paid attention or haven’t listened to any of the other podcasts or really pulled up any internet connection over the while, the the whole deal is we talked about the Villains Land pretty hardcore last week about the Josh saying, “Hey, we’re going to get bigger and better.” Well, the word came out of actually what that means. And funny enough, Jim dropped it when we were recording the Epic podcast that says, “Hey, just want to let you know this was on air.” He was he was saying, “Hey, I got more information that when Josh was at Epic, he wasn’t really looking at the Dark Universe as the comparison.” He’s like the the aisle of Burke is what they were looking at because everybody, you know, Isle Burke won the Theo Awards and it was voted the best land and it’s known for its family-friendly and immersiveness and the fun aspect. And he’s like, “That’s what we want.”

Eric Hersey: And that is what created this entire rap article which kind of talks a couple different things. that almost talks about how the land itself is being slightly transformed from what we saw in the concept art which looked like a foreboing, you know, a maleficent coaster with thorns and so forth. And now we’re hearing that it’s an emperor’s new groove. Yeah. It was scary and dark and now it’s more like, oh no, it’s going to be a little bit more whimsy in a villains land almost as if it’s like the show over in Hollywood, you know, the the Hollywood Studio show or maybe one of the villains after hours, which got people, you know, talking.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah. And I mean like the biggest thing that like I thought came out of it was that that like the Maleficent coaster which looked really really cool is being replaced by Emperor’s New Groove. Like does that make any sense to you?

Eric Hersey: Well, this is what’s funny because there is one line and it is a funny takeaway line where it’s like Kron, you know, get the lever or pull the lever and it’s a roller coaster in this movie. But the funny thing is like I don’t know how that IP in a in a world where they will not make anything nonIP that’s made a billion dollars in merch and this and that. It just seems very unlikely that the Emperor’s New Groove is the IP that they’re going to build a coaster around. I’m not saying that I don’t necessarily believe it, but has there ever been a concept of maybe like this is the best of kind of deal and maybe there is multiple villains and then the part where like there’s a dropill maybe that’s where Kron is.

Lauren Hersey: Yeah, I think there’s more to the story with this. And I mean, this goes on to say that there is going to be a Maleficent boat ride that is being developed to be more of that like e ticket um attraction like the single pass like boat ride like we don’t typically see boat rides that are e attraction.

Eric Hersey: So Shanghai, go over to Shanghai and check out their Pirates of the Caribbean. That is the boat ride. We’re not talking a small world here. We’re talking a very immersive and I think that’s what they’re kind of building it off of. And so one of the things that has changed and you’ve seen is that they they updated the permits which the building sizes have changed and we have a lot of soouththing going on from that perspective to decide okay what is there there’s going to be a dinner show with Hades. I believe there’s going to be a coaster and there’s also going to be this giant attraction. Plus, they’re talking about a third attraction now that is described as like a carnival style flat ride, which I don’t know if you saw this. They’re saying it’s it’s Ursula, but familiar name to the show already, Jim Shull, did you see the tweet that he posted almost immediately after?

Lauren Hersey: Listen, I I just have to say like whenever you were saying there was going to be like an Ursula spinner, I was like, like we’ve got Dumbo, we’ve got the magic carpets, but if this concept art that Jim is sharing is what this is, like I don’t know. I think it’s super cool. He Okay, so go back to the tweet. It says, uh, poor Ursula is nearly in line for a ride in different Disney parks, but the green light never comes. Maybe this time it will happen. #villainsland # Disney villains. And it looks like I would say a more intense spinner ride.

Eric Hersey: Well, well, I mean, so if you’re not familiar, there was a time where I think uh California Adventure, the Paradise Pier area was going to be a Villains Land and he designed and drew he must have been the one leading the Ursula spinner ride. So, there was several out there. I think somebody posted and Jim was like, “Hey, I drew that kind of like as a” and then there’s several of them that are posting out there and I’ve seen his artwork. It looks very much like uh his crush coaster one and and so forth. So you he has a distinct style.

Eric Hersey: So I don’t know. I mean, I’m not ever going to get super excited about a a spinner, you know, flat ride, but they need to happen. Truth be told, I’ve been screaming about it for a year that Epic needs stuff like that, right? Because we need some of those. So I’m not going to cry about it. But it is just funny this whole story. There was a slew of tweets out there. So, let let’s cover a couple of them that I thought was pretty funny.

Eric Hersey: So, fresh baked, which is pretty prolific on the online. Basically, a lot of people were commenting on the discussing film tweet, which is basically just announcing, hey, this is what’s going to happen. The Emperor New Groove Coaster and Indoor Water with uh Maleficent, a restaurant, and Fresh Bake says, “Tomorrow we need bigger and boulder. Budgets are secondary. Imagineering. Best we can do is an Ursula theme spinner.”

Lauren Hersey: That’s not fair. Going back to Epic, I mean, do you think that he went to Epic and was like, “Dang, they need some more like spinner rides here. Like people are waiting too long and not being able to like do things to fill their time. We don’t want that same issue.”

Eric Hersey: Well, I think it’s all matter about capacity because there are like spinner rides over in in Burke. They just don’t have a high capacity. The flyers bad. So, so we did I did grab some screenshots here just to show the different sizes of the lands and I think everybody is basically saying the big show building that got a little bigger is definitely going to be the indoor Maleficent boat ride. So, that is going to be the E trick ticket, the Rise of the Resistance. The the other building that’s kind of smaller looks to be like the coaster is going to be an outdoor familyfriendly coaster, right? So they just kind of shipped and changed some of the buildings there and maybe the indoor like the the indoor I guess dining locations shift a little bit

Lauren Hersey: with that coaster you might get like a hagrid situation where like a part of it is indoor animatronics and um especially if they’re saying there’s going to be like a drop like what you get in the rise of resistance like that all kind of tracks for me.

Eric Hersey: Yeah. Yeah. And I mean there’s there’s a ton of land back there. Another thing I I think this is where a lot of people were going. There was theme park Zach on Twitter said, “Villain’s Land seems like a concept Disney can’t screw up, but this report makes it seem like they may find a way.” Yeah. And then uh Peter from uh he’s from Ordinary Adventures online. He he listen, I didn’t I didn’t expect a dark adult only land, but I don’t think Kitty is the direction to go with a villain land. Does Magic Kingdom need a fifth spinner attraction and a fourth family coaster? was personally hoping for a thrill ride with a cool dark ride where all the Disney villains come together. I’m hopeful this report isn’t completely right. We’ll see what Disney announces. Mind you, Disney has not said a thing.

Lauren Hersey: Right. Right. This is all fan speculation and like connecting dots here.

Eric Hersey: And then we have Stardust Jay, which is one of the more funny ones in my opinion. He says, “Yeah, dot dot dot. If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the actual villain’s land.” And it’s a picture of Darkmore, which is over at Epic. So, yeah. I mean, I don’t know how many people were expecting this to be a We don’t have scary things at the Disney parks. You know, it’s Mickey’s not so scary party. It’s not going to get super scary. So, I don’t know if our expectations were a little higher or changing.

Lauren Hersey: But, did you say Dark Universe is scary?

Eric Hersey: I don’t I mean, I don’t think so. It’s for boating, you know? I mean, we haven’t been there too much at night time. It’s been super hot every time I’m there, so I’m ducking in and out and trying to get some air conditioned. So, I I don’t know. It’s It’s tough to say. But I do think there was in one other tweet that I just want to bring up. Uh a gentleman named Wakefield Report says, “Waiting for you all to realize that Disney haven’t finalized their villains land yet and they’ve leaked those details to gauge public reaction. It’s something they’ve been doing for years now since the early mice chat days.

Eric Hersey: So I don’t know. I don’t know what to take of this. Obviously, I know our friends on the network are very highly credible and they’re not just going to post stuff out there. I This is not madeup rumors. It’s just a matter of how far along are they? What are we getting the full story? You know, I wouldn’t doubt if there’s information sent out that might be halfway done or might be still in the blue sky development. It’s it’s tough to say, but I don’t know. I don’t know what we’ll find out more um at D23 in August. I bet you that it’s going to be much more fleshed out. And I mean, they’ve got to give us some uh domestic park news. And so I think that this will be a big uh topic.

Eric Hersey: Yeah. But I think everybody needs to chime in. Let’s hear what you have to say. Are you excited about this? Would you rather have it kid-friendly or are you in the notion that it should be dark and and uh eerie and we should have villains out there terrorizing us? You let us know. Let us know in the comments.

Lauren Hersey: Yes. Okay. Okay, so after the break, we have a brand new book coming from one of our favorite Imagineers and uh everyone is talking about the new Olaf Draws at the animation academy experience over at Hollywood Studios and so we’ll share what they have to say, but first this

Eric Hersey: and we’re back. Earlier this week, Disney legend Joe Roie was spotted on social media and was prepping a big announcement. So Lauren, you actually brought this to my attention. Uh, did you see what the big tease was on Instagram?

Lauren Hersey: My gosh, I was so excited. Like, you know, we always talk about the Eisner era and like that’s kind of like our Walt. So, that style of Imagineering is, you know, Eric and I’s favorite. So, I was pleasantly surprised to see Mr. Joe Roie make it into my algorithm and I ended up following and I’m like, please give me more internet. But the first video that um I saw was he was essentially just teasing that he had a creative announcement. He’s a creative guy and so he’s going to be talking about something creative, but to stay tuned. So, of course, I had to follow along.

Lauren Hersey: And then just a couple days later, we found out that Joe Ready has a new uh book coming out, Floating Mountains: The Art of Imagineering the Impossible. And it’s doing pretty well so far, right?

Eric Hersey: Well, yeah, because I thought it came out. I was just like, man, that is a weird drop strategy is like not to announce it and then it’s in bookshelves cuz I saw that it was like a top seller, that it was already like the top of the Amazon’s Traveler and Explorer biographies and several other areas. Uh, but it turns out that I guess that’s from pre-orders because I went on and I’m like, “All right, is there an audio book?” Because I’m listening to a lot of stuff. I would have listened to it by this time. It’s not available yet. It comes out, I think, what, uh, September 8th. But you can pre-order. So, he’s done his fair share of promotion. And I think the book is $35. You can get it and pre-order it from all over the place.

Lauren Hersey: And I bet you I bet you that if you go to D23 that he will be there selling and signing copies because who was the um Brad Bird was there last time.

Eric Hersey: I know, but he’s not Imagineer. But well, yeah, he had a book. But no, what was the um it was the Imagineer that we loved? Bob Weiss.

Lauren Hersey: We wise. Yeah. Yeah. So, anyways, maybe if you’re at the convention, and finger cross will be there as well. You might be able to get your hands on it a little earlier than September 8th, uh the D23 fan convention is happening August 14th through the 16th. But I’m assuming that this is a book about Pandora.

Eric Hersey: I mean, that’s as much as I can tell. I I think it’s going through like what National Geographic or or their one of their wings there. But it I mean calling it the art of imagining the impossible floating mountains. I’m sure it’s Pandora. I don’t know if it’ll be a biography about Joe Roie altogether or just the Pandora experience. I’m good with either one. I I imagine Jim will have it on his bookshelf and probably read it before we even get it in the mail.

Eric Hersey: But um yeah, the the funny thing is so we we find out Joe Rody’s uh putting out a book and I just wanted to know curious because he is probably one of the most well-known Imagineers at this time. Now granted, there are different series of Imagineers. You have your Walt Imagineers and then like Lauren said, we have our Eisner ones and I was just kind of looking out online and just did my normal searching of like who are the most popular Imagineers out there and just kind of seeing where Joe Rodie would would fall.

Eric Hersey: And here here here’s a challenge for everyone. So, I went and I searched just the simple, you know, popular Imagineers, most famous Imagineers, so forth. And we get nothing but old, old articles. We’re talking an all ears from 2019. We got a magic uh wdw magic forum from 2020. We got a Mickeyblog.com from 2023. We got another magic uh forum from what 2019. No one right now has a really good stance or or really this is a great opportunity for you content creators out there because if you go and look for best Disney Imagineers, it’s all old content and it’s not even that competitive right now.

Eric Hersey: So, I was curious, Lauren, what is who is your favorite Imagineer from past, present? Do you have a favorite?

Lauren Hersey: Oh my gosh. Well, I just like looking at that first article and seeing Rolley Crump like I I mean I don’t know. I love Bob Gurr. Like I love that he’s still in the parks. I mean Tony back they’re all so like these are like our like rock stars. Like love love love them. And I mean you cannot forget about Mark Davis. Like Jim has just told so many wonderful stories of him and his wife. And I mean that is who his child is named after. Um so I can’t name one. Jim Schaw definitely if you’re listening Jim. How about you Eric?

Eric Hersey: Well I mean I’m a rolly crump guy. I always have on a mansion guy. Yeah. Yeah. No, I mean he’s he he you know I have his book and and always enjoyed but Tony Baxter man but there’s something about Tony Baxter that I really enjoyed uh as well

Lauren Hersey: the like imagineering story like you know it just like makes you love these guys and like him working in the parks and scooping ice cream like you just don’t get that or you don’t hear about these people. I mean all I know is what was the guy’s name like Disney Tom? the guy with the tight pants

Eric Hersey: like on the most recent video. Yes, there’s a most recent video of these. Right. It is it is kind of a lost art right now. They’re not necessarily the celebrity icon that they once were with the specials and everything like that, but we can hope to get to that level.

Eric Hersey: But so what I was checking is see is there anybody that did a definitive rank. We would love to have an updated one somebody out there 2026 make a definitive rank. But Google did kind of uh by searching for this they did give us a little list on the bottom that says people also search for. So if it matters, if this counts, and this is Google’s recommendations right now, Tony Baxter is number one, Joe Rodie is number two, Mary Blair 3, Bob Gurr four, Rolyrump 5, and Mark Davis 6. That is what they show at the bottom. At least for my searches. So, right now, unless you think otherwise, I think everybody out there, somebody go out there and make a wonderful uh vlog, make a series of Tik Tok videos, make a blog, somebody go out there and and let us know who the best Imagineer is in 2026, the all time.

Lauren Hersey: And I think we should ask Jim Schul. Maybe he’ll come on the show and give us his opinion. Can’t name Can’t name yourself, uh, Jim, but I think that that would be uh really cool. So, we will be looking forward to that. But speaking of celebrities, the warm hug loving snowman is making some news down in Florida, right?

Eric Hersey: My goodness, he’s making a Yeah, this was a weird one because I saw it come out and I’m like, “Oh, cool. This is This sounds great.” Like an animatronic Olaf. He’s going to be teaching people to draw and this is a great new area of the park that didn’t have anything. So, it’s not like we’re taking anything away. So you hear about Olaf Draws and it for those not aware this is basically going in the uh magic of Disney animation in the Hollywood studio areas where the old old animation studios was.

Eric Hersey: But Olaf Draws it’s a feature a new audio animatronic Olaf figure inspired by the appearance of Once Upon a Studio. So if you haven’t seen that and it’s going to have guests come in and Josh Gad of course is the voice of Olaf. So that is super exciting. But this is this is where everybody got mad. It says, “Pre-recorded instruction from Disney animation artists will guide step-by-step drawings of Donald Duck, Genie, Moana, Stitch, Olaf, and so forth.”

Eric Hersey: So, with that being said, the pre-recorded is it’s pretty cool, though, because it is going to be from the animators that drew it. So, for instance, like Eric Goldberg is going to teach you how to draw Genie, and there’s other ones that are out there. So, you’re actually going to get, you know, recordings and learn how to draw from them. But yeah, let’s just say everybody out there was not very happy about the live cast member no longer, you know, running the show. And we we have done this multiple times.

Lauren Hersey: Would you rather learn it from the like originator of that artwork than like some recent college grad that is like, “Hey, here. Let me teach you how to draw Puma.”

Eric Hersey: That’s the question. So Lauren and I have done this three or four occasions with our family. And I won’t lie. I did not have any type of personal connection with the person up there. So I’m think my situation was like, okay, that’s fine. You can, you know, it it’s quicker. It’s more efficient. You can kind of time what who you want to draw. Like if you want to draw Olaf, try to find out which time that is.

Eric Hersey: But I’m from looking over online, there are a lot of people that made personal connections with these live cast members. And I don’t know what their backstories are or how they did it. Our situations, it was very much just the same as if it was somebody just doing a pre-recording. There wasn’t any back and forth banter. There wasn’t anything that was off script, but that’s my experience. That’s not everyone’s.

Eric Hersey: So, we grabbed a handful of tweets here. So, let’s just start with Disney. Scoop guy says, “Sorry, but I can’t get excited about an animatronic that is going to eliminate multiple cast members positions, especially when they’re artists, the literal backbone of the Walt Disney Company.”

Eric Hersey: All right. And then followed by Imaginatic Art. It says, “Damn, this is ridiculous.” And we It keeps coming. And it says Chris at rope drop says cool but I would 100% rather learn this from an actual animator. And we continue on. So the and that was just non-stop.

Eric Hersey: So granted I am in uh a very community creator space on Twitter. That is as a creator myself I have and follow a lot and the algorithm knows that. So I don’t know if I was just in the void there. And then other areas people were super jazzed and excited. that a lot of the people that I was following were not happy that it’s no longer an actual live, you know, person teaching and showcasing.

Eric Hersey: And then I found some really interesting tweets and Instagram messages and so forth. This one was from SAVV Solv. It just says, “Just want to say at first I was happy with the art of animation returning to DHS as a kid. I love that space and going into draw characters. Now that I’m a full- grown adult, I would have liked to be able not to just draw these characters, but to possibly apply to teach. So, there’s an animator that’s kind of upset saying, “Hey, you know, super excited and now we’re going away.”

Eric Hersey: And then I found somebody that actually worked there. This is GV_arts with a Z. And they posted, “It has been a true honor to serve as an instructor for over four and a half years. During this time, I learned a great deal from my colleagues, including co-workers, coordinators, leadership team members. Hearing many inspiring stories from guests who felt safe and comfortable enough to share their experiences with us has been genuinely uplifting. I have loved this role and always look forward to getting up every day to talk about my favorite characters and how to make somebody a day more special. The animation experience has given me a voice and created a space where both myself and my friends can be heard. I am committed to continuing my pursuit of excellence, reaching for greatness, maintaining my passion, inspiring others in a fun way.”

Eric Hersey: So, we just saw that was like a post of somebody that must been like doing it at the Animal Kingdom and they’re What’s your thoughts, Lauren?

Lauren Hersey: Yeah. I mean, I see both sides. I really do. But I will say that it is not like one is replacing the other. Like, I think that this just seemed like a good fit for that space. And I do know that Bluey is going to be occupying the space at Animal Kingdom. And I always hate like I personally hate whenever we’re like seeing loss of jobs, especially loss of creative jobs. That is, you know, it’s kind of a hot button for both you and I. But I like I’m sorry, but like I was kind of like excited to see that there was a new kind of interactive experience in that you got to get it firsthand from the original creator. So that’s my that’s my thought and you know I love anything Olaf, right?

Eric Hersey: Yeah. It’s it’s so it’s it’s it’s a tough one. I don’t know where you sit on that side andor if you have to sit on one side. We don’t have to be vocally angry about one thing or we can kind of be half and half. So certainly hopefully we have other internet was half and half.

Eric Hersey: No, no, no, no, no. But that’s that’s that’s why we’re here to find out what people are saying and where the things will change. I mean, ultimately, why couldn’t you have Olaf talk with an actual cast member who’s doing it, and Olaf is trying to draw it himself and screwing up? So, like, you could have a little bit of guy good enough. I mean, he’s walking around Paris. Can uh can’t he be scribbling out?

Eric Hersey: Right. Right. So, I mean, maybe there’s a hybrid and maybe sometimes, you know, they put this stuff out there and if there’s enough of a change, I mean, like, you can switch it up. There’s certainly I mean, you could definitely have cast members going around helping people, you know? I don’t know.

Lauren Hersey: And they might. They might. I mean, like, it’s still too soon to to tell.

Eric Hersey: Yeah. But, uh, my favorite, we’ll leave with this. My favorite was Seafoam Safari. It says, “I’d like this better with a Michael Eisner animatronic.” The found the founding father of D, uh, DHS, Disney Hollywood Studios. So, like, yes, give me a Michael Eisner animatronic, and he can teach us how to draw and and do all that. So, that that’d be fun.

Eric Hersey: But, yeah, let us know what your thoughts. We’d love to hear if you’re pro uh Olaf teaching us or you’d rather have uh you know just your your animator come in there and and teach you like they currently do.

Lauren Hersey: Just put this out there, right? I would like to put this out there right now. I would totally love a Hall of Presidents for uh Disney CEOs.

Eric Hersey: Give me Imagineers. Let’s throw back. How about a Holo Present with the Imagineers? I’m sure.

Lauren Hersey: Oh my gosh. I could see Tony Baxter as an uh as an animatronic right now. That guy make the replacement now.

Lauren Hersey: But anyways, that does it for today’s episode of Disney and Hers. For more, hit up disneyers.com. That’s where you’re going to find articles, episodes, and updates. And if Disney is your vibe, be sure to subscribe.

Eric Hersey: And remember guys, watch what you post online. You might end up in next week’s episode. Thanks for listening.