Disney California Adventure is about to see some changes coming to the Disney Animation building in Hollywoodland, and Golden State’s Blue Sky Cellar.
What’s Happening:
- Disney California Adventure is getting a bit of a shakeup in some corners of the park, with the reveal that Beast’s Library in Hollywoodland’s Disney Animation attraction will be closing permanently, with the last day for guests to enjoy the area being December 10th.
- The area, widely known when the park originally opened in 2001 for its unique opportunity to discover what Disney Animated Character you are most like, is set to become an area used exclusively by Disney Imagination Campus.
- Formerly Disney Youth Programs, Disney Imagination Campus features a curriculum that shows students, teachers, and parents how something they call Imagination Powered Learning can make a lasting impact on how students feel about learning, and about their own potential.
- Originally upon its debut, guests would descend from Disney Animation’s Lobby into the Sorcerer’s Workshop, where they can discover the roots of animation with zoetropes and classic tools. Then, they would proceed into the Beast’s Library, a highly themed room that some would consider the predecessor for later attractions like the Enchanted Tales with Belle at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. There, they take a test provided by a magical book hosted by Lumiere and Cogsworth to discover what Disney Character they are most like. From there, they would then enter Ursula’s Grotto, where the iconic villain would “steal your voice” as you redub the music and dialogue from classic animated features before exiting back into the lobby.
- The Beast’s Library, though considered by some a “hidden gem” today, was one of the highlights of the original park when it opened, and even was given a healthy amount of time in the park’s opening special on ABC, where Spin City star Barry Bostwick discovered he was most like Gaston from Beauty and the Beast.
- When Frozen took the world by storm in 2013, it was shortly after when Ursula’s Grotto was closed so the Character Close-Up exhibit could be expanded into a meet and greet with Anna and Elsa from the hit film. From there, The Beast’s Library experience abruptly ended with a wall, with guests being rerouted up and back out through the Sorcerer’s Workshop.
- As of press time, there is no update on the status of the Sorcerer’s Workshop exhibit, with its zoetropes and other hands-on activities, which will presumably still be available for guests to enjoy beyond December 10th.
- Outside of Hollywoodland, in another section of Disney California Adventure, the Walt Disney Imagineering Blue Sky Cellar will also be removed to turn that space into a Disney Vacation Club Welcome Home Center.
- The nomenclature leads us to believe that it will be more of a preview center for Disney Vacation Club than a lounge experience, as the official DVC website uses the same phrasing in context to visit a DVC Open House, saying to “please go to the Disney Vacation Club Welcome Home Center in the Resort lobby first and have a Cast Member escort you to the model room.”
- That said, official details are scarce as of press time, and more specifics are expected to be revealed in the future.
- The Blue Sky Cellar had previously been the home of Disney Imagination Campus before today’s news, and before that was the preview center for many upcoming attractions during the multi-year transformation of the park, including displays for the “upcoming” Pixar Pier well after Pixar Pier had actually opened to guests. Prior to that, it was where everyone would get their first glimpses of Cars Land and Buena Vista Street.
- Long before that, the building played home to Seasons of the Vine, a film-based attraction that showcased how wine was grown in California vineyards.
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