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Welcome to my tour of the Walt Disney Studios located on Buena Vista Street in sunny Burbank, California: home to the magic since 1937. If Buena Vista sounds vaguely familiar, it should. It has many namesakes within the company (Walt Disney World is located in Lake Buena Vista, Buena Vista Distibution (BVD doesn't manufacture underwear incidentally), etc. Prior to the move, the company was located on Hyperion Avenue in Los Angeles. Hyperion? I wonder if that could be used as a name for anything...
But before we head to the studios, I'd like to take you on a pit stop if I may just to provide you with a glimpse of what you're in for. This is a photo taken from one of Walt Disney's neighbors, Universal Studios. If you look closely, beyond the watertower home of the animaniacs, is another watertower, one belonging to a mouse.
It's a beautiful hazy day, isn't it? Okay, enough chit-chat. Into the studios we go!
Prior to visiting the Walt Disney Studios, I had been on the lots at Universal Studios, Warner Brothers, Sony Pictures and the Jim Henson Studios (originally Charlie Chaplin's studio), so I had already been exposed to the vast differences and similarities each share as producers of films in Hollywood. Yet I was still surprised as I first ventured into the Walt Disney Studios as to just how underwhelming it appeared at first glance. To be blunt, my first gut reaction is I was back in high school. The small brick & beige buildings spread out just screamed out campus to me.
In fact, if it weren't for two small indicators by the commissary in the forms of a lopsided Mickey topiary and a Mickey Mouse flag, one might have no clue just where they were. That's no ordinary flagpole incidentally - that's one of 30 that were used in the pageantry ceremonies of the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, for which Walt Disney served as the head. The flagpoles each bear a plaque 'signed' by Walt. Regretfully I wasn't smart enough to take a photo of the plaque myself, but you can see it in this Wikipedia article on the games:
Probing a little deeper on the lot, however, there are lots of Disney elements spread around that do a fine job at assuring you where you are. Here for example is what would otherwise be an ordinary fire hydrant, but someone seized the opportunity to title the area over to Pluto. It's hard to tell in the photo, but for that added touch, there are three paw prints in the cement (you *know* why that fourth paw is missing!). In the photo, they appear as dark grey patches - imagine Pluto facing you with his left hind leg in the air.
Here's another element that may be familiar to those who have visited Disney's Hollywood Studios prior to Mickey Avenue surrendering itself over to Pixar Place.
This is the studio's screening room which comes complete with its own No Lookie-Loos Allowed warning (and for those who may be concerned, rest easy, there is a Disney pin available inspired by the warning).
You may have noticed the rows of cement blocks with hand prints a la Grauman's Chinese Theater leading up to the screening room. These belong to Disney Legends and it literally reads a who's who in the Walt Disney Company family. Here's a closer look at just a few of them.
Facing the screening room is the Animation building. Nowadays, Walt Disney Animation Studios is contained in a separate facility across the street from Walt Disney Studios so there's not too much in way of animation done in this building (I believe it's mostly just basic office space now - it was also probably used plenty as a shooting location for Alias which was reported to make eccentric use of offices and secret tunnels around the Walt Disney Studios lot). The building is still dedicated to and themed towards the company's esteemed history in animation, however.
Would you like to take a peek inside? No? Okay, we'll make our way back towards the commissary then. What's that? You DO want to go inside? Oh! Forgive me then, let's take a peek inside.
The first thing we see is an amazing freehand portrait of Walt done on black granite by Walt Disney Imagineering sculptor Adolfo Procopio. The engraving is done by applying pressure to black granite using the engraving tool; the engraver controls the shading of the portrait by applying various degrees of pressure to the stone. This particular portrait took a year to create.
The building itself consists of a long main corridor with an entrance/exit on either side with other hallways branching off of it. The corridor has become a legitimate gallery paying tribute to the long history of Disney animated films. One could easily spend hours just perusing the storyboards, cels and prints on display. As an example, here's some storyboarding from 101 Dalmations. I don't think I ever actually intended to keep this photo, I was just adjusting the settings on the camera, but there was no way I could bring myself to deleting it.
If you'd like to simulate what it may be like to browse the artwork in the Animation building, bookmark this page, close the browser and come back in a couple of hours. It's alright, we'll wait.
The rest of you might want to make use of the facilities while we're waiting.
Back so soon? Great. Let us continue through the building and head out the exit on the other side of the corridor. Did you happen to notice the large tile featuring Steamboat Willie in the middle of the corridor?
The other side of the Animation building empties out into the Walt Disney Studios' Legends Plaza. The courtyard was dedicated in 1998 in honor of the company's 75th anniversary and commemorates the Disney Legends program (established in 1987) which was created in an effort to recognize individuals who have contributed immensely to the Disney magic.
The plaza also contains replicas of statues that should be familiar to most park goers. At the far end of the plaza is the Partners statue from the parks featuring Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse; somewhere in the middle is Sharing the Magic from the Magic Kingdom featuring Roy O. Disney and Minnie Mouse; and the Disney Legends statue itself from Disneyland Paris, where the program originated.
This is a photo of an actual Disney Legends award that was posthumously awarded to musician George Bruns. It's on display at Walt Disney's Carolwood Barn in Los Angeles.
The award was designed by Andrea Favilli and uses the spiral to represent imagination and the power of ideas, the hand to hold the gift of skill and craftsmanship and the wand and star to represent the magic created when the previous two elements combine.
The columns that align the plaza hold plaques honoring recipients of the awards. Here's the plaque for Lillian Disney.
The building behind the Disney Legends award with the seven dwarfs is the Michael D. Eisner building (it was renamed in 2006 in honor of Eisner, the original name was simply the Team Disney Burbank building). Designed by Michael Graves, the building's facade obviously pays homage to the first feature length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Justifiably enough, the studios is also home to an office building named in honor of Frank Wells.
Of course Disney produced live action as well so the studio has constructed a series of soundstages over the years as needed. There are currently five in all, which continue to be used today for films as well as television. For some more background on the soundstages history, see the link at the end of this article. For now, I'll just make sure to mention Soundstage 2 which is where much of Mary Poppins was filmed and is so named in honor of the film.
In addition to a large commissary featuring a wide range of food stations, the lot also features a Disney Employee Center which sells some logo merchandise and special pins as well as a full sized Disney Store which also sells some items unique to Walt Disney Studios in addition to the usual fare.
That just about sums up our tour of the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank. Hope you've enjoyed it. If so, please tell a friend. I guess I'll leave you right where we started. Only just a little bit closer.
For additional history and information on the Studios, I highly recommend going right to the source.
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