As soon as we decided to go to Disney World for our Anniversary, I knew that I wanted to do the Animation Experience while we were at Disney’s Animal Kingdom as our Create Date for August. I knew we both wanted to see the new Pandora section and all the new rides, so it was an easy addition to make to that plan. We took the Wilderness Train to Conservation Station and got in the queue. I was really happy to see we would be drawing Pua – I have always loved pigs. Keith has not, but even he admits that Pua is cute. The area of the class is amazing – there are sketches and paintings of animals and characters all over the walls. It was nice to have something to look at while we waited for the class before ours to finish. They drew Shere Kahn from the Jungle Book which was cool to see as well.

When it was our turn, we grabbed a golf pencil, a guide sheet, and a lap board to work on. There were long rows of seats, so we were actually not able to see the animator that was doing the demonstration very well, but they had big monitors set up so that everyone could see his hands as he drew. Here are some set up and in progress shots.

So far, so good. The ears, though. That is the tricky part. The part that made you really wish that golf pencils had erasers… We will probably go back and add some finishing touches to these, but this is what our drawings looked at when we finished the class.

As a side note, the animator shared with us that the pig they used for inspiration for Pua is actually named Charlotte Mae, and she is actually a deaf pig that lives in the petting zoo at Conservation Station. How cute is that?!

Have you ever done the Animation Experience at Animal Kingdom? If so, what did you draw? If not, what character would you want to draw? I think if I could choose any Disney animal character, I may have wanted to draw Tod or Copper from The Fox and the Hound, but Pua was definitely just fine with me. 🙂