Editing Walt Disney Studios (Burbank) (section)

=== Animation Building ===
[[File:Oldanimationbuilding.JPG|thumb|The original Animation Building]]
[[File:Entrance to Original Animation Building.jpg|thumb|The building's south entrance]]
The three-story former main building for [[Walt Disney Animation Studios]] was completed in 1940, based on a [[Streamline Moderne]] design by industrial designer and architect Kem Weber.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Sampson|first1=Wade|title=The Studio that Walt Built|url=https://www.mouseplanet.com/8194/The_Studio_that_Walt_Built|website=Mouse Planet|date=May 9, 2007}}</ref> It is considered the jewel of the original studio buildings. [[Walt Disney]] personally supervised the eight-wing "double H" design, ensuring as many rooms as possible had windows, which allowed natural light into the building to help the animators while working. Many Disney animated features were drawn here, including ''[[Dumbo]]'' (1941), ''[[Bambi]]'' (1942), ''[[Cinderella (1950 film)|Cinderella]]'' (1950), ''[[Alice in Wonderland (1951 film)|Alice in Wonderland]]'' (1951), ''[[Peter Pan (1953 film)|Peter Pan]]'' (1953), ''[[Lady and the Tramp]]'' (1955), ''[[Sleeping Beauty (1959 film)|Sleeping Beauty]]'' (1959), ''[[One Hundred and One Dalmatians]]'' (1961), ''[[The Jungle Book (1967 film)|The Jungle Book]]'' (1967), ''[[The Aristocats]]'' (1970), ''[[The Rescuers]]'' (1977), and ''[[The Fox and the Hound]]'' (1981). The animation for ''[[The Black Cauldron (film)|The Black Cauldron]]'' (1985) was the last to be completed at the site.<ref name="BasilSavedDisney">{{cite web|last1=Korbis|first1=Jim|title=How Basil Saved Disney Feature Animation: Part One|url=https://www.mouseplanet.com/9534/How_Basil_Saved_Disney_Feature_Animation_Part_One|website=Mouse Planet|date=February 23, 2011}}</ref>

The Animation Building initially served as the creative and administrative nucleus for the entire studio. Walt's brother [[Roy O. Disney]], who ran the company's financial operations, shared a wing with the accounting and legal departments on the first floor, which was where the animators, in-betweeners and clean-up artists worked. The D-Wing's ground floor was the longtime domain of [[Disney's Nine Old Men]], and over the years other prominent animators and artists such as [[Bill Tytla]], [[Fred Moore (animator)|Fred Moore]], [[Norm Ferguson (animator)|Norm Ferguson]], [[Preston Blair]], [[Eyvind Earle]], [[Tyrus Wong]], [[Mary Blair]], [[Andreas Deja]], [[Floyd Norman]], [[John Lasseter]], [[Glen Keane]], [[John Musker]] and [[Ron Clements]] worked in the building. On the second floor were office suites for the directors and studios for the background and layout artists. The story department was located on the third floor, along with offices and a rehearsal room for Disney's composers and arrangers.<ref name="auto">{{cite web|last1=Korbis|first1=Jim|title=Walt Disney's Hollywood Studios|url=https://www.mouseplanet.com/10903/Walt_Disneys_Hollywood_Studios|website=Mouse Planet|date=January 14, 2015}}</ref>

Suite 3H, on the third floor of the Animation Building's H-Wing, was Walt's headquarters. The five-room space included his two adjacent offices: a "formal" [[corner office]] for signing contracts and meeting with important visitors, and a "working office" where he huddled with key staff to develop ideas for his films, television shows and theme parks. The latter had a [[kitchenette]] hidden behind wood paneling that retracted at the touch of a button, as Walt often ate lunch at his desk.<ref name="auto1">{{cite web|first=Tori|last=Avey|title=Walt Disney's Family Recipe for Cold Lemon Pie|website=[[PBS]]|date= July 15, 2015|access-date=August 21, 2016|url=https://www.pbs.org/food/the-history-kitchen/walt-disney-family-recipe-cold-lemon-pie/}}</ref> Also in the suite was his secretary's office, featuring displays of his numerous awards, and a lounge area where Walt would relax after 5:00 pm with a drink (Scotch Mist was his cocktail of choice) and a back massage from the studio nurse before going home.<ref>{{cite web|first=Jim|last=Korkis|title=Forgotten Disney Heroines: The Disney Secretaries|website= [[The Walt Disney Family Museum]]|date=April 27, 2011|url=https://www.waltdisney.org/blog/forgotten-disney-heroines-disney-secretaries}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|first=Chad|last=Garland|title=Walt Disney's Burbank office suite restored to historic glory|agency= [[The Burbank Leader]]|work= [[Los Angeles Times]]|date= December 24, 2015|url=https://www.latimes.com/socal/burbank-leader/news/tn-blr-walt-disneys-burbank-office-suite-restored-to-historic-glory-20151224-story.html}}</ref> Walt's suite was closed after his death in 1966 and not reused until 1970, after his personal items had been carefully archived. Over the years these items were used in museum exhibits recreating his offices, primarily at Disney resorts. In 2015, under the auspices of the Walt Disney Archives, Suite 3H was restored as closely as possible to the condition in which Walt left it, with many of the original furnishings and objects. Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger dedicated the restoration on December 7 of that year. In 2016 it was opened for viewing by studio employees, special guests, and gold members of the Disney fan club D23.<ref>{{cite news|first=James|last=Rainey|title=Bob Iger Opens Restored Offices Where Walt Disney Once Worked|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date= December 7, 2015|url=https://variety.com/2015/film/news/walt-disney-restored-office-opens-1201655574/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=D23 Studio Tours: Now Visit Walt Disney's Office Suite|website=[[D23 (Disney)|D23]]|date= April 11, 2016|access-date=August 18, 2016|url=https://d23.com/d23-event-recaps/d23-studio-tours-now-visit-walt-disneys-office-suite/}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|first=Rachel|last=Paige|title=Walt Disney's beautifully restored office is a look into the past|website=Hello Giggles|date= January 7, 2016|access-date=August 19, 2016|url=http://hellogiggles.com/walt-disney-restored-office/}}</ref>

A little-known feature of the Animation Building was its private rooftop annex, The Penthouse Club, a perk for male employees who could afford its membership fees. It had a gymnasium run by a full-time athletic instructor, a bar, a barber shop, steam baths, massage tables, pool and poker tables, and an outdoor patio which members tended to use for nude sunbathing.<ref name="PenthouseDisney">{{cite web|author= Todd James Pierce|title=The Penthouse Club at the Disney Studio|url=https://www.disneyhistoryinstitute.com/2014/03/the-penthouse-club-at-disney-studio.html|date=March 18, 2014}}</ref> The entrance displayed a [[mural]] painted by animator Fred Moore depicting a bevy of nude or semi-nude women, surrounding a drunken single man bearing a certain resemblance to Moore himself.<ref>Pierce, "The Penthouse Club at the Disney Studio", linked above, with illustration.</ref> By the early 1960s the gym activities had ceased and it became a casual lounge for studio veterans. The Penthouse space has been shuttered for years and the Fred Moore mural removed to an unknown location.<ref name="PenthouseDisney" />

The basement housed the Test Camera Department, which shot test loops of animation drawings in progress. Animators and directors would view these loops on [[Moviola]] machines to check the work before submitting it to Ink and Paint.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Society of Motion Picture Engineers |url=https://archive.org/details/journalofsociety36socirich |title=Journal of the Society of Motion Picture Engineers |date=1930–1949 |publisher=New York, N.Y. : The Society |others=Prelinger Library}}</ref>

A [[utility tunnel]] linked the Animation Building with the neighboring Ink and Paint Building and the Camera and Cutting departments. It was built to ensure that the original animation drawings and painted cels could be safely transported from one location to another without being exposed to bad weather or other outside elements.<ref>Neal Gabler: "Walt Disney: The triumph of the American Imagination," Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2006, p. 288.</ref><ref name="WaltandCommunity">{{cite book|first=Steve|last=Mannheim|title=Walt Disney and the Quest for Community|publisher= Routledge|date=2016|isbn=9781317000570|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=QfufCwAAQBAJ&q=walt+disney+studios+old+animation+building+underground+tunnel&pg=PT74}}</ref> The tunnel is still maintained and a length of it is open to D23 tours.

A popular point of interest for studio visitors is "[[Pluto (Disney)|Pluto]]'s Corner", outside the Animation Building's A-Wing at the southwestern end of the block. There one can see three paw prints embedded in the street, curbside beneath a fire hydrant. A hind paw print is missing, humorously suggesting that Pluto used the hydrant to mark his territory.<ref>{{cite web|first=Daisy|last=Sparks|title=My Visit to the Walt Disney Studios (Part 2)|website=Disneydaze.com|date=February 10, 2015|url=http://www.disneydaze.com/blog/2015/2/4/my-visit-to-the-walt-disney-studios-part-2}}</ref>  Nearby is the often-photographed signpost indicating the site's location at the corner of Mickey Avenue and Dopey Drive, with directions to various studio departments as they existed in Walt's era. (Today only the street names remain the same). According to longtime Disney archivist [[Dave Smith (archivist)|Dave Smith]], the street sign – the only one of its kind on the Disney lot – was installed as a temporary prop for the "Studio Tour" segment of the Disney feature ''The Reluctant Dragon'' (1941) and never removed.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Smith|first1=Thomas|title=Where at Disney Parks Can You Find…|url=https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2010/09/where-at-disney-parks-can-you-find-7/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100921162849/http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2010/09/where-at-disney-parks-can-you-find-7/|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 21, 2010|website=Disney Parks Blog|date=September 20, 2010}}</ref><ref>Sparks, "My Visit to the Walt Disney Studios (Part 2)", ''Disneydaze.com'', linked above with illustrations.</ref>

Starting on February 1, 1985, during the production of ''[[The Great Mouse Detective]]'' (released in 1986),<ref name="BasilSavedDisney" /> Disney's Animation Department was moved off the Burbank lot into a cluster of old hangars, warehouses, and trailers located about two miles east (3.2&nbsp;km) in Glendale, at the former site of the [[Grand Central Airport (United States)|Grand Central Airport]].<ref name="Farley">{{cite news |last1=Farley |first1=Ellen |title=Being Moved From Longtime Home, New Series to Be Done Overseas : Disney Animators Fear for Future |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1985-02-07-fi-5397-story.html |access-date=January 5, 2025 |work=Los Angeles Times |date=February 7, 1985}}</ref><ref name="Finch_Page_271">{{cite book |last1=Finch |first1=Christopher |title=[[The Art of Walt Disney]] |date=2004 |publisher=Harry N. Abrams |location=New York |isbn=9780810949645 |page=271 |edition=Revised and expanded}}</ref> Prior to the opening of the Team Disney Burbank building in 1990, Disney executives used the Animation Building as corporate offices. In 1995, animation production moved back to Burbank across the street from the main studios with the opening of the Walt Disney Feature Animation Building. Today, the original Animation Building is used primarily to house offices for various film and television producers who have distribution deals with Disney. Its exterior was a primary location for the 2013 film ''[[Saving Mr. Banks]]'', though the interiors (including Walt's offices) were recreated at an outside studio.<ref>{{cite web|first=Kevin|last=Stern|title=The Filming Locations of Disney's ''Saving Mr. Banks''|website= BeyondtheMarquee.com|date=December 24, 2013|access-date=September 8, 2016|url=http://beyondthemarquee.com/27496}}</ref>