Disney Internship: Disney University

As an intern for Disney Feature Animation we all had to go to Disney University for what was called “Traditions.” This was a seminar on how to interact with guests.

As animation interns we never interacted with guests since we spent every waking hour at our Disney animation desks cranking out drawings.

My favorite story from this seminar was from a character actor who was assigned to play Winnie the Poo. The costume is massive and limits visibility and movement. On one occasion he was on his own and a group of high school boys surrounded him and lifted him up and threw him head first into a bush. From that moment I realized it would be much safer to draw the characters rather than play them in the theme parks.

On lunch breaks I sometimes went into the parks to sketch but no one would know that I worked backstage. I never interacted with a guest as a Disney staff member.