1/6/12 Disney’s Art of Animation Resort Update – Radiator Springs Sign, Lion King and Little Mermaid

Hi everyone!

There have been some impressive changes to the Disney’s Art of Animation Resort since our last visit! The one thing we almost missed was the Radiator Springs sign/icon in the Cars section, it turned out to be the most interesting part of our construction update!

From the far side of the Pop Century resort (near the 80’s and 90’s buildings), the Radiator Springs sign is visible.

More animated drawings of cars have been added to the sides of buildings in the Cars area.

The schedule for the different resorts to open is Finding Nemo in May, Cars in July, Lion King in September, and the Little Mermaid section at the end of 2012.

Earth tones now accentuate the Lion King buildings, and leaves are being added to each roof. Green, blue, yellow and brown paint is now being applied. Until very recently, the buildings were completely white.

 

The Little Mermaid buildings are now painted blue and purple. This area will be the last finished later this year, and encompass the only standard rooms in the resort.

The Finding Nemo section will be the first open in May, 2012.

Crush is still behind wrapping:

Mr. Ray from Finding Nemo is partially visible.

Sea anemone that holds Nemo and Marln (the characters are not visible in this direction):

Here are more photos of the Finding Nemo Courtyard. You can see water in the pool in the 4th photo:

Cars building from a different viewpoint:

And from that point, more of Finding Nemo buildings:

We’ve not seen these animation drawings previously:

 

This piece looks like a tree trunk that would be found in the Lion King area, but is in the Cars section right now (it could be moved, we don’t know what it is for):

One of the many signs at the Pop Century Resort:

We made one more stop to take photos of the Finding Nemo Courtyard (the swath along the path for photos is wide, and each offers a different view).

It’s always exciting to see something new, and it’s clear that Disney’s Art of Animation Resort will take the value resort category to another level. I’ll be working on an updated Pop Century Photo Walk next week, so come back for that and all of our other updates!