Today the Walt Disney Company continues in Walt's hope for the future with the "Disney College Program". What this program offers college students is the opportunity from any academic discipline to experience working for Disney in a wide variety of roles available in the Company. Since Disney is an entertainment and service-oriented leader, the learning environment is invaluable for any student planning to work in corporate America. The learning atmosphere is exciting and fast-paced, where students perform their tasks in one of the four theme parks, two water parks, resorts in dining, retail or entertainment. And of course one of the most important skills any job applicant can master, is interaction with the guests and developing a solid foundation working with people.

Even if students do not continue with the company, they will have the opportunity to meet and connect with professional people from various workshops. This plus the skills learned working for a fortune 100 company will enhance any students future career. As Disney cast members, they will attend networking sessions with Disney leaders. Also available are resources from the Disney Learning Centers, attending training classes, all which help students meet the requirements to earn credits for their participation. Students will live in gated apartment communities outside the property, much like a college campus. They will contribute to the cost of the rent and services through weekly deductions from their paychecks, yes, the college interns do get a paycheck at Disney. Also, the Disney Company will further assist the students by further subsidizing the cost.

The College program made its debut in 1981, In the beginning, there were more than 200 students from over 30 schools working at the Magic Kingdom theme park. Since it's inception, more than 45,000 students have participated, representing hundreds of schools. The program has three main components: LIVING-LEARNING-EARNING. The Disney program offers seven different courses, all recommended by the American council on Education for three credit hours each. And as the students work at the parks and resorts, they get an insiders look at the tactics and operations of a major company, all working hands-on, gaining the experience and know-how to launch their careers here or elsewhere.

So how does the Animation Academy fit in? Lets take a quick look at Disney's animation goals. Ever since Disney broke bread with Pixar in 1991 to produce computer animated films, first being TOY STORY in 1995 and a string of highly successful follow-up features, Disney believed that the future was in computer animated films, and that traditional hand drawn animation was losing out to computer generated films, thus accounting for it's losses at the box-office. Pixar and Dreamworks were now producing box office hits, once the realm of Disney alone; something had to be done. Starting in 2000, massive layoffs in the animation departments began. From a staff of over 2400, it was whittled down to 600. Disney converted its Feature Animation Studios into all CGI studios, prompting more layoffs selling of its traditional animation equipment. Disney's last movie to use traditional animation was HOME ON THE RANGE, released on April 2nd, 2004. The animation studio in MGM was closed in 2003, the one in Paris in 2004, and Disneytoons in Australia in 2005.

All of these events seemed to spell death to traditional animation here at Walt Disney World. Even Walt Disney himself, a man who always looked to the future and new ideas to improve his animation, I believe would not approve of the fab five (Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Donald and Goofy) in computer animation. Yes, we all must march forward into the future, but certain things should not be toyed with. When I saw the fab five in the CG "MICKEY'S TWICE UPON A CHRISTMAS" released in 2004 it was just unsettling. Like seeing your favorite movie cowboy with an automatic handgun! I love the old way of traditional animation. Yes, it takes about 24 pictures to make one second of action and is more time consuming, but there is something about 2D animation that CG just can't match. Plus, the artists put their heart and soul into every drawing. This is not to say the CG artists are not talented, they are. But in my opinion, and that of many more, the void left without traditional animation would never be filled.

But there are bright skies ahead. With Disney's acquisition of Pixar in 2006, and Eisner's departure, John Lasseter, brilliant animator and now Disney's Chief Creative Officer and a supporter of traditional hand drawn animation has breathed new hope and life here at Disney. He supports and motivates his artists and they now feel part of a creative family, as Walt intended, this being a return to the Disney of Old! He has already given the directing and writing team of Ron Clements and John Musker who are penning the screenplay the 'Frog Princess" to produce it in traditional animation. He also offered director Glen Keane to produce "Rapunzel" in the same venue. Now all this takes time, sometimes years to fruitation but is a step in the right direction.

This year is the first time that artists in the College program started in the Animation Academy, formally the Animation Studio. I had a chance to speak to one of the students and the training starts out with eight days understudying with a Disney artist, learning the correct way to draw the characters. For almost eight hours, they will draw nothing but circles, just to practice the basic shapes! They are taught "Line Quality", or how the pencil line flows and extensive use of model sheets, which are large posters with poses of the characters, drawings of their feet, face, hands etc, in different positions, these being drawn by the Disney Design Artists. And when they are not drawing, they are working, either at the presentation of "Drawn to Animation" movie in the Academy for the guests, or wherever they are needed. After an eight day course on drawing the major characters, they are tested and if they pass, they will instruct the guests on how to draw their favorite characters at the academy. All the drawings are full faced for simplicity. So with John Lasseter now at the animation helm and students coming to the animation academy again, traditional hand drawn animation seems to have regained a strong foothold here again at Disney. Only time will tell, and I truly believe that Walt is breathing a sigh of relief, knowing that what he started, will continue on.