How Disney Is Connecting With You During Social Distancing

For the most part, this has been a quiet few weeks for us professionally. While we’ve got a few posts covering the situation on the ground (When Will Disney World and Disneyland Reopen?) and a few cornerstone posts that needed some updating (Disney World Crowd Predictions), the closure of the parks means we have very little immediate work to do.

But I’m actually starting to get a tad overwhelmed in one way—by content coming online directly from The Walt Disney Company itself!

I don’t usually spend much time paying attention to what Disney is saying on a daily basis. The nature of what we do here is to care more about actual guest experience rather than what Disney says guests are or will experience. So when the parks blog drops new concept art or a new menu item, it doesn’t impact us much because nothing is ever the same in real life as on an official / sponsored media channel.

But with the parks (and movie theaters) closed, The Walt Disney Company is finding new ways to connect directly with “guests.” That is, they can’t push “hey come to the theater to see this…” or “visit the parks for a brand new…” these days. Instead, they’re giving people new online activities they can experience from home while social distancing.

Let’s talk about how Disney is staying connected with fans during this trying time…

Recent Updates

• Disney Magic Moments Website Launched

• New virtual backgrounds from Disney Parks, Onward, Pixar, Disney Princesses, and Star Wars

Disney Plus Is Still Getting New Content

Okay this is the obvious one. Disney Plus continues to get new updates, with Onward arriving today, and the One Day at Disney Shorts and Disney Insider behind the scenes programs seeing regular updates. Here’s a look at our Disney Plus posts (you can scroll to the right to see more):

Joe Rohde Is Teaching You About Animal Kingdom

On his instagram account, Joe Rohde (the lead imagineer behind Animal Kingdom) is teaching us a ton of details about Disney’s Animal Kingdom. These details are part of what make us love Animal Kingdom, and you’d be astounded at everything you’ve missed until now.

Disney Magic Moments

Disney has organized much of the rest of this content into the “Disney Magic Moments” program. You can visit that website here, and there are some things on there we don’t discuss in this site. But the organization of that site is still a little messy, so we’re going to highlight some of the content here as well:

Disney Animation Is Teaching You To Draw

Through 15 to 30-minute YouTube videos, Walt Disney Animation Studios is teaching you to draw some beloved characters. So far they’ve covered Sven, Olaf, Elsa, and a caricature of Walt Disney himself

Here’s the Draw With Disney Animation Playlist on YouTube

Magic From the Parks

The Disney Parks team is bringing the parks into your home with #DisneyMagicMoments. These videos (again on youtube) vary in length and content, but here’s the Full Playlist and here are some highlights:

• Disneyland’s Magic Happens Parade (8 min)

• Flags Still Flying at Disney Parks (33 sec)

• Virtual Tour of Disney Imagineering Part 1 (3 min)

The Disney Parks Blog’s latest stories index has stories about some of these tagged #DisneyMagicMoments.

Virtual Backgrounds

Many of us are using Zoom or other video chatting services that allow us to use virtual backgrounds, so Disney is sharing some fun options with us:

• Disney Parks Virtual Backgrounds

• Onward Virtual Backgrounds (Onward Now on Disney+)

• Other Pixar Virtual Backgrounds

Disney Actors Are Reading Stories

Also on youtube, this time on the Disney channel, actors are reading 10-minute stories. These stories typically relate to the characters they play, with Tony Hale (Forky) telling a Forky Story, Ashley Eckstein (Ahsoka Tano) telling a Star Wars story, Ming Na-Wen (animated Mulan) telling a Mulan Story, and more!

Here’s the “Storytime With…” Playlist on YouTube