Walt Disney Feature Animation-Florida will today officially close its doors, putting over 250 talented artists, technicians and animators out of work, as well as depriving the public of a chance to see how the magic was made. The animators’ desks themselves were a featured part of an attraction at Walt Disney World in Orlando, which revealed the secrets of the animation trade. Jim Hill Media today looks at how the situation could blow up in the face of Mickey, and comments on the suspicious nature of yesterday’s announcement of the new film A Day With Wilbur Robinson.

“Since when do new animated features get announced on Sunday afternoons?” asks Hill. “Because late Saturday night, it became apparent that the WDFAF closure story was not going to go away. Given Disney had deliberately leaked this news to the Times and the Sentinel on Friday evening (all with the hope that the WDFAF closing story would have somehow blown itself out by the time Monday morning rolled around again), the Mouse’s PR staff knew that they were in big trouble once Reuters picked up the Florida closure story and ran with it. It was then that Mickey’s PR department knew that it had to mount a major damage control operation. Which was why – totally coincidentally – yesterday afternoon that Walt Disney Pictures’ publicity department just HAD TO issue the [Wilbur] press release”.

Still no official word from the Mouse House, but stay “tooned”, as they say, for the next development.