The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) is welcoming back visitors, families and fans of the artform with the extension of Disney: The Magic of Animation<\/em> until January 23, 2022.<\/p>\n Celebrating nearly 100 years of Disney\u2019s most iconic animations, the internationally acclaimed exhibition was originally scheduled to close on October 17.<\/p>\n As many missed out on visiting during Melbourne\u2019s lockdown, ACMI and the Walt Disney Animation Research Library worked together to ensure the exhibition\u2019s 500 original artworks from the 1920s to the present day would be able to remain in Victoria for a few months longer.<\/p>\n Disney: The Magic of Animation<\/em> includes original paintings, sketches, models and concept art that have been specially selected by the Walt Disney Animation Research Library in Los Angeles, California.<\/p>\n The rarely-seen works reveal the development of stories and animation techniques from some of the best Walt Disney Animation Studios films and shorts, including Mickey Mouse\u2019s first talkie Steamboat Willie<\/em> (1928), Fantasia<\/em> (1940), Sleeping Beauty<\/em> (1959), The Lion King<\/em> (1994), Frozen<\/em> (2013), Moana<\/em> (2016), Frozen 2<\/em> (2019) and Raya and the Last Dragon<\/em> (2021).<\/p>\n Fans of Disney\u2019s films from the 1970s and most of the 1980s (such as Robin Hood<\/em> or Who Framed Roger Rabbit?<\/em>) will miss out, unfortunately, as there is a large and unexplained gap between The Jungle Book<\/em> (1967) and the start of the \u201cDisney Renaissance\u201d in 1989 with The Little Mermaid<\/em>.<\/p>\n The five sections of this exhibition each focus on a different era of innovation, from perfecting the technique of bringing two-dimensional drawings to life in the 1920s, to the creation of the first animated feature films in the late 1930s and 1940s, the stylistic innovations of the post-war years, the renaissance of the 1990s to the digital revolution and advances of the present day.<\/p>\n