It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that Disney Studios would have a tunnel system between the various buildings, but it’s likely that there are still people that don’t know much about this since it’s not something that’s brought up all the time. It is an interesting fact about the studios that is easy to understand though since the simple reason behind it is enough to explain their existence. The tunnels aren’t exactly something that exists for common, everyday use, but the act of taking sensitive materials from one building to another could possibly be something that still happens or doesn’t happen as often since emails and file transfers are a lot more common these days. But it’s easy to think that materials are still brought through the tunnels now and again, and since they haven’t been closed off it’s also easy to think that they’re still in use from time to time. Back in the days when animation cells needed to be transferred between one building and the other though it does make a lot of sense that the animators would want to keep their work out of the elements since the combination of wind and grit, or rain, or even harsh sunlight could damage their work and force them to start over.
The tunnels could still be used for the same reason obviously, and it’s even possible that the tunnels might be used during inclement weather that can and does happen even in southern California from time to time. But it’s always interesting to find out that such things exist since the young kid in a lot of us looks at this in wonder and amazement. Surely some of us were adept at creating rudimentary tunnels in the sand, the dirt, or when it snowed that were modern marvels to us since it proved that there was nowhere we couldn’t go. The practical reason behind these tunnels is interesting enough, but hearing that people used to find other ways to amuse themselves in the tunnels isn’t hard to imagine. Hearing that they would use actual animation cells to slide down the tunnel is enough to give a lot of collectors an anxiety attack, but one has to realize that at the time they were doing this, those that were enjoying themselves weren’t thinking that the cells were all that valuable, since in this day and age the value placed on such materials has more to do with the history of said materials than anything.
Tunnels aren’t a new thing when it comes to Disney since the theme parks have underground tunnel systems as well that allow the employees to move about without having to muscle their way through the crowds. That doesn’t feel like it would be such a big deal around the animation studio, but it does still offer a nice, quick way to move about without having to worry about the weather now and then. It’s interesting to wonder just how much traffic these tunnels see on an average basis since it’s likely that they could become quite crowded if everyone decided to take this route between the buildings. It might even be discouraged by those in charge to use the tunnels for any extraneous reason for that purpose among others. During the pandemic, it also feels that the use of the tunnels might actually be a little bit restricted since the idea of social distancing is something that many people are taking quite seriously, at least when it comes to certain businesses and those that are concerned for the safety of their employees.
The steepness of the tunnel is kind of interesting since one might think that Disney might have thought to create a shallower grade to avoid giving their people the need to struggle up and down the ramps with the kind of loads that they were no doubt carting from building to building, but then one has to think that if the ramps were easier to traverse that it would have required a lot more space than the already substantial length that the tunnels travel. Considering that they go from building to building it feels that the costs of construction and even the costs of keeping them up and functional would be enough as they are, and anything bigger would be an added cost. But maybe that’s not much of a concern since the structural integrity of the tunnels appears to be just fine and the cleanliness of the hallways does feel as though it would be a priority and wouldn’t cost that much. In any case, the tunnels are probably seen as commonplace by the people that work at the studio, but they’re still enough to give the little kid in a lot of people a jolt since one can only imagine what it would be like to go sliding down the ramps.
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