She’s a scream. Within that recent Jollywood Nights merchandise drop, I noticed an underrated icon of Disney’s Hollywood Studios “peeking” in the background…
Who is she, exactly?
Gertie can be found along Echo Lake in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, just outside 50’s Prime Time Cafe. She’s officially known here as Dinosaur Gertie’s Ice Cream of Extinction, offering Mickey ice cream treats and soft-serve. So, what does this seemingly-out-of-place ice cream stand disguised as a dinosaur have to do with Disney?
Gertie was built by Imagineers and debuted with their movie magic park in 1989, but her history goes way, way back. Well, maybe not quite prehistoric.
Gertie was one of the first animated characters to gain significant popularity and is often credited with helping establish the foundations of animation. The adorable Apatosaurus character was first introduced in the 1914 silent film Gertie the Dinosaur created by Winsor McCay, an early 20th-century animator and cartoonist. Gertie plays a friendly dinosaur, charmingly interacting with her creator. The film showcased McCay’s innovative use of animation techniques, including key frame animation and character movement.
Supposedly, McCay was inspired by a dinosaur skeleton put on display in 1905 at the American Museum of History in New York. There were no schools or books that taught animation at the time, so McCay invented key frame and cycling animation methods all on his own. According to McCay, he drew roughly 10,000 drawings of characters to make approximately five minutes of animation.
Twenty years after McCay’s passing in 1934, with the help of McCay’s son Robert and Disney Legend Dick Huemer, McCay’s original work was recreated for a 1955 segment of the Disneyland television series “The Story of the Animated Drawing”.
During work on the segment, Walt Disney spoke with Robert McCay, gestured to the nearby Disney Studio and said, “Bob, all this should have been your father’s.”
At the park, Dinosaur Gertie’s Ice Cream of Extinction was built as a tribute to “Gertie the Dinosaur,” one of the first well-known animated cartoon stars. The themed style of the building is known as “California Crazy” architecture. It became popular in the 1930’s and was designed to attract the attention of potential customers in a big way.
Theme park lore, animation history, California architecture, dinosaurs, AND ice cream. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Every holiday season at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Gertie dons a Santa hat and holds an ornament in her mouth among more illuminated ornaments floating on Echo Lake. And speaking of Jollywood Nights, Santa-hat-wearing-Gertie is honored as a sugar cookie available to purchase for party-goers.
Who else thinks we need MORE Gertie? Jollywood Nights 2025 merchandise, maybe?
Theme Park Correspondent for The DIS | Chloé loves kitschy dark rides, roller coasters, a good background area music loop, hot Butterbeer, and all things Halloween. You’ll mostly find her wandering around Orlando’s biggest theme parks snapping pics and sharing tips… or probably talking about The Great Movie Ride.
