Disney Animated Game: Rules and Instructions for How to Play

For my thoughts on the game, check out our review of Disney Animated Game.

Objective of Disney Animated Game

The objective of the Disney Animated Game is for the players to work together to complete all of their films before the deadline is reached.

Setup for Disney Animated Game

Each player chooses a film and takes the corresponding components:
- Background Board
- 9 Background Tiles
- Wood Token(s)
- Villain Tile
- Action Board
- 5 Calamity Cards
- 3 Character Cel Cards
The components for films not taken by a player are returned to the box.

Player Setup for Disney Animated Game

Each player places their Background board face up in front of themselves.
Place the background tiles to the left of your Background board with the image side face up.
Take your three Character Cel cards and place them below their corresponding power section of the Background board.
Next place your Action board to the right of your Background board so the side with the actions is face up. Place the wood token(s) below the Action board.
Each player takes a Magic token and places it above their Action board.
Look at the release date for each movie chosen by a player. The player whose movie was released earliest takes the First Player token.

Studio Setup

Place the Studio board in the middle of the table.
The remaining Magic tokens will be placed near the Studio board to create a supply.
Shuffle the Animation cards. Place the shuffled cards face down on the corresponding place on the Studio board.
Each player draws three cards from the Animation deck and adds them to their hand. You can look at your own cards. As the game is cooperative, you can tell the other players what cards you have, or you could play with your hand face up on the table.
Randomize the Paint tokens and place them on spaces in the Ink and Paint section on the Studio board.
Gather the Villain Tiles corresponding to the movies that the players chose. Arrange them by release date with the earliest film at the top. You will place the tiles with the Calamity side face up in the corresponding space on the Studio board.
Place the Deadline token on the Start space of the Deadline track.
Randomize the Action tiles and place one face up on each Action space at the bottom of the Studio board.
Gather all of the Calamity cards from the movies the players chose. Shuffle them together and place the deck face down above the Studio board.
Depending on the number of players and how difficult you want the game to be, you will flip over a number of Calamity cards and place them face up on the table. See the chart below for how many cards to flip over. Place the corresponding Reminder card next to the Calamity deck to remember how many Calamity cards to flip over each round.

Difficulty	2 Players	3 Players	4 Players
Novice	1 Calamity Card	3 Calamity Cards	4 Calamity Cards
Standard	2 Calamity Cards	4 Calamity Cards	6 Calamity Cards
Expert	3 Calamity Cards	6 Calamity Cards	8 Calamity Cards

Studio Board Setup in Disney Animated Game

Playing Disney Animated Game

The Disney Animated Game is played over a number of rounds. Each round consists of two phases.

Player Phase
Villain Phase

Player Phase in Disney Animated Game

Starting with the player who has the First Player token and moving clockwise, all of the players will take a turn.

Each player’s turn consists of the following four steps:

Select an Action tile.
Perform the action corresponding to the tile you chose.
Slide all of the Action tiles.
Place or use Characters and remove Calamity.

Select An Action Tile

Along the bottom of the Studio board is the Action tile section. Each Action tile has an associated number to the right of the tile. This is the value of the action. The higher the number, the more powerful the action will be.

Choose an Action Tile — To start the current player’s turn, they must choose one of these five Action tiles.

The longer the players wait to use an Action tile, the more powerful it becomes. The Action tile you choose will be reset to one once you take the action. Players can discuss what should be done before the player chooses a tile.

When you have chosen which Action tile you would like to take, slide it off the board.

Choose An Action Tile in Disney Animated Game — The current player has decided to take the Background Action tile. It’s value is five.

Performing Your Chosen Action in Disney Animated Game

Once you have chosen your Action tile, you will take the corresponding action. See the sections below for details on what each action does.

Instead of taking the action you chose, you can forfeit it and draw one Magic token.

Animation

When you choose the Animation action you will draw cards from the Animation deck. The number of cards that you will draw depends on the power of the action when you chose it.

1-2 power – Draw one Animation card
3-4 power – Draw two Animation cards
5 power – Draw three Animation cards

Drawing Animation cards after taking the Animation action in Disney Animated Game. — The current player choose the Animation action when it was at value five. They drew three cards and added them to their hand.

You will add the Animation cards you draw to your hand. You can look at these cards at any time. The Animation cards will be used to power Character abilities and remove Calamity cards.

If the draw pile should ever run out of cards, you will shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile.

Background

This action allows you to place Background tiles onto your Background board. The number of tiles that you will get to place depends on the power of the action when you take the Action tile.

Each tile’s value is equal to the number of squares that it covers up on the Background board. The value is also shown on the back of each tile.

Using the Background action in Disney Animated Game — This player chose the Background action when it was in the five position. They choose to add these three tiles to their background. The tile on the left and right both cost two, while the tile in the middle costs one.

You can place the tiles in any order on your Background board. Each tile must be placed in its proper location though. The goal is to complete each of the three sections of the Background board. This allows you to place the Character Cel cards on their corresponding locations.

Placing Background tiles in Disney Animated Game — This player has placed into their Background board the three tiles they chose above.

Special Background Icons

Should you place Background tile on a space where it covers a Magic symbol, you will choose a player to take a Magic token. You can choose yourself or another player.

This player is about to place a Background tile that covers up a Magic icon. They will choose a player who gets to take a Magic token.

When you place a Background tile that covers up an Animation, Ink & Paint or Sound Action symbol, you will choose a player to immediately take the corresponding action. You can choose yourself or any other player. The power of the action will be equal to the action’s current value on the Action Tile track. You will not move the Action tile corresponding to the action you or another player takes.

This player is about to play a Background tile that will cover up a Sound icon. They will choose a player who will take the Sound action at its current value.

Ink & Paint

For the Ink & Paint action you will get to take Paint tokens from the Studio board. Each row in the paint section has an associated number which is the cost to acquire that paint.

Choosing A Paint token in Disney Animated Game — This player has chosen to take the Ink & Paint Action tile. It was at a value of five.

You may choose Paint tokens up to the value of the Action token when you took it.

Paint tokens are used to place your Character Cel cards and to deal with Calamity cards.

After you have chosen all of your paints, slide down any remaining tokens if the space below it is empty.

Moving Paint Tokens — After the player took Paint tokens, three spaces are now empty.

Sound

With the Sound Action you will get to use your wooden token(s). What you can do with the token(s) is outlined on each players’ Action board. See the sections below for details on what you will do for the Sound Action for each of the movies.

You can use your tokens in a way up to the value of the Sound token when you took it. When placing tokens you can give them to yourself or to the other players. When you are given a token you should place it above your Background board to indicate that it was given to you.

Should a token be returned, you will place it below your Background board.

101 Dalmatians

When you activate the Sound action you can take a number of black, white, or wild Paint tokens up to the value of the Sound action when you selected it. For each Paint token you took, you can give a Kanine Krunchies token to any player.

Throughout the game players may return Kanine Krunchies tokens to the 101 Dalmatians player to use them as either a wild Paint token or a Magic token.

You can use Kanine Krunchies to remove Calamity cards or deal with Calamity Effects. You do not have to discard them for Jafar’s Calamity Effect though, unless you want to.

Aladdin

Choose a player who will take a Magic token from the supply. You will then put the Genie token on the space above the value that you took the action.

When a player takes the Action tile that the Genie token is above, they can choose to return the Genie token to the Aladdin player. If they choose to do so, they and the Aladdin player will each get to take one of the following actions: a three value Animation action, a two value Background action, or a two value Paint action.

Alice in Wonderland

Draw two Animation cards and add them to your hand. You should then place the Cheshire Cat token above the value that you took the Sound action at.

Later when a player takes the Action tile on the value that the Cheshire Cat was placed on, they can choose to return the Cheshire Cat token to the Alice in Wonderland player. When they return the Cheshire Cat, you may choose another player to take the same action at the same value as the current player.

Fantasia

You will get to place a number of Music tokens on Action tiles equal to the value of the Sound action when you take it. You can place the Music tokens on any Action tile that doesn’t already have one.

When a player takes an action that has a Music token on it, they can choose to return it to the Fantasia player. If they return the token, the Action tile remains in its current position and none of the tiles slide.

You can place a Music token on the action you just took and return it immediately to keep the tile in its current position.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Depending on the value of the Sound action when you take it, take the corresponding number of Dwarfs from your supply. You can give the tokens to any number of players.

Whenever a player that has a Dwarf token takes an action, they can return one or more of the Seven Dwarfs in front of them. For each they return, they will increase the value of the action they are performing by one. You can increase the value above five for every action except for the Animation action.

Magic

In order to take the Magic Action you must discard one of your Magic tokens. When you choose to take this action, choose any of the other actions listed above. You will take the action at the value of the Magic Action tile.

Slide Action Tiles

After you have taken the action(s) corresponding to your choice, you will slide the Action tiles remaining on the Studio board one space to the right. You will then place the Action tile you selected on the one space.

Sliding Action tiles in Disney Animated Game — This turn the current player chose the Background Action tile.

Slide Action tiles in Disney Animated Game — The four Action tiles not chosen this turn are slid one space to the right. The Background Action tile is placed on the one space.

Place or Use Characters & Remove Calamity

In this step you can play cards and tokens in order to place/use a character(s) and remove Calamity cards. You can take these actions in any order. You may place/use multiple characters (can’t use the same one twice), or remove multiple Calamity cards.

If you need a specific Animation card that you don’t have, you can discard three matching Animation cards to count as any other Animation card. Wild Paint tokens count as any color.

Whenever you discard a token, you will return it to the corresponding section of the board or supply pile. When you return Paint tokens you will fill in empty spaces in the corresponding section of the Studio board. You will start by filling in the lowest rows. If there are multiple empty spaces in the same row, you can choose which space you want to place the token on.

Return a Paint token — A player used the green Paint token on the left. They will place it on one of the two empty spaces in the third row.

At the end of your turn you can also choose to discard any tokens that you want.

If you don’t have the required resources or don’t want to use them, you can skip this step entirely.

Placing Characters

After you fill in one (or more) of the three sections of your Background board, you have the opportunity to place a character in that section of the board. You may only place a character in their corresponding section once you have placed all of the Background tiles for that section of the board.

Along the bottom of each section is two paint colors. In order to add the character to your board, you must discard the corresponding Paint tokens. Once you discard the tokens, you will place the corresponding Character Cel card on your Background board.

Placing a Character Cel card in Disney Animated Game — The player has successfully filled in all of the spaces on the left section of their Background board. They can then use a red and blue Paint token in order to place The Prince Character Cel card on their board. This player will take the corresponding action immediately.

Once you place a character on your board, you can immediately take their action for free. You also unlock the opportunity to use their ability for the rest of the game.

Using the Character Powers

After you place a character on your board, you can use their associated power for the rest of the game. To use their power you either need to discard a Magic token or an Animation card that matches the symbol displayed next to the power.

Using a Character Ability in Disney Animated Game — This player wants to use The Prince’s ability. They will have to discard an Inspiration card to use the ability.

You can only use each character power once per turn. The free action you get when placing the character counts as the one time you can use the action that turn.

101 Dalmatians

Anita

When you take the action you will choose another player. You and the player you chose each draw an Animation card or take a Paint token worth one.

Pongo and Perdita

Count up the number of black and white Paint tokens on the Studio board. You will reveal the corresponding number of cards from the Animation deck. Choose one of the cards to keep, and discard the rest.

Roger

Choose a player to give a Kanine Krunchies token to.

Aladdin

Abu and Magic Carpet

When you use this character ability, choose two Action tiles and swap their positions.

Aladdin

Choose a player. The chosen player chooses any one Animation card from the discard pile.

The chosen player could choose to pick up the card you just discarded.

Jasmine

Choose another player. You and the chosen player both draw two Animation cards. Both players then have to discard one card from their hand.

Alice in Wonderland

Alice

Draw three Animation cards.

Mad Hatter

All of the players decide individually if they would like to discard their hand of Animation cards. If they choose to discard their hand, they will draw the same number of Animation cards from the deck.

March Hare

When you use this character ability, you can choose any other placed character. If you pay the associated Animation card or a Magic token, you can use their ability.

Fantasia

Magic Broom 1

Each player chooses if they want to discard a Magic token in order to draw two Animation cards.

Magic Broom 2

Place one of your Music tokens on the Magic Action tile unless it already has one. You will then swap the Magic Action tile with whatever Action tile is in the five value spot.

Sorcerer Mickey

Each player chooses if they want to discard an Animation card in exchange for a Magic token.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Forest Friends

Choose a player. That player can do any of the actions at the value of one.

The Prince

Remove one Calamity card. You cannot use this ability to remove a “Cannot Remove” Calamity card.

Snow White

Choose a player. You and the chosen player both take one of the Seven Dwarfs tokens.

Removing Calamity Cards

Before the Villain Phase begins you want to try and weaken them so their powers affect you less. To do this you want to try and remove Calamity cards. Once you remove a Calamity card, you will add it to a face up discard pile.

Calamity cards fit into four different categories.

The first type of Calamity cards are defeated by discarding Paint tokens. Discard the Paint token shown on the card to discard the Calamity Card.

Remove a Calamity card — To remove this Calamity card one of the players has to use a green Paint token

The second type of Calamity cards are defeated by discarding the corresponding type of Animation card.

Removing a Calamity card in Disney Animated Game — To remove this Calamity card you need to play an Inspiration Animation card.

The third type of Calamity card is removed based on the value of the Action tile that you took. If you took an action with the value displayed on the Calamity card, you will discard the corresponding Calamity card immediately.

The fourth type of Calamity card cannot be removed.

Cannot Remove Calamity card — This Calamity card cannot be removed in any way.

Each Calamity card is removed independently. You must discard a card/token or take an action for each Calamity card you want to remove. For example if there are two Calamity cards that show the same Animation card, you need to discard two of that type of card to get rid of both of them. Discarding only one of the card, gets rid of only one of them.

Villain Phase in Disney Animated Game

After each player has had a chance to take their turn, the villains get to take their turn.

You will look at the Villain tile on top of the stack on the Studio board. The tile outlines what actions that the villain will take to try and stall your progress towards completing your films.

First you will advance the Deadline token up one space on the track.

Moving the Deadline token — The Deadline token has been moved up one space on the track at the start of the Villain Phase.

Next each player checks the number of cards in their hand. If a player has more than seven cards, they must discard cards until they only have seven left.

Calamity Effects

Next you will look at how many Calamity cards you were unable to remove. For each card you were unable to remove, you will take the Villain’s Calamity Effect one time. If you removed all of the Calamity cards, the Villain will not perform their Calamity Effect. If the Calamity Effect says to “collectively” discard cards/tokens, the players decide how they want to split up the total number of cards/tokens that need to be discarded.

Each time you complete the Villain’s Calamity Effect, discard one of the face up Calamity cards.

Should you be unable to complete the Calamity Effect for any reason, you will instead move the Deadline token up one space for each time you were unable to perform the Calamity Effect. You must perform the Calamity Effect if you are able to. You can’t choose to raise the Deadline token instead.

After all of the Calamity cards have been dealt with, you will move the Villain tile to the bottom of the stack. This reveals a new Villain for the next round. If there is only one Villain tile remaining, you will face the same Villain in the next round.

Finally you will turn over new Calamity cards for the next round depending on the Reminder card you placed on the table. If the draw deck should run out of cards, shuffle the discard pile to form a new draw pile.

Next Villain Card in Disney Animated Game — The next Villain tile and new Calamity cards were revealed in order to prepare for the next round.

The next round now begins.

Chernabog

You will have to discard a combination of three Music tokens from Action tiles and/or three cards from the Animation deck. You can choose the distribution between the Music tokens and cards.

Should any of the discarded cards match, you will move the Deadline marker forward one space.

Cruella De Vil

For each Calamity card that the players were unable to get rid of, the players have to collectively discard either two Paint tokens or one Kanine Krunchies token. If you choose to discard the two Paint tokens, one player can discard both, or two players can both discard one Paint token.

Jafar

Choose one player to discard a Magic token. If no one can discard a Magic token, move the Deadline token forward one space.

The Queen

The players will collectively decide who will discard two random Animation cards from their hand(s). If the two cards match, you will move the Deadline token forward one space.

The Queen of Hearts

Discard one card from the Animation deck. If it is a Heart card, move the Deadline token forward one space.

Completing Your Film in Disney Animated Game

For each player to complete their film they need to complete their background, place all three characters, and finally place the villain.

Once you have completed the background and placed all three Character Cel cards, you will flip your Action board to the Villain side.

Finished Background and Character Cel Cards — This player has successfully completed the background and has placed all three Character Cel cards. They can now move onto trying to place the villain into their film.

To place the Villain into your film, you must meet the conditions printed on the Villain side of your Action board. You then have to discard Animation cards and Paint tokens corresponding to what is printed on the board. You can do this at any time during the last step of your turn. See the sections below for details on how to place each Villain into their film.

When you complete all of these requirements, you will take your Villain tile from the Studio board and add it to your Action board face down. You have completed your film. At this point you will keep taking turns. You should use your turns to help the other players complete their films and deal with Calamity cards.

Placing a Villain into a film — This player has successfully placed The Queen into their film. They have completed their film. They should now help the other players complete their films.

Chernabog

Before you can place Chernabog into Fantasia, a Music token must be on all five Action tiles.

You then will need to discard one blue Paint token, one purple Paint token, one Teamwork Animation card, and one Inspiration Animation card.

Cruella De Vil

Before you can place Cruella De Vil into 101 Dalmatians, each player has to have at least one Kanine Krunchies token in front of them.

The player then needs to discard one black Paint token, one white Paint token, one Inspiration Animation card, and one Focus Animation card.

Jafar

Before you can place Jafar into Aladdin, the Genie token must be above the five space on the Action tile track.

You then must discard one red Paint token, one black Paint token, one Heart Animation card, and one Grit Animation card.

The Queen

Before you can place The Queen into Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, all of the Dwarf tokens must be in front of players (you don’t have any available to give out).

You then must discard one green Paint token, one purple Paint token, one Grit Animation card, and one Focus Animation card.

Placing Queen of Hearts into Alice in Wonderland

The Queen of Hearts

Before you can place The Queen of Hearts into Alice in Wonderland, you need to have at least ten Animation cards in your hand.

You then must discard one red Paint token, one yellow Paint token, one Heart Animation card, and one Teamwork Animation card.

Disney Animated Game End Game

The Disney Animated Game can end in two ways.

Should the Deadline token reach the thirteenth space, you will complete the Villain Phase. Then each player gets to take one last turn.

If all of the players successfully complete their films, all of the players win the game. The players can complete their films before the Deadline token reaches the thirteenth space.

Losing Disney Animated Game — The Deadline token has reached the top of the track. If the players are unable to complete their films on their next turn, they will lose the game.

If one or more players fail to complete their film, all of the players lose the Disney Animated Game.

Disney Animated Game

Year: 2023 | Publisher: Funko Games | Designer: Prospero Hall

Genres: Cooperative, Family

Ages: 10+ | Number of Players: 2-4 | Length of Game: 20 minutes per player

Difficulty: Light-Moderate | Strategy: Moderate | Luck: Light

Components: Studio Board, Deadline Token, First Player Token, 5 Action Tiles, 40 Animation Cards, 5 Background Boards, 45 Background Tiles, 5 Action Boards, 5 Villain Tiles, 25 Calamity Cards, 3 Reminder Cards, 15 Character Cel Cards, 4 Reference Cards, 16 Paint Tokens, 12 Magic Tokens, 7 Seven Dwarfs Tokens, Genie Token, Cheshire Cat Token, 5 Music Tokens, 6 Kanine Krunchies Tokens, Instructions

Where to Purchase: Amazon Any purchases made through these links (including other products) help keep Geeky Hobbies running. Thank you for your support.

For more board and card game how to plays/rules and reviews, check out our complete alphabetical list of board game posts.

We would like to thank Funko Games for the review copy of Disney Animated used for this how to play guide. Other than receiving the review copy we at Geeky Hobbies received no other compensation.