Disney in a Minute: What is the Purple Wall?

We’ll cut to the chase: turns out that the purple wall is – you guessed it – a purple wall! But not just any purple wall. Oh, no! This particular purple wall is located in the Magic Kingdom, along a passageway between the rarely open Tomorrowland Terrace restaurant and Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor. And it has taken on a life of its own.

The exact tipping point of the purple wall’s fame is debatable, but it seems most likely that sometime in 2015 Instagram users discovered that the lilac paint on this passage wall was a flattering backdrop. Pix were posted and more Instagrammers (or is it Instragrammarians?) came, took photos, and posted them. A dedicated account fan popped up, and then copycat fan accounts followed. And it was all up-wall from there.

Even Disney got in on the action big time when, in early 2018 they – wait for it – repainted the wall! They even upgraded it! Solid purple became a multi-hued mural, with geometric shapes of different shades in the purple spectrum. (You can see it in the header picture of this article.) More folks took pics, and Disney cleverly stationed a PhotoPass photographer at the wall. Purple wall merchandise sprang up on maker sites like Etsy. And Disney had its own merch, including jackets, a Loungefly, and more.

In recent years, some of the purple hubbub has died down. And other random walls around Walt Disney World have had their 15 minutes of fame, for instance the bubble gum wall and blue wall in EPCOT. But the purple wall is still one of those if-you-know-you-know Disney World things. And now you know.

Disney in a Minute is a series of short posts designed to help you better understand a Disney term or planning topic. Do you have a Disney term that you think needs a bit more explanation? Let us know in the comments.

Thanks to Erin Foster for an earlier version of this post.