Walt Disney wasn’t shy about even his most ambitious plans. In October 1954, while Disneyland was still under construction, the “Disneyland” television series debuted on ABC. Each episode gave viewers up-to-date progress reports on Walt’s groundbreaking theme park in Southern California. When Disneyland opened nine months later, on July 17, 1955, Walt’s promotional tactic proved successful. Throngs of excited visitors descended upon the park on opening day (about twice as many as the park was prepared for). The rest, as they say, is history.
Today, The Walt Disney Company is a multi-billion dollar entertainment juggernaut – but the Disney of today doesn’t often pull back the curtain in the way Walt did all those years ago. The company has traditionally held back details on new projects until they were perfectly polished and fully fleshed out … until now.
Related: Disney’s $60 billion theme park investment will bring change ‘all over,’ says CEO Bob Iger
Disney recently invited a small group of reporters, including myself, to Walt Disney Imagineering headquarters in Glendale, California, sharing new technology, new projects and what they really plan to do with that $60 billion that they’ve earmarked to “accelerate and expand investment” in its theme parks, cruise line and other vacation experiences over the next 10 years.
My peek behind the curtain revealed that Disney’s future is bright, and they are poised to continue Walt’s legacy of curiosity, innovation and making dreams become reality.
Here’s what I discovered.
Rooted in the past, looking toward the future
Storytelling has been at the forefront of everything Disney does since the beginning. While that storytelling once took place primarily on the screen, it now encompasses theme parks, cruise ships, hotels and screens big and small.
Disney CEO Bob Iger and Chairman of Disney Experiences Josh D’Amaro addressed our group during our visit. Josh shared that everything Disney does is designed to evoke emotions like happiness, togetherness and assurance, whether the joy that comes from spinning round and round on the Mad Tea Party tea cups or the sense of camaraderie we feel toward family and friends after defeating the First Order on Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
Similarly, in his remarks the following day, on April 3, during the company’s annual shareholders meeting, Disney CEO Bon Iger said that Walt “understood the power storytelling has to connect us all to one another.”
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Even with the advances in technology and innovation, Disney has not lost sight of this tenant. Emerging technologies demonstrate what Disney is capable of, but, more importantly, they prove Disney’s commitment to bringing fan-favorite stories to life in new and exciting ways.
‘Beyond Big Thunder’
During Disney’s 2022 D23 Expo in Anaheim, California, D’Amaro, along with Chris Beatty, senior creative executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, and Jennifer Lee, chief creative officer of Disney Animation, shared several “blue sky” ideas for the Disney parks.
The trio showed concept art that revealed Disney was exploring what could lie “beyond Big Thunder Mountain” at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom park, discussing lands based on “Coco,” “Encanto” and Disney villains.
Revealing these blue sky concepts was a new approach for Disney; one that left fans both excited and confused. Blue sky ideas are those that come early in the creative process, but D’Amaro was clear that these ideas were not just daydreams.
During our time with D’Amaro at Walt Disney Imagineering, he reiterated that whatever does lie beyond Big Thunder Mountain “is real and it is happening,” though fans will have to wait until this year’s D23 Expo to learn how closely it will resemble the concept art and ideas that Disney has already shared. Research trips and conceptual designs are happening now as Disney dreams up ways to fill this space that is about the size of Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
During the same D23 presentation in 2022, D’Amaro and the team presented additional blue sky concepts for Disney World’s Animal Kingdom park, presenting concept art for concepts based on “Moana” and “Zootopia” for the park’s DinoLand USA area.
Disney proved just how much these concepts can change as a project progresses during 2023’s Destination D23 event held at Walt Disney World. The iteration of Dinoland’s “reimagination” that Disney displayed during the fan event had morphed into an all-new land inspired by the “tropical Americas,” (the northern part of South America, stretching up into Central America, according to Disney).
More specifically, Disney mentioned that experiences based on “Encanto” and “Indiana Jones” were being considered. During my visit to the Walt Disney Imagineering campus, D’Amaro reiterated that work is well underway for this project. He further explained that Disney is conducting intensive research, including research trips to Mexico, to gather the facts and inspiration necessary to truly transport guests into the story.
D’Amaro also promised more details on this project would come at this year’s D23 Expo.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
We also had the opportunity to see many of the audio animatronic figures that will soon take up residence on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure attraction, opening this year at Disney World and Disneyland.
Related: First look: Disney’s Splash Mountain to get ‘The Princess and the Frog’ makeover
The amount of testing and technology that goes into making these audio animatronics feel so real is just as much an art as a science. Ted Robledo, an executive creative director with Walt Disney Imagineering, told our group that Tiana, Naveen, Mama Odie and all the critters and creatures that guests will encounter on the attraction were designed to “connect with the rider.”
We saw firsthand the technical aspects necessary to make guests a part of the story, from the 18-hour-a-day testing to ensure the animatronic figures can withstand the task of entertaining thousands of guests each day to placing a Tiana animatronic atop scaffolding so Imagineers can experience the vantage point riders will see as they ascend the attraction’s five-story drop.
It is at this intersection of art and technology that Disney is able to draw guests into the environment, essentially making them a character in the story. No matter how advanced animatronics become, storytelling is still Disney’s guiding light.
Avatar at Disneyland
Disney’s expansion plans aren’t solely focused on Disney World. At Disneyland, Disney is investing in the success of 2022’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” – the fourth-highest-grossing film in history, earning more than $2.3 billion worldwide – with plans for an Avatar-themed land.
This plan was first announced during Disney’s Feb. 8, 2023, first-quarter earnings call, with Iger saying, “I’m thrilled to announce that we will be bringing an exciting Avatar experience to Disneyland,” after commenting on the success of the film franchise and Pandora – The World of Avatar land at Disney World’s Animal Kingdom park.
A year later, during remarks made following Disney’s annual shareholders meeting, Iger elaborated on the company’s plans to bring an Avatar experience to Disneyland.
“We’re thrilled about many potential new stories that our guests could experience at Walt’s original theme park, including the opportunity to embark on all-new Avatar adventures with a visit to the world of Pandora,” Iger said. “Our Imagineers have been hard at work dreaming up what guests might expect.”
Disney also released “inspirational artwork” (pictured above) and a blog post, further detailing what guests could soon see at the park.
Research and Development at Walt Disney Imagineering
During our tour, Disney pulled the curtain all the way back, showing off ideas still in the research and development stage. Some projects start with a story based on Disney films or characters, but it is this early-stage R&D that drives how they can bring those stories to life.
R&D allows Disney to prototype new ideas, moving them from the brainstorming stage to the building stage so they can determine how it can work in the parks, both from an engineering and a guest experience standpoint.
The first project we saw demonstrated was the HoloTile floor, an invention of Imagineer and inventor Lanny Smoot. To date, Smoot has amassed over 100 patents, 74 of which were created during his time with Disney. He is also the first Disney Imagineer inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Smoot’s HoloTile floor is the world’s first multi-person, omnidirectional, modular, expandable treadmill floor. That’s a lot of adjectives for a floor, but the HoloTile floor is no ordinary floor. Smoot and his team not only walked on the floor without ever running into each other or walking off the surface, but they also showed us how the floor could be used to make “Disney magic.”
Smoot sat on a chair on the HoloTile floor while another Imagineer moved the chair with the power of his mind. Turns out, it was actually sensors picking up the motion of his hands, but it was no less impressive.
The floor has myriad applications for theme park guests and Imagineers. Imagineers can use it to virtually “walk” through the parks while developing new lands and attractions. On the other hand, guests could see it used in stage shows, rides, interactive experiences and more.
We also met a trio of adorable BDX Droids who first appeared in Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland last year for “playtesting.” The droids are controlled by puppeteers using remote controls, but they are nothing like any remote control toy you have at home.
These droids were trained using computer-based reinforcement learning to create realistic motions that make them durable enough to roam the parks while interacting with guests. In fact, Imagineers ran 4,000 simulations on a single computer to train the droids on various movements.
The droids were so well-received during last year’s test period that they will return to Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland during the Season of the Force celebration from April 5 – June 2, 2024. The BDX Droids will make daily appearances at various locations throughout the land.
Innovations like these allow Disney to connect with guests in entirely new ways, bringing guests deeper into their favorite stories and closer to beloved characters.
‘To infinity and beyond…’
During our visit, both Iger and D’Amaro stressed what a bright and exciting time this is for Walt Disney Imagineering and the Disney company as a whole. D’Amaro said Disney has the “property and the properties” to bring stories new and old to life in updated and exciting ways.
In fact, Disney has more than 1,000 acres of land – about the size of seven Disneyland parks – for possible future development to expand capacity across its existing global theme parks. And, of the $60 billion Disney has earmarked for its parks and experiences over the next 10 years, 70% – or around $42 billion – has been earmarked for “incremental capacity-expanding investments around the globe,” according to Disney’s Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston.
“With such a deep well of untapped IP and buildable land, there are so many experiences that have yet to be brought to our parks around the world, Iger said in his recent remark to shareholders, “and we plan to turbocharge growth in this sector with a robust amount of strategic investment,” he said.
While it’s clear that some of Disney’s plans for that investment and acreage are already well underway, Iger also stressed that they have yet to allocate all of the money because there is no telling what the next ten years will bring. If Disney has another mega-hit like “Frozen,” Iger wants to “leave room in the budget” to bring the next big story to life at its theme parks.
Whether your favorite stories are already being told in Disney’s theme parks or you are holding tight for what’s to come, rest assured Disney is hard at work making the impossible possible.
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