The shortened version of the amazing story of how Disney Imagineering came to be and how it affects Disney parks world wide. Giving you a behind the scenes look at Disney Imagineers and the work in the parks.
From Vintage Disney Parks on Tumblr
Disneyl e a kid again. T elieved in and . y, inues to be important to all of us and it constantly evolves and changes with new ideas and imagination. By the 1930s, Walt Disney had already built a successful company and was making some of the most beloved and iconic movies. Then, in the 1940s, he wanted to create a place where families can go to make magical memories and use their imaginations to leave the real world behind and spend quality time together. Through extremely close attention to detail, wanting to be innovative in making new attractions that had never been seen, and a strongly rooted belief that story telling could provide magical and happy memories for families to treasure for years and years. This new dream became a reality on July 17, in 1955, when Disneyland officially opened in Anaheim, California, and families could enjoy some of the most loved rides from their favorite movies and later experience some of the highest technology of the time in years to come. This new park revolutionized theme parks and entertainment as a whole, setting the bar higher than it ever was and continually raising it more than ever thought possible.
Over these past 70 years, from having only one park and a few rides to having six theme parks across the world with thousands of rides and attractions, Disney parks are always evolving changing, growing, enhancing, and adding to guest experiences. This is all thanks to Disney Imagineering and their commitment to giving guests a magical experience that they will treasure forever. Disney Imagineering was first established in 1952, when Walt’ s ideas and dreams for Disneyland were starting to be set in motion. At the time, the company was just starting to make plans and come up with ideas to make Walt’ s dream a reality. They soon realized that they needed many talented people to make it come to life. Walt recruited many (now famous) people to be part of the Imagineers and use their skills to design and unforgettable theme park. Some of these original Disney Legends are,
Xavier Atencio: known for the scripts and lyrics of Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion
Tony Baxter: the former vice president of creative development and seeing through the construction of attractions
Mary Blair: known for drawing the concept art in many Disney films and creating character designs for rides like Small World and the Mexico Pavillion in Epcot.
Harriet Burns: she was the first woman to be hired in the WDI (Walt Disney Imagineering) department
Alice Davis: known for her work in developing costumes for movies and characters in the parks
Marc Davis: One of Disney ’ s nine old men, a famed animator for movies like 101 Dalmatians, and helping to design characters in rides at Disneyland like Jungle Cruise, The Tiki Room, It’ s a Small World, and many more
John Hench: helped design and create many attractions in Tomorrowland in Disneyland and many more in Walt Disney World
The Sherman Brothers: Richard and Robert Sherman worked together for decades to create many iconic songs in Disney films and attractions in the parks
These amazing people are just a few of the remarkable Imagineers who worked alongside these people to make Disneyland a reality that can and will continue to evolve.
The Walt Disney Imagineering mission statement
Getting Innovative
When the Imagineers first started out in 1952, their main focus was to create an amazing and one-of-a-kind theme park for families to enjoy. And along the way, they developed new technology and new ways to do and make what they needed. Even before the Imagineers started their work on Disneyland, they were creating new technology in the Walt Disney Studios. From ways to animate movies, like their multiplane camera that allowed them to animate scenes differently and more efficiently.
Today we have some of the highest tech and the most advanced AudioAnimatronics© out there. To remember the parts needed to repair the animatronics and make more, Disney numbers off the parts and the animatronics as a whole. The first were A-1 s (of course as they were the first made) used in Small World and Pirates. They had very limited movements ad weren ’t quite as fluid as a real person. As more rides were created, the animatronics continued to develop along with the technology of the rides themselves. For the animatronics, Disney now has A-1000s. These new A1000s are used in some of the newest rides like the Na' vi River Journey in Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World, Smuggler’ s run and even in the new Tiana’ s Bayou Adventure attraction. And there are even some new animatronics that can move on their own without needing to be connected to a base of some kind for power, such as the new droids that can move around Galaxy ’ s edge by themselves or the SpiderMan stuntronics at Avengers campus.
Now, they continue to create new technology and develop it to make it more efficient, more realistic, and more amazing and magical for guests. One of the main ways they make and use new technology is with their animatronics and new ride systems. The first animatronics that Disney created were the four birds that host the show in the Enchanted Tiki Room. At the time, in 1963, this technology was essentially the first of its kind as animatronics weren ’t really developed at the time, much less with audio and music synchronized to the movements (this is actually pretty similar to how Disney was the first to make a cartoon with synchronized sound/Steamboat Willie). Later years they created human like Audio-Animatronics© for the Pirates of the Carribean ride in
Imagineer spotlights
Alice Davis
(March 26, 1929 –November 3, 2022)
Alice Davis is one of the most influential and famous Disney Imagineers. She worked alongside many other Disney Legends like those mentioned a few pages ago. She was directly sought out by Walt to help with the Animatronics in Disneyland. She specifically helped with the dolls on It’ s a Small World and Pirates. She talked about her work before and made a remark about the change between the cute dolls to pirates, “I went from sweet little children to dirty old men overnight. ”
Walt had met Alice while having a dinner with her husband and fellow Imagineer, Marc Davis, whom was one of Disney ’ s Nine Old Men, aka nine of the people who Disney had a lot of respect for as his animators on movies like Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty, to name a few. Walt already had a lot of respect for Marc and made him and Imagineer for Disneyland to help create attractions, design the park, etc. At this dinner Walt sat down with the couple and began talking with Alice about the work she did in working with costumes and clothes. He seemed fascinated and intrigued to the point that he later made a remark just before leaving, saying: “You know, you ’ re going to work for me someday. ”
This ended up becoming true as Walt called for Alice to help another Imagineer and Disney Legend, Mary Blair, with designing costumes for Walt’ s newest ride in 1964 (two years after she initially joined WED enterprises, the company before it was officially Disney Imagineering), Small World. Alice helped design and create the intricate, small, and gorgeous costumes for the over 150 dolls on the ride. This was a success and a big part of her career as she later went on to work on another ride in 1965, just after finishing Small World. Now, she was working on making costumes for the next animatronics in the Pirates of the Carribean ride.
Alice Davis will always be part of Disney history. She has made a huge impact on Imagineering, especially through her work on the costumes for the animatronics in Small World and Pirates. She has won many awards that will forever be in history. And her memory will be honored for generations, especially since she is a phenomenal person, and not to mention, a Disney Legend and has her handprints at Walt Disney World and a window on Main Street in Disneyland, alongside her husband’ s.
Joe Rohde Imagineer spotlight
Joe Rohde is a Disney Legend and famous Imagineer. He has worked at Disney for over 40 years and just recently announced that he is retiring after helping to make magical experiences for guests around the World, especially at Walt Disney World.
He is probably best known for his work in Animal Kingdom Park in Florida. He has also helped to create Disney ’ s Aulani resort in Oahu, Hawaii.
Rohde originally joined the Disney company in 1980 as a model designer and scenic painter for EPCOT’ s Mexico pavilion. He then worked as a designer for the refurbishment in Fantasyland at Disneyland, before going to back to Florida work on the Norway pavilion at Epcot. Years later and after designing Aulani in Hawaii, Rohde was tasked with creating the land of Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney ' s Animal Kingdom. The project was finished and opened in May 2017 after years of work. The latest and last project that Rohde worked on was the transformation of Tower of Terror at Disney California Adventure, into Guardians of the Galaxy-Mission: Breakout! which opened simultaneously with the world of Pandora.
Joe Rohde has made a spectacular impact on Disney Imagineering as a hard worker, a creative and talented person, and a great leader. And he will forever be remembered, more so now as he will be officially named a Disney Legend at the 2024 D23 expo in Anaheim, making him part of a remarkable group of people who will always be remembered for the work they did with the Disney Company.
“Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.”
-Walt Disney
