Secrets of Disney Imagineering

Disney has named one of its most secretive places ‘The Candy Store.’

That’s reason enough for you to want to visit there, right?

Alas, it’s one of the few places at Disney where you won’t find tasty treats.

Instead, that’s the codename for the interior of Walt Disney Imagineering, the place where the magic happens.

Lately, Disney has returned to its roots by providing fans with a glimpse of what’s happening at Imagineering.

Park officials have taken inspiration from Walt Disney himself, who famously showed early Audio-Animatronics for classic Disney attractions.

Back in the day, Disney built a buzz for future experiences like Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress and Pirates of the Caribbean.

Now, history is repeating itself with Disney revealing some of what it’s creating.

Here are a few recently learned secrets of Imagineering.  

Gymnastic Droids

Many of Disney’s most dramatic advances have occurred in the field of robotics, which makes sense.

While most of the world forgot about robotics for decades, the field has been Disney’s bread and butter since the 1950s.

During the 21^st century, robotics has come back into vogue as a growth field thanks to metal and computational improvements.

Since Disney never stopped working with Audio-Animatronics, it holds a staggering competitive advantage over many companies.

A few years ago, Disney flexed its creative muscle with the creation of the flying Spider-Man at Disney California Adventure.

That’s a remarkable creation that comes with a secret. It has a failure rate and sometimes doesn’t hit its mark.

For this reason, Disney added collapsible walls at the landing spot just in case of a missed jump.

These are the considerations Imagineers must make with their designs, but the restraints often lead to creativity.

During a recent media tour of The Candy Store, critics were in awe of Duke Weaselton.

Obsessive fans had already seen him once before during a Josh D’Amaro presentation, though. Here’s the clip:

The Zootopia character wheels a cart on stage and then rides up to stand on the middle of said cart.

Disney’s new YouTube series, We Call It Imagineering, has shown what’s involved in creating a character like this.

The existence of this series underscores Disney’s evolving philosophy on Imagineering.

Rather than keep everything secret, as has been the case for many years now, Imagineering has suddenly thrown open its doors.

Now, everyone is invited in to watch the creation of upcoming theme park integrations like this gymnastic droid.

The HoloTile

The showstopper of Disney Imagineering right now is unquestionably the HoloTile, which I recently highlighted in Disney Headlines.

Thus far, Disney has only allowed a few people to stand on this remarkable piece of technology, and only one outsider has gotten to record the event.

You can understand why Disney is protective of this particular invention, as it’s groundbreaking.

Seriously, if I could buy stock in this patent, I would because its practical application potential is off the charts.

Influencer Marques Brownlee, the person who got to record the HoloTile, shows off some of its unexpected elements.

The primary application is that no matter where you walk, the ground naturally returns you to the center of the floor.So, we’re talking about a 360-degree treadmill on which, no matter where you go, you always wind up in the middle again.

It blows my mind that you can place objects on the HoloTile.

Then, thanks to technology, you can motion with your hand and thereby force the movement of the object on the HoloTile.

To his credit, Brownlee immediately recognized the potential of this ability for Star Wars fans:

Yes, folks, Disney has created a real-world iteration of The Force!

Lanny Smoot, the Imagineer who created the tech, has detailed some of its other applications.

The most intriguing one is that you can position a chair on the HoloTile.

By doing so, you can move a seat wherever it’s needed for an immersive Disney attraction.

Moments later, the chair will return to the center of the HoloTile.

For movie fans, that’s a mind-blowing innovation. Currently, it’s the pictures onscreen that move.

With this application, the viewer can also move, which exponentially adds to the interactive storytelling possibilities.

Lifelike Droids

We’ve discussed the Judy Hopps droid before. I listed it as one of Disney’s Best Innovations of 2023.

As a reminder, here’s what Disney did:

I was fortunate enough to speak with a couple of former Disney Imagineers, Ryan Harmon and Joe Lanzisero, about this tech.

During that enlightening conversation, one of them speculated that Judy Hopps asked for upsies out of necessity.

He thought that the Imagineers may need to recharge Hopps via a device hidden on one’s neck.

Later, we learned this wasn’t the case. Instead, Disney didn’t want to ruin the illusion by picking her up and taking her offstage.

By doing the upsie motion, the Imagineer had an excuse to grab her. He was then a loving parental figure having a family moment.

The remarkable part is that this bit of pragmatism provided an epiphany at Imagineering.

In recent interviews at The Candy Store, Disney workers have expressed awe over the reception to that one barely planned moment.

Since then, Imagineers have brainstormed ways to turn their technologically advanced droids into more relatable characters.

Disney was already the gold standard at that, but it’s now top-of-mind for these genius Imagineers.

When that video went viral, it sparked the imaginations of the most creative people on the planet.

Long term, we’ll all benefit from that.

Realistic Audio-Animatronics

The first episode of the YouTube series, We Call It Imagineering, details Disney’s staggering advances in the field of Audio-Animatronics.

I’d strongly encourage Disney fans to watch the full video, which confirms what guests at The Candy Store have been saying.

Audio-Animatronics (AAs) have improved exponentially in recent years, which shouldn’t surprise anyone.

Remember that Na’vi River Journey is seven years old now. When Disney first revealed the Shaman of Song, people were blown away.

Now, Imagineers have had that much time to improve on what was already a groundbreaking AA.

The end result will be on display when Tiana’s Bayou Adventure debuts and it’s the part that has me most excited.

MickeyBlog has breathlessly covered all the thrilling changes happening on the attraction’s Magic Kingdom campus.

The one thing we can’t see from the outside is what will happen on the ride itself.

Thanks to all these sneak peeks inside The Candy Store, we’ve gotten a long look at some of these AAs.

Folks, they’re spectacular! As proof, take a look at Tiana:

And here’s Lewis:

When he opens his mouth, you might expect to see teeth, but there are countless electronics and other moving parts as well.

And I haven’t mentioned the masterstroke yet. Here’s Jenifer Lewis, the voice actress for Mama Odie, seeing the AA for the first time:

Her reaction is all of ours. Mama Odie may be the most realistic AA ever created.

The Candy Story is churning out stunning triumphs like this at a shocking rate, and I can’t wait to see what comes next!

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