Legendary Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde Announces Return to Imagineering
We just received great news that a legendary Disney creative is returning to Walt Disney Imagineering to assist in training the next generation of artists.
Joe Rohde, the Imagineer responsible for Disney's Animal Kingdom and Disney's Aulani Resort in Hawaii, is a creative powerhouse. His return signals a positive shift in the way that Walt Disney Imagineering is approaching future developments. As Disney ramps up their development of the theme parks, Joe Rohde's return is a positive signal that they are trending in the right direction with the way they are approaching the work.
We have the video below that revealed Joe Rohde's return to Imagineering and an official post from Disney sharing more specifics about his return.
Why Joe Rohde Returning is a Big Deal
Last week, Joe Rohde was named a Disney Legend alongside many other notable recipients who have brought great honor to the company. Here's what we shared about Joe Rohde based on the bio that Disney shared…
“Joe Rohde recently retired in 2021 as a portfolio creative executive with 40 years at Walt Disney Imagineering and was the overall creative executive and supervising designer for Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, including Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain and Pandora – The World of Avatar. Joe's projects include The Adventurers Club (formerly a part of Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World), Aulani, a Disney Resort & Spa, and Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!. Joe was instrumental in creating the Disney Conservation Fund, which has disbursed over $120 million in grants to projects worldwide. He now uses his art to raise funds for international conservation and local community projects, and he received the Disney Conservation Fund’s first Conservation Legacy Award in 2022.”
I have been fortunate to personally spend time with Joe and have been blown away by the way he was able to articulate a creative idea through words. He is a visionary that has proven he is able to handle all different types of creative challenges in the theme park medium.
Naming Joe Rohde is a legend is a no-brainer from a fan's perspective, but for Disney it in some ways could be seen as an apology or a righting of a wrong. Joe Rohde left in 2021 during a period when Disney was being helmed by Bob Chapek and Imagineering was in a bit of turmoil with a planned forced move across the country to Florida. Now, three years later Disney CEO Bob Iger is back and Bruce Vaughn is back at the helm of Imagineering. When Iger and Vaughn came back into their positions it appeared to be the beginning of a return of form for Imagineering. And now, earlier this month the co-president of Imagineering Barbara Bouza left the company which generally signals more of a shift back to the old guard being in charge at the organization.
All of these shifts are happening as Disney is ramping up to spend $60 billion on their theme parks in the next decade and expand Disneyland. All of these changes are good signs that Disney is moving in the right direction to gear up for another “Disney decade” of expansion.
Joe Rohde Returning to Walt Disney Imagineering
There are a couple of key projects happening at Disneyland and Walt Disney World that have close ties to Rohde. Disney CEO Bob Iger has teased Disneyland as the home for a new Avatar experience and Disney's Animal Kingdom is ramping up for a new Tropical America's land that has been teased to feature Encanto and Indiana Jones. Based on Rohde's background, we were already hoping that he would be involved with making sure that both of these park additions go smoothly.
Now, Joe Rohde shared the below post to Instagram this morning.
View this post on Instagram
In the post Joe Rohde is seen in the reflection of the front door of Imagineering walking up to the door. In the caption he wrote “Do a bit of work at the old farm.” This obviously a cryptic message about what he is specifically doing but generally we took this to be a positive. Interestingly the video wasn't co-posted with the official Imagineering account and feels completely organically posted by Rohde rather than approved by the communications team.
An aside, if you aren't yet following Rohde on Instagram you should definitely go check out his account. He shares posts musing about themed entertainment and artwork. A true master class.
The Walt Disney Imagineering official Instagram account quickly followed up the post with a picture of Joe Rohde on the Imagineering campus with a caption that better explains what Rohde is doing there. It almost feels like their post is meant to temper expectations (or maybe hide the true purpose of his work??).
View this post on Instagram
In that post they wrote: “Beginning this week, Imagineers have an opportunity to participate in a series of master class work sessions led by Joe Rohde. Following in the footsteps of many former Imagineers, Joe continues to mentor and share his years of storytelling knowledge with current Imagineers, contributing to the future of creativity at Walt Disney Imagineering.”
So, this post kind of neutralizes any thought that Rohde is specifically there to consult on the two projects that we previously named. However, we could also read into this post with the assumption that the “master class work sessions” are specifically for those other teams.
Either way, it's great to see that Joe Rohde is back working at Walt Disney Imagineering and that any issues are in the past. We will have to wait and see if Rohde makes more public comments about the projects that are currently being worked on at Imagineering.
This announcement also comes just a day before tickets are released for the upcoming D23 Expo where he will be named a Disney Legend. We are excited to see Joe Rohde receive his Disney Legends award – as I said he has a truly amazing way with words. It would be equally exciting if he came out during the Disney Experiences presentation where they will hopefully be announcing a wide-ranging set of concrete announcements this year.
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