I Toured Walt Disney Imagineering – New Technologies & Park Plans Revealed

From the exterior of 1401 Flower Street, it's difficult to comprehend the magic that's made inside. This building is one of many located in Glendale, California that house Disney's theme park wizards who lead the design of Disney's theme parks, cruise ships, and resorts around the world.

The people who work at Walt Disney Imagineering have training in over 140 disciplines that range from model making to writing to computer engineering to financial planning. This group was originally created by Walt Disney himself when he brought some of his favorite artists from the film studio into a special group to focus on creating his first theme park, Disneyland. Originally called WED for Walter Elias Disney, the group's name was shifted to Imagineering combining “Imagination” and “Engineering” – two skill sets required to develop any Disney project.

Recently I had the opportunity to join a rare media tour of Walt Disney Imagineering where they pulled back the curtain to reveal amazing aspects of the facilities I have only ever seen in my now dog-eared copies of the Walt Disney Imagineering coffee table books. I have visited this location before, but have never been permitted to visit anything beyond a blank-walled conference room when I interviewed (now Disney Legend) Joe Rohde. So, it was a longtime wish fulfillment to get to go inside and the day didn't disappoint.

Surprise Guests Before Our Imagineering Tour

Before our media tour of Walt Disney Imagineering could begin, we sat down in a decked-out conference room featuring aerial photos of Disney Parks around the world and photos of the Imagineering process.

We settled in for the presentation and thankfully I ended up in a seat in the front row. Moments later one of the public relations people introduced the Disney executive leadership and CEO Bob Iger and Parks Chairman Josh D'Amaro came out to present to the twenty or so media in attendance. You could tell that the entire room was shocked to see the two of them – Iger in particular who was joining us the day before the contested shareholder board vote – kicking off this day for us.

Iger expressed how the time he spends at Walt Disney Imagineering is some of the time he enjoys most in his work as CEO and how excited he is for the future of the parks. He expressed that if he could, he'd spend all of his time at Imagineering which he called one of his favorite places.

He talked about how much time he and Josh are spending at Imagineering as the company shifts their focus to the $60 billion turbocharge investment for the Disney theme parks. Iger shared that he is extremely optimistic about the parks and, with ease, explained some of the reasoning around why they are now ready to ramp up investment in the expansion of the theme parks.

Reflecting on something that former Disney Animation and Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter – a name I haven't heard mentioned by anyone at the company for a long time – shared with him, Iger talked about the magic of marrying technological advancement with artistry. He said that the artists create new ideas that push the technologists and the technologists create new ideas that then further art. Their intermingling leads to the magic of the Disney theme parks and films.

Then D'Amaro shared similar remarks we have heard from him previously about his excitement for the expansion of the parks. He emphasized that this day touring Imagineering was meant to reflect his previous efforts to pull back the curtain on what they are working on while on stage at D23.

After D'Amaro spoke, Iger jumped back in with additional context that we hadn't heard put as plainly before. In essence, he said that Disney Parks are a good business with a great return on investment for Disney and that there is strong demand among guests for more experiences. He also addressed the key concern around all of the expansion news. He said something along the lines of, “We know all the fans would like to know everything we are building, but if we flushed out the full decade then we wouldn't be able to nimbly react to a Frozen-sized hit a couple of years from now”. The positive takeaways from these comments are that Iger has a great sense of the sentiment in the community right now, believes in investments in the theme parks, and wants to bring in new franchises to the parks as they happen.

That unprompted comment from Iger alone signals that he understands that Disney fans are waiting with bated breath for a big set of announcements from Disney.

I have been fortunate to see both of these leaders speak several times at different functions and every time I am blown away by the way they hold the entire room's attention. Iger has a certain magnetic quality about him. He spoke off the cuff but with a complete grasp of every detail of the expansion plan for the parks. It felt almost as if there was a teleprompter in the room.

Then the two leaders turned it over to the Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Imagineering, Bruce Vaughn. He briefly shared his story of how he previously spent many years at Imagineering, eventually rising to president, and then left the company to focus on family. He came back to Imagineering a little over a year ago. He has a stellar background of leading teams at Imagineering during periods of growth and it was exciting to see his confidence in what they are developing right now.

After Vaughn spoke, the Imagineering leads for Walt Disney World shared new concept artwork for the Tropical Americas area coming to Animal Kingdom and that a new permit would be filed to begin work on the area “Beyond Big Thunder Mountain” in Magic Kingdom. They again teased that there would be many more announcements at the D23 Expo.

Our Imagineering Tour

Then, it was time for our tour of Imagineering. We were hosted by Jonathan Friday, who is a Senior Creative Director who most recently led Mickey's Toontown at Disneyland. Friday led us through different sections of Imagineering giving us a general look at some of the creative process and how new technology pushes the envelope for the parks.

Our first stop on the tour was a walk through a very cool monorail hallway that flashes graphics from Disney destinations around the world through the windows of a monorail.

Then we walked down a “graffiti” hallway that's now dedicated to John Hench, one of Disney's most famed artists. There were funny caricatures and artwork here that poked fun at the concept of corporate theme park ownership and general corporate life at Imagineering. Definitely no photos allowed here!

Next was our stop at the model shop. We learned how models at Imagineering are a tool and not something meant to last forever. They are used to allow executives and cross-functional teams to understand what scenes and structures will look like before they are built. Models start very small and then increase in size to serve different purposes. For instance, some of the bigger models actually end up in the field to assist rockwork carvers as a guide to how the rockwork should look.

We were able to photograph some of the models on display, many of which were previously exhibited in the Imagineering pavilion at the D23 Expo in 2022. Models included looks at Mickey's Toontown, Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, an unbuilt version of a Frozen land that eventually became Fantasy Springs, a model of the Pirates of the Caribbean changing skull to pirate figure that was added at Disneyland, a car from Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, and more.

From here we went into an amazing room that houses maquettes and miniature sculptures used for the design of Audio-Animatronics and other characters at the parks. This room was lined with glass cabinets that were stuffed with all sort of designs including the heads of presidents for the Hall of Presidents, figures modeling how the costumed characters at the parks work, and creatures that have made appearances throughout the parks. It also had the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs figures which were gifted to Walt Disney. Replicas of these are positioned at the wishing well in Disneyland.

We learned about the sculpting process from the Imagineer who sculpted the Walt Disney statue that was added to Hong Kong Disneyland. He shared with me that when you are sculpting something you are considering the final form of the sculpture. For instance when he was sculpting what would become a metal statue of Walt Disney he tried to bring in as much fluidity and motion to the statue as he could.

Then we journeyed on to the part of the tour that was the most newsworthy and earned a separate blog article where we looked at Disney's Impressive Audio-Animatronics For It's Newest Ride. We got to see many of the new figures coming to Tiana's Bayou Adventure which was just incredible.

Before seeing those figures we also wandered through the main Audio-Animatronics workshop where Imagineers work on figures headed to parks around the world. Here we spotted some fun classic figures decorating the halls like the baby elephant from the end of Jungle Cruise and a bird from the Tiki Room Under New Management. On one desk we also spotted a model of The Candle Man from the Museum of the Weird concept. Perhaps this is destined for the new Haunted Mansion Bar on the Disney Cruise Line?

I would urge you to take a look at the Audio-Animatronics coming to Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Be sure to check out that separate article that shows off those figures and some thoughts from Imagineers that worked on them.

From here we headed to the Research and Development building. This was super cool. Earlier this year we shared the story of Lanny Smoot, the second Disney employee ever besides Walt Disney himself, to be welcomed into the National Inventor's Hall of Fame.

Lanny joined the tour to introduce us to his HoloTile technology. This is a modular treadmill floor that keeps one or multiple people walking on the floor regardless of the direction they are walking. Using LIDAR technology the floor reacts to movements to create a kind of stay-in-place treadmill.

The invention could eventually be used for VR and gaming or some applications in the theme parks. Smoot emphasized that it could be coming to a stage sometime soon to be used by actors, performers, or even props. Seeing the floor in person was impressive though it is very loud.

They continued to impress when multiple Imagineers went on the HoloTile floor and walked on it without intercepting. It was amazing to see all the monitors tracking the complex motions that then allowed for the treadmill-style experience.

Before we moved on from that room we also got to see how one of the coolest props Disney has built in recent years. They pulled out their “working” lightsaber which comes fully out of the hilt the way a saber does in the movies. While I wasn't one of the three people who got to try the saber, they shared that it felt emotional to have that childhood Luke Skywalker dream realized. The prop appeared pretty fragile which is why we probably haven't seen anything like this put on sale anywhere.

We first saw these lightsabers used in front of guests at the now closed Star Wars Starcruiser Hotel.

Next, we got to spend time with the BD-X droids that are headed to Disneyland for a limited time. These droids are super cute and really impressive. Read here more about the droids coming to the parks soon.

Finally, we viewed the Duke Weaselton figure that was shown off during the opening ceremony of the Shanghai Disney Zootopia area. This figure is super impressive as it isn't attached to any base and moves freely. The figure first appears to be “pushing” a rolling base that is fitted to look like a roaming vendor stand and then it holds on to a rope to get pulled up from the ground level to stand on the top of the moving stand. The figure detaches and reattaches. The Imagineers shared that the stand and the figure actually two separate moving devices and the combination of the two creates the illusion that the figure is pushing the stand. The figuring jumping up uses strong magnets that “catch” the figure when it gets pulled up.

Here's a video featuring some of the Imagineers and the figure so that you can get a better sense of how it works.

This same team also designed the stuntronic figure that allows Spider-Man to fly in Avengers Campus and a dynamic Judy Hopps figure that moved around on roller skates and could be picked up and put on someone's shoulders.

Of course we ended the day with some more fun photos and I spotted an easter egg that I just had to share.

They have an old Heimlich train car, a spinner from Bug's Land, and an old skyway bucket.

How cool are those! I am still not completely over the fact that Heimlich didn't stick around in some form when Bug's Land was switched over to Avengers Campus.

My visit to Walt Disney Imagineering brought me the same sense of joy that I found as a kid opening up my Imagineerig coffee table books and thinking that maybe someday I could become one of these magic makers. Today I'll settle for this look behind the curtains.

Seeing the campus bustling with life and creative energy gives me the same great optimism about the future of Walt Disney Imagineering that radiated off of Bob Iger. After a frustrating attempt to force a relocation of Imagineers to Florida that led to a mass exodus, it feels like Imagineering is finding its footing again.

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