People sometimes ask me why Disney stopped producing video podcasts. I wondered about that too, but it looks like the video production never really ended. They just don’t call it a ‘podcast’ anymore. Now you can just subscribe to a couple YouTube channels and you’ll have quite a bit of new content from The Walt Disney Company coming all the time. The only problem with Youtube is it’s not really suited for longform video, but perhaps Disney Parks and Disney Living will get a Hulu channel of their own soon to solve that.

The latest to hit is a new ‘promotional’ video from Walt Disney Imagineering. The video masterfully edits in a bunch of stuff you’ve probably seen before but also tosses in a few new exciting items from the folks at WDI. This would work as a great recruiting piece… if only WDI was hiring.

I love how they snuck Joe Rhode in there at the end. That’s what an Imagineer should look like if you ask me.

Network World looks inside the wi-fi network that makes Disney’s Toy Story Midway Mania attraction such a hit.

Powering Toy Story Mania! are 154 graphics workstations running Windows XP that are used to render 3-D images on the ride’s screens at 60 frames per second. The workstations communicate with each other and with the four gaming systems onboard each vehicle using an industrial-strength wireless network based on 802.11 technology.

The wireless network integrates a huge amount of real-time information gathered from the ride: the exact location of the vehicles within one inch; the rotation of the four turrets on each end of the vehicles; and the pitch, yaw and activity of each onboard shooting device. This information is fed into the graphics workstations so they can accurately render images of pies or rings coming out of the shooting devices at accurate angles and with accurate projectiles.

Look for this technology to be implemented in new ways in future Disney attractions or even the queue areas.

When EPCOT Center opened in 1982 there was a much more obvious focus on futurism than we have today. Of the four biggest attractions that were added to FutureWorld lately only one can be said to have a true vision of the future – Mission to Mars. (The others being Finding Nemo, Soarin’, and Test Track.)

What happened to that vision? Did Disney change or did the public change? Or is the future predicting business just damn near impossible?

Popular Mechanics has some interesting perspective on that debate. They’re looking at five attractions (four of which are from EPCOT – I don’t know why they stuck Carousel of Progress in there – pretty ironic for an article called ‘Fact Checking’, eh?) and seeing how they stack up today against their vision of what tomorrow would bring.

For those of you who saw Steven Davison do his recreation of the pitch he gave that sold Disney management on “Believe… There’s Magic In The Stars” he will forever be known as Mr Forty-two shells in six seconds (read this interview from 2001 on Laughingplace.com and watch clips of the presentation in part two). “Believe…” was the show that rewrote what was possible to do with fireworks at a theme park. Davison used the pyrotechnic explosions as if they were paint on a canvas and brought music synchronization to a new level.

Now Steven and his team at WDI are bringing the water fountain and projection show to new levels. “Disney’s World of Color” is coming into the Paradise Pier Bay and, well, it’s best if we just let Steven describe it himself…

See parts two and three below the cut:
[Read more →]

Someone at Disney has leaked what appears to be very real blueprints laying out all the new ‘attractions’ planned for an expanded Fantasyland at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. This plan matches what I’ve heard from other sources. My gut tells me it’s not something fan created and is actually from the halls of WDI in Glendale. Now the question is, has all this been approved for construction? If so we should start seeing bulldozers pushing dirt as soon as October. I won’t believe any of this is true until we do.

So what will the expanded area consist of? It remakes everything from where the current Little Mermaid meet and greet is, moves Dumbo, and goes back to the service road all the way across to the existing Toon Town Fair tents. The only attraction that will remain from the existing Toon Town is Goofy’s Barnstormer. Dumbo will now be located across from the Barnstormer and will be expanded to two spinners doubling the capacity of that popular attraction.

The rest of the expansion is dedicated almost entirely to the Pixie’s and Princesses that has become the marketing and merchandising focus of the Walt Disney Company the last few years. There are three new meet and greets Pixie Hollow is expanded, Cinderella gets a larger meet and greet, Princess Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty) also gets a spot. I think calling a meet and greet an attraction is a bit of a stretch, but there are ways to expand the experience and elevate it to attraction level. Let’s hope that’s in the budget.

Ariel, the Little Mermaid has a meet and greet too, but she also gets a whole new attraction (essentially a clone of what is now under construction in California). It looks like Belle gets a meet and greet and a new “Be Our Guest” restaurant. At one time there was a Dinner Theatre restaurant by that name planned for Disneyland Paris, I wonder if they’re reviving that concept. That’s certainly something the Magic Kingdom has been lacking and I can see the long lines forming now for reservations.

What’s missing from the earlier rumors? One more roller coaster for the area. There was supposed to be a Snow White Mine Ride. Although I’m glad they’re not building that if it meant removal of the existing Snow White attraction. Perhaps Goofy’s Barnstormer will get rethemed to the Mine Ride.

My thoughts on this plan? It’s exactly what I would expect Disney World to come up with as an answer to Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Disney is essentially writing off the tween boys and focusing all their attention on the girls with the idea that moms and their daughters control the vacation purse strings.

There’s only so much you can tell from a blueprint (assuming this is the final version). But I like what I see if that’s Disney’s choice. I would have liked to see a bit more balance and, perhaps, a new C or D ticket as well. I’m also curious to see if the rest of Fantasyland gets a retheming as well.

So assuming that this is the real thing. What are your thoughts?

The on again off again expansion to Hong Kong Disneyland is now on and on for good. The Hong Kong Government has approved the deal that will have Disney spending almost $500 million to add three mini lands to the Magic Kingdom style theme park.

Financial Secretary John Tsang said the park already “has brought substantial economic benefits to Hong Kong.”

With its new features, the park “will rise up to the keen competition in the region on the tourism front, attracting more family visitors from around the world,” Tsang said.

That’s a very different goal than The Walt Disney Company originally set out to meet with HKDL. Disney was just looking for a foothold in the Asia market. They didn’t expect the park to need enough attractions to have an international draw, not did they layer in enough story telling that the locals could appreciate (not having been exposed to Disney’s western based stories yet).

These issues were all discussed but then discarded by Disney higherups in the initial HKDL planning stages. Hopefully having to correct mistakes with large outputs of cash (see also California Adventure) will put an end to the idea that you can build a small park and hope people will come.

The swearing in of new United States Citizens is always an emotional story. But when it happens at at Disney theme park, there is a little extra magic added to the ceremony. This year over 1000 new American citizens were welcomed to the country in a moving ceremony. Then they and their families were the first official audiences to see the newly revised Hall of Presidents at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom

Among those naturalized today were 25 employees of the Walt Disney World resort. Among them was Nicolas Graefe. His story is similar to so many of those who seek US citizenship, but as you might expect, with a Disney twist.

Nicolas (pictured above getting filmed by Disney) lived in Germany when he saw pictures of the 1976 Walt Disney World Parade in a comic book and fell in love with the Disney theme parks. In 1990 he worked at EPCOT as a cultural representative. Then he came back to work for Disney in 1998 when he met his future wife. Now he works for Disney in EPCOT food & beverage. This moment obviously meant quite a bit to Graefe, and he called it “one of his best Disney memories ever.”

After the families had a chance to see the revised Hall Of Presidents, I had a few minutes to speak with Kathy Rogers of Walt Disney Imagineering and Sr. Show Producer for this update. It was a roundtable style interview, so you’ll also hear Leigh Caldwell of Themeparkmom.com and Jeff Kober of MousePlanet.

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I will have more photos and thoughts on the day tomorrow, but now, I’ve gotta run off to the Magic Kingdom to see the Fireworks tonight.

Via the Whitehouse.gov blog we get this video of President Barack Obama as he records his speech for the Hall of Presidents attraction that officially reopens on the 4th of July.

I’m guessing President Obama has never been to Walt Disney World since he asks if these are wax figures. I hope he gets a chance to come down to Orlando with his family and see the attraction for himself. It’s pretty powerful, as I said in my review.

I’ll be at the Magic Kingdom tomorrow for a naturalization ceremony for 1000 new American Citizens who will all get a chance to see the new Hall of Presidents attraction. A perfect way to kick off their new lives as citizens of the United States of America.