Before Walt Disney World there was Project X, Walt Disney’s ambitious plan to reinvent how we live in his “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.” Most Disney fans are familiar with how the EPCOT we have today is only a shadow of the great urban designed… Read More »How close did we get to Walt’s vision of EPCOT?
With the movie Cinderella in theaters, I thought it was a good time to take a look at the beautiful piece of art on display inside Cinderella castle at the Magic Kingdom. The main corridor between Fantasyland and the Plaza is home to an amazing tableau retelling of the classic fairy tale “Cinderella” in five massive mosaic murals.
Designed by Disney Imagineer Dorothea Redmond and assembled by artist Hanns-Joachim Scharff and his team of six craftsmen, each mosaic mural was hand cut and applied. There are over 300,000 pieces of Italian glass in more than 500 colors along with ‘gems’ and bits of gold and silver in the murals.
Some of the murals are as large as fifteen feet high and ten feet wide. The whole project took nearly two years to complete.
There’s also a bit of hidden Disney in the mural. In the scene after the ball where Cinderella is trying on the slipper, the footman was made to resemble Herb Ryman and the Arch Duke looks like John Hench. Both men started as animators and later were key to creating the look and feel of Walt’s prized theme parks.
A gallery with 18 more images and close ups from the murals are below the jump.
Read More »Cinderella retold in Mosaic Murals at the Magic Kingdom
Joe Rohde walks with James Cameron and Tom Staggs (among others)
Not only has Joe Rohde, imagineer and champion of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, posted a terrific photo of a very hard to get image from Expedition Everest roller coaster, he’s provided something of a master-class on creating a back story for an attraction with just three Instagram posts.
Check out the tale explaining the story of the Forbidden Mountain below: Read More »Imagineer Joe Rohde offers masterclass on storytelling in three Instagram posts
Digital projection on a three dimensional object started out as a cool art project by making a building appear to crumble or become a canvas for swimming fish. Disney’s Imagineers were quick to harness the technology and bring it to the parks.
It’s currently in use at the Magic Kingdom as part of the Celebrate the Magic castle show and during Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween party in Hallowishes and the Villain’s stage show. There’s also a car in the queue of Test Track at EPCOT that’s gets a digital projection treatment. You can also find it in Disneyland Paris as part of the Disney Dreams show, which I hear is fantastic.
The latest use of digital 3d mapping and projection takes it down to the small scale – a wedding cake. Which as cool as it is, is only available to the few guests who can afford the more expensive wedding packages.
So, I started to think where else could Disney make us of digital projection. They did try something once on Spaceship Earth using Mike Wazowski to announce the “Monstrous Summer” promotion in 2013. I’d love to see that idea expanded upon with more night shows on Spaceship Earth.Read More »Three Fun examples of Digital Mapping & Projection at Walt Disney World
I don’t talk about him too frequently, but I am proud to have as my grandfather one of the early Imagineers at WED Enterprises. Vic Greene had an impact on a lot of projects, but one that’s near and dear to my heart is the… Read More »Petition to return a lost tombstone to the Haunted Mansion
At the recent Gay Days at Disneyland, Imagineer Bob Gurr spoke at a special D23 chat titled, “An Intimate Conversation With Disney Legend Bob Gurr.” He also gave an interview to the website Goweho.com where he talked about what it was like to be gay… Read More »Disney Imagineer reveals what it was like to be gay and work for Walt.
Walt Disney Imagineering Executive Creative Director Theron Skees is out with the first video giving guests a greater insight into the story behind Disney Springs. Disney Springs will unite the existing Downtown Disney area under one-project backstory with multiple themed locations. The Landing is the… Read More »What is the backstory for Disney Springs?
The Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland has always been a sentimental favorite of mine; in part because my Grandfather Vic Greene was the Art Director for the attraction and for his involvement in the story of how Imagineering got the instructions to build it.
There was a little hill of land in between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland that the Skyway used to get some height to go over the back of Sleeping Beauty Castle. Walt wanted to do something with this land, but he didn’t know what, he asked my grandfather to start thinking of an attraction for the hill. The story as told in the book “How to Be Like Walt: Capturing the Disney Magic Every Day of Your Life” and in my family went like this:
Walt was traveling to Switzerland to film “Third Man on the Mountain” and fell in love with the Matterhorn. In a moment of inspiration, he grabbed a postcard of the mountain from a souvenir stand and sent it back to Vic Greene with the message, “Vic. Build This. Walt” on the back. Vic, of course, immediately set to work on designing what was to become a first of its kind landmark attraction.
Another fun family story is the invention of the Matterhorn’s first of its kind switchback queue. Vic Greene and his team of Imagineers developed a system that would have the entrance to the switchback part of the queue be lower than the exit. When you stood at the entrance, the exit would appear closer to you in an optical illusion. The idea was to make your wait seem less cumbersome by visually shortening the queue.
A version of this story was documented in “Disneyland: Inside Story” by Randy Bright, and it has been told in my family for years. Before the attraction was set to officially open, testing was done using sandbags. When Walt wanted to see a real human on the ride, Vic Greene was selected as the first human to test ride in a bobsled on a steel tube coaster. Since water hadn’t been added to the splash down pools at the end of the ride, Imagineering had set up bales of hay to slow the cars down. Unfortunately the bobsled car hit the hay and stopped so suddenly, Vic nearly got whiplash. Still he survived and the ride was deemed complete.
Below the jump are a few more fun facts from the 55 year history of The Matterhorn.