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Bring to Walt Disney World: The Hyperloop

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This week crazy-like-a-fox billionaire businessman Elon Musk introduced his latest revolutionary concept, the Hyperloop, and then gave it away to the masses as an open source project. Musk’s previous successes include Paypal (without which much online transactions wouldn’t happen), Tesla (an electric car company that’s profitable for a change), SpaceX (a private company that is helping NASA get payloads into space with an eventual goal of Mars(!)), and SolarCity (affordable solar panels for home and business; It remains to be seen if this will fall into the success category, but it seems likely with a net positive in the profit column last quarter).

Hollywood director Jon Favreau has said he modeled his version of Tony Stark, aka Marvel’s Iron Man, at least in part after Musk. But I think Tony Stark is the wrong model. Musk reminds me more of late period Walt Disney, when Walt had his eye on the future, not just of entertainment and the Disney Company, but of the planet as a whole and improving the lives of those who live on it. His gained steam with Monorails (mass transit), moved onto PeopleMovers (person rapid transit (PRT)), and dabbled in energy efficiency and recycling. Then Walt united all his theories and took on the mother of all urban planning projects – EPCOT, the experimental prototype community of tomorrow. With EPCOT, Walt wanted to build a working community where he could partner with industrial explorers with a similar vision for the future.

That is essentially the same vision as Elon Musk; which is why I think there is a natural partnership between Musk, his companies, and The Walt Disney Company. To get started, create the partnership for the purposes of building a working prototype of the Hyperloop at Walt Disney World. Musk, or his team, would be involved enough to oversee things, but most of the R&D would be left to Walt Disney Imagineering. The resulting prototype would be a great first step to making a full scale Hyperloop a feasible project to get past local and state governments.

Disney’s Imagineers already have much of the expertise needed to build such a system. They have experience with air-bearings (from the Flying Saucers ride in 60s to the revisited version at DCA), mass transit systems (Monorail, PeopleMover, etc.) and for years they used a garbage disposal system at the Magic Kingdom that magically whisked away trash right from the curb side down an air pressure driven pipe. They also have good contacts in the coaster and mass transit construction industries, so finding suppliers would not be difficult. Read More »Bring to Walt Disney World: The Hyperloop

Enchanted Tiki Room Turns 50 This Sunday

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It’s hard to believe but Sunday, June 23, will mark the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland. Crowds were wowed by the world’s first Audio-Animatronics show in a place where the birds sing words and flowers croon.

Inspiration for the Tiki Room came from Walt Disney’s earliest days of animated filmmaking, as he looked for a way to animate in three dimensions. He was fascinated by an antique, miniature mechanical songbird that he had purchased in New Orleans and thought if someone could animate this figure a century before, it should be possible to do it using modern technology.

The resulting Audio-Animatronics technology developed for the Enchanted Tiki Room would eventually lead to such iconic Disney theme park attractions as “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln,” “it’s a small world,” Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion and others.

“The Enchanted Tiki Room continues to delight thousands of guests every day, some 50 years after Walt originally introduced us to Jose, Michael, Pierre & Fritz,” said Jon Storbeck, vice president of Disneyland Park. You might enjoy reading about the experiences of one of the attractions original VIP Hostess or The Disney Blog columnist Linda’s experience shadowing Walt Disney on the press preview.Read More »Enchanted Tiki Room Turns 50 This Sunday

Sneak Peek Inside Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Princess Fairytale Hall

Although most of New Fantasyland had debuted, there are still two major elements yet to open. The Princess Fairytale Hall and The Seven Dwarfs Mine Train are still under construction. But today Imagineering had released the following video with a backstage peak at the progress.… Read More »Sneak Peek Inside Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Princess Fairytale Hall

Tree of Life Construction – Time Lapse Video

As Disney’s Animal Kingdom gets ready to celebrate its 15th anniversary, we’re getting a little retro here on The Disney Blog. We’ve looked at some favorites of days gone by – Journey into Jungle Book, The Tarzan Rocks Show, Pocahontas and her Friends, the first… Read More »Tree of Life Construction – Time Lapse Video

Disney’s Animal Kingdom 15th Anniversary Events

Disney’s Animal Kingdom is the youngest of the Walt Disney World collection of theme parks. Even then it’s about to turn 15 years old on April 22nd, which is, of course, also Earth Day. The park has announced that there will be a small party… Read More »Disney’s Animal Kingdom 15th Anniversary Events

Tour of Digital Projection Model for Disney Springs Transformation of Downtown Disney

We now know why Walt Disney Imagineering rushed Imagineer Kathy Magnum out east as soon as she returned from her much deserved vacation following opening Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. She has been placed in charge of the Disney Springs transformation coming to Downtown… Read More »Tour of Digital Projection Model for Disney Springs Transformation of Downtown Disney

Discuss Art of The Avengers and Meet Imagineer Jason Surrell

It’s Marvel’s The Avengers week at the Orlando Public Library in Downtown Orlando and your chance to meet Disney Imagineer and author Jason Surrell. At 1pm on Saturday, January 5th, watch the Avengers, at the Orlando Public Library. Then stick around for a 4pm talk… Read More »Discuss Art of The Avengers and Meet Imagineer Jason Surrell

Test Track from a Video Gamers Perspective

I don’t play a lot of video games, not because I don’t like them, but because my personality is such that once I start playing I have to finish it and end up obsessing about the game over other important things until I conquer it.… Read More »Test Track from a Video Gamers Perspective