Walt Disney Imagineering

It is in 1952 that was created this subsidiary company of the Walt Disney Company in order to design and build the park of Disneyland. In the beginning the name was WED Entreprises and belonged completely to Walt Disney. WED meant “Walter Elias Disney”, the complete name of Walt Disney.

The members of this subsidiary company are called Imagineers or “ imaginieurs ” (if one francizes the imaginary Pun resulting from the terms and engineer ). More than 140 trade associations take part in all the phases of a project. They are engineers, scenario writers, landscape designers, painters, horticulturists, financial,… who together conceive, direct and make perdurer the parks with topics. All the trades are gathered under the name of one only discipline: the Imaginiérie (or imagineeering in English).
The achievements go from lightings (standard lamps of Disneyland Paris) to the vegetation and the giant tree (Tree off Life) of the Disney' S Animal Kingdom while passing by the monorails of Disneyland, Walt Disney World Resort or Tokyo Disney Resort; or the famous audio-animatronics, of the robots.

Since, the company conceived the whole of the parks with Disney topic of share the world as well as the neighborhoods of the parks. For the springs , Walt Disney Imagineering was put at contribution since the hotels to the panels of road indications while passing by the swimming pools or the buses.

Certain projects of Walt Disney Imagineering were abandoned such as Disney' S Mineral King Ski Arises, with Mineral King in the National Sequoia Park or Disney' S America close to Washington. But one of the watchwords is that “an idea never dies”.

They also carried out other projects deprived such as the panoramic restaurant of the international airport of Los Angeles (LAX), the first monorail of Las Vegas or four houses of the international exhibition of New York in 1964-65.

History

  • the December 16th 1952 Walt Disney founds WED Enterprises .
  • In 1961, Walt Disney buys a piece of a few hectares with Glendale to install the company in larger buildings. It is located close to a highway which connects it directly to the head office of Disney (to a few kilometers in the west) and to Disneyland (in south-east).
  • In 1963 the engineers design robots of birds being able to move the wings, the head, the nozzle and the tail, synchronized on music for attraction Enhanted Tiki Room of Disneyland. They are the first representatives of the audio-animotronics.
  • In 1964-65, WED Entreprises conceives four attractions for houses of the international exhibition of New York.
  • the February 3rd 1965, Walt Disney Productions repurchases WED Enterprises and makes a subsidiary company of it.
  • In 1980, Disney developed according to the technical and musical councils of Don Dorsey, the computing system Mickey Track , managing the coordination of the music lasting the parades.
  • In 1984, the name becomes Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) with the favor of many changes undergone by the Walt Disney Company.
  • In 1996 the organization joint its forces with the Disney Development Company in order to link the services Disney of creation, design, planning, real estate and management of projects under the only name of Walt Disney Imagineering .
  • Between 1996 and 1999 Disney buys many pieces around the seat of WDI with Glendale and lance then the project of Grand Exchange Creative Campus.

Services

Walt Disney Imagineering is mainly established on the site of Glendale where Disney has an important zone, old industrial waste land which it transforms into a creative campus, the Grand Exchange Creative Campus.

Topic Park Productions

Theme Park Productions (TPP) is a service with share, related to Walt Disney Imagineering, created towards 1984 to produce and make films proposed in certain attractions of the parks. One can note films:

Creative Walt Disney Entertainment

It is a subsidiary company created in 2001 for the production of spectacles intended for the Disney parks.

See also: Walt Disney Creative Entertainment

MAPO

MAPO means M anufacturing has Nd P roduction O rganization but above all MY ry PO ppins, the film for which this division was created. It is the technical service of design. It is a whole of engineers and technicians able in the beginning to carry out the first audio-animatronic, a finch for Mary Poppins.

But since 1964, technical capabilities were largely improved and this service can conceive and (to make) build since the lamps of Street Hand to the Audio-animatronic S while passing by the cars of Autopia or the various trains. Constructions are carried out by the Tujunga service.

Tujunga

Tujunga is the name of an avenue located at North Hollywood, it is an extension of MAPO for the " large objets" and also service of construction.

Thus in 2004, the monorail orange of Disneyland was transported there to be revised and rehabilitated.

PICO

PICO means " P roject I nstallation and C oordinating O ffice" and indicates a service of coordination of the projects within this company as well as management of the teams and companies necessary to construction. It was created by Orlando Shoeing in 1996 pennies the impulse of Paul Pressler.

Amusement parks of Walt Disney Company

Attractions of the Disney parks

See also: Attractions of the parks Disney

Existing amusement parks

  • HongKong Disneyland Resort (open since seven 2005)

    • HongKong Disneyland Park
    • 2 hotels Disney
is envisaged a second park, other hotels and a retail park.

Parks not-carried out

The majority are parks but other projects of scale are also listed.

Projects of attractions or country

Realization except Disney

  • Crest Theater located at Westwood Village close to the UCLA (University of Los Angeles) was renovated by the imagineers in 1987. This cinema had been bought by the company Pacific Theaters in 1985. They signed a contract with Walt Disney Company in order to renovate this building art-déco and to be able to diffuse productions of Disney. Collaboration lasted until 2002.

  • the restoration in 1991 of the panoramic restaurant of the International airport of Los Angeles (LAX)
  • the opening ceremony and the scene of the Winter Olympics of 1960.
  • Design of the museum of the Johnson Space Center of NASA to open Houston in 1992.
  • Restoration of the atrium, as donation, of the hospital for children Arnold Micrometer caliper Hospital located in the downtown area of Orlando.
    • Press article
    • Site of the hospital.

Fair of New York 64-65

The teams of Disney carried out four attractions for this international exhibition which took place between 1964 and 1965 with Flushing Meadows in the Queens:

  • the Carousel off Progress of General Electric, a theater turning around a central scene presenting the “positive” influence of electricity on an American family of 1880 to 1965. The house was destroyed and rebuilt in Disneyland.
  • the Magic Skyway for Ford within Ford Wonder Rotunda was one strolls since prehistory until the future on board a prototype of transport called WEDWay PeopleMover or Omnimover and re-used for the haunted house. The panels on prehistory were re-used in Disneyland for the train.
  • Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln belonged to the house of the state of Illinois and presented a robot speaking and “gesticulant” famous president Abraham Lincoln. The robot was transported in Disneyland.
  • It' S.A. Small World within the house of sponsored UNICEF by Pepsi Cola represented a world of children in the shape of headstocks singing the same old story in their language in a stylized decoration of their country. The final one gathers the whole of the children in a behavior of festivals white and scintillating. This attraction is today with Disneyland it was rebuilt entirely here in 1966.
    • the song was composed by the Frères Sherman, authors, inter alia, of Mary Poppins and of the Livre of the Jungle
    • the decoration is the work of the artist Disney Mary Blair.

External bonds

  • Imagineering' S Files Site devoted to Walt Disney Imagineering and the abandoned projects.

  • WEBcot Site dedicated to Walt Disney Imagineering and their creations all around the world with files and " concept arts".

Random links:Ürümqi | John William Waterhouse | Louise Farrenc | Austin Toros | North Caicos | Giovanni Antonio Sogliani | Hampstead,_le_Maryland