~Dave Crawford, Principal Mechanical Engineer, Show/Ride Engineering

(quoted in The Imagineering Workout: Exercises to Shape Your Creative Muscles, by the Disney Imagineers)

Our pursuit of the creative and thought-provoking challenges like those that may face Disney’s hallowed Imagineers brings us this week to a new realm: furniture!  As Disney’s Art of Imagination Resort prepares to open, I have pored over the pictures of the new buildings (see here for blog announcements and room images) and marveled at the task of creating not just a hotel room—but a story-telling environment!  Can you imagine the unending supply of ideas that must be evoked during that creative process?

In a nod to those who have created the newest of these amazing “homes away from home,” I have selected this chair as this week’s “wanna-be Imagineer” picture.  And, in the spirit of Dave Crawford’s quotation, I have provided some questions for you to consider when imagineering this chair in to the Disney landscape:

1. In which Disney Resort hotel lobby would this chair fit in as part of the storytelling?  How?

2. Which Disney character could you see hanging out on this chair?  Why?

3. If this chair could become part of the “Living Character Initiative” (think of Push in Tomorrowland), what would it say to guests who walked by?

Don’t miss this opportunity to be creative!!   Share your thoughts and add some questions of your own in the comments section below!

Have a great week, all!  May the Fourth be with you!! 

The post Wanna Be Imagineers: Sit Back and Relax! appeared first on WDW Radio - Your Walt Disney World Information Station by Lou Mongello.

This week, we will remain in the world of amphibians and consider the role of this colorful frog.  C’mon, my friends with Imagineering minds–how would you Imagineer him into the Walt Disney World Resort? Consider these questions…..

1. Where in the Disney resort would you find him?

2. How can we explain his coloring?

3. Is he a prince?  If so, to which princess?  If not, what is his destiny?

Can’t wait to read your creative thoughts!!

Have a wonderful weekend, my friends….

The post Wanna Be-Imagineers: Is this Frog a Prince? appeared first on WDW Radio - Your Walt Disney World Information Station by Lou Mongello.

This week, we have a picture that has a far different tone.  Please welcome….. this alligator…

Okay, so…..  tell us his STORY!  Here are some questions to consider:

1. Where in the Walt Disney World Resort does this guy call home?

2. What does he keep on his tray?  And why?

3. What’s with that look on his face?

Have fun, my fellow wanna-be Imagineers–and have a magical week!!  8: )

The post Wanna Be Imagineers: Here’s a “Snappy” Challenge appeared first on WDW Radio - Your Walt Disney World Information Station by Lou Mongello.

I’ve done it countless times.  I think it’s one of the beauties of being able to visit Walt Disney World frequently.  When one is not crazed trying to “fit all the rides in,” one can slow down, look up (thanks, Lou) and better appreciate the stories that unfold.  You can start to immerse yourself in the creativity and excitement that comes with storytelling–in finding just the right chair or costume or picture to enhance the story.

I am finding that this pattern is now extending to my daily life here in New Jersey.  I find myself seeing an interesting piece of clothing or furniture or decor and I start to imagine how it could be used in Walt Disney World.  If nothing else, I find it is a fun way to jazz up an otherwise routine run to Target for food and clothes.  “Hmmm… an interesting comforter there.  Would I put that in the Caribbean Beach or Port Orleans?”  “Oooooh…. I love that picture frame.  It would fit right into the 50s’ Primetime Cafe.”  Maybe I’m crazy, but it’s a fun way for me to ward off the “Disney Blues” (that’s Webster’s term for “it’s been too long since I’ve been in Disney and I am envious of everyone who is there right now.”)

Anyway, I have been having fun with my Secret Imagineering, but it’s much more fun to share in the dream-making and story-telling.  And so, this new blog series is born!  Each week, I will post a post a picture of something that catches my eye during my countless trips about the mall capital of the US.  (Be proud, New Jersey!)   These items will not have any obvious Disney connection (i.e. Nothing that already has Mickey Mouse on it).  I will then ask YOU to share your thoughts about where in the Walt Disney World Resort you could see that item incorporated and how it could advance the story!   You can “place” the item anywhere: in a resort, a restaurant, an attraction, a costume, or a form of transportation…..  There are no “right” answers, of course–just fun conversation among friends while we await our next Disney vacation.

So with this blog, in our own little way, we can all be the Imagineers we dreamed we could have been… and who knows?  Maybe someday, someone in our WDW Radio family will be inducted into that hallowed group of America’s most creative minds.  But in the meantime, we’ll have some fun and laughs–and share the true spirit of Disney!

Are you ready? Here’s our first item.

So…… If YOU were a Disney Imagineer, where would you put this adorable peacock?  How would it help the story?  Give us your thoughts in the comments below!!

Have fun, wanna-be Imagineers!!    Happy Friday!

The post Wanna-be Disney Imagineers, Unite! appeared first on WDW Radio - Your Walt Disney World Information Station by Lou Mongello.

In addition to other topics, Rich will be examining the backgrounds and life stories of Disney Imagineers, so we can better appreciate the people behind the scenes who make the magic we all love so much.  Welcome, Rich!

My favorite role for Mickey Mouse has always been when he played the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Until fairly recently apprenticeships were the path young boys took to learn an art or a specialized craft.  The famous artists of the Renaissance, for example, used their apprentices to perform the more minor necessities on their murals and frescoes by having them add details to the artists’ masterpieces. That Mickey made a rather major “rookie mistake” by using his Master’s hat before he had the skills to use it, makes for one of Mickey’s most memorable roles. That this segment for Fantasia was created and animated by a man who had originally had been a kind of apprentice for Walt Disney makes for some interesting irony.

While Walt Disney never called Les Clark an apprentice, Les Clark certainly played the role when Walt Disney, impressed with Clark’s menu lettering in a local drug store’s menu offered him a “temporary” job in 1927 that lasted till 1975! In fact Les said as much himself. “I learned my craft from working with the fellas and from Walt, who was so far ahead of us even in knowing what he wanted to do.”

Les’ first contributions to Disney animation were as a camera operator and then to a certain mouse that Disney had created to take Oswald the Lucky Rabbit’s place. While Ub Iwerks animated Steamboat Willie, Clark served in the in-betweening-apprentice type role. Much like the young would be Renaissance artist apprentices, in betweening animators were responsible for taking the senior artists’ (like an Iwerks) key frames and provide supporting detail and flow to the animation.

While it might be true that Disney was his own “Da Vinci,” Walt also understood how he needed to grow and cultivate his own cadre of superior artist-animators-story tellers.  And so it wasn’t long till Les became a Master himself. As such Mr. Clark became responsible for showing “subtlety and sensitivity” across a spectrum of memorable Disney shorts and animated movies. (Grayson Ponti, “Countdown of the 50 Most Influential Disney Animators.”). In addition as main animator after Iwerks left Disney, Clark’s leadership is usually credited for how we see how Mickey has evolved to this day.

The last segment of Clark’s Disney career was a director of television specials and educational films before he retired in 1975. He died in 1979.

During the 1930’s the Disney team that came to be called the 9 Old Men were the gold standard for animation.  As they evolved, they developed and standardized twelve basic principles of animation that continue to guide animators’ today. As one of the 9, Les’ work, particularly in the early Mickey cartoons, in the party sequence in Snow White, in Pinocchio, the Sorceror’s Apprentice in Fantasia, Dumbo, and Lady and the Tramp, and other classics, surely demonstrate how this Old Man learned to perfect such principles as; creating anticipation, staging mood or reaction, re-twining arcs, using timing effectively, exaggerating, and fostering true appeal for the characters Disney “entrusted” to his own creations.

And for these and more we can be thankful to Walt Disney for taking on an In Betweener / apprentice named Les Clark.

The post The Disney Imagineers: From Disney Apprentice to Sorcerer’s Apprentice to his own Master appeared first on WDW Radio - Your Walt Disney World Information Station by Lou Mongello.