The Rest of Disney
Last week I talked about my experience at the new Star Wars land at Disney World. That was my big interest during the trip but I wanted to touch on a few other things that stood out my experience at the parks. Much of it was as I remember from being a kid but there have a few innovations that really stood out to me.
For starters, Disney has made good use of advances in projection technology. What I mean by this is projecting a video onto a surface. They do this quite a few places that allow them to create things you just can’t do with physical objects. Characters on some rides have these projected faces allowing them to look like the characters from movies that just wouldn’t be possible in the real world. This works some place better than others. But the show involving Lightning McQueen is where they did it the best.
The car’s mouth and eyes was a projection and the car body animatronic. This made it actually feel kind of real. Going into the show I wasn’t expecting much, and the show itself was so-so, but they pulled off making it seem like McQueen was a really talking, moving car. Kudos.
They also used this tech to pull off an amazing fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom. I went into expecting some fancy lights, Disney music and cool fireworks. But the fireworks were secondary. The castle at the center of the park had been overlaid with these nets. You can see them during the day but they’re only obvious when up close. I figured that would light up and make the castle look pretty. But I was wrong.
The effects they pulled off was making the castle appear to change colors. And I don’t just mean have different lights shining on it. But actually look like the paint job changed. It went through several paint schemes throughout the show and it looked good. (The picture I have featured isn’t what I’m talking about. I didn’t get any pictures during the show since I was holding my son up so he could see).
They also had move clips running and action sequences. With clever use of darkness and clips the castle looked wrecked and on fire. Then magically repaired.
You can find videos of the show online but they really don’t do it justice. Seeing the video verse seeing it with your own eyes is a very different experience. Even though you know its all light, music and clever tricks it comes together beautifully. Would definitely recommend the experience. Despite the crazy, crazy levels of crowds.
