The Imagineering Story was one of the first things I ever watched on Disney+ because it was amazing. It tells the story of creativity and innovation, and also the downfalls that they’ve had over the years. I’m hoping that this is an up turn and we see more creativity, coming out of the Imagineer’s once again. I remember hearing the news when Joe Rohde left and knew it was not a true retirement, but it was his statement that he didn’t like the direction the company was going.

The return of Bruce Vaughn is pretty fascinating. In the Imagineering documentary he was the one who was the most upfront and critical of Disney's biggest blunders. He admitted DCA felt cheap, and pointed out how poorly made the backlot park is at Disneyland Paris. That's honesty that the company needs right now.

Imaginering needs to be free to make their concepts a reality… imagine galaxy edge with flying drones that use perspective to look larger. Large creatures walk in the street. Droids moving around. Yes I understand they wanted to keep the land in story mode but 99% of us don’t care about that and want to see characters meet and greats or walking that land.

Jack, as I was watching this I had an idea. Disney has the resources to start an “imagineering university”. Perhaps they could get some of the older imagineers to “teach” and invite selected individuals From around the world who apply because they already subscribe to the tenants of WDI. But then can have their skills honed by the previous generation. This way it keeps the pipeline young talent always flowing.

I wish I was a member of Walt Disney Imagineering. I got so many plans and ideas to share with the Disney staff and make real for the parks, Castaway Cay, Aulani, the clothing, the merchandise, the toys, the decorations, the character images and the ships.

Walt Disney Imagineering could also develop and build special effects devices for all the shows; rather than only the animated illustrations projected on the castle or anything else, 3-D optical allusions of the characters can appear and act, perform, dance and move across the stage areas.

I’d love for more of the longer, slower rides. I like being immersed into the experience. It also nice to go to an attraction that makes a 90 minute wait feel worth it. I’m sure they make less money when you’re on ride’s instead of in the dreadful heat and that’s why it’s happening.

Disneyland would greatly benefit from an extensive and extreme rebuild of Tomorrowland. It's been needing an update for over a decade and it is so outdated and sad-looking. Hope I can be on that team!

Chapek caused Splash Mountains top branch to disappear for the Tiana Ride while Igor had a brilliant idea to just add on to the branch and make it a tree. I really hope since Igor is back that tree is staying on top

For a while it looked as if they were turning it into an architectural firm. Disney seem to be changing their approach to them from "the sky's the limit" to "the budget's the limit."

A lot of the new rides are not suitable for people with motion sickness. I can do Matterhorn and Big Thunder all day, but I can’t do Expedition Everest, Smuggler’s Run, or Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. A lot of the rides are too hard on the system. I’m not there to ride the most thrilling rollercoaster. I love the Peoplemover, Autopia (at Disneyland), Pirates of the Caribbean, and the old dark rides in Fantasyland. I wish the Disney corporation wanted more lazy rides that anyone can do.

Sounds like this is a good step in the right direction! Here's hoping EPCOT gets finished, with a much needed revamp of Journey Into Imagination. I've literally waited half my life for that ride to get a proper revamp. I'm also curious to see what they're going to do with the E-ticket attraction at Avengers Campus in California. Fingers crossed that we've got a lot to look forward to in the future from Imagineering!

Jack, great video...one thing I would like to see change is giving Imagineering creative license to create their own original stories around new attractions. I believe that Expedition Everest was the last original story project/attraction that Disney has put into a park. Ever since, they have leaned on their IP assets for literally all of the ride theming. I think it would be great to revert back to the idea of creating attractions that support the concept of what "land" they are located in (Adventureland, Tomorrowland. etc.) and allow fresh ideas and stories to come into the parks. The IP-based rides are fine, but too much of it makes the attractions predictable and a little stale. Disney should do other things and lead with fresh ideas, and in this case, it's a bit of returning to the past that can add that.

The title characters of Disney's Phineas and Ferb which are also the main most focused characters, are like Walt Disney Imagineering for creating impossible contraptions and inventions.

Thank goodness. I needed to hear this news after the loss of Disney World's own government.

Whatever The future holds for Disney parks, it will take them 35 years to build it

Jack, Love your videos keep up the good work. I feel that imagineering lately has not been given the funds/budget necessary to really develop something out of this world. If we look at the overseas parks, granted owned by separate entities, have more freedom to develop innovative experiences such as TokyoDisneySea and the discussed Disney Sky Park. These are the type of things that would drop jaws here in the States. Solely my opinion but if the WDC provided more creative freedom and much bigger budget to blow away the competition, and get back to being the top company it used to be in terms of engineering and design work

Interesting take on this but yeah I think you're right on several. What I don't understand is why Disney spend so much time resources money and everything tearing down perfectly good attractions and saying we're going to make it better. I keep looking at what they're doing with splash mountain I'm saying why in the hell did they do... That attraction was popular it worked but they didn't have anything else to do with the money and they are ruining a perfectly good attraction to change it into something else. Disney has to stop wasting money on coming up with all these great ideas coming up with miles of these ideas and then having them shot down by management it's stupid and I mean if I was running Disney there's no way they would get away with that if they can't make a project work then they're not going to do the project from GetGo... Mary Poppins is a perfect example spaceship earth is a perfect example play pavilion is a perfect example of those things they spent imagineering designs and everything only to have it shot down.. must be nice to have all that money to expend.... Disney has to stop with the money bleeding out on their theme parks because I'll tell you they're very fortunate that the parks are making money and profitable because they be out of business by now if they weren't making money... Yes people are complaining about the cost of Disney but I also understand all the behind-the-scenes and all the engineering and all the support people needed to make the park what it is so I really can't complain about a hundred nine dollar Park ticket because you are getting a great value.. normal amusement park charges and they don't get not even one-third of what disney offers. You want an immersive well themed amusement park like Disney you have to pay the price.... Focus on what you're getting not so much the dollar sign to get in.. Another thing that I find disturbing about Disney world is if you go on Google Earth and look at the property why do they use so much space as garbage areas I mean it's certainly not organized and we may just throw things in the area and it looks terrible. They don't appreciate the land that they have and they use it as a dumping ground it seems... Maybe it's just me but I noticed that and Google Earth and it's like wow......

If the staff of Walt Disney Imagineering created and sculpted new park detail samples, they are resemblant to Francois Auguste Rene Rodin amok his clay statues, a kid setting up a train display, land developers altering an area for new buildings and plants and roadways and construction workers placing together every part for a new building.

Perfect timing for this video celebrating 70 years of Imagineering

Why bother working as an imagineer when you can get paid more, get treated better and have job security at Universal Engineering. That 70 billion dollars in debt affects every aspect of Disney and it's why they had to lay off Imagineers. I'd rather throw my lot in with Universal.

If Land Paste was born, all the fictional worlds can be turned real.

I would love for them to create another U.S. park in the Midwest, like in Michigan. It could be entirely enclosed so it could be open year-round regardless of the weather. The ceilings could have projections of the sky that changes appearance from day to night as the real sky does. It could showcase flying characters like Tink, Peter Pan, Dumbo, etc. In the Star Wars area, it could have ships taking off and landing. In the Pandora area, there could be Ikrans and other flying creatures. Marvel area,of course, would have images of flying characters like Captain America/Falcon, Iron Man, etc. At night they could even have a "fireworks " show.

There is a reason why so many imagineers have left Disney for Universal. Disney has lost the plot. They are more concerned with identity politics now. I grew up on Disney and have been to Disney World 17 times and Disneyland 1 time. I hate what the leadership of this company has done.

With the catastrophic reviews of Imagineering (well before Chapek), and the common knowledge that if you plan on being an imagineer you're ideas won't be heard until you are tenured at 30-40yrs with the company (outside the standard norm), realistically the only thing I would want from Imagineering is to better implement its employees ideas and give due credit where it's deserved. The only reason I haven't even considered them as a job opportunity is because of this direct feedback from Imagineers when researching the company. It sounds harsh, but if my ideas mean nothing, then I mean nothing, because I'm full of ideas and that's what makes me, me.

What I want WDI to do next is create artificial intelligence for possible upcoming animatronics shaped like all the other characters for interactions, professional movements like a real human and design new balloons; ones which resemble my Mickey Mouse Christmas ornament.

You picked great examples of cuts that were/are no bueno...and great update as usual...thanks Jack #dsny!

Hey Jack, I currently feel a huge void as there are no mayor constructions to look up to at Disney. Although I like Disney more, I see myself going more to universal and paying more attention to what they’re doing. I will probably be taking the time to go three days to universal with their new park instead of DW. I really really hope Disney gets their act together and surprises us with bigger more ambitions projects in the near future.

I always look forward to these! Jack, you rule!!

great video topic and coverage. THX

You are spot on. As soon as someone started looking at imagineering as a cost center they lost. Now I just hope it's not too little too late with epic universe breathing down their necks.

I’d like to see them create an original IP attraction

"I became a little bit more dismissive of other people's opinions than I should have been," said Iger. "That was an early sign that it was time. It wasn't the reason I left, but it was a contributing factor."

I think one of the biggest issues the parks and resorts are seeing is upgrades that arent imagined / themed well at all. We are seeing this with the updates at Grand Floridian and so on. I want imagineers to be able to step out and really take full advantage of what they have. I was also so upset they got rid of the pirate rooms at Carribean beach resort. Those were so neatly integrated. Did they need an upgrade? Yes. Could they successfully do it? Yes. But they’re not taking the time and effort to do this. Again we are seeing more rides at all the theme parks around the world. To me that isnt fun or imaginitive. Tron wasnt here in orlando first and its taken years to complete and have its opening day. Same goes for Remys. I want original attractions. The Mary Poppins attraction though maybe dated for the popularity of the film would be original for once. It would feel so refreshing. I dont want the other parks to begin getting Pandora / Avatar themed lands either. Where is the exclusivity of each park and what makes them unique? Thats what disney needs to cater towards in my opinion. I think there are some great classic rides that work well at Disneyland and Disneyworld but not every park around the world needs similar attractions. I want diversity too. Hearing the news of attractions overtake Tom Sawyer Island would be so exciting in Magic Kingdom. I feel like EPCOT could benefit from having an attraction in each pavilion, and not just the small ones they have now that are educational though those are important need to be more engaging. Having an entire water themed attraction shows just the direction disney is wanting to go with the park entirely as well as the play pavilion and I dont know how well that is going to go over with guests. I think it is beautiful so far, but far less capturing and less likely for people to do it again and again. Like how often do people do the Swiss Family Treehouse? Not often and its always there to do its like a one and done like Tom Sawyer Island. They need to keep things and make things to where guests keep wanting to come back to walk through attractions if thats interaction through magic bands and games somehow integrated then that would be great as well as secrets hidden or something! I hope they get something figured out and focus less on copying and pasting every park around the world. Id love to see unique and original ideas shine though like a Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Carribean, Big Thunder. Creating something completely unique and not branded to a franchise yet would be incredible marketing imagine what they could do today! But I digress 😅

Great video Jack love it ☺️ I'd love to see Cars Land / Radiator Springs at Hollywood studios,. The Villains land at Magic Kingdom...A water boat ride similar to Pirates of the Caribbean Shanghai Disneyland at Animal Kingdom themed on something like The Jungle Book and Mary Poppins in the UK Pavilion at Epcot. Just for starters....not greedy I'm I? 😉😂

If they make a lion king ride it be amazing. Like can you feel the love tonight. Simba and Nala would roll down the hill

I really want Joe Rhode to return to Imagineering to add even more magic to Animal Kingdom with the Moana water ride and I'd love to see Beastly Kingdom come to the outskirts of Magic Kingdom with Malificents castle and a couple of dark rides to fit the theme

I would like to see a Mary Poppins ride come into fruition, but Figment also deserves a complete overhaul with all the latest technology.

I am excited to see the major updates coming to Epcot at the end of the year for the 100th Anniversary. 6 years everyone would have waited for the changes to be made. However, I beleve in magic and see a brighter and better future through the eyes of Disney World being very technological lighting up more at night around Epcot park. I would personally like to see a wakanda area come to The Animal Kingdome or even having a Wild Wild West area at Animal Kingdome while it already looks very western over by splash mountain.

One of your very best and certainly most important broadcasts. This is one heck of a great job of clarifying how things ended up as they are. You so wisely focused in on the core business of the business. Thank you, sincerely. There’s a lot more I could say about wrong turns and right turns by the Disney company, but instead, I will jump ahead to your suggestion at the end of this episode. What do I think Disney Imagineering should do next? I will keep it simple and to the point, without any wild blue-sky wishing. Fix what’s broken first. Address the gray mess of Epcot with the original plans or fresh thinking….and finally, to cheers heard ‘round America, breathe some Imagination back into California’s Tomorrowland.

Brilliant video thank you Jack I hope that the Imagineers are bringing back the Mary Poppins attraction at the UK pavilion.

I hope they get back to Tomorrowland at Disneyland in California. Definitely needs a revamp. The newly announced Space Mountain in Tokyo could be an inspiration. Also, they should let the imagineers stay in California.

I’m always excited for your next video😊😊

I think imagineering is finally headed back in the right direction. I felt like recently they were just trying to jump on the quick trend for marketing reasons and not really pushing the envelope. I’d love to see imagineering return back to making Disney experiences true to each parks general idea and not just what satisfies the public. While I’m extremely excited for the possibility of a Moana land or Zootopia land, I feel that the addition of a South America land (which isn’t represented among the continents in Animal Kingdom, or have any countries at EPCOT) would go back to the root of Animal Kingdom and allow opportunities to introduce older content like Up and Indiana Jones (which could still come off if the hype from the new movie coming out)

This is great news, just what the parks need. I live in San Diego, so I've been going to Disneyland since I was three in '64. I remember Tomorrowland '67. What's happened to Tomorrowland? Maybe now they can address what is the land without a theme direction. Twelve years after opening Disneyland recreated Tomorrowland. It took approximately twenty-five years for them to give Tomorrowland another facelift if that's what you can call it. I call part of Eisner's folly and nothing of any consequence since. Hopefully, before I pass, I will see a new really reimagined Tomorrowland. This news gives me hope.

Excellent job, thank you.

I will always looking forward to all of these and more!!!! So, thanks, Jack!!!! 😘😘😘 And I have a question! It is rumored that a new Wondrous China film, PLAY! Pavilion, Spaceship Earth revamped and more, are all still coming, which will be announced at Destination D23 2023 at Walt Disney World Resort on this September?

3:33 "Imagineering is so much more than just architecture". Well said. This is a very important point. ☝ 9:48 🙊😂

Great job, Jack

With proper management and options and opportunities, good people will find their way back to Disney. Anything is possible.

I really do think they need to start thinking about a 5th gate at WDW with the growth of Universal. Unlikely I know but mini lands such as Moana in DAK just won't cut it.

Very informative great content and lets hope that they let the imagineers get back to imagining

Imagineering is a place that is always under survival mode. Yet they always come through, even in their darkest days they are so valuable to the company and should never be undervalued.

New technology is great but at Disneyland we need something classic to return! I’d love to see the Skybuckets return in some form. The Peoplemover gets all the attention but I’d rather see the Skybuckets they were so colorful and gave the park such character. And instead of building “an Avatar experience” I’d love to see them build a new dark ride from one of the classic films. My dream would be a ride centered around Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather from Sleeping Beauty!

Does this have something to do with beyond big thunder mountain railroad?

I would call Barbara bosa “barbosa” as a nickname 😆

The name of the lion King ride would be call Simba musical adventure

I like to see Galaxy's edge expand. Where Darkseid Rules. Where the centerpiece is a full-size Star destroyer. 🤔🤔🤔

Thanks Jack, very excited to see this announcement and hoping that it means great things for imagineering in the future.

Disney doesn’t need virtual reality that can make there own

CHEAPek was a terrible CEO! He cancelled so many great projects like The new festival pavilion for Epcot to, hopefully iger can bring back these projects

Thank you for mentioning the "Influencer imagineers" shit makes me sick

What this story provides is hope. It seems the tide is beginning to turn. If they could somehow convince Joe Rhode and/or Tony Baxter and/or Bob Weiss to return it would send incredibly positive shockwaves through the Disney community.

Disney resurgence back to the magic, will take forever, that universal will be so many steps ahead that Disney will not be able to keep up. In the other hand I’m looking forward for a full 100% change in the company, because we need both companies, what’s happening in Disney is necessary because competition is always good.

Do you think that with all of these WDI org changes, Bob Igar will cancel the Lake Nona campus project and allow those who moved early to move back to CA, if they choose? Bob's effort to revitalize and restore the level of moral and excellence for WDI, should include scraping the LN campus so many who moved can return and many who left the company to come back. Hope that happens asap!

I think it’s time to add another land to DAK. It’s still unclear what wil be done to Heater and Chester

Disney needs to take everything in Disney+ and put into Hulu and leave room for the fans to add ‘and more’ to Disney+ like it was supposed to be. Disney needs to make 2 different subscriptions for Disney+. A viewer and a creator subscription. 2 different subscriptions both Disney some good money. But discounts will be for both viewers and creators, fans can work with the pros and learn a lot about Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, Nat Geo and Hulu through Disney+, Disneyland, Disney World, Disney Resorts, Disney Stores and many, many more. That should be Disney+. Getting fans trusted to do work and workers trusted to pay workers very well. The fans and workers are massive part of Disney’s magic and Bob Iger needs to acknowledge that quickly if he doesn’t want any bad press from Disney fans, workers and the public.

I don't really care if Reflections is built or something else, but that space needs to be utilized in a valuable way. Maybe another lakeside restaurant even? The whole Journey into Imagination space needs to be revamped. But MOST OF ALL, love to the dinosaur area at AK(voting for Zootopia related theming personally)! We can't afford to have anything torn down and the space just sitting dormant. What about the lanes in HS that are offices? These huge crowds need to spread out so let's use this inner real estate to its max potential! (Kind of unrelated, since Galactic Starcruiser is struggling, half of that needs to be opened up as a regular resort option so it ALSO doesn't go to waste!)

Sound familiar? Vinnie Mac did the same thing when he was running WWE

..... I sure hope so.... that is be creative again.

It wasn't Chapek's idea to move imagineering That was completely Iger.

Honestly, I really hope this means more positive things for the Paris expansion. What is currently being built just isn't enough to sort out Walt Disney Studios. It needs the proper investment it deserves.

THEY SHOULD DO BIG IDEAS NOT SMALL ONES

Chapeks damage will be felt for years to come! Iger seems to have tunnel vision for Disney+ being his seemingly only goal in his 1 1/2 left. They don’t need a leader. They need a visionary leader. They don’t grow on trees. Steve Jobs would be horrified to see the lack of vision with the iPhone. Michael Eisner molded himself in Walt’s image. Grow the parks by making great animated movies. They have lost their way and currently have 4 soon to be forgettable movies (Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Live action little Mermaid and Peter Pan). Is anyone asking for more remakes or movies based on thin story lines from rides? Creative Bankruptcy is where Disney is stuck. Why wasn’t Indy stunt show bull dozed during the pandemic to get ready for the new release? Look to Universals Bourne stunt show created and executed during the same time Chapek was simply looking to stop any production so he could lay off cast and deliver less to THE PARKS which is the only profitable part of the business!

It’s good to see someone finally say that Joe Rhode didn’t retire and was actually laid off. Disney gave him the ability to announce a retirement because they knew he was well-liked and they would have faced a lot of heat from park fans if his leaving had been identified as a lay-off. He was part of the 400+ let go during Covid. Bob Weis left on his own because he knew the Florida relo was a terrible idea and he wanted no part of it.

Love this video! Except the Zach Riddley slander :(

New update now

All I hear is Cap’n Barbossa 🏴‍☠️

Both Bobs have done this to Disney. One isn't better than the other.

Yes... fix this imagineering thing too.

Chapek was a bad choice when he said animation was kids stuff and he did everything all wrong never knowing what he was at

bruh the man was over disney less then a year yall really gotta start being honest and blaming igor

Disney imagineering is lost without joe rhode. No hope

Kind of feels like you left out a lot the major chapek’s decisions was because of shutting the parks and bad economy after nobody wanted to travel for 3 years . Covid definitely didn’t let him operate they I’m sure he would of liked to. I have a feeling we will be seeing a lot of Epcot updates return with revenues returning to pre-Covid numbers

I don't know much about Zach Riddley but it kind of seems like you were taking a shot at them. Am I misinterpreting? Not trying to cause drama but it did stick out to me as someone who has been watching your content for a while.

Jack, you are brilliant when it comes to Disney, and I respect and appreciate your show and all the work you do, but please... Can we please put the blame where it belongs here? Iger is responsible for most of the messes at Disney. Chapek barely ran anything at all, at least not until 2022.

The lay-offs and the move was nothing but cruelty for the 'bottom line' by chapek and the CFO...she's gotta go too.

"What's THE FUTURE for Walt Disney Imagineering?" = over 10min of talking about the past

Get back on epcot up days

I think WDI is doing great. What I would love from to do is NOT MOVE TO FL.

it is far too late.

Not a fan of Ridley I take it?

Disaster, boring , etc

disney needs to realize that if they don’t let their employees make magic. they will somewhere else! disney is already behind on rides and attractions. i don’t expect them beating epic universe, they already lost race. disney’s response: the pandemic messed us up oopsie

Do you think disney could ever get Joe Rhodes to come back...I hope so

Turns out a year later she was a bust.

My friend is high up at Disney and everyone competent has been forced out by wokeness. They are at Universal etc. - don’t only blame Chapek, the problem is Iger’s chickens coming home to roost. Chapek is bad but he was just the fall guy and put in an impossible situation.

You cannot criticise imagineering under Chapek and praise Universal studios at the same time when they brought you the broken down mess of Hagrids, the cheaply bland velocicoaster and the poorly designed cul-de-sac of Super Nintendo world.

Is he woke?

The attn to detail and going the extra mile by disney has went down the drain. Iam sure the imagineers have had some truly sick ideas for attractions. Between the lame ass woke agenda and having their budgets slashed. Projection mapping on blank animatronic faces ,wood cutouts of characters and scenery is not going to cut it. Look at what disney Tokyo is doing compared to Disneyland or disney world….it’s night and day