Disney California Adventure at 25: The Wild Story Behind the Reimagining

00:00:15Hey guys, it's Tim. And welcome to episode 131 of the Dreaming of Disney podcast. And I'm with my beautiful wife, Audrey Anne. Hello, Audrey. You have to excuse me, I was outside today and I hate this time of year because I get really bad allergies. I know I. Know and even when I take allergy medicine they like just takes the edge off it, but I still get congested and gross. I'm so that's all right. And we have. These trees, the trees in front of in our front yard are really pretty, but they have these huge blossoms and just leave all the pollen dust everywhere and I hate the smell of it. I know some people like the

00:01:02smell. I hate the. Smell These ones don't smell great, but they are really pretty they. Smell like urine. That's what it smells like to me. OK, so there you go A. Little too far. Little tea by. Little We don't even know that about you you know OK, real quick yes, before we get into anything else we are coming up so we're episode 131. We are also coming up on our 4th anniversary of the podcast that's. Crazy. I can't. Believe it, but can you see? Do you know what the date was or do would you have to like look

00:01:44back at something? What the date I can I can look it up real quick. I mean, if if you can. Oh man. Wait, where's my title, Gifter all? Right, well if for people who are listening on the podcast, sorry we are live on TikTok as well. So sometimes we respond to the people who are commenting live on TikTok. So you can follow us on TikTok and watch this live as we record it every Sunday night around 8 ish 8:30 PM Pacific Time. Welcome to join us. Yeah, on the TikTok. It's a party, It's a party. Oh, I don't even have podcasts loaded on my iPad. I'll have to find it later all.

00:02:30Right. It's fine. But yeah, we'll have to look. And then, you know, I wonder. No, there's no wait. No, it is March. But I just don't know. Yeah, nevermind. I was thinking we don't have time though. I was like, oh, that'd be cool if we got to like 150, but it was in March. So we can't record 20 podcasts. Let's just do like, let's just do like 19 or 18 like 2 minute podcast episodes where we just share a quick Disney thought and then you get to 150 on our the anniversary of our podcast. So would it just be on the app? Is that what you were going to look at? Yeah, I was looking at the

00:03:13podcast app and. OK, and then I'd have to scroll. All the way down and. Oh, man, OK, well, why don't you, why don't you can say what we're going to talk about and I'll. Do that. So the last couple of weeks we've been recapping our Disneyland trip that we did back in February, beginning in February. And so you know, it was what, 3 days? Four days? Three days? Three days? It's in Disney life. Already looked March 5th. There you go. March 5th, 2020. That would be this coming week. Yes.

00:03:48I can't believe 2022 seems so long ago. But also not like like we can't be 4 years from that because. Still in the middle of the C word. It was. We were. Get the C word out of. There, Timothy Michaels. It's Arrested Development. We're talking about a. Boat. I know. Thank you. Oh, no way, Gina. So, Sean O'Connor, welcome in. Big Juice, welcome in. When is that? Let's see what's day. What is that coming up? I believe we started. That's this Friday. That is this Friday.

00:04:27Oh, I don't have to scroll all the way back. Well, now I don't because you did. Thank you. But. Anyways, we'd had a three days, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, 4/3 and. 1/2, three and a. Half days it. Was a good length. It was a good length. On that Saturday, our first full day was February 7th. We had that day was the D-23. Your your hand, your. I keep hearing you go mouthing things. That's right. You're very sensitive to that. Just turning to a ASMR podcast, there was AD 23 panel on the 25th anniversary of Disney's

00:05:23California Adventure because unbeknownst to us, we didn't know that the 8th, which was the next day, was the 25th anniversary of California Adventure because Disney didn't advertise like the week before. They're like, hey, it's a 25th anniversary. Here's what we're doing. And then once it's once I saw that and I was like, oh, that's right, like February 2001. Like I didn't know the exact date, but I was like, I remember it being, I just remembered something. What? I have a shirt. I don't anymore. What happened to that shirt? I got a shirt from the the the Disney Magic music days that I went to in 2001 in high school.

00:06:06We got a shirt and it had something about California. I think it had the Grizzly Peak on it or something in the castle. It's a 2001 magic. What happened to that? What happened to that shirt? That'd be really cool to find. I mean, I'm not going to find it. That was a long time ago. But anyways. So I went to the panel, it was, we didn't take the whole family because I think the kids would find it extremely boring. And so I mean, it was over 2 hours of former and current Imagineers talking about how California Adventure was created. And so I don't think the four year old would appreciate that.

00:06:48No, not at all. So it was just me that that went to that. And so I took notes and we're going to talk about it. Yeah, let's let's let us know. Let's let us know. Let us know so. What happened? So there within this panel, there were two panels. The first panel was the original Imagineers that, you know, conceived and built California Adventure as it once was back in 2001. And then the second panel was the group of Imagineers that reimagined California Adventure. In what year was that? Do you remember? All I know is that when we went in 20, 2013, they had redone it, so in between 2011 and 2013 it

00:07:53was in there. Something like 2012? That would be in the middle of. 2011 and 2013. So I mean, it was in phases though, because it was like they reimagined the entrance and then they eventually added Pixar Pier. 'Cause there was a period of time where we didn't go. We didn't go for like a year and a half, two years. There was a little break there. Yeah. So and it was within that time that they did that. So the first panel consists of Barry Braverman, who was the executive who helped shape the original vision of Disney's California Adventure, and Tim Delaney, who was the designer behind DCA's original entrance.

00:08:36Tim Delaney's an actor as well, isn't he? Tim Delaney? I don't know. It's an actor. So he was the he was the concept artist who came up with a lot of these ideas and concepts. Rick Rothschild, who was the Imagineer who brought Sauron over California to life. And then Greg Emmer. Emmer, who was a show producer who helped build Grizzly Peak and the Wilderness Area, and then Kathy Magnum, who was the executive producer who led DC as Made in California, experiences which did not last very long. Unfortunately. So the the what? So how how DCA came about? I'm. Talking about a little place

00:09:35called Aspen. Aspen What's that? From Michael Eisner, who was the CEO of Disney at the time. He wanted to turn Disneyland into a full on resort much like Disney World. That'd be nice. Let's do it. Because Disneyland was just one park and only one hotel at the time. Oh yeah, that's true. Yeah. And, and whereas Disney World was 4 parks, many resorts, lots of things to do, Downtown Disney didn't exist at this time in Disneyland in California. Just Disneyland it. Was just Disneyland, that's all it was. And so they wanted to come up with a idea to create a full on

00:10:25resort type of experience in California, much like Disney World in Orlando. So they went to a retreat in Aspen, Co, in the summer of 1995. Someplace warm. And so the, the, the, the, the goal of this trip was to come away with one idea to where they could then create another theme park. And so they came away with actually was that 12344 ideas. They said four to five ideas but they only mentioned 41. Idea was aquatic theme park, which you know. Like SeaWorld? They said like kind of like a, a beach type of type of resort, you know, they mentioned kind of similar to like Long Beach type idea.

00:11:20That would be hard to make a whole theme park off that I feel like. Yeah, another idea was Route 66 to create a park around the idea of of a lot of the stops along Route 66 in America. Kind of hard to tie that into Disney I feel. Another one was a park that was based around the different seasons and holidays throughout the year. And then finally was one that was based on California. And so Eisner chose one about California because it had a lot of different elements. You have Hollywood, they could create a, a Hollywood type area like on the smaller scale of Hollywood Studios, which was MGM Studios at the time, Disney World.

00:12:08And it just had a lot of different, different things that where you could celebrate the idea of the state of California. Well, the that's one thing about California is it's very isn't it the only state that has all the different type of. Yes, the only place in the world that has all the different microclimates. So, you know, we have, Yeah, Mountains, mountains, desert beach. Valley. Valley isn't for like, it's just it's the state is vast, vast. And diverse. Very diverse, yes. So you could do a lot with that so. The idea was you they could create a smaller Hollywood area, they could create a nostalgic

00:12:47beach, French amusement park, which became Paradise Pier, and then a things made in California. So California history, agriculture products, things like that. Living with the land would go well in California. It would have I feel like. Because we've got a lot of. Agriculture missed opportunity. Lot of agriculture here. We do have a little bit of agriculture here, little bit 80% of all foods in the United States are produced here in California. If you didn't know that, there you go. Now you know a little bit of tidbit of. California. Information.

00:13:23Knowledge. I'll just say history. It's not really. History. It's not really. Just it's a. Little fact. Little California fact. Tidbit there. So they they had the kind of a, you know, a hard time trying to conceptualize how they were going to fit this park into the parking lot of Disneyland. Right, because it used to be the parking. Lot. It was the parking lot. I remember getting out of my dad's car in the parking lot and walking to the gate. Because if you look at if you go on Google, Google map, Google Maps and you look at Disneyland

00:14:00or you just look at a map of Disneyland, it's very thoughtfully laid out. You have you have the the we're thumbings down on a comment here. Jay just likes to come in and try to make me mad though. OK, he's just, he's just trying to start drama here. Yep, he's got a lot of hot takes. So, so they had a because if you look at Disneyland, it has like kind of the cog wheel type design. You have the hub in the middle and you have all the lands, you know, sprawling out from the hub. And so it has a very logical, you know, layout. And so when you look at the parking lot, it was a very kind

00:14:40of like convoluted, kind of weird shape. And so they had to figure out how are we going to, you know, make this flow naturally in this weird shape that they have of this parking lot. And they, they had also a very strict budget. So Disneyland has a berm, which is, you know, a mound of dirt that goes around all the way around Disneyland that cuts out the outside world so you can't see anything. Cut out the outside world, they. Couldn't do that for for California Adventure. They didn't have the money to create this berm to, you know, cut out the outside world. So they had to rely on buildings and other pieces of the park to kind of block different things.

00:15:26So they had to think about sight lines, and they also had to build it with the idea that they're going to expand it because they knew, like, just like Walt said about Disneyland, it'll never be finished as long as there's imagination in the world. So they had that same idea for California Adventure. They wanted to build it in a way that's where they could expand. Look like you were going to say something. No, just like they can't. I know. And that's another thing I mean. They don't. I would. I mean, they are, I guess they're bringing Coco, which they're not taking anything away for that.

00:16:02They're just bringing it. But and they are expanding a bit for for Avatar, they are taking something away, but then I think expanding as well seemingly. They're just they're taking away from backstage areas. It's, I mean, they don't have, they don't have, they don't. Have a lot of space. They don't have a lot to work with. They have to be. Around them unlike. Yeah, I mean there's houses like 2 blocks down like, you know. And, and they also, you know, they couldn't build like original rides. They had to because of the, the, the cost recent, the budget restraints they had, they had to pick rides that were already built so they couldn't invent

00:16:44new things. So they had to take a original like off, they said off the shelf rides and place them in there. Soren. What? Was like Sauron. It was the only original ride that they that they built. Everything else was based off of something else. OK, 'cause I was like, what? I don't feel like there was ever a ride like Sauron. I guess it was Cali river Rapids probably before. I believe it was before. Grizzly River Grizzly River Run. Which they had to. I can't remember if it was from this panel or if I saw it on Instagram. They had to figure out a way.

00:17:21How could they make Grizzly River run different? And you talked about this. Oh, different. No, you talked about the water. Yeah, though that's something different. But like they had to figure out a way to make Grizzly River Run different from Cali River Rapids. And what it was is the spinning. So you know, if you go on Grizzly River Run, you spin. So fantastic. Because of the way that the the when you when you do the drop. Oh my gosh, you you. Start spinning, whereas that's. Something you don't rat, you don't spin in Cali River. Rapids. I guess not. Do you spin in Cali river

00:17:51Rapids? Friends in the TikTok with the world friends, Our world friends like Splash Mountain makeover. What's young with you? So the idea. 'Cause if you don't, you need to go on Grizzly River Run because it's fantastic and go on it at night. Oh, you do. You do, you do. So the the idea of California Venture was based all around the California dream. So people, a lot of people from all over the world in the United States come to California to pursue their dreams. So whether it's, you know, you know, Hollywood or you know, Silicon Valley with technology, surfing, I just want to surf all.

00:18:37Day I do get asked that when people like when I'm in other States and people like found out I'm from California. Do you surf? I got that when I when I was a kid and we would move around and go to we, we lived in California, my family. And then we moved to Texas for a couple of years and that's all I got asked like, oh, do you go to the beach everyday? Do you surf? Yeah. No, I lived like 5 hours from the beach. What? I thought all of California was on the beach. I was like, no. Yeah, When I lived in New York, that's always the first thing I go, Oh my gosh, you live at the

00:19:06ocean. Do you know to surf? And I'd be like, I lived in the mountains. Yeah, California's a very big state. It is. A very big state. So, so that was kind of the idea behind California Adventure. So the, so they came to like, how did they want to, how do they want you to experience the entrance of, of California Venture? Because they had to be iconic. Just like with Disneyland, it's iconic. You go, you go through the tunnel and you now are part of, you know, these stories being told. That's what Walt, Walt wanted. Like you're on a movie set, you

00:19:42know, you're in these, you're living these, these stories. And so you're, you're part of these stories. So they wanted something iconic like that. So they, they try to come up with different ideas of like what would be iconic entrance into California adventure. And so one of the ideas was a freeway entrance. You're you're walking into a freeway entrance because California has lots of freeways. Lots. Of freeways. Especially down South. I don't think any of them are pretty. Yeah, nothing is like they said that. That was quickly rejected. Yeah.

00:20:17Another idea that they really loved was a Redwood forest. So walking into a Redwood forest. So the Redwood forest is pretty iconic in the Bay Area. If you ever seen Star Wars, Return of the Jedi and the planet of Indoor that are that was filmed in the Redwood forest in the beautiful. I've been there. It's beautiful. And so it's very iconic. So if you see that they they kind of had an idea they couldn't do that because they just didn't have enough time because they had four years to build this. It opened in 99. It opened in 2001. 2001 brain fart. So they had they had, what is

00:20:57that, six years? They had six years to open them. So what they ended on was what we've know as the, what the, the, the Golden State Golden Golden Gate Bridge and with the, the monorail and then the California letters in front. So they, they thought of like, what would a postcard look like for the state of California? And so they, they designed this interest to be like a three-dimensional version of a postcard. So you have the California letters, you have the Golden Gate Bridge, you have a iconic tile mural that they built on the, on the what's going on over there, iconic tile mural that they built. And then they had the monorail where she would walk under.

00:21:49She's searching through her treasures. It looks like treasure box, treasure box. And so and then they had the iconic sign sun icon. So interesting about this mural that they had with the I don't do you remember this mural that was off to the side of the entrance? It was like a surfer. It was on a building. Off to the side, but at the entrance. At the entrance, yeah. So that. In the like once you're in the park or right before you're. In the at the entrance at the park, so like the turnstiles, so you would see like the Golden Gate Bridge and then like you have this big mural on the side.

00:22:29I can't say that I do. Where's the we have the map out here. Do we have a slip here? So if you look at it, this it's a mountain. So this guy right here this. I don't remember that. OK, so this is what I'm talking about. So this mountain right there. So that was actually, at the time, the largest tile mural in the world. Oh. Wow, that's cool. So that's a little fact also the parking lot or not the parking lot, the the parking garage which is now look. At that first picture I grabbed in the O. In the O there you go. That would be in 2002.

00:23:18So the Mickey and Friends parking structure that they built at the time, because it's before Toy Story, so it's just Mickey and Friends, that was the largest parking structure in the world that became Friends parking lot parking structure, which is it was just crazy. They the, the architect that they hired to build the, the parking structure. He had other projects that he was bidding on, but he chose of all the other projects he wanted to build the parking structure at Disneyland. He. Said I want to be part of that. Because he, he, he knew it was going to be such a, a challenge to build something that's nice looking. And so it's like, how do you

00:24:06make a parking structure look nice? So, so yeah, see what else? So that there's a lot of oh, it's that mural 17,000 pieces tiles, hand hand built tiles. Let's see what else. So Soren over California. So they spent a lot of time on this and they actually they cut off the the imagineer who was talking about was like, we we're running out of time. Sorry, like I got to take this. The Barry Braverman who was the, the, the lead imagineer, he kind of like interrupted the, the Imagineer talking about Sauron, which was it was a Rick Rick Rothschild. He kind of offers like we have to keep going because we're running out of time, but everybody want to learn about

00:24:58solar and Sauron because Sauron's awesome. So one of the one of the, when they're thinking about the the California dream, one of the one of those things is the idea of flight. A lot of things when it comes to flight happened here in California, except the first airplane by the Bright brothers was actually North Carolina, but everything else was developed here. So the early idea as a Sauron was a hot air balloon. And so guests would go up off the ground. And so instead of it being a, a communal experience, like, you know, a group of people in a hot air balloon, they shifted to a more individual personal flight experience.

00:25:49So that's when they came into the, the idea of gliders. And so it, it took them about six months to kind of figure out, you know, what does this look like? And so the idea of the ride mechanism actually came about from a, how would they stop the ride in an emergency? So the, the, if you know, we've all been in a sore. And so you start out, you know, on the floor and then you kind of, you know, there's three layers. And so you kind of you, you shoot up and kind of like a in 1/2 circle. So that's kind of the way the track looks like. And so they had to figure out, OK, we have to come up with the idea of this ride had to stop in

00:26:35an emergency. How would it, how do we stop it? So it, the, it actually just it, they use gravity. So the gravity would just kind of bring you back down. So they, they thought of this ride structure just by thinking of kind of thinking it backwards, like how would we stop this if we needed to stop it in the emergency? So they showed a, they, they built it a model like a, a handmade model that's kind of the size of like your hands. And they showed a video of that, how the the ride mechanism worked. This was the first ride that was built using computers. Really. It it helped them to, it was not AI, but it was kind of like the

00:27:25first way to where they could conceptualize how a ride would work before actually having to build it. So they were able to build it in the computer and conceptualize it before actually having to build any type of models or actually having to build it full scale. So they were able to do it in the computer first, which was one of the first rights to ever do that. And. 48 FPS high speed. So this was interesting. So when they came about, you know, shooting the scenes for this, they shot it on IMAX cameras, which are very loud or very they're very big and very heavy. They use film. So it wasn't, they didn't shoot

00:28:15it digitally because they didn't have digital cameras at the time that had that, you know, good of quality. And so they had to shoot it on IMAX film. Is that Pinocchio? Pinocchio. Little creeper. Hugging. Yeah, he gets her hugging really close. Hugging me a little too tight there, panoch. I don't think they do that anymore. On both arms, man. So they shot on IMAX cameras and they, they each camera, a camera holds about 5000 feet of film. That may sound like a lot. So if you take the you take the film and you stretch it out, it'll it covers 5000 feet.

00:29:00But shooting at 448 frames per second, that 5000 feet would only last 24 1/2 seconds. OK, wait. Wait, wait, how many feet? 5000. 5000 feet of film. Running at 48 frames per second. So each little square on the on the piece of film, it's a frame. And so each frame would go by 48 times in one second. So it would take 24 1/2 seconds to go through that 50 or 5000 feet of film. So each camera can run. You going to show me something? Is that you with Mickey? It looks like our our daughter little mini me. Mini It's Minnie Mouse. OK. It's Minnie Mouse. So. It would have been like 90.

00:29:58No, probably like 89. So they could only do 22 takes at a time, so each take would be only 24 1/2 seconds long, and so they could only do 2. They could only load the camera up with enough film for 2 takes so that it's about 50 seconds. So they could, when they were filming it, they only had enough time to take one take. And so every time they had to reload the camera, it was 90 minutes to gosh, gosh, trying to remember all of this. It was very complicated to film us. So what I'm saying is that they had to they only had two, two chances to get the take of each shot that they wanted. And when you? Think about the shots in soaring over California and you think

00:31:02like they're going like, you know, like, though I'm thinking of that because we just did soaring over California when we were there. Like, and there's the part where they're, you know, on the canoes when you're going over the yeah, the river and they're like canoeing. So if they only had two chances to get that, get that shot, like did they just have like a bunch of people canoeing down the river? And I don't know. I don't. I don't know where my mind's going with that one. But anyways, so the the helicopter. Anyways. The helicopter that shot this and the IT was filled up with

00:31:41fuel. The fuel would only last 90 minutes and so by the time they got to their location they had 60 minutes to shoot 2 scenes or two takes of 1 scene and they were only able to get about eight shots for in one hour. OK. Wow. So it was very complicated a very you know a lot of logistics to get all this shot and so the the one shot in soaring over California where the where the the the fighter jet flies at you yes so our. Boys love that. The the pilots, the fighter pilot started 25 miles away from the helicopter. So he, they were on the radio and they would give the cue he would actually be 25 miles away

00:32:35when he, he started his, his flight and he hit his mark. They did that. They did that take 8 times. Oh. Wow, 7 times he hit the mark perfectly. He missed the eighth shot by a little over a second and that was the one that they used. They said that was the the best shot. So the one where he was on the mark, No good. So that was soaring over California so that I, as someone who who shoots video and like the logistics of all that I found out really fascinating, all that stuff. So a Bugs Land. So a bugs, I didn't realize this. I don't know why, but A Bugs

00:33:20Land wasn't a original opening attraction for California Adventure. Yeah, I didn't realize anything. So what was there was a a kind of like a you pick farm so you could go and like experience agriculture in as it is in California. And that's where a tough a tough to be a bug was there. So a tough to be a bug. The Bugs Land Show or a Bugs Life Show was an original opening attraction, but a Bugs Land wasn't. OK, I didn't do we didn't do a bugs tough to be a bug until Disney World. I didn't know it was in Disneyland. Yeah, so right after they opened, they they heard from guests right away that there

00:34:11wasn't enough to do for kids. Yeah. And so. And they took it away. Yeah, so during a pre opening tour of California Adventure, John Laster was there and they they were touring the, you know, DCA and they watched, you know, a tough to be a bug. And and so John Laster was like, wouldn't it be great if we were like shrunk down into his size of a bug? And he started talking about the, the immersive idea of being having a real life bugs land. And so they they that they're like, that's that's perfect. And so there wasn't multiple ideas. They're like, that's it, that's the one. We're going to do it.

00:34:57And so they opened that in 2002. So one year after California Adventure opened, they opened a Bugs Land. So sorry AG agriculture just wasn't wasn't fun enough. For well, yeah, like they needed more to do for little kids. And then we come to the Hyperion Theatre, which is in not how to say Tomorrowland, Hollywoodland and California adventure. And so they really fought hard. They like they wanted a like proper Broadway style. There's sirens going on outside. They wanted a proper Broadway style theater and so that they could do stage shows and be able to have that quality of entertainment at the parks 'cause they didn't have that before. And so they, they, they, they

00:36:02fought hard for that. And so Aladdin was the first the first show to be there. And so they they really fought hard to have a theater like that. And unfortunately it's still it's empty. Unfortunately. They don't use it. So they, the, the Imagineers were really, they're hinting hard like tell executives not to get rid of it because I think it's on the chopping block the way, the way that they made a sound. I don't. We've been talking about this in our TikTok room. The last show was Rogers the Musical. Rogers which was what, 20222322 or 2323?

00:36:46I think it was summer of 23. No Yes, yes, I think it was summer of 23. I what was I saying? OK, so we've been talking about this in our room a lot this week on our lives that there's the Hyperion Theatre, there's the whatever, the places where they had Dum Dum Dum, Captain EO and yes, that. Honey, I shrunk the audience. Honey, I shrunk the audience. There is nothing in there. There's also the place where they did the snow play area during that. Which was late. The last it was was an Avengers store. That's right. Yeah. And like, they have all of these places and that they could put a

00:37:40show. Hyperion Theater is a big theater. Like, why don't they do a show there? I don't understand. And like well. They've been cutting back on entertainment and performers. No, Justin, I have the window open. So yeah, you're probably hearing crickets and stuff. You might be going crazy. And I'm attached to the Hyperion Theatre because so 3/3 of I think 3 of my four years of high school, there was one year where we didn't go, but we had one year we actually had. We did like the music days in Disneyland. That was my freshman year. And in the other years, our

00:38:22actual choir festival was not at Disneyland. We went to like a high school somewhere in Anaheim. But we had our awards ceremony in the Hyperion that night where we won, oh, first place. And so I'm very attached to the Hyperion Theatre. It was like my senior year of high school. It was like, you know, the end of this thing, an era, if you will. And so I'm attached to the Hyperion Theatre because it was an awesome moment and I'm sad. And I think that they could just do so much there and then. We don't have that many shows. I know in Disneyland at the Disneyland Resort. So it wasn't this trip. You guys, where are those

00:39:13pictures? These are different trips. These are different choir trips. Can't find my senior year pictures. So that ended the the the first panel and so they brought in the second panel that helped reimagine California adventure as we know it today. So that included Kathy Magnum, who she. Was I love her. She I believe she was on the first panel. No, she wasn't. You know, I think you said that name before. Yeah, no, she was Kevin Rafferty, who is a creative director behind Cars Lands, Cars Land, the Radius, Braziers, Steve Davison, who is the entertainment visionary who

00:39:55created World of color, and Jeanette Longboy, the creative executive, creative leader behind Pixar Pier, Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers Campus. Emo O'Brien, a show producer who up shaped Cars land and contributed park to the park's Pixar air evolution, and Kathy Rogers, a creative producer who helped translate Pixar storytelling. It's immersive physical environments inside the park. So they didn't go really too much into Buena Vista St. because that the whole entrance of California Adventure was totally reimagined. And I, I mean, it's, it's like, it's sad for what they created and like the California letters and all that. But I, I've said it a billion

00:40:46times and I'll say it a billion more 'cause I repeat myself a lot, but I love California adventure. And once they redid it, like before that, it was like half day park. They had some fun things. I loved Sauron. I like the world of color. I love the world of color, but even California screaming got like old for me. Like I would I could take it or leave it at towards the end of it. Like it was a great roller coaster, but it was just a roller coaster. But when they reimagined it and so they brought so much more Disney into it. I just I absolutely love it. I love, you know, and Mickey and

00:41:29Minnie are like in their like 1920s, you know, costumes and, you know, they have like the jazz singers and they have like, it's just I love it. I love it, I think and. It still fits with the California dream idea. It's just they, they're now, you know, it's. Walt Disney it's. Walt Disney dream, you know, he had the dream of of starting animation studio with his brother and so he came out to California to start that and so. OK, hang on. I have a question for for for grim granny dads here who also has a podcast. You guys, Grim Granny dads, you say they're in the middle of an identity crisis. Would you say that Hollywood

00:42:07Studios is as well then? Because I kind of feel like Hollywood Studios is all over the place. There's Toy Story Land, there's Galaxy's Edge. I mean, you have Sunset Blvd., is that what it's called that going down by tower? It's just Hollywood studios in in Orlando. It's based around storytelling and movies and, and things like that. So having these different things makes sense because you have the, you know, the, you know, Toy Story land, which goes into, you know, you know, these movies, Star Wars, Toy Story. So then, tower terror. So then to me, the only thing that wouldn't quite make sense is Pixar Pier.

00:42:50But even that makes sense to me because it's a pier like in California, they just bring it Disney, just like Hollywood, CA. They make it Disney because it's when Walt Disney came. They make the San Francisco area, San Francisco from Big Hero 6. It's still California because it's like. It's tying in. San Francisco. But what Disney movie is kind of San Francisco? It's. Kind of, I mean, OK, Marvel through it kind of throws it off. Marvel throws it off. I will take, I will say that. Where's cars? Land Route 66. Leads to California.

00:43:31Yeah, going out West and you know that that whole idea. But yeah, the the marvel but. Marvel kind of throws. A wrench into. The whole thing, yeah, I see that. I can see that. So. So. Yeah. So they went into Pixar Pier. So they they took the, the existing bones of the pure, you know, Paradise Pier, which was known at the time, and they gave it a stronger character driven identity. So keeping the idea of the, the idea of the California, you know, peer amusement park because there was only like a handful in California at the time, but they're very nostalgic

00:44:17and, you know. Like the? Iconics in the 19, early 1900s, you know, era. And so they, they said, let's, let's throw a Disney spin on it. So they threw Pixar because it had so many good characters and, and identities along with that. And so they, they, when it came to California screaming, which is the, which is the roller, the iconic roller coaster that's, you know, on the pier, they didn't have an idea of, of what theme they wanted to give it. And so they were playing around with different music. They're like, well, you know, music changes a lot when it comes to comes to A to a ride. And so they call it using music as a thrill multiplier. And so they, they were thinking

00:45:16of like what, what Pixar movie has a great score and they immediately thought of Michael Giacchino, who is the composer of the Incredibles. And so they took California screaming and what they did, they just put the Incredibles theme on the ride when they were testing it out. And they just like, let's just try riding it with the incredible score on it. And they like they knew, they knew it like, oh, this is perfect. This is it. This is what we're gonna do. And so that's when they decided to read the in California screaming as the Incredi coaster. It's. So fantastic.

00:45:50It's I am. There have been times where I don't get to ride it for whatever reason, but it's one of my favorite rides. It went from being like it's OK to, I mean, it was a great roller coaster. It just was the roller coaster to being one of my favorite rides. I just, I love it. I love it so much. I think the way the the story they brought in with like the Incredibles and Jack Jack escaping so you're chasing Jack Jack is just, it's so fun. I just love it. Yeah, that's great. And so then we got to World of Color, which was pretty amazing. You know how this came about. So Steve Davison, who is the the

00:46:32Imagineer who is in charge of world of color. They, they knew they wanted something in the lagoon area of Paradise Pier or Pixar Pier. And the they originally, when they first built California venture, the original Imagineers knew they wanted to do something there, some type of night time show, but they are limited by budget. They like we want to do something here. So that's when it came back to where they built the park with ideas of expanding it in the future. So they built this lagoon there, but they didn't have the budget to do anything. So when I came to reimagine California Adventure, they knew they wanted to do something

00:47:10there. So, so they, they had different ideas that came before World of Color. They, they had other entertainment like they had the Eureka parade. Do you remember the Eureka parade? It was a California themed parade. I guess it didn't do very well. They had Iperian theater and then they had a Hollywood, I mean, a holiday show that was fireworks over the pier. So that kind of led the way into doing something there. And so they they kept pitching it, you know, to their bosses and to the next level and to the next level until they eventually reached Bob Iger, who was ACEO at the time of Disney.

00:48:01And they they were like confident, like this is going to be too expensive. They, they, there's no way that they're going to approve this because it's going to cost way too much money to develop all this technology for this fountain show that's never been done before. And they said after the presentation, Bob Iger was just quiet and he looked at them and said, when, when can we do this? And so they admitted, like, we never thought about when we could do it. We never knew like how long it's going to take because we didn't, we never thought it would get approved. And so, and they didn't know anything about fountains. So they conceptualized this idea

00:48:48of this fountain show when they didn't know how fountains worked or they can even do what they wanted to do. And so they had to go learn, invent and build new technology to build this nighttime show. So they had to think of new lighting methods, new movement systems of moving water, moving light. They had to figure out how to move fire. And, and so one signature effect they have, or is this, you've probably seen it where the, the laser shoots out in front of, of the water and it creates like these, these sheets of, of lasers this like this sheet of laser light that goes above the water. And that was done by accident. They're like, oh, that's cool,

00:49:41let's keep that. And so one of the one of the hardest things they had to figure out of all the technology that they invented for a word of color, the most difficult thing they had to invent was just figuring out how to get them the fountains to move up and down. So if you've been to California Adventure during the day, all the fountains are below the water. You don't see them. It's not until the afternoon and evening with the fountains raise up out of the water. They had to invent that technology. And they said that was the most difficult thing. Which is crazy. Like what you just put it like, you think it would just be like

00:50:25on a lift of some. Like, it's like, why would that be complicated when you think about all the other things they create for rides and shows And yeah. Yeah, so that that was that was pretty cool. Also, another little tidbit was that the this kind of goes back to the first panel, but when they built Grizzly River run the the Rapids ride. When you have a water ride like that, you have to store the water somewhere. You can't, the water's just not like recycled in the ride. You have to have a large, you know, you know, Bank of water to pull from. So that's one of the reasons why they also built the lagoon in Paradise Pier and Pixar Pier was

00:51:10that is the holding tank of water for Grizzly River Run. Now, is that the same? Is that the case also with like Splash Mountain to be honest? I don't think so because they don't need as much water. These grizzly. River Run uses a whole lot more. A lot of water. And so, so when So they have to because when you think about when they refurbish Grizzly River Run, they have to put that water somewhere 'cause they they empty out the ride and they have to put it. Right, like right now it's empty. Yeah, So that all that water when there, when there's refurbished and there's no water and it all goes to Paradise Pier or the to the lagoon.

00:51:55So they said when Grizzly River Run is in refurbishment, the lagoon is in high tide. When the when the Grizzly River Run is running, the lagoon is in low tide. So I thought that was just interesting. Well, Tiana's, you have the Rivers of America right there, so that's probably where they pull. From the water, right there it is right there. So then we got to cars land, which was really interesting, just like all the the parallels of this land and what it was originally going to be and how it shifted into what we know it to be now. So the, the, the imagineer who was in charge, Kevin Rafferty. So he started out at Disneyland

00:52:49as a dishwasher when he was a teenager. So he's been working at Disneyland most of his life. And so him and his friends, after their shifts, they would go, you know, back to their cars in the parking lot and just like sit in their cars and imagine, like, if you could build a ride, what would it be? And come, you know, decades later, he's an Imagineer and he's building rides in that parking lot where they would have, where they were first imagining, you know, what they would build. So where am I? So they started developing cars land before they even knew cars as a movie was being developed by Pixar. So they it was his boss came to

00:53:41him and said, I want you to think of a new ride at California adventure that could possibly be an anchor for a new land. And so he he, you know, was super excited about that. And so he started to just coming up with ideas and he landed on, you know, you know what, what is something that is well known or another, you know, idea around California that's really popular. And he came up with car culture. So car culture is really popular in California. Well, there is old cars, muscle cars, you know, all those, you know, race cars, all these different things. And so he wanted to be rooted in the 1955 to 1965 era of car culture.

00:54:29And he framed it, you know, as a, you know, as a way as like, you know, personal expression and freedom in that era and. American Graffiti. Yeah. And so he envisioned it as a 1950s Main Street you would go down. And so he, he wanted to be in the same like time frame as Disneyland. So when Disneyland opened in 1955, Main St. was the turn of the century Main Street, right. OK. So when California Adventure opened in the early 2000s, the the equivalent time frame would be the 19. 50s in the 50s, that's cool. So he wanted to have that time, that same like time that the same like time jump as similar

00:55:15to Disneyland. And so, you know, building that Main Street from the 1950s era, you know, idea of, you know, a road trip, car wash idea where, where the guests would be, you know, be in this ride. And so they'd be going through a car wash. And the people who are like in this restaurant could push buttons and interact with the ride as they go through a car wash. That would have been fun. I like that. And so it wasn't until he started developing this idea of car land. So not cars land, but car land. No S that it was one of the times John Lasseter was at the park and he's like, hey, we're developing this movie called

00:56:03Cars and they're like, that's perfect. We're developing a land called Car land. And so they they kind of joined forces and they came up with the idea of Radiator Springs Racers. Which is interesting because cars came out in 2005. Sounds about right, yeah. 2004 2005 was. Right before I moved but the land opened in what, 20/12/2013? Something like that and we'll look at, but I take that back, they actually conceptualized Radiator Springs Racers before they even knew cars. Came out 2000. It came out before 2008, 2006. They they came up the idea of Radiator Springs Racers before they knew about cars, so they wanted to do a car racing ride

00:56:59much similar to Yeah 2006 test track. Cars, Cars come around. Cars came out in 2006. I know because I was like, I moved out on my own that year and I watched it all the time. It was my comfort movie. OK, continue. So they, they imagined Radiator Springs Racers. It wasn't Radiator Springs Racers, but rides similar to that before they knew Cars was a movie. And so that's when John Laster, you know, got in touch with them like, hey, we're doing this right, this movie called Cars. And they're like, that's amazing. We're doing this land called Car Land. And so they, they threw the cars

00:57:41theming on there. They said that Racers ended up being about 97% the way that they conceived it originally before. Oh that's cool, they just added. They just added. The characters. The characters, pretty much. Such an amazing ride. And so so, yeah, so that's that's how, you know, Cards Land came to be. And so they actually did the same tour along Route 66. They, you know, they did a research tour tour. So what if you ever watch behind the scenes about cars, Pixar, the animators and the the writers, they went on a tour of Route 66 to learn about that area of the United States. And so the Imagineers did the

00:58:29same tour and which I didn't notice the sheriff in Cars was they met Pixar. Pixar met the the actor who does the sheriff is somebody that they met along the Route 66. That's amazing. Oh my gosh, I love that. And so, so he wasn't originally an actor. They just loved his voice, like, oh, you fit perfectly for what we're doing. And so the the the actor, you know, the person turned actor who plays the sheriff was the Imagineers tour guide along Route 66 to show them all the. Difficulties. That's cool. So now I want to watch. I love cars. Cars is the first. Cars are so good.

00:59:16The cars are so. Good. It's just so comfortable. We don't talk about cars too. We. Don't talk about. Cars too. And then we get to. We're almost done. We got two more things we get to. You're talking to the kids. We're almost done. Hang in there, guys. We're almost there. We're almost there. We're almost there and and we get to Tower of Terror. And so this one, you know, was tough for a lot of people. What do you mean? Why? Because it was reimagined to the Guardians of the Galaxy.

00:59:51Oh, oh, oh, you're so you're, you're talking about the reimag. You're not talking about when they decided to make it here. No, this is their reimagining of Tower of Terror. Tower of Terror. Tower of Terror into Guardians of the Galaxy mission breakout and so it this was who was the imagineer on this one? This was Jeanette Lomboy. Lomboy it. Does need who was Marilyn needs some love? Definitely. Who was in charge of She was told she was assigned to put Marvel into Disney's California Adventure immediately. They had to figure out a way to get Marvel into DCA. Calm down you guys immediately. Like chill out.

01:00:37And she had only been in the job a month. So she was, she was, you know, fresh. She had interned with Imagineers for a while. She was a production assistant. And so she was familiar. But this was like her first real Imagineer job. And so they they thought of different things like what could we do? They thought they originally considered Spider Man. Which they brought him in as a character. Eventually brought Spider Man in with Avengers campus but. Oh wait, but remember when he was like, in that little corner? Oh, that's right. Where you could meet him. But you know what?

01:01:11That Guardians may have already been Guardians at that point. I think it was OK. And so they, they were thinking, OK, what, where can we put Guardians or where, where could, what type of Marvel story could they put into California adventure easily? And so that's when they, they, the Jeanette and the other imagineer, there were big guardians, Guardians Galaxy friends. And so it what really turned them, what's the music? Because music, they, they all, they all kept emphasizing music. It really adds another element to a lot of these rides. And so this, you know, the Guardians Galaxy has a great soundtrack. And so they pitched it to Bob

01:01:58Weiss, who was, you know, the head of Imagineering, and he built Tower of Terror. And he gave the go ahead. And they said, can you do it in 15 months? Because Guardians Galaxy was coming out. And so they wanted to time the release of the ride with the movie, with the second movie, I believe it was the second movie. And so they said yes, but they didn't know how they were going to do it. And they thought themselves, well, if Walt could build Disneyland in the year, they can turn a already existing ride into something else. And so they were, they had 15 months to do it. And so while the ride was still running as Tower of Terror, they

01:02:48would program the new ride in the middle of the night. So they were testing it during the middle of night, just trying different combinations, different music, like would this work? Does that work? And so. How did they say how long 'cause I don't remember did they say how long it was closed? I don't remember, no. Wonder if I could find it 'cause I don't remember. I don't remember. I'm gonna look it up, see if I can figure it out. So, so, yeah, so they were, they were programming in the middle of night. They would write it multiple times in the middle of the night, she said.

01:03:24They would they, you know, Park would close, they would work on it. They would drive home at 3:00 AM and then start the next day. Oh my gosh. So then we get into Avengers Campus and so. Wait, hang on. I just have to say yeah. Which I mean, I've said it on the podcast before, but man, I wasn't happy. I'm not. I was not like I grew up watching the Twilight. Twilight Zone was before my time, but I loved Tower of Terror. I was not happy about them bringing Marvel into the park at all. I was like, this is Disney, get out of here.

01:04:03And I wasn't excited about it. Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout is one of the best rides I've ever been on in my life. It is, it is amazing. The music, the the thrill, it's. Just different. Yes, it is still a drop ride, but it is different. It is not the same. So I don't want to give any spoilers, but it's it's not the same. It's just it's different. And then when we were in Disney World in 24/20/24, you and I, we went on their Tower of Terror and I was like, Yep, this confirms it. Yeah, it's. Better. OK. You want a spoiler?

01:04:53I like if it didn't make me feel like I was. Yeah. And they chose to keep it. Yeah. And I, I, and you know, people in Disney World, they love it. But it it holds nothing to guardians. Guardians. Like, and you know, you know, if if you've been around for a minute, back in November, I was in California Adventure and Mr. Sprinkles was in Hollywood Studios and we did a battle on TikTok in front of Guardians and then Tower. He was in front of Tower and then we both wrote it and streamed side by side. You guys, it's just better. OK, Guardians mission breakout. If you want to spoil, yes.

01:05:46The drops, the drops are better, Aaron said. The drops are better in California, but the pre show is better in Florida. OK, I could see that. And well, and I will say the theming, not necessarily now because it's Guardians, it's not a hotel anymore. When it was Tower of Terror in California, the queue and the outside of the building in Disney World is better. It looks like a hotel. The queue, you get into the theme more. So the queue I think is better. Fun fact, Tower of Terror before it switched to Guardians in California is taller than Tower of Terror in Orlando. Mainly because when they isn't. That they talk about that on the

01:06:38imaginary behind the. Attraction because when they built Tower of Terror in Orlando, you have to, when a building gets to a certain height, you have to put a red light, a flashing red light on the top to warn airplanes because if they fly too low, they might run into it. So they didn't want to do that. So they kept it at a certain length height. So they didn't have to do that in California. They didn't worry about that. And so they made it taller. And so you actually, you know, drop farther in California than you do in Orlando. And OK, I just left, it was only closed for a little under 5 months. Oh wow, yeah, it's not very

01:07:18long, yeah, but yeah, if you want to spoil Guardians. Mission Breakout if you don't want to spoil, mute. Mute me if you're listening to the podcast. Turn it down, skip it, whatever you got to do. The best parts of Guardians Galaxy is that you don't slowly go up like Tower of Terror and then drop immediately when the ride starts. You get shot up full speed and then you drop. So you get your stomach goes down into your butt and then your stomach goes up into your throat when you drop. And the, it was because I remember the first time we wrote it thinking, oh, it's going to be the exact same. It's just going to be Guardians

01:08:04of the Galaxy. So that's what we're expecting. We're expecting like the story, because the story would go and it would talk about the hotel while you were slowly going up, at least in Disneyland and then. It's the worst. And so that's what we're expecting. And it was like a what? Also, if you go, I mean, you could ask, but you get in. When they put you to the elevator, you either go to one on the right or the left. You want the one on the right because not when you get the initially, like at the very beginning before you go into the room with the, what's his name, Rocket. No, not Rocket the like inventor guy.

01:09:00Oh gosh, what is his name? That guy, the collector, the collector guy, Yeah. If you get to the if you, they put you in the line to the right. You don't go upstairs to then get on the. The third there's two on the bottom. Wait, wait, what is it called though? It's not called an elevator anymore. What do they call it The? Gantry lift. The gantry lift so you don't go upstairs where the if you go to the left then you come out on the other side and you walk upstairs to go into a line. But if you don't go upstairs, the initial shoot up is bigger. It's better.

01:09:37It is better. It's not. It's not better because it's different. It's better. It's just because it's better. It's just it's more intense. It's more. Intense. It's. More intense and that the vibe is just different and more fun. The music's great and it's different every time you go. That's that's another thing. Every time you write it, it's different. Whereas Tower terror, terror, terror. You know what though? Someone told me that it was they do change it in Disney World. Is that accurate? Disney World friends?

01:10:09Anybody know that it changes a bit like the the way the drops move? Because I know when we went on it in Tower of Terror in 2024, I like barely around the butterflies. Yeah, it was kind of lame. And I was like, what in the world? What is this? Aaron, we agree to disagree anyways. So the last. Section. What? Yeah, I agree with you, friend, but that's OK. We don't have to agree, but we can still be friends. The last section that they went on talked about was Avengers Campus, which is one of the New Orleans or the newest land at

01:10:48California Adventure and they were 90% done. Like they were like 2 to three months away from opening the park. I remember this in 2019 they were closed. They had a date announced. Yeah, I remember I had a friend who had was planning on going. They had, yeah, reservations or they didn't have to have park reservations at the time, but I had a hotel and stuff. So in 2019, it was about to open about 2-3 months away and then COVID hit and the park closed. Whereas, you know, if you think about Disney World, Disney World was only closed for a couple months. So crazy. Disneyland was closed for over a year.

01:11:29And so when Disneyland closed, they, they talked about imagineers were just heartbroken because they were, they were ready to, to bring this land, the first new land in a long time to California Adventure. And they had to they placed the, the Quinn jet, the, the jet that's on top of the The Avengers building. They placed it and they said they everyone was crying because. They. Couldn't let people experience this because it was closed when they did that and so they had to weatherproof everything and then everything just sat for over a year. Sad. And so Avengers campus became the first land open when

01:12:16Disneyland Resort reopened 2021 and so and they're still expanding it. So as you know, they're. Yeah, they're. They're building 2 new rides. I'm excited. I think they're going to be, I think they're going to be really good from what they described at the D-23 couple years ago or a year ago or whatever. So I think they're. Going to be really good one is called Tony Stark's flight lab or Stark flight lab, which is you're you and another person are like in these chairs and a robotic arm takes you and it like spins you around. You're supposed to be like mimicking like being Iron Man and flying around and different things.

01:12:53And so that looks fun. And then the Big E Ticket Ride, which is supposed to be on the level of Rise of the Resistance, but Avengers. OK. So that'll be cool. Yeah, I think it's I'm really excited about it because I, I do like Avengers. I wasn't crazy about it coming to the parks, but I do like The Avengers and the the land I like like cuz the The Avengers music is really good. And so walking through hearing the music is good, but then you're kind of like. There's not a lot to do. There's. Not much to do. I like Pimp's Kitchen and I like Mission Breakout. I do like web singers.

01:13:35I just cannot do good at that ride. You always beat me. I just I can't figure it out. Yes, I do. Yeah. I do. I do well at that ride, not compared to the other. When you get off the right and they tell you the scores of the people that day and I'm like, Oh my gosh. Because you can get those power up items, you can get those like little like arm blasters, you like the the toys that like multiply your your points. So but anyways, that was the panel. That was it. They ended with Avengers campus. You know, they, they did mention like, because they, the, the

01:14:10imagineers that came in after the original imagineers, you know, they kind of like felt bad, like they redid everything that the original imagineers did. But they said that they, they always wanted to honor all those that came before us by doing their homework and respecting the work and the, the, and, you know, honoring that in the parks evolution and the spirit of the park. So they didn't want to just erase what the original Imagineers did, but wanted to, you know, plus it up and and still honor the work that they already did. So that was it. Well, that's cool. Yeah, I I love DCA. Do you have the pen that they?

01:14:53Yeah. So so all those that were that got to the panel got the the special pen sunglass shack. I do remember this. I remember the Sunglass Shack. And they got a special lanyard and there was another package to where you could go to the World of Color dessert party without having to to have a park ticket so they would take you in there. I didn't do that because we were already going to the park so. We had all our kids. Yeah, but but it was cool. It was neat. Yeah. I. Liked it, and the most important thing was that John Stamos wasn't there. He was on there and I didn't miss him.

01:15:31No Disney celebrities were there. I mean, I did miss him. He was there a few days after us, but like a week after us. But you know, oh, Justin, I got to go to bed. I got to be back in here at 5:30 in the morning. I'm just going to sleep. So. Actually, I could. I could just. Sleep. You could just sleep. I could just sleep. OK hit the live button. Good. I know I need a rope driving DCA more than Disneyland. It tends to be a quieter morning, yes. That's. True.

01:16:01I agree. Cody. Yes, I do need ice cream. Justin Absolutely so. That was. The OK Well, hang on, hang on, Aaron, don't go anywhere. That was the TCA panel. Hope you enjoyed it. Yes, I did. If you like this podcast, thank you and leave us a review wherever you're listening. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, leave a review. Spotify hit those five stars. We appreciate it and. We'll be back with something else I don't know. Yeah, we'll. We got to come up with something to talk about now. Talk about now I. Just need to go again.

01:16:39If you're listening on podcasts, we stream live on TikTok. If you're streaming live with us on TikTok, you can listen to this podcast tomorrow. So we appreciate all you that are here with us live. We appreciate all those of you that are listening us wherever you may be. You can find us on TikTok during the Disney podcast. We're also on IG if you want to follow us there. And yeah, until. Talk about something next time. Yeah. Until next time, talk to you later. Bye.