Did You Know #6?

Here are some more interesting tidbits that you may not have known.

Beijing’s Temple of Heaven

The China Pavilion in EPCOT’s World Showcase was the last pavilion to be built for the park. It was going to be close because the the first sketch for the pavilion wasn’t even made until April 1981 which was only twenty months before opening day.

The Circle-Vision 360 theater for the pavilion was entered by guests from the quite elaborate recreation of Beijing’s Temple of Heaven. That structure dates back to the mid-1400s.

Wonders of China, the original title for the 360 degree film shown in the theater , was shot using the nine-camera rig that was originally created by Ub Iwerks. That rig weighed 396 pounds and was mounted on a Messerschmitt helicopter.

The Disney Company had to receive permission to shoot some of the locations for the film. There were 150 potential locations identified for the film and it took four months to shoot the film.

Among the places filmed were The Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Petal Palace, the Gobi Desert, Shanghai, Guilin, the Yangtze River gorges, the Harbin Ice Festival in Manchuria, the Peking Opera, and a few places in Tibet.

The film was updated in 1993 and with that update came the new name Reflections of China.

Zip-A-Dee-River Run

It was in the mid 1980s when imagineer Tony Baxter came up with the concept of a log flume ride he called the Zip-a-dee River Run. That concept became one of the very first project commitments of the Michael Eisner era.

The Zip-a-dee River Run evolved into Splash to promote theDVD release for the film of the same name…Splash. It was soon decided that the attraction would join its bretheren mountain attractions and became Splash Mountain.

What many people did not know was that Splash Mountain was the beginning of The Disney’s Company explosion of thrill rides around the world. To name a few there was Mount Rushmore in Walt Disney World’s Blizzard Beach Water Park; Expedition Everest in Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom Park; and Mount Prometheus, site of Journey to the Center of the Earth in Disney’s Tokyo DisneySea.

It took five years from first design and concept before Splash Mountain became a reality.

Star Tours and Captain EO

It was Michael Eisner who reached out to George Lucas regarding another concept that was brought to Eisner’s attention by Tony Baxter and fellow imagineer Tom Fitzgerald. This concept would eventually become Star Tours.

After some initial design and discussion it was estimated that it would take three years before Star Tours would open its doors to the public.

Eisner wanted to make the most of George Lucas’ creativity so he joined Lucas with Francis Ford Coppola to produce Captain EO. Oh yeah, he also enlisted a singer-dancer by the name of Michael Jackson to star in what would become a 3-D fantasy attraction.

This project seemed to develop rather quickly as it opened less than two years from the initial meeting with the imagineers. It opened on September 18, 1986 in Disneyland.

Eisner’s Impatience

Michael Eisner became known for his impatience with new theme park attraction development timeframes but many have said that Eisner’s instinct for what the public wanted was unmatched.

After Walt Disney World’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park opened and was proven to be a huge success Eisner challenged the imagineers to build a second water park.

What is somewhat of a typical Eisner story it seemed that three concepts were up for consideration and a big meeting was set up to have Eisner be presented with these three concepts. A meeting room was set up to have each wall covered with concept sketches of that particular concept. Presentations were scheduled for each but when Eisner entered the room he glanced at the walls with the sketches and in a matter of a few minutes he pointed to one in particular and said, “That’s it!”

Meeting over and Blizzard Beach would eventually be the second water park.

Imagineer in Chief

Michael Eisner was known to have many components contributing to his creative DNA. One component was known as the “Eisner Eye” and this unique part of Eisner allowed him to quickly review any concept and identify any holes which needed to be addressed to make the concept flawless.

For example when it came to the introduction of the3-D theater in Disney parks, there is the story that involved the design of Walt Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park and specifically it’s decided icon The Tree of Life.

Eisner wanted it to be more than just a visual statement and the decision was made to create a show inside the structure. Three capable imagineers, Tom Fitzgerald, Kevin Rafferty, and Joe Rhode threw several concepts at Michael Eisner but to no avail. At the concept meeting Eisner ducked out only to return in a few minutes, poke his head into the room and asked, “Do bugs live in trees?”

When the three imagineers replied, “Yes!” Eisner instructed Tom Fitzgerald to contacted John Lassetter who at the time was making the Pixar film It’s a Bug’s Life and as you may well imagine, this set off a number of actions which resulted in the 3-D show It’s Tough to Be a Bug.

But this was not to be any show as the imagineers spent hours designing 3-D effects and some special show effects including introducing the audience to an effect that is best to described as “odor-filled.”

The point here is that during the whole process Eisner had his hand on the design and development process.

To this point many people have felt that the “Eisner Eye” sort of made him “Imagineer in Chief” during his stint as the head of the Walt Disney Company.

Or perhaps he was channeling Walt Disney himself.

See you next time.