Walt Disney Imagineering

WED Enterprises (WED), was formed by movie mogul Walt Disney on December 16, 1952 to develop plans for a theme park and to manage Disney's personal assets. It was originally an independent, private company, owned by Walt Disney himself, but on February 3, 1965, was merged into Walt Disney Productions. It is currently known as Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI), Disney Imagineering, or simply Imagineering.

The new game

Walt Disney Imagineering is now the research and development arm of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, no longer a division of the Walt Disney Studios. WDI is not such a prominent part of The Walt Disney Company as it once was but is much better recognized in the R&D and theme park communities. The Walt Disney Imagineering corporate headquarters is located in Glendale, California, the building headquarters are located in the Disneyland Resort down the road in Anaheim, California, the financial headquarters are located at the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California, and there are WDI field offices in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, Tokyo, Japan, Paris, France and Hong Kong, China.

Related Topics:
Research and development - Walt Disney Parks and Resorts - Walt Disney Studios - The Walt Disney Company - Glendale, California - Disneyland Resort - Anaheim, California - Burbank, California - Lake Buena Vista, Florida - Tokyo - Japan - Paris - France - Hong Kong - China

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Current works

At the moment WDI are designing and building Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, in which plans include a Magic Kingdom-style park, two hotels and a major shopping complex.

Related Topics:
Hong Kong Disneyland Resort - Park

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WDI are also playing a major part in this year's Happiest Homecoming on Earth party celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of Disneyland - which would not have been built without the Imagineers. The Imagineers have also been hard at work restoring the much neglected Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room and rebuilding Space Mountain for the celebration, which are now greatly improved and are more popular than ever.

Related Topics:
Happiest Homecoming on Earth - Disneyland - Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room - Space Mountain

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The celebration also involves various resorts trading attractions, and a major party kicking the celebration off. Sleeping Beauty Castle, the symbol of Disneyland, has been decorated by the Imagineers (as has Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom).

Related Topics:
Sleeping Beauty Castle - Cinderella Castle - Magic Kingdom

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Funding

In the mid-1990s, major cuts were made in the Imagineers workforce, reducing it by half, from 3000 to about 1500 Imagineers - 75% working in Glendale. In the early 2000s, the R&D group was similarly decimated. Many Imagineers left due to lack of funding, which has slowly been reduced ever since the death of Roy O. Disney in 1971 - the last of the two founders.

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A prime example is Tokyo Disneysea in the Tokyo Disney Resort, which is not owned by The Walt Disney Company - although Disney collect profits from licenses, and allocate their Imagineers to build and design Tokyo Disney Resort parks. When Tokyo Disney Resort's owners, The Oriental Land Company, asked Disney to design a new park, Disney told the Imagineers to design whatever they wanted - as Disney were not paying the costs. The final result was a dramatic, stylized, exciting, modern but very Disney theme park which is the third most visited on Earth. At the very centre is the Mount Prometheus volcano, which inside contains a state-of-the-art ride based on Jules Verne's 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' novel.

Related Topics:
Tokyo Disneysea - Tokyo Disney Resort - The Walt Disney Company - The Oriental Land Company - Mount Prometheus - Volcano

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Then, look at the two latest American parks - both fully owned by Disney. Disney's Animal Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort and Disney's California Adventure at the Disneyland Resort both opened to poor reviews, due to hasty designs from the Imagineers who were working on a very tight budget. To be fair, both the parks have excellent rides which have been added to improve it, but at Gateway Pavilion, the entrance to either Disneyland Park or Disney's California Adventure - constantly a crowd are entering Disneyland while trickles of people go through DCA's gates. For a more detailed argument, see the 'Re-building Tomorrowland' link below.

Related Topics:
Disney's Animal Kingdom - Walt Disney World Resort - Disney's California Adventure - Disneyland Resort - Disneyland Park

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