Sunday, July 20, 2008

A Beautiful "Walkthrough" History...


I know many of you saw the news the other day...

When the Walt Disney Company announced that they were going to be bringing back an old classic attraction to go with an old classic movie.

This fall the "Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough" will return to the castle at Disneyland...

The original was open from 1959 to 1978, followed by an updated version that closed in 2002. It was great having the experience at the castle. I've always hated it being just a giant structure with a couple shops in it. Having the walkthrough was a way to make it an attraction and have it actually have some connection to the film. This is one case where the marketers and the Imagineers working together have come up with something very nice indeed. It also helps that Lasseter has been a great encourager on this project. He knows the value this is to the Disney company and its many fans...

Over at the Laughing Place website they've got some great shots of the presentation that was held during the NFFC 2008 convention at Disneyland's Opera House. What's best of all is that the article has several videos with interviews from Imagineers Tony Baxter, Chris Merritt and John Gritz. Great stuff. It's also funny to watch because in this element, these guys are rock stars... and it shows.

Check it out.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm very excited about this!

Those were some pretty cool videos over at Laughingplace.
Its great that guests who can't climb stairs will be able to experience it. and what's even cooler about that, a store will be leaving in the process!

The castle should have as few stores as possible.

Anonymous said...

I don’t consider this a collaboration with marketers and Imagineers. The reopening appears to be a result of a collaboration between Buena Vista DVD and Imagineering. I am very reluctant to attribute anything that results in any real creative success to any of Disney’s marketing as their efforts usually have a negative effect on creative integrity.

Anonymous said...

Is this going to be ongoing attraction? Or it something that they'll leave open for the forseeable future, or something that's only meant to live as long as the DVD promotion is going on? BTW, I'm not sure if I'm going to go Blu-Ray yet, but surely the release of Sleeping Beauty on Blu-Ray is a reason to think long and hard about doing it.

As Rick Dicker says in the Incredibles: "Money, money, money, money. We can't keep doing this, Bob."

Alas, the same reason I'm afraid I'll never get to see the Sleeping Beauty's Castle Walk-thru in person. Darn you, California! For being so far way and everything.