Saturday, October 17, 2009

Leaving/Fleeing The Nest...


It appears that a couple of talented Imagineers are no longer at WDI...

Tim Delaney, one of their top Show Designers and Valerie Edwards, a Master Sculptor have left their vaulted positions in Imagineering. It's not known yet if they left on their own or were forced out.

I wish them luck in whatever new endeavors they encounter or pursue...

If you'd like to know more, here is an interview that Alain over at Disney and More did with Tim here.

Here is a Laughing Place interview with him here.

This is a piece on Valerie Edwards and her lovely talent as a sculptor here.

And lastly, an interview she did with D23 just last month here.

Enjoy and respect...

19 comments:

Icer Calles said...

WDI's loss. I truly hope that they left of their own accord, and either way that they find happiness continuing to use their talents.

Anonymous said...

"With the sun icon, I’ve been doing things - trying to create architectural gold is very difficult to do. So every time you paint it, it doesn’t look very inspiring and everything else fades away until we found titanium. Look at it, it has a gorgeous color to it. It’s a very rich, warm color. It has a kind of a timeless quality to it also. It will be timeless. It’s never going to change for the next 500 years. There are a lot of subtle colors to it. I’m hoping it becomes just as strong an icon for this park as the castle is for Disneyland."
- Tim Delaney in his LP interview.

500 years. Yep.

Anonymous said...

"I kind of design stuff from a marketing approach. That’s why you see the Golden Gate Bridge and the Sun, mouse ears, sun face and all that stuff because I know that’s what people want to see and it’s fun." - Tim Delaney, LP 2001.03.15

Anonymous said...

"I truly hope that they left of their own accord, and either way that they find happiness continuing to use their talents."

With the obvious push from Burbank to eliminate "old timers" from the payroll, I would highly doubt this was voluntary. The official Disney spin always parrots the "left voluntarily" explanation. But in reality, most folks are strong-armed into leaving before they're involuntary terminated, in order to stay in good graces for future contractual work.

Tim had been with WED/WDI for almost 35 years, so this comes as no surprise, given Marty Sklar's recent "retirement," as well as Wing Chao's and Ed Grier's. Tony Baxter celebrates his 40th anniversary with Imagineering this coming January, so I'm halfway expecting a similar announcement for him by the end of next summer. I also don't expect any "old school" Imagineers to be left in Glendale after Disneyland's 55th.

Best of wishes to Tim and Valerie outside WDI. Great artists whose attention to detail will sorely be missed.

Anonymous said...

Quoes from the anons say alot...

"500 years" and "that's what people want to see" eh?

What else did these peeps do? Is it really a loss?

Colorado Mommy said...

The younger they are the cheaper they work. Plus if they leave before retirement this too saves money. Kinda sad if they were pushed out.

spedneri said...

Delaney was apparently a significant part of the creative team behind Imagineering's very effective showing at the D23 Expo. He also lead the Discoveryland team for Disneyland Paris.

Edwards was apparently the one who ensured that all Disney related sculptures met the company's stringent character quality standards.

Confused? said...

hmmm.. don't know.

Anonymous said...

Yay! I love Discoveryland. That was some great work that, what, opened 17 years ago?

Anonymous said...

God, I hate Iger. He clears out the veterans and promotes a male who sits down to pee to run the movie studio. And THEN he puts those frickin Muppets in commercials to promote the parks, with Mickey noticeably absent.

Come on, stockholders! Get rid of this guy! Roy Disney, where are you when we need you?

MarkTwain said...

I don't like this news at all. There's no that all these veterans (Marty Sklar, Tim, and Valerie) retired within such a short time-frame. I suspect this has more to do with Rasulo than Iger, though. Either way, it's not a good sign when the people with the most experience are all leaving, and it's not the kind of transformation WDI is needing.

Anonymous said...

No doubt Tim Delaney's talents go far beyond what he achieved as the principal designer of original Paradise Pier, Sun Court, and Tiled Mural DCA entryway feature. It must be agonizing for a thoroughbred to be held back from running as fast as he can. 35 years working for the company, and too bad he'll be mostly remembered as the designer of three of the worst, ugliest, un-Disney major components of any Disney theme park. Ever. I feel bad for Tim Delaney. Good riddance, however, to three of the things that made DCA ver. 1.0 the most despised park Disney has ever opened. What will it take to fix the rest of the undesireable parts of the park that are untouched by the current make-over? More high powered WDI layoffs?

Anonymous said...

"DCA ver. 1.0 the most despised park Disney has ever opened."

Wrong. DCA is the second most despised park Disney has ever opened. The Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris wins by a mile. Truly the worst thing Disney ever built.

Anonymous said...

WDI's loss for sure. Tim had a great run, longer than most with many huge projects to be proud of. I for one, am sorry to see him go.

Anonymous said...

Tim was one of the Disney greats and should not be judged by DCA which was a project that forced many talented Imagineers to compromise or walk. Just look at the original Living Seas, Paris Discoveryland with the Jules Verne styled Space Mountain, Hong Kong's Tomorrowland and the original Space Pavilion intended for Epcot that one could argue SHOULD have been built.

I don't think he left on his own accord, instead he's probably the victim of today's political animal farm at Disney, which places higher value on conformity than imagination. Too bad for Disney. Even under Eisner, imagineers were allowed to think outside the bun.

Anonymous said...

"Enjoy and respect?"

What does that even mean?

It sounds like something from "Iron Chef" that was badly translated. Honor's writing gets worse and worse by the post.

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure about Tim, but I can contribute a few facts about Valeries departure.

So the new Lincoln head for "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" was outsourced. It was something that the core team did not want, however when R&D is giving you X amount of millions of dollars on a new AA head, they feel they have say over who sculpts.... Enter Mark McConville, a street performer from Universal Studios Hollywood... You know, those people who sit up in the windows on New York Street and act like they're New Yorkers and yell at the people below.

You might ask, what's that have to do with sculpting? Well, turns out he's friends with one of the guys at R&D. Some have said he's friends with Phil Jackson at R&D. If that's true, then Phil brought him in to sculpt Lincoln...

at :57 you can see Mark sculpting Lincoln...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdxMfRWHDqE&feature=player_embedded

Also, at D23, this new "sculptor" seemed to have another role... as PUSH the talking Trash Can.

Here he is performing "PUSH" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTtupOYaxEI
You can see him clearly at :29

On his myspace page, he bio reads: Mark McConville is an actor/improviser/musician based in Los Angeles, California. He honed his skills in Madison, Wisconsin, with the legendary and sadly defunct ComedySportz Madison in the late 90's. Currently, Mark is performing in several different improv and comedy groups in LA- Opening Night at IO West, ComedySportz LA, Mix at National Comedy Theater, Disney Entertainment Productions and more. Mark is also a contributor to Superego, America's premier absurdist podcast.

Weird, no mention of sculptor.

This is how WDI is now run. If you know somebody, you're in. Doesn't matter if you have talent. Doesn't matter if you've been there for 30 years. Doesn't matter if you knew John Hench and know Blaine Gibson...

And MarkTwain, you're right... This is a Rasulo thing! However, it's also an Iger thing. Bob doesn't care about the parks, he's too busy building his empire. The fact that Disney has a legacy and a following only annoys him further. And Rasulo doesn't care what happens in the parks, he's just wanting to make a few bucks. I have a friend who met him in the early 80's when he first came to Disneyland. She asked him what his favorite attraction was. His reply was "Disneyland's a cash cow, you milk her 'til she's dry."

So for Jay, it doesn't matter if he destroys everything in the process, he'll continue to push people out until WDI is built of people who are only looking at projects from a money point of view... No passion, no pride, no legacy.

Walt's name should be removed immediately from WDI's front door.

Spokker said...

If Bruce Gordon, who had Disney running through his veins, was fired by Disney, then no one's job at Imagineering is safe.

Anonymous said...

And MarkTwain, you're right... This is a Rasulo thing! However, it's also an Iger thing. Bob doesn't care about the parks, he's too busy building his empire. The fact that Disney has a legacy and a following only annoys him further. And Rasulo doesn't care what happens in the parks, he's just wanting to make a few bucks. I have a friend who met him in the early 80's when he first came to Disneyland. She asked him what his favorite attraction was. His reply was "Disneyland's a cash cow, you milk her 'til she's dry."

So for Jay, it doesn't matter if he destroys everything in the process, he'll continue to push people out until WDI is built of people who are only looking at projects from a money point of view... No passion, no pride, no legacy.


Excuse me?!

You wrong and you know that you're wrong!

QUIT THE BASHING, YOU HALF-WITS!!!