"So what are you going to do now?" "I'm going to Disneyland!"

My Disney Flickr Set



My friends convinced me to get a season pass to Disneyland, which I agreed to in large part due to the photo opportunities. Disneyland holds a unique place in American history and culture, a testament to American idealism, technical innovation, and artist vision, as well as excess, consumerism and tourism.



Now with the season pass I can visit this focal point of America, without the pressure to hit all the rides in a day, and take a step back to really observe my surrounding's in the happiest place on Earth.





One thing noticeably different since my last time to Disney Land, which was the high school senior class trip, is the inclusion of a lot more Pixar licensed displays and attractions. The Turtle Talk real-time interactive show, with CG characters having real dialog with kids in the audience, was particularly impressive to me.



This was accomplished with a premade animation tree controlled by an operator for the movements, a voice actor impersonating the character, an automated dummy lip sync, and some amazing rendering engine that could do dynamic lighting on a very large, high resolution display. It's not perfect, but it's well done and really shows a lot of potential. I'd never seen anything like it before.



Holographic displays of characters from Finding Nemo were also added to the remodeled Submarine Ride, which attracted a long line all day. Most of my photos from down there didn't turn out, but I'll try again next time.



I definitely have to hand it to Walt Disney. A man with a grandiose vision, who built under his meticulous oversight, and the design & craftsmanship of the Imagineering team, another world that would live on to attract millions of people from across America, and the world. I highly recommend watching some of the Disney Vault DVDs, several of which include footage of Disney in his own words as well as friends who knew him. Hearing him speak about his ideas, it's hard not feel the optimistic excitement he had for what the future would have in store for us.



Walt went to great length's to see his ideas realized, gathering the brightest minds, and artistic talents to his studios & workshops. Some of his educational films, were of significant cultural impact on events such as World War 2 and the space race. It's not all fun and fairy tales. Going into great detail is outside the scope of this blog, but the history of Disney is an interesting one.