Disney World Secrets Revealed by Former Imagineer

The D23: The Ultimate Fan Event is only days away!

It’s taking place from August 9th through 11th in Anaheim, California and includes a whole heap of offerings like exhibitions, showcases, and special panels. But today, we got a special treat that’s directly related to the event. We’re talking about a recent interview with a former Imagineer that dropped a bunch of Disney World secrets!

As we said, the D23: The Ultimate Fan Event is less than a week away! It’s all going down from August 9th to the 11th and we couldn’t be more hyped for it. Quincy and Emma will be there bringing us all the big news Disney will be announcing!

In addition to all the sneak peeks and surprise announcements, we’ll also experience the the Disney Legends Award Ceremony.

How that ties into what we were saying is that one of the people who will be celebrated during the Legends Awards is former Imagineer and legend, Joe Rohde. Disney recently published an interview leading up to this event and in it, he shared a number of Disney World secrets.

First up, we’ve got to talk about Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Can you even imagine what the Disney World parks would be like without it? In our estimation, Joe played a HUGE role in bringing this pretty wild dream to life. He credits Michael Eisner with being the true source of the idea for Animal Kingdom and claims he was just one part of the team, the chief spokesperson for the project if you will.

Former Imagineer Joe Rohde poses for a photo during Animal Kingdom’s 20th anniversary celebration in 2018. [Chuck Schmidt]

He admits it wasn’t easy convincing folks that Animal Kingdom wasn’t going to be just “a big zoo.” He had to prove it could be done, and he definitely delivered. From all the intense research to designing the Tree of Life, it’s clear to see that Joe and his team redefined what a theme park could be. They focused on realism and photorealistic details, creating an experience that’s as educational as it is magical.

Now, let’s talk about Expedition Everest and Pandora – The World of Avatar. Joe has a special place in his heart for the Himalayas, and he said that working on Expedition Everest was like reliving his own adventures to the Himalayas. Joe talked about wandering around the nearly finished Everest attraction, and how it made him feel like he was back in the mountains.

He also shared this about the attraction, “One thing that nobody gets to do, and was a great memory, was to be inside the structural interior of the mountain while it was running. It’s a forest of gigantic pieces of steel—massive steel ride track columns and spiderwebs of architectural steel, like some science fiction cathedral. In a way it’s too bad guests can’t see that, because it’s very impressive.”

Now, about Pandora. Joe was initially terrified of this project and actually wrote “multiple memos” to the company advising against it. However, once he got into it, Pandora became one of his favorites. Working with Jon Landau and having long, deep conversations with James Cameron were some of his highlights. Speaking of the attractions there, he was blown away that the Na’vi River Journey “robotic shaman figure was capable of a deeper and more convincing psychological performance” than they had realized (which led them to do a complete script overhaul) and “that Avatar Flight of Passage was going to be a more emotional experience” than they had imagined.

Joe didn’t just work on creating parks and rides. He also was instrumental in establishing the Disney Conservation Fund. This wasn’t just a side project. He notes that it was essential for the legitimacy of Animal Kingdom. The fund has now given over $125 million to conservation efforts worldwide.

Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register/SCNG

Looking back at his 40 years at Walt Disney Imagineering, Joe hopes his legacy shows just how versatile Imagineers can be. He believes the work of Imagineers is the most complex and technically sophisticated art form in the world, deserving intellectual and technical sophistication.

Again, the D23: The Ultimate Fan Event is less than a week away and the Legends Award Ceremony is happening on August 11th. We can’t wait to learn more.

Keep following us here at All Ears for full coverage of d23!