Forever Magical
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After this experience he moved out of landscape architecture and into design. Walt died shortly after.this and Baxter thought the Company would dissolve. He painted the lady who fed the birds in a watercolor from Mary Poppins to reflect his emotions. When Baxter met the Sherman Brothers he found that this was the exact scene that they connect with Walt Disney.
Of course, the Company did go on. The Haunted Mansion opened in 1969. They opened the attraction early for employees, however there was one condition - once you were on you couldn’t leave and it was a four hour shift. And he did see the famous hatbox ghost. It was located where bride is now and she was where the phantom piano is currently.
His next phase was getting into Walt Disney Imagineering. He used an upcoming feature called Island at the Top of the World to create another ride proposal. It was to go in the Motorboat Cruise/Autopia area. It had a dramatic Fantasyland quality to it. There were strange plants as you go through the queue, a kind of Journey to the Center of the Earth. Then guests discover the temple of Astergard and descend a waterfall into the interior of the temple. The attraction’s grand finale was dragon’s lair with crystals. He got the job at Imagineering and was shipped off to Florida to assist Imagineer Claude Coates on the 20,000 Leagues attraction.
When he came back there was not much for Imagineering to do since the Walt Disney World project was done. As Baxter put it "the goal was to be in a chair when the music stops." Baxter went to work on developing a Big Thunder Mountain model to show how it could work in conjunction with Western River Expedition show designed for Florida. However, Western River Expedition was very similar to the Pirates of the Caribbean and they decided to go with Pirates in Florida instead. So Baxter modified Big Thunder for Disneyland because the Mule Ride was garnering too many lawsuits and the Mine Train wasn’t well attended. Baxter explained the Disneyland attraction looks more like Bryce Canyon and allows it to have a more fanciful feel since it is so close to Fantasyland whereas Big Thunder Mountain in Florida is in the distance so they used Monument Valley as its reference.
Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland (left) and Walt
Disney World (right)
Next for Baxter came Discovery Bay. Baxter was still fascinated by Island at the Top of the World and had learned more about the movie and the airship. His concept was to enter the building and board a monorail suspended cable car that would look like it was the airship cabin. There was going to be a fireworks factory that would be a shooting gallery. When the fireworks were “hit” they would light up with animation. There was also going to be an elegant underwater restaurant of Blue Bayou quality with Captain Nemo serenading guests with organ music. They did a lot of work on these ideas at night after their regular job was over because he was so fascinated. They built models of the attraction’s interior and they envisioned the Island as a place that was still home to mythical animals like the Pegasus, Unicorn, Dragons and incorporated those images into the ride. The ride’s finale occurred when guests entered the Temple of Astergard. The airship gets too close to the volcano tossing guests into turbulent roller coaster ride finale due to volcanic gases.
At the end of the Discovery Bay project Baxter was moved over to Epcot. He designed Epcot’s Seabase Alpha. In the initial drawings a giant Poseidon animatronic greeted people at the entrance. Once he had the idea established they passed it to an artist who did a fabulous rendition. As Baxter explained, “we are a team and build on each other’s ideas.” Seabase Alpha was initially just a small segment of the Living Seas Pavilion. The pavilion also to have a Fantasia-like ride transforming from dark ride to entering the Seabase. It ended up being just the Seabase. As Baxter explained, "sometimes it is difficult to see (via concept art) all the ideas that tantalize."
Baxter explained that initially the Land pavilion was focusing on ecology but due to sponsors the pavilion moved more toward food. He showed the initial sketches which were for a beautiful crystal base. Baxter also worked on the Imagination pavilion which started one year late. Since the Land pavilion didn’t use the crystals, Baxter got to use the crystalline structure on Imagination. In that pavilion they created the stepping tone floor which evolved into the FAO Schwartz piano Tom Hanks danced on in Big as well as the dancing magical fountains which can now be found in various malls. Baxter is most proud of the Figment character. “Hopefully, “ Baxter remarked, “if the gods have their way he’ll be making a bigger appearance in the future.” Baxter also said Dreamfinder’s machine may appear near Goofy’s Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel at some point in the future.