Earlier this week, Walt Disney Imagineering released the first installment of their new YouTube series, We Call It Imagineering. The new series offers an insight into the inner workings of Imagineering, with a heavy focus on the Audio-Animatronics of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in the first episode. In addition to that, a lot of fun easter eggs can be found throughout the episode that we wanted to highlight here.
The episode begins with an introduction from Josh D’Amaro, the Chairman of Disney Experiences. Josh is seen walking through Imagineering, past a number of discontinued animatronics. Below, you can see R-3X from the original Star Tours, Zazu from The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management, and a Tiki Bird.
Josh then walks past one of the old Abominable Snowman figures from the Matterhorn Bobsleds at Disneyland. Another one of these figures can actually still be seen at the Disneyland Resort, inside the queue for Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT.
Would you believe that the head located on the shelf is the Cher animatronic from the much-maligned Superstar Limo attraction, that called Disney California Adventure home for less than a year? A lot of the animatronics from that attraction were simply reskinned in CDA Agents for its replacement, Monsters Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue.
The episode then takes us all the way back to the development of Audio-Animatronics, with this delightful (and still working!) antique, mechanical singing bird that Walt Disney found on a trip to New Orleans in the late 1940s. This discovery sparked his fascination with three-dimensional animation, and after returning home to California, he tasked his Imagineers with dismantling the bird to learn how it worked — laying the groundwork for Audio-Animatronics figures.
Seen previously in the first image, we get a closer look at part of Davy Jones’ head from the extremely impressive animatronic featured in Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure at Shanghai Disneyland.
The main focus of the episode is on the incredibly impressive animatronics being created for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland. We get to see a lot of them, but special detail is given to the skinned-down version of Louis, showcasing just how impressive these figures are.
The animations for the figures are created within a computer and can be translated directly to the figure.
We also get a closer look at Byhalia the Beaver, one of the six members of the Zydeco band of critters that will be featured in the attraction.
The episode comes to a close with a message from Bruce Vaughn, Imagineering’s Chief Creative Officer. Behind him, you can see various stages of design for some Zootopia figures – including the dynamic robotic character of Duke Weaselton.
Watch the full first episode of We Call It Imagineering for yourself below.