From mobile apps to fortune-telling robots, Disney’s Imagineers are using digital technology to create unique, but very human, experiences across its theme parks. WORDS BY Cyrus Shahrad f you ever came face-to-face her fingers, an abundance of wires the place where technology and with Lucky, an eight-foot- concealed about her person to keep it creativity combine for a singular, tall animatronic dinosaur first tweeting and twitching. higher purpose – to tell stories. It is spotted in Disney theme parks And yet for all the progress made these stories that bring Walt Disney’s in 2005, you’re unlikely to have in the half century since Mary Poppins, world to life across 11 theme parks, one forgotten the experience. Lumbering Lucky is a character entirely in keeping town, three cruise ships, and dozens into view with thunderous feet and with the Disney ethos of employing of hotels, water parks, shopping malls, a friendly bellow, Lucky was able new technologies to engage one of our and sports complexes. to enact a complex series of interactions oldest instincts: The imagination. with both his human handler and Walt created the Imagineering nd yet animatronic individual audience members. The department in 1952 to oversee the characters like Lucky high-tech gadgetry that made this design and construction of Disneyland. are already considered magic happen was hidden in the flower Its history of innovations includes the relics from an earlier cart he dragged behind him. development of Audio-Animatronics age. For Imagineers, Though now retired, Lucky was (most famously in the Pirates of the the emphasis now is on creating entirely the first freestanding character of its Caribbean ride), the FastPass virtual autonomous agents that blend free- kind built by Imagineering – the arm line system, and a total-immersion roaming robotic bodies with artificial of Disney responsible for creating filmmaking technique known as ‘Circle- intelligence, giving birth to characters and maintaining the worlds within its Vision 360.’ Today, it acts as an R&D that are able to wander the parks parks. He represented an evolutionary center of excellence, working across telling stories, answering questions, leap from the tentative experiments areas including ride systems, special and generally ingratiating themselves in animatronics conducted by Uncle effects, interactive technology, live with awe-struck audience members. Walt himself, which culminated entertainment, fiber optics, and It may sound far-fetched, but the in a flustered Julie Andrews being advanced audio systems. first steps have already been taken. forced to sing ‘A Spoonful of Sugar’ But it’s not just a high-tech hub: Otto, an ‘automatronic’ robot, was with a robotic robin perched on Imagineering is Disney’s right brain, first aired at Disney’s annual expo THINK PLAY 53 by,” says Trowbridge. “Our guests are looking for us to deliver experiences that they can’t find anywhere else, and we use a lot of technology to make that happen. But as the curve of technology and the speed of its advance increases, so do our audience’s expectations, and we have to keep one step ahead of that curve, otherwise it’s no longer magical. “The benefit is that as those expectations rise and accelerate, so do the opportunities, and we’re unique in the level of advanced research and development that we put specifically into the entertainment space. But the speed with which we implement that research and get the results out there in front of audiences is increasing, and increasing dramatically.” ne of the recent challenges facing Imagineering has been rising to the expectations of a generation raised on immersive computer gaming. For many young people today, a story isn’t unfolding satisfactorily unless they feel individually involved. Disney Concept art for the Phineas and Ferb interactive experience has long championed the personal experience at its parks: Visitors return again and again to brush up against believable embodiments of characters in 2009, where he confounded audiences Destini, we had people peering under the they’ve known and loved for years. Yet with his lifelike mannerisms. A year booth, refusing to believe there wasn’t transforming those visitors from mere later, an autonomous fortune-telling a human somewhere behind the scenes spectators into characters in their own robot called Destini proved capable making him act the way he did. It got to right is a step the Imagineers are only of chatting and joking with visitors the point where we had to show people now finding themselves able to realize. while reading their futures – all without the computer screens that were actually “We will always be excellent story- a human handler in sight. displaying these characters’ decision- tellers, and there will always be people “The test stage is essential with making processes to prove that they who want stories told to them really characters like Otto and Destini,” says really were acting of their own accord.” well,” Trowbridge explains. “But Scott Trowbridge, Vice President But what seems amazing today will by using new technologies, we also of Research & Development at look mundane tomorrow. As advances want to give visitors the opportunity Imagineering. “Bringing them out in technology progress exponentially, to become active participants.” to engage with guests is a way of the Imagineers are having to work Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom measuring how convincing they are harder and faster than ever to keep up. at Disneyworld is a case in point. as personalities, and it helps “That famous Arthur C. Clarke Designed by Jonathan Ackley – whose develop those personalities through quote about any sufficiently advanced previous work at LucasArts saw him engagement with human visitors. We technology being indistinguishable build innovative roleplay environ- were amazed by the results: With from magic, that’s a mantra we live ments in computer games such as THINK PLAY 54 The Curse of Monkey Island – the has been limited, because there really experience begins at the Secret hasn’t been a way to manage and Sorcerers training center on Main effectively deliver a thousand different Street, where participants are told that stories at the same time. Now, through a host of Disney villains are threatening a combination of new technology and to take over the Magic Kingdom. “Our guests are looking creative innovations, we’re starting Those brave enough to volunteer their to offer our guests opportunities to services are given a map of mystic for experiences that they go deeper into the stories, and to play portals and five collectible spell cards can’t find anywhere a more active part in the way they unfold, before being dispatched on one or more which is interesting, because in doing 15-25-minute missions that combine else, and we use a lot of so we become less didactic storytellers elements of statistical role-play, technology to make that and more story predictors, and we find problem-solving, and treasure-hunting ourselves authoring story systems while exploring the park itself. happen. But as the curve rather than individual narratives.” It’s a clear instance of the Imagineers of technology increases, The technology involved remains reacting to changed expectations, and largely under wraps, but early play an example of how the company’s own so do expectations. tests of an experience called ‘Fortuna’ definition of ‘storytelling’ has been We have to keep one offered some idea of what may be in forced to evolve. Yet the real challenge, store. Fortuna saw visitors racing says Trowbridge, is creating a system step ahead of that around the park in a real-time search of stories in which no two visitors have curve, otherwise it’s for lost pirate gold, following clues and the same experience, and in which there solving riddles as they went. At certain are no fixed outcomes: Stories that are no longer magical.” points during the day, characters played written in real time through the actions by actors became involved – some of the participants themselves. trying to help guests; others trying to “Our ability to involve guests mislead them – and participants began in more detailed, personalized stories to work together, sharing information and solving problems in groups. What differentiates this from, say, Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom is that Fortuna was only partially scripted. Aided by story-generating computer software, the plot unfolded based on the decisions that players made as they went. “Fortuna was an experiment in understanding how we might write a new form of emergent fiction,” Trowbridge explains. “What we needed was a computer system to make the next step in anybody’s story feel natural and organic, with all the right pacing and dramatic arc to make it seem like it’s been expertly authored, even though it’s actually emerging in real time. That’s not that difficult if you’re doing it for one story, but it becomes really interesting – which is code for ‘hard’ – when you try to make it happen for hundreds of thousands of stories Otto the automatronic robot wowed audiences at Disney’s annual expo in 2009 with his convincing personality that all interact.” THINK PLAY 55 o f soaking up their surroundings or engaging with family and friends. By the same token, the company continues to develop cutting-edge animatronic characters to entertain visitors – from free-roaming creatures like Otto to the audio-animatronic Mr Potato Head bantering with audience members as they queue for Toy Story Midway Mania – but never at the Concept art and spell card for Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom expense of its human cast members, who Trowbridge insists remain at the And yet for all the futuristic promises heart of the Disney experience.