All language subtitles for How Disney Built America s01e06 The Marvelous World.eng

- [Narrator] From
high octane thrills

to high tech audio animatronics,

to the actual high seas.

Disney has always been
synonymous with innovation.

[riders screaming]

- Whether it be animation,
theme parks, or urban planning,

Disney is continuously
looking for

that frontier of innovation.

- [Narrator] For
more than 70 years,

the company has pushed the
boundaries of art and science

through the work of a team
known as the Imagineers.

- This is what we call our
Imagineering department.

- Imagineers are the
dreamers, the designers,

and builders of
Disney theme parks,

and resorts, and cruise lines.

- Imagineering is taking
story and technology

to where it's never been before.

- [Narrator] Since
the earliest days

with Walt at the studio...

- You can trace the
lineage of innovation,

all the way from the
introduction of sound

in Steamboat Willie.

- [Narrator] Disney artists,
and later, Imagineers,

have always turned
dreams into reality,

creating thrilling mass
entertainment experiences

and changing the
world in the process.

- Animatronics
isn't just advanced

for theme park entertainment.

This is advanced for the
robotics industry in general.

- Disney is continually
able to raise the bar

and do stuff no one else
would really try to do.

- Many of the things
that seem impossible now

will become realities tomorrow.

[dramatic music]

[pensive music]

- [Narrator] Throughout
the early 20th century,

one experience reigns as
the king of the carnival,

the rollercoaster.

- The rollercoaster
actually gets its start

with carts on tracks
that are used for mines.

We start getting some
real rollercoasters

towards the end of the century,

using a mechanism to
wheel the cart uphill,

maybe adding some up and
down components to it.

And people embrace it.

- The rollercoaster
becomes the centerpiece

of any self-respecting
amusement park.

- [Narrator] With one exception.

Disneyland Park opens its
gates on July 17th, 1955.

Yet of all the attractions at
the park on that first day,

not one of them is
a rollercoaster.

- When Disneyland opened,
it has zero thrill rides,

but that was very
purposeful of Walt.

- Walt is interested in the
immersion of the audience

into a story.

So, you can go on the rides that
recreate scenes from movies.

- [Narrator] Disneyland
Park was designed by Walt

and a small group of
animators, set builders,

and scenic painters he
recruited from his own studio,

the first Imagineers.

But shortly after
Disneyland opens,

Walt realizes his park
will almost always

need something new.

- When the young people

who started going to
Disneyland began to age,

Walt Disney had to keep
people in the park.

He was going to have
to add a thrill ride.

- And that's where we came
to the Matterhorn Bobsleds.

- [Narrator] In the
summer of 1958,

Walt finds final inspiration

for Disneyland's
first thrill ride

while working on an
entirely different project.

- The Matterhorn
came out of an idea

because Walt liked a
mountain on a movie set.

- The legendary story is he's
on a trip to visit the set

of a movie filming
in Switzerland

and he sees a postcard of
the Matterhorn Mountain,

and he writes on
it, "Build this,"

and mails it back
to the Imagineers.

And they get it and go, "Uh oh."

- [Narrator] At 147 feet tall,
the Disneyland Matterhorn

will be the tallest
structure at the park

at about 1/100th the size
of the real Swiss peak.

But building a massive
mountain from scratch

will take a lot of dirt.

Luckily, they have plenty.

- The Matterhorn starts out
as basically excavated dirt

that comes out of the moat

when the park is
first being built.

They just pile it
next to the castle.

So there is this tall hill.

- [Narrator] But
Walt has more in mind

than recreating an
iconic mountain peak.

- Walt said, "I wanna
put in a toboggan ride,"

but you can't have ice in
Anaheim in the summertime,

so we're gonna do
something with wheels.

We would start with
the shape of a mountain

and put rollercoaster
tracks on the inside of it.

- The Matterhorn wasn't about
creating a rollercoaster.

The Matterhorn was the means
to creating the experience

of going down the
mountain in a toboggan.

- It was a totally new,
unique idea that Walt wanted.

- [Narrator] Walt also throws

a few extra curves
at the Imagineers.

- Within the Matterhorn,
it's not just one coaster.

It's actually two
unique coaster tracks

interwoven within one another.

- They were designing the
most pretzel-like coaster

that's ever been done
before, with two tracks.

It was an impossible puzzle.

- That took a lot
of mathematics.

No computer, so I had
to teach myself the math

that I didn't get
taught in high school.

- [Narrator] The
Imagineering team

must finish the Matterhorn
Bobsleds by summer 1959,

giving them less than a year.

- We were given the
opening date in 1959.

The problem then
became there is no time

to build a track of
bolded plates to wood.

- [Narrator] Standard
rollercoasters

use railroad style tracks

composed of iron rails
on a wood structure.

- So we took a deep
breath and said,

well, bending pipe
is pretty easy.

- They used a tubular design
for the rollercoaster track

that went around the Matterhorn,

which was something
completely new at that time.

- Tubular steel rails
and polyurethane wheels

allow for banking and a
very smooth ride experience

so that you could feel as
though you're gliding over snow.

And this coincidentally becomes

the start of modern
rollercoasters.

- We accidentally invented
the pipe coaster industry,

but we didn't
think of it and say,

"We're going to
invent something."

We were pushed for time

and chose the material
that would go the quickest.

- [Narrator] Completing
the Matterhorn will require

over 2,000 steel girders, enough
lumber to build 27 houses,

and $1.5 million, equivalent
to nearly 16 million today.

The Imagineers manage
to finish the attraction

for its grand opening
in June 1959.

The Matterhorn Bobsleds
is an immediate success

with the crowds at
Disneyland Park.

- The Matterhorn was one
of the first rollercoasters

I felt brave enough to go on.

You would whip around
the corners so hard,

flying right alongside
the mountain.

[rider shouting]

That was wild.

It was thrilling and scary,
and like nothing else,

and it was ahead of its time.

- [Narrator] The success
of the Matterhorn

transforms the entire
rollercoaster industry.

- The Matterhorn became a
cornerstone of rollercoasters

within the theme park industry

because it set this whole new
standard for exhilaration.

- [Narrator] Today, there
are over 5,600 steel coasters

around the world that
can trace their origins

to Disney's Swiss
Mountain in California.

But 25 years after
the Matterhorn,

the Imagineers face
a new challenge

when it's time to add an
all new type of thrill

to Disneyland Park.

- Disneyland's not very big.

Every inch of it is spoken for.

Finding a spot for a new ride

takes a lot of shoehorning
and imagination.

But new technologies
start appearing,

and one of them is
motion simulators.

- [Narrator] Since the
early days of aviation,

training machines have helped
pilots hone their skill

before taking to the sky.

By the 1980s, these simulators
are hyper-realistic,

linking immersive imagery
with thrilling motion.

- Disney Imagineers
look at things

that were meant to
train pilots and say,

I bet that would make
one hell of a ride.

- It's the experience
of a rollercoaster,

but without that massive
real estate footprint.

- [Narrator] Now, the challenge
becomes finding a story

suited to the technology.

The search leads them to
a galaxy far, far away.

- George Lucas went to
Disneyland as a kid.

He looked up to Walt Disney,

he understood Walt
as a storyteller.

- [Narrator] The year after he
finishes Return of the Jedi,

George Lucas gets an offer
from Disney, not for a movie,

but to pitch new attractions
for Disney Parks.

- The Star Wars universe
offered the opportunity

to apply that
simulator technology

to develop the attraction
we now know as Star Tours.

- But you can't just take a
military grade flight simulator

and just use that.

So Imagineers have to tweak
it and have to change it a bit

so that it's creating
that immersion

that you are on a transport
flying into space.

- Light speed to Endor!

- [Adam] The craziest thing
is, the pilot is a droid.

- There may be some
turbulence up ahead.

Make sure your
seatbelts are fastened.

- And he turns around
and talks to you

and tells you what
to do and to hold on.

- I'm still getting
used to my programming!

- Crazier still,
the C-3PO and R2-D2

that were used in Star
Tours were actual remnants

from the original trilogy

that were outfitted
with animatronics.

So you're really in the movie.

- [Narrator] After nearly
three years and $32 million,

almost double the
amount Walt spent

building the entire
park in 1955,

Star Tours opens in early 1987.

- [C-3PO] Today is the
grand opening of Star Tours.

- The opening day
was a media event

that captured the entire world.

- This was something that no
one had ever even imagined,

let alone seen before.

This is an extraordinary
evolution of technology.

- I loved it.

- It was just the best.

It was so good.

- [Narrator] Star Tours
is a blockbuster hit,

[Chewbacca roars]

creating an entire industry
of motion simulator rides.

- Today, motion simulator
rides are everywhere.

- [Narrator] But the biggest
innovators in the field

remain the company that
started the craze, Disney.

- Attractions at Disney

are this beautiful,
seamless hybrid

of technology and engineering

that ultimately result in
a one of a kind experience.

That's Disney magic.

- [Narrator] After Walt Disney
dropped a snowy mountain

in sun-soaked Anaheim, he again
reaches for the impossible.

But while one of his
next projects starts

as a Polynesian
restaurant concept,

it will end up creating
a radical evolution

in theme park technology.

- There's many mythologies,

but the story that I've always
heard about the Tiki Room

was one of the top,
original Imagineers

was developing a restaurant
that would be in Disneyland.

- [Narrator] Hawaii became
an official American state

in 1959,

and the allure of this
vacation destination

sparks a post-war island craze.

Hoping to pay homage, Walt
has the Imagineers draw plans

for an enchanted, tropical,
bird-themed restaurant.

- The original concept
for the Tiki Room

was to bring people
into a serenade

where birds entertain
guests as they were eating.

- The Imagineers famously
wanted live birds

without really considering
the impact of live birds

in the ceiling, above your food.

- And Walt thought,
that's a terrible idea.

And the Imagineers
said, "Oh, no, no, no,

the birds are gonna be
mechanical birds that sing."

- [Narrator] With this
idea, an entirely new field

of theme park entertainment
is born, audio animatronics.

A term coined by Walt, combining
animation and electronics.

To make Walt's singing
birds a reality,

the Imagineers turn to a
new technology, computers.

- [Reporter] The
machines are here.

Automation of the
office can be a reality.

- In the mid 20th century,
computers are massive,

and within that
massive computer,

we have magnetic tapes,

and those can store
a simple command

that's going to be repeated.

- [Narrator] In the
midst of the Cold War,

computers are being integrated

into America's nuclear
defense network.

But Walt has a very different
use for the technology.

- ♪ Memories

- No.

- You should see my
dance, it is even worse.

- Disney was using something
that was meant to control

nuclear weapons and
nuclear submarines

to make birds sing
in the Tiki Room.

- [Narrator] The advanced
computer signals pneumatic tubes

controlling the movement of some
120 audio animatronics figures,

including birds, flowers,

and enchanted tikis
in sync with music.

In the summer of 1963, Walt
Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room

opens to the public,

not as a restaurant,
but as an attraction.

- Jose, wake up, it's showtime.

- Oh, buenos dias, senorita.

- [Narrator] Walt Disney's
Enchanted Tiki Room

becomes a hit for Disneyland.

- You gotta think about

how guests must have felt
back in the early 1960s

when they walked into
the Enchanted Tiki Room.

It was magic on a scale which
they hadn't seen before.

[birds singing]

- This futuristic technology

is mind blowing
for the audience.

This was really a game
changer at that time.

[upbeat music]
[birds singing]

- [Narrator] Walt's confidence
in the storytelling

possibilities of audio
animatronics technology

gets him dreaming even bigger.

- He saw what he could do
with the Tiki Room birds,

and he thought, how
could we apply this

to all different
types of animals,

and more importantly, humans?

- But there's a huge
difference between

making something you'll
accept as a singing bird

versus something you'll
accept as a full blown human.

- I didn't know anything
about human physiology

and I had to figure out,

where are we gonna
put all the bearings

and moves and everything.

- Robert Moses was in charge
of the New York World's Fair.

He came out to the studio,

saw what Walt was doing with
his audio animatronic and said,

"You know, Walt, we need
this at the World's Fair."

- [Narrator] Now, the Imagineers
have less than two years

to perfect a realistic,
human audio animatronic

for the millions
expected to attend

the 1964-1965 New
York World's Fair.

And it won't be just any
human they're building.

Walt challenges his
team to create a figure

that looks and sounds

like one of America's
greatest leaders.

- Walt Disney had a
great respect and love

for Abraham Lincoln.

He was known to dress up like
Abraham Lincoln as a child,

reciting the Gettysburg Address.

- But everybody knew what
Abraham Lincoln looked like.

He was on the $5 bill, so
he knew he had to make sure

that the animatronic took
on the same characteristics,

the same personality, the same
movements of Abraham Lincoln.

- And that led to all
of these new challenges.

How do you make
skin for a person?

So they were experimenting
with new kind of plastics,

trying to sculpt a face of
Lincoln and bring that to life.

It was a monumental task.

- After about a year, we
were trying to get Lincoln

to work correctly and
get up out of a chair.

- But he sat down violently

and just smashed the
seat to smithereens.

- Walt was very upset.

We were a year behind,

and he pointed to
the figure and said,

make twice as many parts
and half as much weight.

- That alone is a challenge.

He's not perched on a branch
where you can run the wires.

Everything has to be
contained in this human form.

- So I combined
lightweight steel tubing

with aircraft parts and
it becomes the structure

for the President of
the United States.

- [Narrator] To ensure
Lincoln's gestures

were believably human,

the Imagineers also
develop a precursor

to modern motion
capture technology.

- You had these
elaborate apparatus

that you would put on and
do all these movements,

which would be recorded onto
tape and then played back,

and the figure would then
repeat those actions.

- [Narrator] In
the spring of 1964,

Walt brings the completed
Lincoln 2,800 miles east

for the World's Fair.

- [Lincoln] Our reliance
is in the love of liberty.

- When people saw Abraham
Lincoln get up out of a chair

and move so humanlike,

people couldn't believe
what they were seeing.

- They were in awe,
stunned into silence.

There was a sense of
magic in the room.

- That was our first
big jumping point,

and we just kept on
going ever since.

- [Narrator] Over
the next few decades,

audio animatronics
technology is incorporated

in almost every major
Disney attraction.

- 60 years on from Lincoln,

animatronics isn't just for
theme park entertainment.

This is advanced for the
robotics industry in general.

- [Narrator] Today,
animatronic technology

can be seen everywhere,

creating an industry
worth billions.

- In giving all of these
wonderful characters life,

the line between fantasy and
reality is now forever blurred.

- [Narrator] From
the very beginning,

one of Disneyland park's
most popular attractions

is the Jungle Cruise.

Delighted audiences encounter
seemingly wild animals

from three different continents

in the span of
about eight minutes.

There's just one limitation.

- There's a predictability to it

because the animals
are not real.

- Walt Disney has
always been determined

to feature animals in his park,

as they have long held a
special place in his heart.

- Growing up on a farm
in Marceline, Missouri,

introduced to him a
lifelong love of animals.

- Walt Disney always said
the most fascinating person

he ever met was an animal.

- [Narrator] Walt originally
envisioned live animals

as part of the Jungle Cruise.

- But at the time,
they didn't know

how to display animals
safely and theatrically.

So the answer was, build
a mechanical figure.

- The mechanics for
these are very basic.

The giraffe, for example,
it's not a full giraffe.

It's only the neck and
head of the giraffe

hidden behind some
trees and bushes.

The hippos rise up
out of the water,

then it sinks back down.

These are repetitive,
cyclical motion figures.

- The Jungle Cruise became
one of the most iconic rides

at Disneyland.

But Walt always
wanted live animals.

[tense music]

- [Narrator] Although
Walt died in 1966,

his dream for a Disney park
with real animals lives on.

And in the early 1990s, a
new generation of Imagineers

turns back to Walt's
original vision,

but in an all new way,

at Florida's Walt
Disney World Resort.

- Imagineer, Joe Rohde,
took the challenge to heart

and formulated the
concept for a park

that put actual animals at
the center of an experience.

- [Narrator] Rohde calls
this new park concept,

"Disney's Animal Kingdom."

Designed to cover
some 580 acres,

it'll be the largest theme
park on Earth when completed.

But not everyone is on board.

- There was a lot of
controversy because,

well, how do you compete
with zoos, right?

- [Narrator] The concept
of wild animal parks

dates back to Ancient Egypt

where the elite kept
exotic menageries.

In the 18th century,

these private animal
collections evolved

into urban public
institutions called zoos.

- Zoos become public amusements,

but they are not
very nice places.

They're enclosed in cities.

There's no sense of a
natural environment.

You're seeing the
animals in a cage.

- [Narrator] The Imagineers
want to transform

that experience.

- Joe and his team had to
keep fighting for the idea

that we can find ways to get you

up close and
personal with animals

in ways you don't
get to see in a zoo.

- [Narrator] And to sell
his bosses on the idea,

Rohde makes a unique
boardroom pitch.

- There's the very famous story

of how he brought a Bengal
tiger into a conference room.

- The tiger just sat down

and all the executives
in the room shrank back,

and electricity went
through the room.

And Joe just quietly said,

"So, are there any of you
who still feel that animals

aren't compelling?"

And the issue was
never questioned again.

- [Narrator] In
the summer of 1995,

construction begins on
Disney's Animal Kingdom.

Now, the Imagineers have to
make their vision a reality.

- But how do you recreate
the African Savannah?

- [Narrator] To
answer the question,

Rohde and the crew work on
a centerpiece attraction

for their new park, that
will deliver the same thrill

as the original Jungle Cruise,
but with actual animals.

The Kilimanjaro safaris.

- They developed an
entire safari ride

where they really
wanted the animals

to be able to roam free.

The safety dividers
between you and the animals

are a little trench
in the ground

that the animal
can't leap across.

- It lets the animals
be the animals,

wild in an environment
that looks natural

and as good as it can be within
a controlled environment.

- [Narrator] But there's
another challenge.

How do you get the animals
to do what you want?

- Aside from the inherent
risk of having, you know,

my grandma, Gilda, interacting
with a Bengal tiger,

which is, you know,
not advisable,

you can't guarantee how
live animals will perform.

Will they be visible?

Will they be active?

- [Narrator] Imagineers
employ hidden food caches

and even underground air vents
that cool rock formations,

enticing animals to the
picture perfect spot for guests

on their Savannah Safari.

- It was all about
encouraging animals

to do what they naturally do,

but in the places where the
guests would see them doing it.

- Animal Kingdom is as closest

to going on a safari
trek that you can

without actually
going into the wild.

- And it was like the ultimate

behind the scenes
tour of nature.

Nowhere else could you see

that many ecosystems
in one place,

without enclosures, without
bars, no one else was doing it.

No one else could do it.

- [Narrator] Joe Rohde
and his team will spend

nearly $800 million to complete
Disney's Animal Kingdom.

- Animal Kingdom was immense.

It was 1,000 animals, over
2,000 species of plants

inside of it.

So the amount of effort to
accomplish something like that

was just huge.

- [Narrator] On
April 22nd, 1998,

Disney's Animal Kingdom
opens to the public.

- People thought no
one's gonna want to go

to a highly expensive zoo

or to travel great
distances to go to one.

And 30,000 people showed up.

They were overwhelmed,
at capacity by 9:00 AM.

- Animal Kingdom was
incredibly popular

and incredibly successful.

- Animal Kingdom is the
culmination of the dream

that Walt Disney had
with the Jungle Cruise.

- [Narrator] Today,
Disney's Animal Kingdom

hosts over 9 million
guests a year,

and the park's innovations
have set the standard

for accredited zoos and
aquariums worldwide.

- When you interact
with a wild animal,

you feel a greater sense of
being connected to this world,

and that's what Joe
Rohde and his team proved

with building a place
like Animal Kingdom.

- [Narrator] Since it
first opened in 1955,

Walt Disney and his Imagineers
have used Disneyland Park

as a laboratory for
trying out new ideas.

From immersive attractions, to
lifelike audio animatronics.

- [Lincoln] All men
are created equal.

- [Narrator] Over the years,
Walt also wanted Disneyland

to showcase one area of
innovation he was fond of.

Futuristic vehicles.

- Walt wanted the past,
present, and future

represented throughout the park.

So you have the
steamboat, the train,

and the Autopia Freeway system.

But there's nothing
for the future.

- The Imagineers were
incredibly talented

at recreating things
from the past,

but how do you create for a time

that hasn't come, with
no reference point?

- [Narrator] America
in the 1950s

is a nation in love
with the automobile.

- Cities start tearing down
their mass transit systems

because they believe the
automobile is the future.

- [Reporter] There will
be better automobiles

and better roads.

- [Narrator] But Walt
has a different idea.

- Everyone said it's
the automotive age,

and Walt Disney says no, the
future is more than the car.

- Walt Disney could
foresee the problems

of freeways and traffic,

and also the fact that we
were isolated in a car.

- [Narrator] Walt is searching

for the ideal transportation
of the future.

- In 1958, he and his wife

were driving in
Germany near Cologne.

At that moment, a vehicle
went right across the road

in the trees in front of them,

which looked like a loaf
of bread on a stick.

And you learned it
was called a monorail.

- A monorail, it either
hangs from a rail

or rides right on top of it.

- Monorails solved
many of the issues

that urban sprawl had with cars,

because it meant you could
go from A to B up in the sky,

away from ground traffic.

- [Narrator] But in the
car-crazy United States,

no one had seriously considered
building a monorail,

until now.

- Walt said, "This is
perfect for my Tomorrow."

- But he definitely wanted
to pizazz it up a little bit.

So he turned to Bob Gurr,
the young Imagineer.

- Walt brought me some
photographs and said,

"Bobby, I want you to get
started on ours right away."

- The important design
elements of the monorail

are the wheels on
top of the beam

and the wheels on
the side of the beam

that pair it and
keep it in place.

- Within a couple of days,

I came up with the
overall shape of it

from the Buck Rogers
cartoons in the 1930s,

and these two fins going
along the lower side

to hide the suspension
and the wheels.

And it made a good
looking monorail.

[dramatic music]

- [Narrator] Walt wants
every part of the monorail

to be a showcase of
advanced technology.

And with the monorail,

that extends to the composition
of the track itself.

Within a thin, 26 inch
wide single beam

of concrete and steel,

is a core made from styrofoam
to keep the track lightweight,

yet still strong enough
to hold the heavy train.

The first daily
operating monorail system

in the Western Hemisphere

officially opens on June
14th, 1959 at Disneyland Park.

- I mean, who wants to ride
a piece of transportation?

But when you went to Disneyland,

you really wanted to
ride the monorail.

- We live in the day and age now

where there are monorails
found all over the world,

from Seattle, to Newark,
New Jersey, Bangkok,

and Tokyo, and Seoul,

and yet the most iconic

and the one that really
pioneered the technology

and championed it, it's
at Disneyland Park.

- [Narrator] It's 1967.

Construction crews
are breaking ground

on Disney's most
ambitious project to date,

Walt Disney World Resort.

But for the first time, the
Imagineers must push forward

without Walt Disney.

- Now, you have 27,000 acres of
swampland in Central Florida,

and the guy whose vision it
was to build Disney World

isn't there to lead it.

- [Narrator] At the
heart of Walt's vision

for those vast acres
of Florida swampland

was a city of the future.

- Experimental Prototype
Community of Tomorrow, EPCOT.

This was gonna be a
futuristic expression

of all the technology
in modern America

condensed into this one city.

- And Walt's vision
of the future,

something that was
considered to be unsightly,

like delivery trucks,
put that underground.

- There's the monorail,

which might be a way that
people can get to work

without driving their
cars on the freeway.

- And he also had the idea

for a hotel tower of the future,
right in a heart of EPCOT.

- [Narrator] Although
Walt's death

halts the full
realization of EPCOT,

his cherished experimental
city of the future,

Disney's Imagineers
do seek to incorporate

many of his designs and goals

as part of what will become
Walt Disney World Resort.

Starting with a
transportation system

that will not just move
guests around the park,

but keep them in the
immersive world of Disney

for their entire
stay at the resort,

a system that Disney has
already been operating

successfully for nearly
a decade in California,

a monorail.

- Walt Disney World
takes the monorail,

which had been purely a function
of being a ride, you know,

sort of a viewing
platform in Disneyland,

but in Disney World,

it's an organic part
of the whole thing.

- Building a resort twice
the size of Manhattan,

one of the most important things
was gonna be transportation.

So the monorail became
the spine of travel

around Walt Disney World.

You could ride to the
park in your pajamas

straight from your
bedroom at the hotel.

- [Narrator] The
system will cover

nearly 15 miles of track
throughout the resort.

- The Walt Disney World monorail

was a much more advanced train.

It had to be totally
enclosed against rain,

it had to have air conditioning,

so it was quite a
complex train design.

- [Narrator] But
the biggest hurdle

will be connecting the monorail

to another of Walt Disney
World's signature structures,

a futuristic hotel called
Disney's Contemporary Resort.

- They took this daring,
sort of crazy step

of having the monorail
literally swoop

right into the
lobby of the hotel.

- When I first saw the
architectural drawings,

I thought, oh, boy, that's a
shockingly daring thing to do.

- The vibration of the
physical monorail structure

created a lot of problems

for the structure of
the contemporary hotel.

So the solution to that

was to literally decouple
these items from one another.

So you have the monorail
as a suspended structure

running right through the
middle of the building.

- The company wanted me
to take a seismograph

to demonstrate whether the
monorail shook the building.

So I drove 42 miles per
hour through that hotel,

and the seismograph
never saw a thing.

- [Narrator] The
monorail will link

the Magic Kingdom Theme Park
with the initial resort hotels,

skirting the perimeter
of an enormous,

200 acre, manmade body of water,

the creation of
which is the nation's

largest Earth moving operation
since the Hoover Dam,

the Seven Seas Lagoon.

- Now, originally they had plans

for several hotels around
Seven Seas Lagoon.

- And so the idea was doing
sort of global themes.

If we're gonna build a lagoon,

what if we had a hotel that was
themed around Venice, Italy?

What if we had a themed
hotel around Polynesia?

- [Narrator] Resort hotels
with Asian and Persian themes

were also part of
early concepts,

though only the Polynesian
and the contemporary

are ultimately built.

- They didn't want
just an ordinary hotel.

They wanted adventurous hotels.

- So if you stay once
at the Polynesian,

the next time, like,

"Oh, I've gotta go stay
at the Contemporary."

It had a way of saying,
"We gotta come back."

- [Narrator] It takes
more than four years

and costs approximately
$400 million

to finish Walt Disney World.

But it finally opens
on October 1st, 1971.

[energetic music]

The resort quickly
proves to be a triumph,

drawing 400,000 guests
within its first month.

- Ultimately, this 27,000 acres

of swampland has
gone on to become

the largest and single most
visited theme park destination

in the entire world.

- [Narrator] Walt Disney
World Resort's success

has given rise to a
theme resort industry,

now worth nearly $14 billion.

- Nowadays, we find
these all over the world,

but Disney World
was the first one.

- [Narrator] The
original innovations

Walt conceived for EPCOT and
realized by his Imagineers

remain icons that thrill
guests to this day.

- Like so many things in
the Walt Disney story,

the magic is, of course,
how did they do that?

And in this case, how did
they do it without Walt?

It's because this idea of
forever pushing forward

and that nothing is impossible

will always drive Disney
Imagineers to the next level.

- [Narrator] By the
1990s, Disney Imagineers

are taking on perhaps their
most daring challenge yet,

as they move the theme
park experience itself

from land to the sea.

- Ships were always
in the Disney DNA.

There was Mark Twain and
the Jungle Cruise ride,

and over time, Disney
kept playing around

with the idea of cruise ships.

- But for a company
that's been running parks

and making movies,

suddenly getting into
the cruise business,

this is a huge risk.

- The thinking was,

if we're gonna build
a Disney Cruise Line,

we're gonna use
everything we know

to build an experience that is
as delightful and as complete

on the water as your
adventure in the parks.

- [Narrator] But it
may be a challenge

to get their usual
guests on board.

At the time, the cruise industry

was anything but
family-friendly.

- You've got pleasure cruises

with entertainment
built into it.

We have the rise
of the love boat,

but this is very adult-oriented.

This is really more
Vegas on the water

than the family vacation.

- [Narrator] Despite
the challenges,

in early 1994,
Disney moves forward.

The opportunity, construct a
vessel unlike anything else

in the cruise industry,
starting with the look.

- Cruise ships in the '90s

were very sort of white and
modern and bold and clean,

and sort of a little futuristic.

The Imagineers all
agreed that a Disney ship

should feel more like
a fantasy experience.

- The style of the
Disney cruise ships

is meant to harken back

to the original
transatlantic steamers,

these beautiful, grand ships

taking you back into
the world of adventure.

- The Disney cruise
look is signature.

It has a big, fabulous hull.

It has smokestacks.

It's not unlike Main
Street at Disneyland.

This is a nostalgic idea.

- [Narrator] Although
the modern ship

only needs one smokestack,

the Imagineers include two
to complete the classic look.

And that's not the only
unique design choice.

- It was understood
by maritime law

that lifeboats have to be a
certain, exact shade of orange.

But they got the maritime
agencies to agree

that you could paint the
lifeboats Mickey's shoe yellow.

And so the whole ship
really is Mickey colors.

- [Narrator] After over
a year of planning,

Disney awards an Italian
ship builder the contract

to build the first
Disney cruise ships.

The shipyard has over
200 years of experience,

but they've never built
anything like this.

- There are rides and
attractions on the upper deck.

Things were implemented
on Disney ships

that never existed before,

like the first water
coaster at sea.

- [Narrator] Later,
Imagineers combine lighting,

special effects, and surprises

to create the first
attraction at sea,

featuring 760 feet of winding
tubes across the deck.

And that's just one of the
Cruise Line's notable firsts.

- State rooms on the
ships were 25% larger

than on any cruise
line before that.

And an entire deck is devoted

to spaces where kids can
have a space of their own.

- Disney was taking a
form of entertainment

that's geared towards adults,

turning it into something
that works for families.

- [Narrator] At 984
feet from stem to stern,

even the smallest
Disney cruise ship

is still longer than Disneyland
Park's Main Street USA.

- It's an amazing leap of faith,

to create a Disney Cruise Line.

But when has Disney
not taken on too much?

- [Narrator] Disney invests
hundreds of millions of dollars

into their new cruise ships,

each of which takes
years to complete.

But before any of
the ships set sail,

they add one last Disney
ingredient, characters.

- Making it oriented
to be family-friendly,

the cruise has also introduced

character experiences
for children.

- The Disney cruise isn't
about wearing a lei

and playing shuffleboard.

It's water slides,

breakfast where your favorite
Disney characters join you,

on the sea.

- And it all paid off.

The Disney Cruise Line
was an instant hit.

- [Narrator] Today,
the Disney Cruise Line

operates a fleet of five ships,

with three more on the way.

- The Disney Cruise
Line revolutionized

the way that the entire industry

started to look at
entertainment-based ships.

- [Narrator] Now, the majority
of the cruise industry

is following in Disney's wake

by catering to families too,

topping their decks with
racetracks, zip lines,

and surf pools.

- It's not uncommon to have

three generations of the
same family on a boat.

Cruise lines are trying
to find something

that will appeal to grandma
as much as the little kids.

- [Narrator] But it
was Disney's Imagineers

who first had the audacity
to take their family brand

on the high seas,

revolutionizing the
entire industry.

- [Adam] It's all about escape.

It's all about joy.

It's all about family.

- [Narrator] Thanks
to bold imagination

and the use of
state-of-the-art technology,

Disney's Imagineers have
consistently delivered

dazzling experiences that
have entertained audiences

for decades.

[riders screaming]

- These were brilliant,
genius designers

taking an ephemeral
idea and making it real.

- Today, the generation
of Imagineers

have continued to
build on the shoulders

that everybody that went before.

I am so proud that
the Imagineers today

have reached more pinnacles

of doing something
that is just so right.

- [Narrator] Today, the
Imagineers continue to innovate,

transforming not only Disney,
but the entire world.

- It's almost
impossible to imagine

what the world would be
like without Imagineering.

Beyond Disneyland, every time
you go to a museum today,

every time you go to a
resort or an airport,

it's so much more interesting,
thanks to Imagineering.

- The Imagineers at Disney
have always raised the bar

for what entertaining could
be, what storytelling can be.

Our world has been
changed forever

because nothing held
these Imagineers back.

- As long as there is
imagination left in the world,

Disneyland will
never be complete.

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