The Disney+ original seriesBehind the Attractionpeels back the curtain to give a glimpse into the magic of Disney Parks, as it explores how Imagineers created, designed and developed various theme park attractions around the world. Over the course of 10 episodes (five of which are available now, and the remaining five will be out later this year), viewers will get to learn about current and previous attractions, with archival and never-before-seen footage and photographs, and see how they’ve been refined over the years as new ideas arise and technology evolves.
During this virtual interview with Collider, which you can both watch and read,Jeanette Lomboy(Vice President / Site Portfolio Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering) andDave Durham(Executive, Creative Ride Engineering, Walt Disney Imagineering) talked about their first Disney theme park experiences, what led them to working as an Imagineer, the accomplishments they’re most proud of, the attraction they wish they could bring back to experience again, and what it’s like to work somewhere that imagination is limitless.
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Collider: I absolutely love this series. I’m from Los Angeles, so Disneyland is my theme park and I’ve been going there since I was very young, have continued to go throughout my life, and now actually cover theme parks as part of my job. What was each of your first Disney theme park experience and when did you realize that there was so much more to it than just what you see?
JEANETTE LOMBOY: I actually grew up 10 minutes away from Disneyland. This is back in the day when we had the ticket books, so of course, it was a different level to get in. Disneyland was an extension of my backyard, practically. My parents loved to bring us in on the weekends, so it was the world in which I imagined things. To be here, as an Imagineer, I started wanting to be a Fantasyland girl when I was a little girl because I love that sense of wonder. And then, when I got into high school and realized, wait a second, there are people that design this stuff and build it? Why not just wanna be that? That’s when I realized Imagineering was a thing, and I wanted to be an Imagineer from that point forward. I’m so grateful, not only to be an Imagineer, but to be at Disneyland and overseeing what we do for Imagineering there. It’s pretty special.
DAVE DURHAM: Today, we have 12 parks around the world. When I was growing up, we only had one. We had Disneyland. And I was living back east, so that was the journey, to go out to California and experience a magical place. So, years later, when Disney World was built and we got to take our first trip down to Florida, that’s when it hit me that, wow, this is big. This is different. Somebody designed this. Somebody built this. I didn’t think in terms of who and how, but just the fact that somebody didn’t pour some water, plant a seed, and this thing grew. Somebody actually had to design and build this place. And then, as I dove deeper into it and understood the different disciplines involved and the interaction between the disciplines and the integration of the final product, that’s when I really realized this is not just magical for the final product, but this is amazing for the process also.
When did you guys set your sights on a career in Disney Imagineering? How did you know that was what you wanted to do and how did you actually set yourself on that path to make it happen?
LOMBOY: I was pretty singularly focused. I knew in high school. Amazingly, I did all of the things I set out to do. I wanted to be a Storybook Land/Fantasyland girl when I was a kid, and my senior in high school, I became the Storybook Land/Fantasyland that I dreamed of, but I even chose where to go to college because I wanted to still work at Disneyland. I thought that working in the parks would make me a better designer. So, I am so grateful. I feel so lucky to be in this role now. I know there are many Imagineers that have been in the same boat, but we Imagineers come from so many different walks of life and so many different perspectives. There are many Imagineers that are super talented and have never been to our parks, but fall in love and become a fan once they start working for us. My story is not unique because there are those of us that have loved it, our whole lives, and I’m that person. I feel so grateful to be that, but that’s not everyone and Imagineers come from everywhere, with all kinds of walks of life, to make the magic that you see today.
DURHAM: I went to school as an engineer, and after that, I owned my own software company, so I was very technical. But in looking more into making the attractions, I didn’t wanna go the engineering route. I wanted to go the creative route and be a concept designer. That was the leap for. It was about how to take that technical background and transition now into a creative path. I was able to do that and be successful, but because I also had the background in engineering, that meant that I got to play this liaison in-between type of role to help the creative group understand the technical, and to help the technical group understand the creative. That has helped me, during my career in Imagineering, to be this person in between.
Jeanette, since you oversee everything going on at the Disneyland Resort, what are you most proud of with your most recent opening of Avengers Campus and how guests are responding to that new land really in real time, as they’re experiencing it?
LOMBOY: There are so many things I am so proud of. Disneyland has reopened and we’re back and better than ever. There were so many classics that we got to refresh, like Snow White’s Enchanted Wish and Haunted Mansion and the Carousel. But Avengers Campus is near and dear to my heart and incredibly special. Imagineers do it, not just for who we were once, like for me as a little girl, but for our families, our friends, our loved ones, and our own children. My boys are huge fans of Spider-Man and the Avengers, and they wanted to be supeheroes. So, to take them through the land and for them to enjoy it, and to see Spider-Man flying through the air at crazy heights, and to see that look of wonder – although I will say they did not know that Spider-Man is a robot – I’m proud of that. I’m proud of us being able to do these things and take them to literally new heights. Something like Spider-Man, we didn’t know how we were gonna do that. It sounds crazy, the innovation behind that. That was all done internally with our R&D Imagineers. It’s just really phenomenal.
Dave, what about for you? Is there something that you’ve had a hand in that you’re most proud of?
DURHAM: I was able to work on Indiana Jones Adventure for Disneyland, when we were developing and opening it. I was the vehicle animator, so that’s the person who rides the vehicle and we set all of the motion for every bump and twist and turn. So, I have that world record for the most rides on that ride. That was great because you were helping to bring to life this adventure. We’ve seen the Indiana Jones movies and you wanna be in that world. Watching all of the disciplines come together to make this amazing snippet of an experience that puts me in the middle of a film, and knowing that I’m a part of it and I get to contribute my one part to that, and everybody’s part is critical and necessary, that was really cool. And then, to see the final thing and watch the guests come off and say, “That was amazing, let’s get back in line,” those are the types of moments that you cherish.
If there were no restrictions or impossibilities or space issues for making it happen, is there a ride or attraction no longer at one of the Disney theme parks that you would want to bring back to experience it again?
LOMBOY: Yes, Adventure Thru Inner Space. When I was a kid, you walked into that space and you saw the eyeball and you saw the shrinking, and that blew your mind. You actually thought you were shrinking down. Of course, it hasn’t been around for decades, but I would love to experience that again as an adult. Knowing, as a kid, the impact it had on me and how it just blew my mind, I’d love to ride that again, for sure.
DURHAM: That is a classic, and I also got to experience that one when it was open. I’m gonna go the other coast and say Horizons at Epcot. I loved that. I remember being there when it opened and just loving it. I was also on the design team that created Mission: Space, which was an attraction that was in the same location. There are plenty of attractions. This goes back to the comment of Walt Disney about how the park will never be finished, as long as there’s imagination left in the world. There’s always imagination and we’re always looking for opportunities to put new and different experiences in our parks. Sometimes that means something has to come out to make room for something new.
My heart is with the Country Bears, so I would bring them back to Disneyland. That way I wouldn’t have to go all the way to Disney World to see them.
DURHAM: Or to Tokyo, to see the ones there.
Do you have a favorite weird or wild thing that has been at a Disney theme park, at some point, that you are particularly fond of?
LOMBOY: There are so many weird, fantastical stories that go into making our attractions. For me, Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: Breakout! and bringing that one to life was just weird period, but in a really good way. It was like, “Here’s your mission statement. We have the second film coming out. It’s a year plus change. We know The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney California Adventure is a beloved attraction, but do you think you could make that work? And then, of course, there was all of the hilarity that ensued because of that. It was weird to think about doing that. I did every ride profile and multiple songs in the middle of the night, which I never recommend anyone do, but that’s the time we had to do it because it was the middle of the night and the park wasn’t operating. I think I went eight times straight once, which was a lot. We have all kinds of weird stories, so I don’t know if I could limit it to one. When you make impossible, crazy, amazing, wondrous things, a lot of weird comes out of it. Whether or not those stories have been told yet, and we’re just starting to do that, is the question, but there are so many.
DURHAM: The guest is experiencing Mission: Breakout! and it’s great ride, but we narrowed it down to the absolute best quintessential experience for the guests. As designers, we got to experience all of the things that didn’t quite work, which helped us narrow down the things that did work, but we had written so many different versions. Sometimes those are the quirky things and the things that the guests never sees, that didn’t quite pass our muster, but what’s still fun, for different reasons. The guests will never get to see that, but we hint at some of that. We let you look a little bit behind the curtain in the Behind the Attraction series, so hopefully you’ll get a sense for what that’s like.
There’s this running theme in these episodes that, if you may’t do the ride when you imagine it, just keep at it because eventually the technology will catch up. Is it fun to work somewhere where it really does feel like the imagination is limitless?
LOMBOY: Oh, yeah. I think Imagineers are greater as a sum then our individual parts. We are tasked to do the impossible. We do impossible things. Whenever someone comes to us and says, “Hey, do you think this is possible?,” we’re like, “Sure, we’ll try it.” As an example that’s not covered in the series, with Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, they were like, “Hey, do you think you could float mountains, 150 feet up in the air?” We were like, “We’ve never done that before. I don’t know, but we’ll think about it.” I don’t think there is anywhere else in the world quite like it, where we get asked to do crazy things and instead of saying, “No, that’s not possible,” we literally put people in a room and say, “How do we make that possible?” Because collectively we figure out a way to do it, that creates an extraordinary culture and it creates all of these extraordinary stories that we’re starting to talk about now. It is fun. It’s fun to do the impossible. I know it’s been said before, but it is 100% true.
DURHAM: And Imagineers are problem solvers. We love being given a challenge, but you don’t want just an open-ended challenge. Yes, anything is possible, absolutely and positively. But when all is said and done, we have to be able to make an experience that you actually get to walk through the door and have fun on. Part of the fun of the process is also whittling away from the everything is possible to the final quintessential experience that best summarizes what it’s like to fly through Pandora, or to escape with C-3PO and R2-D2. Those are the experiences that are part of the problem solving. It’s about, what is the nugget? What is the thing that best summarizes that experience? That’s a totally different type of challenge, but equally fun.
As someone who gets to cover theme parks, I appreciate the little glimpse of the magic that I get, and thank you guys for talking to me more about it.
