Creating Disney’s Fantasy World

Ever wonder how the robots, floats and other moving systems at Walt Disney World are built and operated? Answers lie not in fantasy and magic, but in the here and now -- in the real world of engineering.

Let’s pause to consider famous Disney attractions past and present. To create the statue of Zeus which turns its head to watch the Nine Muses perform, engineers from Walt Disney turned to the same fundamental technology used for decades in elevators and many other mechanical systems: hydraulics. To achieve movement in Zeus’ wrist, engineers borrowed a technology from the area of robotics, namely the linear actuator.

To bring life to Chernobog, the Disney demon that bursts from a mountain in the animated film, Fantasia, engineers applied computer-aided design (CAD) techniques and 3-D modeling. CAD is used today to design everything from running shoes to airplanes. And the Magical Fountain Monster, for many years the nemisis of Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse before its removal as a regular Disney attraction, was built with redundant systems, the basis of many of today’s engineered products.

While some of Disney’s robots and toy monsters might breathe smoke and fire, they certaintly did not appear from a puff of smoke out of some magical lanturn. Quite the contrary, they are the products of some highly developed engineering methods put into practice by trained and experienced professionals, who will be honored during National Engineers Week.

As Walt Disney World shows us, engineering is hardly a backroom function; rather a discipline which intersects daily in personal lives and can even warm a child’s heart.

###