A new report from the Wall Street Journal takes an inside look at the past few years of Walt Disney Imagineering. As you may know, Walt Disney Imagineering is the creative branch of the theme parks and cruise line division of The Walt Disney Company. Originally an entirely separate entity, Imagineering still operates in secret, but the curtain has been pulled back in recent years. The division is in a bit of a comeback following a rough patch that included questions of leadership within the theme parks and cutbacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Walt Disney Imagineering’s Comeback
The story begins not with a $60 billion paycheck meant to turbocharge the theme parks and cruise lines, but rather, a decade ago, when then Chief Creative Executive Bruce Vaughn left Walt Disney Imagineering. It wasn’t long before Vaughn’s 2016 departure that there was another shakeup in the theme park division when Consumer Products President Bob Chapek was named Chairman of Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products.
Since 2016, Walt Disney Imagineering has experienced some amazing “wins” such as the creation of Pandora – The World of Avatar in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. That said, there has been an undeniable sentiment in the fan community that the quality of Imagineering’s projects has been on a downward slide. As it turns, out, it’s not just the fans that felt that way.
In the WSJ report, it is said that Bob Chapek focused intensely on getting Walt Disney Imagineering to stick to budgets and timelines. Chapek believed that Imagineering had been allowed to operate without the same discipline that the rest of the company operated with. It was an unwelcome culture shock for many Imagineers at the time.
Chapek replaced Vaughn with veteran Imagineer Bob Weis. Chapek also brought in new people to manage costs on WDI projects.
Weis, who retired from Imagineering in early 2023, wrote in his book that “Senior financial executives were visiting WDI daily, sitting down to approve or disapprove budget items, even tiny ones, line by line”.
Following the grand opening of Shanghai Disney, the size of Imagineering’s workforce shrunk, as was typical following big projects. However, the Shanghai scaleback was said to be somewhat unique in that many veteran Imagineers who had been there at least 20 years, were offered buyouts.
Not only did Imagineering lose a lot of experience in the post-Shanghai era, but it also lost a lot of trust. The WSJ report says that senior park executives didn’t trust that WDI could deliver projects on time and on budget.
The report says that several major Marvel attractions were killed as a result of the lack of confidence that park leadership had in WDI at the time. Proposals to update Disneyland’s Tomorrowland were also rejected.
Things got worse in 2020 when COVID-19 forced the shutdown of Disney theme parks worldwide and put a halt to construction. More than 400 Imagineers were laid off during this timeframe.
Following the COVID-19 cutbacks, Imagineering was informed that it would be relocating its headquarters from the iconic 1401 Flower Street address in Burbank, California, to Lake Nona, Florida. Plans filed with the state showed a sprawling campus and a massive shift for the theme park division of The Walt Disney Company.
By May 2023, Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro announced that Disney would be abandoning plans to move to Florida. A number of Imagineers left the company when the move was announced, and a number of Imagineers were put in a tough position after purchasing homes in Florida before the move was canceled. It was yet another turbulent time in Imagineering. Something needed to change.
In late 2022, it was announced that Bob Iger would return to Disney as CEO. Bob Chapek, who ascended from the theme park division chief to CEO, was out. While that was quite a public shakeup, Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro was reportedly working behind the scenes to work on improving morale within the Imagineering division. D’Amaro and Iger were planning on announcing a massive investment in the theme parks, but they needed Imagineering to be firing on all cylinders to turn ambitious plans into reality.
The WSJ report says that D’Amaro asked former Imagineering chief Bruce Vaughn out to lunch at a seafood restaurant in Orange County, California in early 2023. Vaughn said that he thought that he was going to be offering advice to D’Amaro, but D’Amaro had bigger plans. D’Amaro reportedly believed that Vaughn had the right mix of creative expertise, business acumen, and (perhaps most importantly) staff respect to lead Imagineering through this critical period.
By March 2023, it was announced that Bruce Vaughn would be returning to Walt Disney Imagineering. While his original role with Imagineering was to co-lead with Imagineer Barbara Bouza, Bouza left a year later, leaving Imagineering in the hands of Vaughn.
As Vaughn continues to lead Imagineering through this period of intense investment, he has already made changes that have improved morale. Vaughn has delegated power and resources to local Imagineering groups in Florida and overseas so that they can handle more of the work themselves. This also includes things such as designing models for new rides and lands, as well as fixing quality issues.
Vaughn has also brought back retired Imagineers to consult and guide the current crop of creatives. Vaughn is also said to be including colleagues from park operations, marketing, and pricing earlier in the creative process to ensure that everyone is aligned from the start of a project.
There is one more thing that Vaughn could be doing to increase morale at Walt Disney Imagineering, and this move might not happen so long as Bob Iger is at the helm. When Iger took over as CEO back in 2005, he had a mandate to focus on IP. Since then, Imagineers have created wonderful lands themed to Cars, Star Wars, Toy Story, and more, but they haven’t been allowed to create original stories at scale. Previous original stories created by Imagineering led to iconic attractions such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, and more.
In fact, former WDI President Barbara Bouza said, “At every all-hands meeting, I would be asked if we’d get to create new Imagineering original stories again”. There is clearly an appetite for original stories within Imagineering, but can Vaughn convince leadership that original stories have a place within the Disney theme parks when everything is driving by IP these days?
The report says that some Imagineers are viewing the upcoming Villains Land at Magic Kingdom as the closest that they’ll get to telling original stories again. The report says that the new land will feature characters from Snow White, Peter Pan, and Aladdin, but it will not be based on a specific film. This is as close to a win as the Imagineers have had in Disney’s domestic theme parks in some 20+ years, and we’re all waiting with bated breath to see what Vaughn and his team can deliver.
For everything we know about the upcoming Villains Land at Magic Kingdom, check out our dedicated Villains Land page below!
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