What do the kids say? They “low key” dropped a sonic charge into the latest video from Disney Parks Blog. Something like that.
In any case, an article celebrating the recent naming of Walt Disney Imagineering as a “Best Workplace for Innovators” highlighted recent work by their Imagineers.
Meanwhile, you might have missed the quick shot of a Imaginneer wielding a retractable lightsaber.
Right around the 43-second park, pause the video. A blue “real” lightsaber — the ubiquitous “Heroes'” blade wielded by Anakin, Luke, Rey, and Ben — extends.
Kevin Rafferty, Jr. of Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) explained, “Walt Disney Imagineering was selected as one of Fast Company’s 2021 Best Workplaces for Innovators. This honor recognizes companies that successfully foster cultures of innovation and encourage employees to discover, explore and invent.”
Star Wars Imagineering
As such, the video highlighted many of the Star Wars inclusions in the Disney Parks.
Those nods included:
- The Millennium Falcon at Galaxy’s Edge;
- Hondo Ohnaka animatronic from Smugglers Run;
- Stormtrooper animatronics, AT-ATs and trackless vehicles from Rise of the Resistance;
- And, of course, Luke’s lightsaber.
Numerous other spectacles, with special emphasis on the new wonders in Disney California Adventure’s Avengers Campus, showed up, too.
Anything Is Possible
Josh Gorin, leader of WDI’s Blue Sky and Creative Strategy told Rafferty:
[I]t is our challenge to apply both creative and technical skills to make that magical world come to life. We have to keep upping our game—that means innovation in storytelling and technology.”
In short, he added, “When people come to visit Disney, they want to enter a world where anything is possible.”
Accordingly, that’s why people work at WDI, thereby earning the shop top marks from Fast Company.
Finally, you came here for lightsabers, so check that out in the below video.
Bonus: Is that the Tron: Legacy soundtrack playing in the background of the vid?
