Some of Disney Legend Joe Rohde’s most recognizable creations seem almost impossible: a massive Tree of Life rising over Disney’s Animal Kingdom, a Himalayan mountain housing an encounter with the legendary Yeti, and the floating mountains of Pandora hovering above guests as they enter another world.
But according to Rohde, creations like these are not the product of one particularly imaginative person. They happen because groups of people learn how to create together.
During “Floating Mountains: A Conversation with Joe Rohde” at D23, Rohde joined Lisa Cabello of Disney+ for a wide-ranging discussion about his upcoming book, Floating Mountains: The Art of Imagining the Impossible, his four decades with Walt Disney Imagineering, and the philosophy of collaboration that helped shape some of Disney’s most ambitious projects.
And although the conversation traveled everywhere from his childhood and early career to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Pandora – The World of Avatar, and the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, Rohde continually returned to one central idea:
Creativity is a group endeavor.
Becoming a Disney Legend
The conversation began with Rohde recalling the moment Bruce Vaughn informed him that he had been selected as a Disney Legend.
Rohde said he was shocked by the honor, but quickly redirected the recognition toward the people who had helped him throughout his career.
“You need people to believe in you,” Rohde said. “They are the ones who make you a legend.”
That philosophy carries directly into Floating Mountains. Rohde explained that when he first spoke with National Geographic about writing a book, he envisioned something similar to the ideas he regularly explores through his social media channels: creativity, travel, culture and the process of making things.
But he didn’t want to write another book centered solely on the individual creative genius.
Instead, Floating Mountains examines what happens when people create together—and how the strength of a collaborative group can elevate the individuals within it.
Learning to See Differently
Rohde traced some of his creative instincts back to childhood.
Both of his parents worked creatively. His father was a photographer who worked on productions including Planet of the Apes and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, while his mother was an actress. As a child, Rohde occasionally accompanied his father onto film sets, where he was able to wander through constructed environments and study them firsthand.
Those experiences introduced him early to the mechanics of illusion.
A set could appear completely convincing from one angle while revealing exactly how the illusion worked from another. That fascination with architecture, culture, detail, and artificial environments would eventually become foundational to Rohde’s work in themed entertainment.
His path there, however, was hardly straightforward.
Rohde described himself as a troublemaking student who struggled academically but remained fascinated by architecture and cultures around the world. Eventually, a theater teacher challenged him to design a set, apparently believing he couldn’t do it.
Rohde accepted the challenge—and discovered something he loved.
He later spent three years teaching, an experience he credits with shaping his philosophy of leadership. Teaching, he said, forces the teacher to become a student again.
“It’s not about what you know,” Rohde explained. A teacher must instead be empathetic enough to understand how different students learn and adapt accordingly.
That same principle would later influence how he led creative teams.
From a “Terrible Portfolio” to Imagineering
When Rohde applied to Walt Disney Imagineering, he joked that he assembled “a terrible portfolio.”
It was enough.
He found himself working in Imagineering’s model shop during the development of EPCOT, initially feeling considerably out of place among the other artists and designers.
What he could do, however, was rockwork.
That skill helped land him work on EPCOT’s Mexico pavilion and gave him a foothold within Imagineering. Determined to keep his job, Rohde continued taking on assignments, eventually moving on to additional projects at EPCOT and New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom.
At several points, he assumed the work was about to run out.
Then Tony Baxter selected him for the team developing the Indiana Jones Adventure.
“I owe my whole career to him,” Rohde said of Baxter.
What Marty Sklar Taught Him About Leadership
Another influential figure was Disney Legend Marty Sklar.
Rohde recalled Sklar emphasizing the importance of maintaining the shortest possible line of communication between people working on a creative project.
For creative work, Rohde explained, organizational structures should remain relatively flat. Every additional layer between the person communicating an idea and the person receiving it creates another opportunity for that idea to be misinterpreted.
A flat structure also allows team members to feel seen and recognized, which makes them more invested in the project.
Rohde compared Imagineering to a pot of water coming to a boil. For a long time, it may appear as though nothing is happening. Then a few bubbles emerge. Gradually, activity builds until suddenly the entire system is moving.
That, he said, is Imagineering.
Building Pandora Without a Creative Hierarchy
That philosophy became particularly important during the creation of Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Rohde recalled an early meeting for what would become Avatar Flight of Passage. Only six people were involved, and everyone entered the room on equal footing.
There were roles, but those roles did not define the value of the people filling them.
Team members might carry tremendous responsibility in one area while simultaneously handling a relatively minor task elsewhere. The structure helped reinforce the idea that no individual was inherently above another.
Rohde, for example, served as director for the film portion of Avatar Flight of Passage. But leadership, in his view, does not mean possessing every answer. You never know who will produce the next great idea, and creating an environment in which everyone can contribute makes those ideas far more likely to surface.
“Individual creativity doesn’t matter,” Rohde said. “It’s the collective group’s creativity that matters.”
Theme Comes Before Plot
Another principle Rohde repeatedly emphasized was the importance of theme.
Humans, he explained, are narrative creatures. But effective stories do not work simply because of their plots.
During the panel, Rohde demonstrated how Imagineers can take a central thematic idea and use it almost like a creative filter. Once everyone understands what a project is fundamentally trying to say, individual designers gain tremendous freedom to invent attractions, architecture, environments and details—as long as those ideas continue reinforcing the central theme.
“Stories work because of their theme—not their plot.”
For Disney’s Animal Kingdom, that theme is the intrinsic value of nature.
That is where collaboration can flourish without becoming chaotic.
How the Tree of Life Evolved
Rohde used the Tree of Life as an example of how ideas evolve through that process.
The icon did not spring fully formed from a single drawing.
It moved through iterations: an idea became a drawing, which became a model, which generated new discoveries and revisions.
One early concept envisioned the tree beneath a dome that would help support its enormous branching structure connected to a giant dome. As the team continued designing and modeling the icon, however, they discovered that the structural system behind the tree and its carved forms could accomplish what they needed without the dome.
The finished Tree of Life emerged through a cycle of creation, examination and revision.
That same willingness to challenge an idea—even after considerable work has already gone into it—is essential to the creative process.
Sometimes You Have to Challenge the System
Disney’s Animal Kingdom itself faced skepticism during development.
Rohde recalled that many people struggled to understand why live animals were essential to the proposed park.
So he brought a tiger to a meeting with then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner. He did not ask permission first.
The stunt made his argument rather difficult to ignore.
Rohde used the story to illustrate another aspect of creative organizations: sometimes people have to push against the structures surrounding them.
Creative enterprises naturally develop systems. Those systems grow, revise themselves and eventually begin protecting themselves.
Occasionally doing something without permission—even at the risk of getting into trouble—can prevent that system from becoming too rigid.
“You’re helping a system that would otherwise become too rigid,” Rohde explained.
Designing the Society of Explorers and Adventurers
That willingness to defy expectations also played into the development of what would eventually become Disney’s Society of Explorers and Adventurers, or S.E.A.
Rohde discussed the creative evolution that eventually produced the fictional organization and the larger interconnected mythology surrounding it.
At its heart, the concept challenged what guests expected from themed entertainment.
Guests understand, whether consciously or not, that Audio-Animatronics figures and show elements generally follow scripts. They perform predetermined actions and say predetermined things.
Rohde recalled encountering an experience in which a mask mounted on the wall of a club unexpectedly spoke directly to him, referencing something that had happened moments earlier in the real world.
The illusion suddenly appeared to know that he existed.
That disruption of expectation helped create something more powerful: a feeling of participation.
For Rohde, the larger S.E.A. mythology ultimately became a story about belonging and adventure—the idea that guests themselves could become part of something larger.
And that story is reinforced through details.
The Impossible Floating Mountains
Perhaps no project better illustrates Rohde’s philosophy than the title of his new book.
When the team began exploring how to bring Pandora’s floating mountains to life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Rohde admitted that he was one of the dissenters.
He didn’t believe they could do it.
The model makers kept working.
Eventually, the impossible became possible.
The phrase “floating mountains” carries several meanings for Rohde. It refers literally to the Imagineering illusion that allows enormous rock formations to appear suspended in the air. It also recalls mountains in the Himalayas that can appear to float above layers of cloud—simultaneously distant, enormous and somehow accessible.
But it also serves as a metaphor.
An impossible idea becomes achievable when enough people bring their individual abilities together.
Creativity Is Something We Do Together
That philosophy extends beyond Imagineering.
Rohde discussed his conservation work and his experiences with Dr. Jane Goodall, including the ongoing “Dr. Jane’s Dream” project in Tanzania.
One of the greatest obstacles facing an individual attempting something enormous, Rohde suggested, is simply the perception of being alone.
“The perception that you’re alone gives you the feeling that you can’t do it.”
Collaboration changes that equation.
Bring people together, pool their different abilities, and the group effectively becomes something larger than any of its members—an entirely new creative entity constructed from everyone participating in it.
It is a fitting philosophy for the man whose work helped create Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
The floating mountains may appear impossible.
The Tree of Life may seem impossible.
Entire worlds may seem impossible.
But perhaps that is because we tend to imagine one person attempting to build them.
Joe Rohde’s argument is something different:
Nobody has to imagine the impossible alone.
Floating Mountains: The Art of Imagining the Impossible goes on sale September 8th, 2026 but you can preorder it here!
Discover more from The DisInsider
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
