Guess what! Guess what! Brother got a letter from Walt Disney! Not the Walt Disney, of course, that would be scary... And not from the Audio Animatronics department in Imagineering either, but still, he got a letter from the Disney Company! He has added it to his collection of official letters from official places and put it right on top of his Lego letter.
They said they couldn't use our ideas for rides because they have to come from Imagineering itself. Boohoo, they are great ideas! But he got a packet that talks about how Imagineers got to be Imagineers. They also said they bet he'll be a famous Imagineer some day. I beat we will ALL be famous Imagineers! Mom too!
We just read on Twitter some great stuff about what Disneyland is going to do to Fantasyland. I wish they WOULD use our ideas! We have them because we would love to see them. When we looked at what Brother got from Disney, we got a great idea. Mom should be an Imagineer! After all, she was the one who started all the ideas for us, and then lets us grow our own. She is very creative. We have been on the news a few times over the summer because of creative fun stuff Mom has done. Really, she did it all because we are driving her NUTS, but still!
Isn't that exciting everyone!! YEAH!
Friday, August 19, 2011
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Jr. Imagineering Update
We are still Imagineering! We had a week and 1/2 of vacation but we didn't forget our goal. School will start soon too, Mom thinks we will go to a homeschool charter this year since we can't afford our old school and this way she can help us better. We will practice the homeschool stuff and all to see if we kids will actually follow along in homeschool. we might be a hand full for mom we are called double trouble around town for a good reason!
We borrowed a bunch of Disney Classic dvds from the library including a Chip & Dale dvd. Some are so classic that Chip has two front teeth and Dale doesn't talk at all. We have to think of the Chip and Dale ride for Critter Country, we don't have a story or anything. We thought up one of Chip and Dale, where you will ride around a forrest and look in at their tree house while they hunt for nuts, annoy Donald, and hide from Pluto.
We haven't heard back from Imagineering yet, but we are hoping we do! We sent two letters now, the second Brother sent one to Audio-Animatronics to ask for advice on where to start for the Mine Car dark ride cars. Also, we asked for a new map to Disneyland so we can draw all over it.
Our dark ride has a audio animatronic dwarf driving the individual mine cars through the mine. They need to look real, talk, and look around. They will have special pexiglass around them so no one gets into the mine where people can't see them and touch them. They could bite. We should program them to bite if a bad person tries to mess with them or tag them or look under their coats to pull their wires.
For our Ode to Walt Disney Railroad, we found the original maps for Disneyland had Edison Square to the right of Main Street going between Main Street and Tomorrowland. If they have anything backstage there, we are going to pretend to put everything underground like a Utilidor, and build on top of it the Ode to Walt Disney. The ride portion of this railroad needs a live, upperlevel view of the real Disneyland Railroad Depot. It also needs space for the model railroads, gallery and shopping. We are adding a retail line of Disneyland model railroad trains and parts. After Brother and Mom went to the National Model Railroad Convention, he really, really wants to buy a model train of his own. He wants to make a model monorail and people mover thingy too. Actually, Mom suggested it, and inventing model rollercoastering. She said, "Why don't we just invent model rollercoastering, where you make a model of a rollercoaster the same way you build a model train?" We think that's the best new idea for our project since we thought up Club Penguin Headquarters.
In a little bit, we will make an actual schedule and deadlines for our Imagineering projects, blogs and updates so everyone who likes to read this doesn't think we gave up.
We borrowed a bunch of Disney Classic dvds from the library including a Chip & Dale dvd. Some are so classic that Chip has two front teeth and Dale doesn't talk at all. We have to think of the Chip and Dale ride for Critter Country, we don't have a story or anything. We thought up one of Chip and Dale, where you will ride around a forrest and look in at their tree house while they hunt for nuts, annoy Donald, and hide from Pluto.
We haven't heard back from Imagineering yet, but we are hoping we do! We sent two letters now, the second Brother sent one to Audio-Animatronics to ask for advice on where to start for the Mine Car dark ride cars. Also, we asked for a new map to Disneyland so we can draw all over it.
Our dark ride has a audio animatronic dwarf driving the individual mine cars through the mine. They need to look real, talk, and look around. They will have special pexiglass around them so no one gets into the mine where people can't see them and touch them. They could bite. We should program them to bite if a bad person tries to mess with them or tag them or look under their coats to pull their wires.
For our Ode to Walt Disney Railroad, we found the original maps for Disneyland had Edison Square to the right of Main Street going between Main Street and Tomorrowland. If they have anything backstage there, we are going to pretend to put everything underground like a Utilidor, and build on top of it the Ode to Walt Disney. The ride portion of this railroad needs a live, upperlevel view of the real Disneyland Railroad Depot. It also needs space for the model railroads, gallery and shopping. We are adding a retail line of Disneyland model railroad trains and parts. After Brother and Mom went to the National Model Railroad Convention, he really, really wants to buy a model train of his own. He wants to make a model monorail and people mover thingy too. Actually, Mom suggested it, and inventing model rollercoastering. She said, "Why don't we just invent model rollercoastering, where you make a model of a rollercoaster the same way you build a model train?" We think that's the best new idea for our project since we thought up Club Penguin Headquarters.
In a little bit, we will make an actual schedule and deadlines for our Imagineering projects, blogs and updates so everyone who likes to read this doesn't think we gave up.
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
The National Model Train Convention
Over the weekend Mom and Brother went to the National Model Train Convention where they learned a lot about model trains and model making.
First, they wanted to check out the trains for our family Imagineering Ode to Walt Disney project. If you don't know, we are Imagineering stuff at home, pretending that we're making real rides and attractions for Disneyland. We are doing our own version of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Car ride smooshed between Fantasyland and Frontierland. We are doing an Ode To Walt Disney, which is a train depot and scale train ride that takes guests through the Carolwood Pacific and various Walt Disney Park's Railroads, along with model railroads of every Disney Park Railroad across the whole world.
To learn more about the train attraction, Brother and Mom went off to learn about model trains. Brother took charge and start asking all the vendors there if they had any Disney Railroad train models or the Bachmann Walt Disney's Carolwood Pacific set; which they found! Then Mom told brother they had no money to buy it and he was bummed, he looked hard for it!
Mom gave brother the flip camera to video tape models he thought were neat, and he took a good one of a very nice mountain, bridge, waterfall display at a booth selling model rock making kits. Mom and brother realized we all need to be learning this stuff if we're going to try and make real models in the garage of each of our attractions! We really need to figure how to make the mountain for our Mine Car ride.
Model trains will be the best bet for making the working models. While we finish up the storyboards, which are taking forever and then some, and Mom finishes up the stories for us, because she once wrote stories so she knows how to work my brother and my ideas in, we are going to start model railroading. Plus, Brother really wants his own model railroad set to play with after going to that convention, and Grandpa is super excited to help.
We are still working on getting that Mine Car story online as soon as we can, until then, that's all for now. I am up way to far past bedtime.
First, they wanted to check out the trains for our family Imagineering Ode to Walt Disney project. If you don't know, we are Imagineering stuff at home, pretending that we're making real rides and attractions for Disneyland. We are doing our own version of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Car ride smooshed between Fantasyland and Frontierland. We are doing an Ode To Walt Disney, which is a train depot and scale train ride that takes guests through the Carolwood Pacific and various Walt Disney Park's Railroads, along with model railroads of every Disney Park Railroad across the whole world.
To learn more about the train attraction, Brother and Mom went off to learn about model trains. Brother took charge and start asking all the vendors there if they had any Disney Railroad train models or the Bachmann Walt Disney's Carolwood Pacific set; which they found! Then Mom told brother they had no money to buy it and he was bummed, he looked hard for it!
Mom gave brother the flip camera to video tape models he thought were neat, and he took a good one of a very nice mountain, bridge, waterfall display at a booth selling model rock making kits. Mom and brother realized we all need to be learning this stuff if we're going to try and make real models in the garage of each of our attractions! We really need to figure how to make the mountain for our Mine Car ride.
Model trains will be the best bet for making the working models. While we finish up the storyboards, which are taking forever and then some, and Mom finishes up the stories for us, because she once wrote stories so she knows how to work my brother and my ideas in, we are going to start model railroading. Plus, Brother really wants his own model railroad set to play with after going to that convention, and Grandpa is super excited to help.
We are still working on getting that Mine Car story online as soon as we can, until then, that's all for now. I am up way to far past bedtime.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Storyboarding
We are storyboarding. Imagineers start their rides with a story, and work from there. We learned that Imagineers don't just come up with a story, but they make a big whole board full of drawings, stories, pictures and ideas to make an entire story for their ride or attraction. When they get their whole story down, they make a storyboard, and that storyboard helps them design the blueprint for the ride.
We had a story and all, but when were going to design the ride, we got stuck. It was hard to figure out just which way to make the ride turn and twist. Mom was helping us design the ride, but was having trouble. Then she realized that storyboarding was the answer. She has done these before. No, she has used these before, but not drawn them out herself. We are now drawing out a storyboard for our Snow White Mine Car/Mother Lode ride. We can tell you that it takes a very long time to actually draw out each little box with the story.
We're also coming up with a storyboard for the Ode to Walt Disney train depot, but we're focusing on the Snow White ride first. We will keep posting as we go along here. Now, I have to go so I can get back to drawing and drawing and drawing some more.
More to come!
We had a story and all, but when were going to design the ride, we got stuck. It was hard to figure out just which way to make the ride turn and twist. Mom was helping us design the ride, but was having trouble. Then she realized that storyboarding was the answer. She has done these before. No, she has used these before, but not drawn them out herself. We are now drawing out a storyboard for our Snow White Mine Car/Mother Lode ride. We can tell you that it takes a very long time to actually draw out each little box with the story.
We're also coming up with a storyboard for the Ode to Walt Disney train depot, but we're focusing on the Snow White ride first. We will keep posting as we go along here. Now, I have to go so I can get back to drawing and drawing and drawing some more.
More to come!
Monday, June 27, 2011
Letter To The Imagineers
Did we say we mailed a letter to Disney Imagineering already? We found the address on Disney's website. It was not the mail tube, because that is taking too long. It is a big long blank sheet of paper and it is making our heads spin, all that blankness. But it's all good. Mom is going nuts with it the poor lady. She is getting really into this!
We have the DVD's for Snow White, The Frog & The Princess and Disney's Melody Classics, and we have a long roll of tracing paper. We stopped Snow White where the dwarfs are in the mine and traced the mine onto the tracing paper, and we will move it over to the poster for Imagineering. Mom spent the weekend designing a queue line-that's Q U E U E, and she has written an actual script for the dwarfs in line. It is AWESOME! We kids are starting to think Mom is a real Imagineer. We couldn't figure out how to make a blueprint for the ride and got stuck, but Mom said this is where the storyboard and scripts come into play. She wrote stuff out, and made a story, then we copied onto the tracing paper and know what the mine will look like, and now the whole blueprint for the ride is coming together. The story tells us which way to go.
We ran out of battery for the Flip camera, but we are getting ready to make another video showing our Mother Lode ride off. It is looking cool. Brother has come up with some neat water parts to the mine, and we decided instead of only a few guests going through the Mother Lode, everyone will go through.
We picked a spot using our map from our one and only visit to Disneyland 2 years ago, and our Mine Mountain will go between Frontierland and Fantasyland towards the back of the park, where we see a little walkway. We really haven't seen if there is anything there that we would be designing this ride on top of or not, but that's okay, we're going ahead with it. With Mom's queue line, she has created a mountain that is for Fantasyland on one side, and Frontierland on the other. We added a Pecos Bill ride for Frontierland, and are making the rides share the mountain. We will use Disney magic to hide the mountain from each land, so no one realizes they are one mountain, but think they are two, and no one is aware that they are sharing the mountain or area.
The Pecos Bill ride came from watching Disney's Classics Melodies, and seemed a perfect ride for Disneyland. We are still reading the map to see where the Frog and Princess ride will go in New Orleans, we need a spot for the Tangled Tower, and we need to find out if ToonTown will still be around at Disneyland, to add a Steamboat Willie Ride. We are waiting for a Chip and Dale Classics DVD to come in from the library so we can start work on a Chip and Dale ride for Critter Country, and Mom is coming up with a Raccoon Ride and Fox & The Hound ride for Critter Country too. We just can't think of anything for Adventure Land.
We have found a spot for our Ode to Walt Disney Railroad ride and soon we will e-mail Michael Broggie to 'pick his brain' as Mom calls it. Ask questions, get answers, find advice, stuff like that. I, Sister, am drawing, painting and am in charge of art. Brother is building and in charge of robotics, and Mom is turning things into reality. We are having fun, and can't wait to hear back from Imagineering!
We have the DVD's for Snow White, The Frog & The Princess and Disney's Melody Classics, and we have a long roll of tracing paper. We stopped Snow White where the dwarfs are in the mine and traced the mine onto the tracing paper, and we will move it over to the poster for Imagineering. Mom spent the weekend designing a queue line-that's Q U E U E, and she has written an actual script for the dwarfs in line. It is AWESOME! We kids are starting to think Mom is a real Imagineer. We couldn't figure out how to make a blueprint for the ride and got stuck, but Mom said this is where the storyboard and scripts come into play. She wrote stuff out, and made a story, then we copied onto the tracing paper and know what the mine will look like, and now the whole blueprint for the ride is coming together. The story tells us which way to go.
We ran out of battery for the Flip camera, but we are getting ready to make another video showing our Mother Lode ride off. It is looking cool. Brother has come up with some neat water parts to the mine, and we decided instead of only a few guests going through the Mother Lode, everyone will go through.
We picked a spot using our map from our one and only visit to Disneyland 2 years ago, and our Mine Mountain will go between Frontierland and Fantasyland towards the back of the park, where we see a little walkway. We really haven't seen if there is anything there that we would be designing this ride on top of or not, but that's okay, we're going ahead with it. With Mom's queue line, she has created a mountain that is for Fantasyland on one side, and Frontierland on the other. We added a Pecos Bill ride for Frontierland, and are making the rides share the mountain. We will use Disney magic to hide the mountain from each land, so no one realizes they are one mountain, but think they are two, and no one is aware that they are sharing the mountain or area.
The Pecos Bill ride came from watching Disney's Classics Melodies, and seemed a perfect ride for Disneyland. We are still reading the map to see where the Frog and Princess ride will go in New Orleans, we need a spot for the Tangled Tower, and we need to find out if ToonTown will still be around at Disneyland, to add a Steamboat Willie Ride. We are waiting for a Chip and Dale Classics DVD to come in from the library so we can start work on a Chip and Dale ride for Critter Country, and Mom is coming up with a Raccoon Ride and Fox & The Hound ride for Critter Country too. We just can't think of anything for Adventure Land.
We have found a spot for our Ode to Walt Disney Railroad ride and soon we will e-mail Michael Broggie to 'pick his brain' as Mom calls it. Ask questions, get answers, find advice, stuff like that. I, Sister, am drawing, painting and am in charge of art. Brother is building and in charge of robotics, and Mom is turning things into reality. We are having fun, and can't wait to hear back from Imagineering!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Carolwood
Have you heard of the Carolwood Pacific Railroad Company? We hadn't until yesterday, catching some downtime between cousin playtime. Researching Walt Disney and railroads for our Imagineering project, we found this: http://www.carolwood.com/ and this: http://www.carolwood.org/.
We followed a link to this site, which talks about Walt Disney's barn, some call it the birth place of Disney Imagineering: http://ocresort.ocregister.com/2011/03/18/exploring-walt-disneys-steam-train-barn/72807/
This is pretty neat stuff, and we just can't wait to turn our projects into reality.
Our mail tube is getting done. It was hard to get started-a big long poster sheet of blank white paper was hard to work with. So much blankness, no one knew where to start. We have as many Disney Imagineering books as the library offers in our house, one due today, and we are finding lots of inspiration from them to get our white paper less white and mailed. With all this Imagineer stuff around, Mom has decided she wants to be an Imagineer herself!
Mom has spent the past week learning about folks like John Hench, Mary Blair, and 'The Nine Old Men' to help the project stay alive. We hit a bump as soon as we started trying to make our imaginary rides real models. Where do we even start? We thought of a Mine Car ride, we have pictures in our heads, but how can we make that real enough to show the real Imagineers our stuff? We don't know. We have been reading, watching The Science of Imagineering dvds, Disney Parks dvds, and looking up stuff online, and it looks like we just might be able to do this! Go us!
Once we mail off our stuff, we hope to hear back from Imagineering and get pointers and win friends.
We followed a link to this site, which talks about Walt Disney's barn, some call it the birth place of Disney Imagineering: http://ocresort.ocregister.com/2011/03/18/exploring-walt-disneys-steam-train-barn/72807/
This is pretty neat stuff, and we just can't wait to turn our projects into reality.
Our mail tube is getting done. It was hard to get started-a big long poster sheet of blank white paper was hard to work with. So much blankness, no one knew where to start. We have as many Disney Imagineering books as the library offers in our house, one due today, and we are finding lots of inspiration from them to get our white paper less white and mailed. With all this Imagineer stuff around, Mom has decided she wants to be an Imagineer herself!
Mom has spent the past week learning about folks like John Hench, Mary Blair, and 'The Nine Old Men' to help the project stay alive. We hit a bump as soon as we started trying to make our imaginary rides real models. Where do we even start? We thought of a Mine Car ride, we have pictures in our heads, but how can we make that real enough to show the real Imagineers our stuff? We don't know. We have been reading, watching The Science of Imagineering dvds, Disney Parks dvds, and looking up stuff online, and it looks like we just might be able to do this! Go us!
Once we mail off our stuff, we hope to hear back from Imagineering and get pointers and win friends.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Ride Design
Last week Mom helped us put together a K-nex roller coaster to see if it would be useful to use for the Mine car ride. We don't know if it can be made into something different like Lego's.
We all went to a hobby and toy store to look at stuff that you can build real looking models with. Mom was excited that they had chunks of foam and I thought the bottle of stuff that makes water was really cool. They had books and dvds to teach you about making models and Mom was telling us about different train sizes because she was thinking about the Walt Disney train ride attraction when she saw a special Walt Disney model train. She wants to buy it really bad but we can't buy it right now.
I want to make my Tangled tower a ride, with spinning swings, so I am changing it a little, and Mom started thinking really hard about a ride for Critter Country after we watched a Disney old time movie.
Our tube is nearly finished but we had a a family reunion to go to and we watched my cousin dance. Mom told us we are going back to our school in a few years and we are sad so we took a break from Imagineering. This weekend our cousins are staying with Grandma and Grandpa, so we are excited. One of our cousins has autism. He started playing with my brother like playing tag my brother's favorite game and we are happy. He won't play with my brother but plays next to him and my brother was sad but now he plays tag and my brother is super happy and just can't wait to play with him. He is our age and his sister is going to be in first grade. We love to play and dance and sign she is all normal and funny.
Mom wants to mail the tube before they come incase it gets hurt sometimes our cousin likes to rip things into little bits. My mom says it is what he does. He would rip into even numbers of the same size. We used to have special bricks we played with in the backyard that are shapes and he brock them into same size parts so mom says to finish the poster and send it so we can be safe.
Mom got some fresh Disney books from the library and we read them at night like bedtime stories. She is funny about this stuff. She needs to write the names down but they are Imagineering books. One is about how Imagineers do things and how a guy wrote to an imagineer and the guy wrote back and they wrote back and forth and then he grew up to be an Imagineer. I hope when we write Imagineers write us back and are nice to us and help us figure things out. This guy wrote about his robotic parrot he made and i think this will be my brother. I am an artist, my brother is the robotics and construction guy. Great-grandpa gave him a real tool box when he was just 5 and my brother actually used it for real. He still does. He builds stuff, and won a Lego contest and had his picture in a magazine. He is really good at this stuff. He will do the robotics. Mom wants him to make the Mine car ride and she will help. She has made robots before. I am the artist and my mom is really excited. So i hope that Disney writes back and forth with us and they like us for real.
We all went to a hobby and toy store to look at stuff that you can build real looking models with. Mom was excited that they had chunks of foam and I thought the bottle of stuff that makes water was really cool. They had books and dvds to teach you about making models and Mom was telling us about different train sizes because she was thinking about the Walt Disney train ride attraction when she saw a special Walt Disney model train. She wants to buy it really bad but we can't buy it right now.
I want to make my Tangled tower a ride, with spinning swings, so I am changing it a little, and Mom started thinking really hard about a ride for Critter Country after we watched a Disney old time movie.
Our tube is nearly finished but we had a a family reunion to go to and we watched my cousin dance. Mom told us we are going back to our school in a few years and we are sad so we took a break from Imagineering. This weekend our cousins are staying with Grandma and Grandpa, so we are excited. One of our cousins has autism. He started playing with my brother like playing tag my brother's favorite game and we are happy. He won't play with my brother but plays next to him and my brother was sad but now he plays tag and my brother is super happy and just can't wait to play with him. He is our age and his sister is going to be in first grade. We love to play and dance and sign she is all normal and funny.
Mom wants to mail the tube before they come incase it gets hurt sometimes our cousin likes to rip things into little bits. My mom says it is what he does. He would rip into even numbers of the same size. We used to have special bricks we played with in the backyard that are shapes and he brock them into same size parts so mom says to finish the poster and send it so we can be safe.
Mom got some fresh Disney books from the library and we read them at night like bedtime stories. She is funny about this stuff. She needs to write the names down but they are Imagineering books. One is about how Imagineers do things and how a guy wrote to an imagineer and the guy wrote back and they wrote back and forth and then he grew up to be an Imagineer. I hope when we write Imagineers write us back and are nice to us and help us figure things out. This guy wrote about his robotic parrot he made and i think this will be my brother. I am an artist, my brother is the robotics and construction guy. Great-grandpa gave him a real tool box when he was just 5 and my brother actually used it for real. He still does. He builds stuff, and won a Lego contest and had his picture in a magazine. He is really good at this stuff. He will do the robotics. Mom wants him to make the Mine car ride and she will help. She has made robots before. I am the artist and my mom is really excited. So i hope that Disney writes back and forth with us and they like us for real.
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Youtube
We have tried to make our very, very first Flip camera post on YouTube about the Seven Dwarfs ride we are making a model of. It is only the very first model, and the very first post-so we have no clue what we are doing.
We are also learning how to link those videos to the blog. Hang with us while we learn the in and out of blogging, youtube and video posts.
Here is the first dry run of the summary; my brother has a small speech problem, so he is kind of hard to understand, but here it is.
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sickaroo
We have all been sickaroo. Mom too. She was the worst but sometimes she gets sick. She had a big fever and could not do much at all. Poor Mommy :(
Since we were sick we didn't Imagineer all week. We have a lot to do now! I think we need to go to Disneyland for more research this summer, to make sure we get the rides right. We have a box in the garage that has a lot of old battery toys, and we are going to take them apart to see if we can use them for our model rides.
Sadly, since we were sick we now have too much school work to make up before we can go back to Imagineering and finish our big scroll to mail off. I am so mad I have to do my makeup work! I can't wait to draw my pictures and mail it. I will write and we will post pictures when that all happens so everyone can see.
Since we were sick we didn't Imagineer all week. We have a lot to do now! I think we need to go to Disneyland for more research this summer, to make sure we get the rides right. We have a box in the garage that has a lot of old battery toys, and we are going to take them apart to see if we can use them for our model rides.
Sadly, since we were sick we now have too much school work to make up before we can go back to Imagineering and finish our big scroll to mail off. I am so mad I have to do my makeup work! I can't wait to draw my pictures and mail it. I will write and we will post pictures when that all happens so everyone can see.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Letter Update
Hello! I am Mom, Captain and Commander of this adventurous family quest; design a handful of attractions for Disneyland from our own imaginations and present a working model to real Disney Imagineers at Disney Imagineering.
The whole purpose of this project is to build a stronger foundation of reading, writing, and communication skills for the kids while strengthening their problem solving, math and science skills in a way neither kid will realize they're gaining an education from this.
We wrote a letter to mail to Disney Imagineering yesterday but while I was going to mail it today, a bright idea plopped into my head. I have a how-to book from the library on handmaking books with directions for making an awesome, sturdy scroll. Now, my daughter loves to draw long, lengthy pictures, whether it's full-sized princess posters, dresses, her favorite subject-a high-heel with a manicured foot, or a tall flower, I thought, we could make a scroll on her paper rolls summarizing this project. She can draw her Tower, we can cut & paste pictures, make a map, include our storyboards, quote Walt, place personal pictures and so on and so forth. So instead of mailing the letter we'll make a scroll to send along with it and mail in a tube, decorating the outside. How fun and exciting is that? It will hopefully get Disney's attention and promote a positive, friendly response.
Our Project Summary:
When we started we had no internet in the home so we relied heavily on library books and a Disneyland map. We had three books we kept cycling in and out of the library for our initial sources of information; Walt Disney Imagineering by Disney Imagineers, The Art of Walt Disney by Christopher Finch, and Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the Making of the Classic Film by Richard Holliss and Brian Sibley.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was our first inspiration, mainly because the movie and book were available at the library. Then we watched DVDs; The Science of Disney Imagineering, Models & Designs, Gravity, Fluids, Friction, Levers and Pulleys and the Disney Parks: Disneyland Resort, Behind the Scenes- where the bulk of our inspiration came from. After learning that Imagineers start with a story, we came up with a story for a Snow White attraction; a mine car ride. Once we got online for current research, we were crestfallen to see the idea was already taken. I wasn't sure if it was okay to move ahead with the project, the last thing we wanted was any legal/copyright troubles, but I figured it would be safe to follow through. For starters, we don't actually know what we're doing, and our version isn't intended or capable of becoming a reality. Secondly, after seeing the artist's renditioning of the ride with a brief description, the ideas are so different that I think we're in the clear.
The first concept of our mine car ride was a classic Disneyland, Fantasyland ride; slow paced, individual vehicles touting the latest in animatronics; a 'real' dwarf at the helm of each mine car vehicle. We hope to evolve our model concept car from PEZ dispenser and tea box to a working miniature robot. The story goes; The dwarfs have a Mother Lode of gems in their maze of a mine, but their one and only map to the Mother Lode was lost by Dopey. They have invited Disneyland guests to ride along with them and help in the search of the Mother Lode.
The kids had fun with the story but insisted on more adventure in line; trap doors to open up and drop unsuspecting guests to a hidden level, an actual maze for a queue line so guests have to FIND the ride, and real gems guests can mine for and keep. I didn't want to kill their joy with an explanation of liability and legal consequence, I mean, discovering Disney characters were people in suits was enough reality for one day, so we made a compromise; several tracks to the Fantasyland style ride creating a maze for a ride with each vehicle, driven by the latest in animatronic technology (which we know nothing about), having its own pace; Happy is up-tempo with clean turns and speedy, Grumpy is fast with sharp turns and hard stops, Sleepy is slow, nearly stopping while he nearly falls asleep with drunken curves, Bashful has lots of turning and side-to-side motion while the vehicle seems to shrug away in bashfulness with each interaction in the mine of a dwarf on the set, and Dopey's is confusing with lots of motion, head-scratching and needless turns. The vehicles are to interact with the sets in the ride.
To satisfy the children's desires to drop guests through trap doors, we decided to make a rollercoaster wrap over, under, through and around the slower ride. The kids loved Thunder Mountain Railroad and wanted it to feel fun and zippy. We keep the train short enough to be fun and enjoyable for all guests-those longer trains, designed to fit as many guests as possible on one run, feels like it slows down the ride as a whole. The front waits too long for the back to catch-up, while the back waits too long for the rest of the train to travel over a hill, nearly killing the affect. The kids really like creating this ride and can't wait to start building in the garage. We'll likely use K'Nex parts to make the rollercoaster model while we're up in the air on what we'll use for the rest. The rollercoaster gets to peak in on the Fantasyland ride, and the queue lines are parallel. The station will host all the rides in one area, so guests can see each other take off and disappear into different areas of the mine.
Our other ride concepts are an Ode To Walt Disney; The History of Disneyland Railroad. Part hands-on museum exhibit, part model railroad and part ride, I think this will take the longest for us to make. We picture it looking out to the real Disneyland Railroad Depot, where guests can ride a scale model of the Disneyland Railroad, learning about Walt's love for trains, watching animatronic Walt in action with his own train he had at his home, and then taking a short trip around every Disney Park in the world. My children and I have only been to Disneyland in California, and while we're very loyal to the Original Disneyland, I would like to see what the other parks look like. I can't afford such a trip, and neither can many other people, but I would still like to see the other Disney parks.
We imagine the ride starting with the history of Walt Disney's interest in trains, then get a clear view of the real, original, Disneyland Railroad. From there, travel to Walt Disney World's railroad, over to Tokyo Disney, Disney Paris and wherever else there is a Disney park.
The model trains in the depot would tout remote control models that guests may drive through a true scale replica of Disneyland. Passing certain marks, junctions or hitting switches puts attractions into motion; think of the shooting gallery at the Golden Horseshoe but with trains and track instead of guns and targets. Plenty of different 'gallerys' around the building allow guests to drive their own train through every Disney Park in the world, or even pick a train that travels through history for an education in railroading.
We also have a Tangled Tower to put at the end of Fantasyland near Toon Town (which I'm not sure yet will continue to exist), designed by my daughter, with a 'magic window' that grants guests the ability to watch the lanterns drift through the sky, take a picture overlooking Fantasyland, or watch 'magic paint' paint the ceiling, walls and tower as Rapunzel does in the movie.
We have Princess and the Frog two-in-one ride, taking a trip through the bayou on a raft, escorted by Louis and guided by Ray and his large, happy, musical family of fireflies to see the wedding of Tiana and Prince Naveen at Mama Odie's-but watch out for frog catchers, alligators and hunters-with guns! Or stay dry with a buggy ride through the streets of New Orleans to the Mardi Gras parade, beginning in Charlotte's closet, traveling through the backyard ball, and ending at the big parade to watch Louis perform on a float.
My son has to come up with his own project, which he wants to be an exclusive Disneyland Lego display, with Disneyland Legos, and add to the Downtown Disney Lego Store. Strangely what he remembers most about that store from our trip, was the fact that it was extremely hot in there with the sun beating down through the countless windows and glaring through to the shelves. He is a huge Lego fan.
There you have it, our projects in a nutshell, well, more like a coconut shell. Until the kids' next post!
Mom
The whole purpose of this project is to build a stronger foundation of reading, writing, and communication skills for the kids while strengthening their problem solving, math and science skills in a way neither kid will realize they're gaining an education from this.
We wrote a letter to mail to Disney Imagineering yesterday but while I was going to mail it today, a bright idea plopped into my head. I have a how-to book from the library on handmaking books with directions for making an awesome, sturdy scroll. Now, my daughter loves to draw long, lengthy pictures, whether it's full-sized princess posters, dresses, her favorite subject-a high-heel with a manicured foot, or a tall flower, I thought, we could make a scroll on her paper rolls summarizing this project. She can draw her Tower, we can cut & paste pictures, make a map, include our storyboards, quote Walt, place personal pictures and so on and so forth. So instead of mailing the letter we'll make a scroll to send along with it and mail in a tube, decorating the outside. How fun and exciting is that? It will hopefully get Disney's attention and promote a positive, friendly response.
Our Project Summary:
When we started we had no internet in the home so we relied heavily on library books and a Disneyland map. We had three books we kept cycling in and out of the library for our initial sources of information; Walt Disney Imagineering by Disney Imagineers, The Art of Walt Disney by Christopher Finch, and Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and the Making of the Classic Film by Richard Holliss and Brian Sibley.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was our first inspiration, mainly because the movie and book were available at the library. Then we watched DVDs; The Science of Disney Imagineering, Models & Designs, Gravity, Fluids, Friction, Levers and Pulleys and the Disney Parks: Disneyland Resort, Behind the Scenes- where the bulk of our inspiration came from. After learning that Imagineers start with a story, we came up with a story for a Snow White attraction; a mine car ride. Once we got online for current research, we were crestfallen to see the idea was already taken. I wasn't sure if it was okay to move ahead with the project, the last thing we wanted was any legal/copyright troubles, but I figured it would be safe to follow through. For starters, we don't actually know what we're doing, and our version isn't intended or capable of becoming a reality. Secondly, after seeing the artist's renditioning of the ride with a brief description, the ideas are so different that I think we're in the clear.
The first concept of our mine car ride was a classic Disneyland, Fantasyland ride; slow paced, individual vehicles touting the latest in animatronics; a 'real' dwarf at the helm of each mine car vehicle. We hope to evolve our model concept car from PEZ dispenser and tea box to a working miniature robot. The story goes; The dwarfs have a Mother Lode of gems in their maze of a mine, but their one and only map to the Mother Lode was lost by Dopey. They have invited Disneyland guests to ride along with them and help in the search of the Mother Lode.
The kids had fun with the story but insisted on more adventure in line; trap doors to open up and drop unsuspecting guests to a hidden level, an actual maze for a queue line so guests have to FIND the ride, and real gems guests can mine for and keep. I didn't want to kill their joy with an explanation of liability and legal consequence, I mean, discovering Disney characters were people in suits was enough reality for one day, so we made a compromise; several tracks to the Fantasyland style ride creating a maze for a ride with each vehicle, driven by the latest in animatronic technology (which we know nothing about), having its own pace; Happy is up-tempo with clean turns and speedy, Grumpy is fast with sharp turns and hard stops, Sleepy is slow, nearly stopping while he nearly falls asleep with drunken curves, Bashful has lots of turning and side-to-side motion while the vehicle seems to shrug away in bashfulness with each interaction in the mine of a dwarf on the set, and Dopey's is confusing with lots of motion, head-scratching and needless turns. The vehicles are to interact with the sets in the ride.
To satisfy the children's desires to drop guests through trap doors, we decided to make a rollercoaster wrap over, under, through and around the slower ride. The kids loved Thunder Mountain Railroad and wanted it to feel fun and zippy. We keep the train short enough to be fun and enjoyable for all guests-those longer trains, designed to fit as many guests as possible on one run, feels like it slows down the ride as a whole. The front waits too long for the back to catch-up, while the back waits too long for the rest of the train to travel over a hill, nearly killing the affect. The kids really like creating this ride and can't wait to start building in the garage. We'll likely use K'Nex parts to make the rollercoaster model while we're up in the air on what we'll use for the rest. The rollercoaster gets to peak in on the Fantasyland ride, and the queue lines are parallel. The station will host all the rides in one area, so guests can see each other take off and disappear into different areas of the mine.
Our other ride concepts are an Ode To Walt Disney; The History of Disneyland Railroad. Part hands-on museum exhibit, part model railroad and part ride, I think this will take the longest for us to make. We picture it looking out to the real Disneyland Railroad Depot, where guests can ride a scale model of the Disneyland Railroad, learning about Walt's love for trains, watching animatronic Walt in action with his own train he had at his home, and then taking a short trip around every Disney Park in the world. My children and I have only been to Disneyland in California, and while we're very loyal to the Original Disneyland, I would like to see what the other parks look like. I can't afford such a trip, and neither can many other people, but I would still like to see the other Disney parks.
We imagine the ride starting with the history of Walt Disney's interest in trains, then get a clear view of the real, original, Disneyland Railroad. From there, travel to Walt Disney World's railroad, over to Tokyo Disney, Disney Paris and wherever else there is a Disney park.
The model trains in the depot would tout remote control models that guests may drive through a true scale replica of Disneyland. Passing certain marks, junctions or hitting switches puts attractions into motion; think of the shooting gallery at the Golden Horseshoe but with trains and track instead of guns and targets. Plenty of different 'gallerys' around the building allow guests to drive their own train through every Disney Park in the world, or even pick a train that travels through history for an education in railroading.
We also have a Tangled Tower to put at the end of Fantasyland near Toon Town (which I'm not sure yet will continue to exist), designed by my daughter, with a 'magic window' that grants guests the ability to watch the lanterns drift through the sky, take a picture overlooking Fantasyland, or watch 'magic paint' paint the ceiling, walls and tower as Rapunzel does in the movie.
We have Princess and the Frog two-in-one ride, taking a trip through the bayou on a raft, escorted by Louis and guided by Ray and his large, happy, musical family of fireflies to see the wedding of Tiana and Prince Naveen at Mama Odie's-but watch out for frog catchers, alligators and hunters-with guns! Or stay dry with a buggy ride through the streets of New Orleans to the Mardi Gras parade, beginning in Charlotte's closet, traveling through the backyard ball, and ending at the big parade to watch Louis perform on a float.
My son has to come up with his own project, which he wants to be an exclusive Disneyland Lego display, with Disneyland Legos, and add to the Downtown Disney Lego Store. Strangely what he remembers most about that store from our trip, was the fact that it was extremely hot in there with the sun beating down through the countless windows and glaring through to the shelves. He is a huge Lego fan.
There you have it, our projects in a nutshell, well, more like a coconut shell. Until the kids' next post!
Mom
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
First Contact!!
We as a family team wrote a 'summary' of our 'proposed' rides for Disneyland. Writing a little but not alot is hard to do!
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Saturday
It is Saturday, Brother is sick and I am bored. Mom is troubled by something and the inside of the house is getting painted. I like having internet and Mom put up a twitter for us all to use. Soon we all will mail out letters to the Nuns because we love them and their prayers help us lots. We hope for a good summer and Mom would like to take us to Disneyland this summer to think and meet people and have fun.
Mom is going over plans for the Imagineering project for us and has found the address to send to Imagineering. She sent a letter when she was a little girl to Imagineering and they wrote back. She was going to be an Imagineer or movie maker when she grew up and love science and stuff but she is just a Mom now.
We will get ready to make a project 'summary' for the Imagineer stuff. Now that we have internet we can look lots of stuff up. We were super bummed the first time she heard there is going to be a Snow white mine car ride because that was the first project we made but she said we will still do our version anyway and it helps us know we are thinking good in our imagination. Our version is both fast and slow, two different rides with one for just you and your Mom or Dad if you have a Dad and it goes slow with a dwarf driving you in a mine car and then the other is one that you and your line gets in a big train and goes around the outside of the slow ride and you see each other and it is fun and fast. The story is that you are looking for the Mother Lode, the treasure the dwarfs found but Dopey lost the map, so it is in the middle and sparkles and stuff, and the slow ride is a maze, so every now and then guests go through it, and everyone else goes around but the other ride gets to see you when you go through. So we are going to make a 'summary' of what our project that we want to show Real Disneyland Imagineers is.
Sister with Mom Help.
Mom is going over plans for the Imagineering project for us and has found the address to send to Imagineering. She sent a letter when she was a little girl to Imagineering and they wrote back. She was going to be an Imagineer or movie maker when she grew up and love science and stuff but she is just a Mom now.
We will get ready to make a project 'summary' for the Imagineer stuff. Now that we have internet we can look lots of stuff up. We were super bummed the first time she heard there is going to be a Snow white mine car ride because that was the first project we made but she said we will still do our version anyway and it helps us know we are thinking good in our imagination. Our version is both fast and slow, two different rides with one for just you and your Mom or Dad if you have a Dad and it goes slow with a dwarf driving you in a mine car and then the other is one that you and your line gets in a big train and goes around the outside of the slow ride and you see each other and it is fun and fast. The story is that you are looking for the Mother Lode, the treasure the dwarfs found but Dopey lost the map, so it is in the middle and sparkles and stuff, and the slow ride is a maze, so every now and then guests go through it, and everyone else goes around but the other ride gets to see you when you go through. So we are going to make a 'summary' of what our project that we want to show Real Disneyland Imagineers is.
Sister with Mom Help.
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
About Us
Our family is making up some rides for Disneyland and learning to be Imagineers. We are writing about our Imagineering online so we kids can practice good writing skills. It is much harder then it looks.
My brother and I are learning alot about alot of things. We watch these science Imagineering dvds and keep checking out Disneyland and Imagineering books from the library over and over again. We know what we want to do, but really doing it takes alot of work.
My brother and I will be taking turns writing this blog and doing twitter. Mom helps get us online will look at everything before we can get on. She says there are lots of not kid friendly stuff online and doesn't want us to see it. She will read our posts and make us fix things so we spell word write. We all hope everyone enjoys our Imagineering fun.
My brother and I are learning alot about alot of things. We watch these science Imagineering dvds and keep checking out Disneyland and Imagineering books from the library over and over again. We know what we want to do, but really doing it takes alot of work.
My brother and I will be taking turns writing this blog and doing twitter. Mom helps get us online will look at everything before we can get on. She says there are lots of not kid friendly stuff online and doesn't want us to see it. She will read our posts and make us fix things so we spell word write. We all hope everyone enjoys our Imagineering fun.
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