The Walt Disney Family Museum
Hanging out with Walt Disney
The Golden (not) Gate Bridge
Snow White Exhibit
There She Is!! Lily Belle!!!!
Mary Blair's Desk!
Steamboat Willy Interactive Exhibit
Friday, April 5, 2013
The Walt Disney Family Museum
During our spring break we went on a great adventure to San Francisco to visit my mission and The Walt Disney Family Museum. It was the most beautiful day ever in San Francisco! When we got to the Presidio, where the Walt Disney museum is located, we could see perfectly across the entire bay! We took photos of the Golden Gate bridge, even though it was red, and had the best-ever picnic on the grass watching the sailboats glide across the water. We played a great game of tag and clapped when Mom did cartwheels without falling on her head. We also lost our new video camera in the grass without knowing it, but a man and his sons found it, looked at the pictures, and spotted us up the lawn to give us our camera back. Thank you kind, honest people!! You're great!! And thanks to them, we were able to take videos and snap pictures inside the Snow White special exhibit and the Disney Museum. We met up with our cousins and Aunt and Uncle at the very end, they were too late to buy tickets for the museum so we went to Fisherman's Wharf for In & Out Burger instead. They were late because they had to buy our Uncle his class A SFFD uniform for his special dinner, because he is getting an award from the fire department for being an awesome guy. He learned his awesome paramedic skills from my brother the stuntman. We would go to his award dinner but Mom said they didn't need to witness my Uncle in action to prove his awesomeness, and besides, it's during the school week, and it's for grown-ups anyways.
Trajectory!
The Jr. Imagineer's word of the week is: TRAJECTORY!
We will be studying a physics word every week at a level that we kids can understand each week to help us design our rollercoaster. We just got in our Science of Imagineering DVD on Trajectory and will be watching it this weekend after Mom gets home from work. Stay tuned to learn along with us!
We will be studying a physics word every week at a level that we kids can understand each week to help us design our rollercoaster. We just got in our Science of Imagineering DVD on Trajectory and will be watching it this weekend after Mom gets home from work. Stay tuned to learn along with us!
Monday, March 18, 2013
Imagineering Explained
Mom here.
This summer, we will take a model of the family version of a Snow White Mine Car rollercoaster to give a full presentation of our ride to the real Disney Imagineering. We will use the ImagiNations http://disneyimaginations.com/contest as a guideline for how we will prepare and present our project.
When we first came up with the our Dwarf's rollercoaster several years ago the kids wanted to Imagineer a scavenger hunt with a maze for the queue line to FIND the ride, putting a trap door in the floor to dump guests into the mother lode of jewels (a ball pit). While I talked them out of it back then, they're just as excited as ever to see their plan in model form.
Now that they're older both kids are skilled and knowledgeable enough to create their own model by themselves. When we finish with the rollercoaster model the kids will branch out onto their own to create the maze queue. We will then be presenting the first coaster as a family team with the kids giving their own presentation of the maze and scavenger hunt. The rollercoaster model will be created out of hobby train materials with storyboards and a PowerPoint presentation while the maze will be made out of Legos with a presentation/walk through using Lego stop-motion video.
The Ride:
The Snow White ride is to be two separate rides with separate queues: a dark ride typical of the classic Disneyland Fantasyland rides and a rollercoaster worthy of its own Disney mountain. The Disney term 'dark ride' means that a ride is contained completely within a building. Peter Pan, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Snow White's Scary Adventure are all good examples of dark rides.
We did extensive Disney Imagineering research to make our presentation as close to a work of their own as possible. Disney says every ride starts with a story so the first thing we did was to craft a tale to turn into a ride.
Snow White is preparing to marry her prince and the Dwarfs are in charge of mining the jewels for her crown and ring. Within their mine is 'the mother lode' which is a huge stash of their most precious jewels hidden deep within the mining mountain, accessible only by one map which Dopey accidentally lost. Now, everyone needs to help the dwarfs search the countless tracks of the mine to find the 'mother lode' and bring the map back to the group so they can race back in, fit the jewels into the jewelry, and make it back in time for Snow White's wedding.
The hunt for the mother lode is the dark ride portion, with the queue line beginning the story for the guests. The vehicles in the dark ride are to be driven by an animatronic dwarf with a forest friend companion who is supposed to help map the path the vehicle has taken, for not all vehicles will find the mother lode, but all will at least drive past it. The vehicles are to interact with one another as well as the scenery it passes, with dwarfs waving to each other, talking to each other and making comments along the way. When the ride is over, guests have the option of exiting the ride and leaving the mountain altogether, or continuing in a queue to the rollercoaster portion.
The rollercoaster portion has two queues for the story, one is to pick up the jewels and make the crowns for the wedding, the other is to race to through the forest with the crowns and jewelry to the wedding itself. The loading for the first coaster loads in an area visible to the dark ride's loading station. When guests exit the first coaster portion, they again have the option to exit into the queue for the second portion of the coaster ride and complete the story via rollercoaster or exit the ride altogether taking in the rest of the story visually through the exit queue.
Even though the Imagineers have their own version of this ride coming through, we will craft a model of our interpretation of the ride to present to the Imagineering team. Now, cross your fingers and say some prayers while the kids will again write to Imagineering to ask for the opportunity to come down and present our models for the sake of it. Let's hope for a great response!
This summer, we will take a model of the family version of a Snow White Mine Car rollercoaster to give a full presentation of our ride to the real Disney Imagineering. We will use the ImagiNations http://disneyimaginations.com/contest as a guideline for how we will prepare and present our project.
When we first came up with the our Dwarf's rollercoaster several years ago the kids wanted to Imagineer a scavenger hunt with a maze for the queue line to FIND the ride, putting a trap door in the floor to dump guests into the mother lode of jewels (a ball pit). While I talked them out of it back then, they're just as excited as ever to see their plan in model form.
Now that they're older both kids are skilled and knowledgeable enough to create their own model by themselves. When we finish with the rollercoaster model the kids will branch out onto their own to create the maze queue. We will then be presenting the first coaster as a family team with the kids giving their own presentation of the maze and scavenger hunt. The rollercoaster model will be created out of hobby train materials with storyboards and a PowerPoint presentation while the maze will be made out of Legos with a presentation/walk through using Lego stop-motion video.
The Ride:
The Snow White ride is to be two separate rides with separate queues: a dark ride typical of the classic Disneyland Fantasyland rides and a rollercoaster worthy of its own Disney mountain. The Disney term 'dark ride' means that a ride is contained completely within a building. Peter Pan, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Snow White's Scary Adventure are all good examples of dark rides.
We did extensive Disney Imagineering research to make our presentation as close to a work of their own as possible. Disney says every ride starts with a story so the first thing we did was to craft a tale to turn into a ride.
Snow White is preparing to marry her prince and the Dwarfs are in charge of mining the jewels for her crown and ring. Within their mine is 'the mother lode' which is a huge stash of their most precious jewels hidden deep within the mining mountain, accessible only by one map which Dopey accidentally lost. Now, everyone needs to help the dwarfs search the countless tracks of the mine to find the 'mother lode' and bring the map back to the group so they can race back in, fit the jewels into the jewelry, and make it back in time for Snow White's wedding.
The hunt for the mother lode is the dark ride portion, with the queue line beginning the story for the guests. The vehicles in the dark ride are to be driven by an animatronic dwarf with a forest friend companion who is supposed to help map the path the vehicle has taken, for not all vehicles will find the mother lode, but all will at least drive past it. The vehicles are to interact with one another as well as the scenery it passes, with dwarfs waving to each other, talking to each other and making comments along the way. When the ride is over, guests have the option of exiting the ride and leaving the mountain altogether, or continuing in a queue to the rollercoaster portion.
The rollercoaster portion has two queues for the story, one is to pick up the jewels and make the crowns for the wedding, the other is to race to through the forest with the crowns and jewelry to the wedding itself. The loading for the first coaster loads in an area visible to the dark ride's loading station. When guests exit the first coaster portion, they again have the option to exit into the queue for the second portion of the coaster ride and complete the story via rollercoaster or exit the ride altogether taking in the rest of the story visually through the exit queue.
Even though the Imagineers have their own version of this ride coming through, we will craft a model of our interpretation of the ride to present to the Imagineering team. Now, cross your fingers and say some prayers while the kids will again write to Imagineering to ask for the opportunity to come down and present our models for the sake of it. Let's hope for a great response!
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Summer Adventure
Mom is working on helping us make a facebook fan page for our project. We decided that even though there is a new Snow White Mine Car rollercoaster in Walt Disney World, we still want to make a complete model and present our own version of the ride to real Disney Imagineers. Maybe with enough likes on the page, the Disney Legal department will let us through to the real Imagineers and they will invite us over to present the ride.
We will present the project like an ImagiNations entry: http://disneyimaginations.com/index.html and it will give us something fun to do as a family. We're going to wait for the Facebook page to pick-up 1,000 likes before we write again to Imagineering asking if we can present our model to them.
While we do that, we're making the design & story boards and hunting down materials for the model itself. And we're off! Kind of. Actually, we're home sick today...so we're not really off to anywhere.
Until next time!
We will present the project like an ImagiNations entry: http://disneyimaginations.com/index.html and it will give us something fun to do as a family. We're going to wait for the Facebook page to pick-up 1,000 likes before we write again to Imagineering asking if we can present our model to them.
While we do that, we're making the design & story boards and hunting down materials for the model itself. And we're off! Kind of. Actually, we're home sick today...so we're not really off to anywhere.
Until next time!
Sunday, March 10, 2013
The Latest in Jr. Imagineering
Great news world, we have a new computer! A good computer too!
With the new computer, Brother can now start stop-motion movies and upload them to his Lego blog. The only thing standing in the way to making them this very minute is his homework. No really, he hates to do his homework.
Two weekends ago (or was it three weekends?) The World's Greatest Hobby tour came through town and we of course went to see it. We got our very own Carolwood Lily Belle train set, and Mom stopped by Michael Broggie's Carolwood Pacific booth to pick-up her very own autographed book on the history of Walt Disney's Railroad. We are very serious about making that trip to Disneyland this summer and stopping at the Carolwood Pacific in Griffith Park. Fairy Godmother wasn't able to send us last year to Disneyland and we now know the truth as to why, as well as the truth about Fairy Godmother. I won't say it out loud here in case not everyone knows the truth, I don't want to hurt their feelings.
We are back to Imagineering, well, we were Imagineering at home but not sharing our adventures online. Mom decided it is important to do as much Imagineering as possible since we don't have too much science in our new schools. There is going to be a Science Fair, and Brother really wants to make a Lego Rube Goldberg contraption for the science fair but his teacher has a funny way of teaching class and usually tells everyone they're too stupid to do anything and doesn't really let them join in on any good stuff. He was super excited for the school's Math Bowl this year, and Mom went out to get stuff for him so he could be ready since there was a lot on the take home test he needed to learn and hadn't been taught in class but we didn't catch the date for the Math Bowl. So suddenly it was the Math Bowl, and Brother said his teacher passed out the test and told the class no one would make it and was real mean. So guess what, no one made the Math Bowl in his class, including him. So now here comes Science Fair...we'll see where that goes. Mom thinks Imagineering will be a great substitute for Science Fairing and Math Bowling. So stayed tuned...because we're back!
With the new computer, Brother can now start stop-motion movies and upload them to his Lego blog. The only thing standing in the way to making them this very minute is his homework. No really, he hates to do his homework.
Two weekends ago (or was it three weekends?) The World's Greatest Hobby tour came through town and we of course went to see it. We got our very own Carolwood Lily Belle train set, and Mom stopped by Michael Broggie's Carolwood Pacific booth to pick-up her very own autographed book on the history of Walt Disney's Railroad. We are very serious about making that trip to Disneyland this summer and stopping at the Carolwood Pacific in Griffith Park. Fairy Godmother wasn't able to send us last year to Disneyland and we now know the truth as to why, as well as the truth about Fairy Godmother. I won't say it out loud here in case not everyone knows the truth, I don't want to hurt their feelings.
We are back to Imagineering, well, we were Imagineering at home but not sharing our adventures online. Mom decided it is important to do as much Imagineering as possible since we don't have too much science in our new schools. There is going to be a Science Fair, and Brother really wants to make a Lego Rube Goldberg contraption for the science fair but his teacher has a funny way of teaching class and usually tells everyone they're too stupid to do anything and doesn't really let them join in on any good stuff. He was super excited for the school's Math Bowl this year, and Mom went out to get stuff for him so he could be ready since there was a lot on the take home test he needed to learn and hadn't been taught in class but we didn't catch the date for the Math Bowl. So suddenly it was the Math Bowl, and Brother said his teacher passed out the test and told the class no one would make it and was real mean. So guess what, no one made the Math Bowl in his class, including him. So now here comes Science Fair...we'll see where that goes. Mom thinks Imagineering will be a great substitute for Science Fairing and Math Bowling. So stayed tuned...because we're back!
Friday, November 9, 2012
We're Still Here!
We just wanted to say that we're still around, and we're still Imagineering...but just not as much. We've been super busy with school and soccer and gymnastics and the Nutcracker. This year we BOTH MADE IT!!!! Go us! It's a professional production too, not just a dance studio Nutcracker, it's good learning for us.
Last year brother was fascinated to learn that the clock some company dancers pop out of during the party scene didn't really work and the hands didn't move. They sure had a talk with him-their set came special made from RUSSIA! Can't wait for this year!! But the saddest news is that this year there is no live music. WaaaH! The moral of the story, support your local ballet!
Last year brother was fascinated to learn that the clock some company dancers pop out of during the party scene didn't really work and the hands didn't move. They sure had a talk with him-their set came special made from RUSSIA! Can't wait for this year!! But the saddest news is that this year there is no live music. WaaaH! The moral of the story, support your local ballet!
Monday, September 17, 2012
Long Time No Blog!!
Hi everyone! Guess what!? We're still around!!! Yeah, we blew Grandma's computer a year or so ago, then we just didn't keep up with this we moved on to a blog with our real name and Brother started Lego stuff. We still do Jr. Imagineer stuff, but hadn't updated the blog.
But guess what then!?!?!? An Imagineer, a REALLY REAL Imagineer mailed us a goodie bag out of the blue! Really! Just mailed us some hats and a pin and a book that he autographed!!! AWESOME!!!!! Then he asked how we were and said why Imagineer's aren't allowed to look at our Imagineering stuff because real people send them their ideas and then sue them. BAD PEOPLE!
Even better news is that Mom and Brother found a website showing how to make model rollercoasters. It's awesome! I'll hook up a link later, now, it's dinner time!!! See you soon!
But guess what then!?!?!? An Imagineer, a REALLY REAL Imagineer mailed us a goodie bag out of the blue! Really! Just mailed us some hats and a pin and a book that he autographed!!! AWESOME!!!!! Then he asked how we were and said why Imagineer's aren't allowed to look at our Imagineering stuff because real people send them their ideas and then sue them. BAD PEOPLE!
Even better news is that Mom and Brother found a website showing how to make model rollercoasters. It's awesome! I'll hook up a link later, now, it's dinner time!!! See you soon!
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