Walter Elias Disney was an American animator, film producer, voice actor, and entrepreneur. A pioneer of the American animation industry, he introduced several developments in the production of cartoons. As a film producer, he holds the record for most Academy Awards earned (22) and nominations (59) by an individual. He was presented with two Golden Globe Special Achievement Awards and an Emmy Award, among other honors. Several of his films are included in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress and have also been named as some of the greatest films ever by the American Film Institute.
Ubbe Ert Iwerks, known as Ub Iwerks, was an American animator, cartoonist, character designer, inventor, and special effects technician, known for his work with Walt Disney Animation Studios in general, and for having worked on the development of the design of the character of Mickey Mouse, among others. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Iwerks grew up with a contentious relationship with his father, who abandoned him as a child. Iwerks met fellow artist Walt Disney while working at a Kansas City art studio in 1919.
Plane Crazy is a 1929 American animated short film directed by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The cartoon, released by the Walt Disney Studios, is the first finished project to feature appearances of Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, and was originally a silent film. It was given a test screening to a theater audience and potential distributors on May 15, 1928. An executive from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer saw the film, but the film failed to pick up a distributor. Later that year, Disney released Mickey's first sound cartoon, Steamboat Willie, which was an enormous success; Plane Crazy was officially released as a sound cartoon on March 17, 1929. It was the fourth Mickey film to be given a wide release after Steamboat Willie, The Gallopin' Gaucho and The Barn Dance (1929).
A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride on which passengers aboard guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain animation, sound, music and special effects. Appearing as early as the 19th century, such exhibits include tunnels of love, scary themes and interactive stories. Dark rides are intended to tell stories with thematic elements that immerse riders, which unfold throughout the course of the attraction.
Flip the Frog is an animated cartoon character created by American animator Ub Iwerks. He starred in a series of cartoons produced by Celebrity Pictures and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer from 1930 to 1933. The series had many recurring characters, including Flip's dog, the mule Orace, and a dizzy neighborhood spinster.
Circle-Vision 360° is a film format developed by The Walt Disney Company that uses projection screens which encircle the audience.
The multiplane camera is a motion-picture camera that was used in the traditional animation process that moves a number of pieces of artwork past the camera at various speeds and at various distances from one another. This creates a sense of parallax or depth.
Test Track is a high-speed slot car thrill ride manufactured by Dynamic Attractions located in World Discovery at Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. Designed by Walt Disney Imagineering in partnership with Chevrolet, the ride is a simulated excursion through the rigorous testing procedures that General Motors uses to evaluate its concept cars, culminating in a high-speed drive around the exterior of the attraction.
Jan Jaroslav Pinkava is a Czech-British-American producer, director, writer, and animator. He directed the Pixar short film Geri's Game and served as co-director and co-wrote the story for Ratatouille, both of which went on to win Oscars.
The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) is an international non-profit association that represents creators, developers, designers and producers of themed entertainment. It is also noted for its THEA Awards, which were founded in 1995 and are distributed annually in a range of themed entertainment categories.
The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man, also known as The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man – The Ride is a 3D motion simulator and dark ride located at Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando, Florida. Based on the Marvel Comics superhero Spider-Man, it was originally built for Islands of Adventure's grand opening in 1999. A second version of the attraction also existed at Universal Studios Japan from 2004 to 2024. The attraction has a hybrid configuration that combines motion vehicles with 3D projection and elaborate physical sets.
Stan Kinsey is a former Disney executive and co-founder of Iwerks Entertainment, along with Oscar winner and Disney Legend Don Iwerks. Kinsey is best known as a visionary who sought to take The Walt Disney Company in the direction of computer-animated films.
Donald Warren Iwerks is an American former Disney executive and co-founder of Iwerks Entertainment along with former Disney executive Stan Kinsey. He is the son of the animator Ub Iwerks and father of Oscar-nominated documentary film producer Leslie Iwerks.
Ride & Show Engineering, Inc. is an American private company that conceptualizes, develops, and builds attractions, show action equipment, and transportation systems. In 1984 Eduard Feuer and William Watkins, the former Senior Project Engineer and Chief Mechanical Engineer, respectively, for Walt Disney Imagineering, established Ride & Show in California.
Leslie Iwerks is an American producer, director, and writer. She is daughter of Disney Legend Don Iwerks and granddaughter of Disney Legend Ub Iwerks, the animator and co-creator of Mickey Mouse and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. She has directed films including Recycled Life which was nominated for an Academy Award and The Pixar Story which was nominated for an Emmy for best nonfiction special.
D-BOX Technologies Inc. is a publicly traded haptic motion technology company based in Longueuil, Quebec. The company designs and manufactures motion and haptic systems for entertainment, simulation, and training industries. Combining haptic technology with actuators provides physical sensations in a virtual setting. As of July 2019, D-BOX seats were located at over 700 movie screens in 40 countries.
America the Beautiful was a 360° movie attraction in Circarama created by Walt Disney Productions for the American exhibit at the 1958 Brussels World's Fair. The exhibit was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company. After the fair ended, the film was exhibited in 1959 for six weeks, dubbed in Russian, at the American National Exhibition in Moscow, Russia. The film had its American debut at Disneyland in California in 1960, and it was later added to Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida in 1971. The Disneyland attraction was housed in the Circle-Vision 360 Theater in Tomorrowland, replacing A Tour of the West, which had played there since Disneyland's opening day, July 17, 1955. The film was subsequently revised several times, eventually closing in 1984, when it was replaced by American Journeys.
The Void was a franchise of virtual reality entertainment attractions. Co-founded by Ken Bretschneider, James Jensen, and Curtis Hickman as a re-focusing of a plan to build an attraction at Evermore Park in Pleasant Grove, Utah, and described by some as being a virtual reality "theme park", these facilities feature virtual reality experiences leveraging a combination of head-mounted displays with positional tracking, haptic feedback and special effects systems to allow patrons to freely explore and interact with virtual settings within the confines of specially-designed environments. The Void's locations closed permanently in March 2020.
Agila: The EKsperience is a flight motion simulation attraction situated in Enchanted Kingdom, a theme park in Santa Rosa, Laguna, Philippines.
Eduard Feuer is a German-American mechanical engineer and Imagineer. His most notable works as project engineer are the American Adventure and World of Motion pavilions for Walt Disney's EPCOT Center, the Disneyland Mark V and Walt Disney World Mark IV monorails, as well as the Great Bronze Doors of the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, California.
