Including the four newest awards, Walt Disney Imagineering has received a total of 33 awards throughout the Thea Awards� 15-year history. In addition, several Disney Legends and former and current Imagineers have been personally honored with Lifetime Achievement Awards, including Marty Sklar, John Hench, Bob Gurr, the Sherman Brothers and Tony Baxter.

TEA announced the 15th Annual Thea Award recipients during the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attraction's (IAPPA) annual conference at Orlando�s Orange County Convention Center. The Thea Awards recognize achievement, talent and personal excellence within the themed entertainment industry. Recognized internationally as a symbol of excellence, the Thea Awards honor 17 recipients from the more than 120 nominations submitted this year. Honorees will receive their awards at a black-tie dinner held at the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, CA, on March 7, 2009.

Attached is an edited description of each of Disney�s four Thea Award winners, as included in TEA�s press release. For a complete list of Thea Awards, visit www.TEAConnect.org.

Walt Disney Imagineering is the unique innovative organization that creates - from concept through construction � all Disney theme parks, resorts, attractions, cruise ships, real estate developments, and regional entertainment venues worldwide. Imagineering�s unique strength comes from the teamwork and syntheses of creative and technical professionals representing more than 140 diverse disciplines.

Descriptions are edited from original TEA press release:

Muppet Mobile Lab is a fully-autonomous, animated effects wheeled vehicle designed for personal interaction with park guests. Simply put, it allows park guests to have real-time one-on-one interaction with Muppet characters. The vehicle contains two animated Muppet characters in addition to a large array of special effects. It is supported on only two wheels, with stability being maintained by an active wheel propulsion system which maintains safe balance during all motions and special effects. Effects include water nozzles, water spray, smoke, confetti cannons, mechanical vision gags, changeable signage and sound effects. Both on-board animated characters are capable of a wide range of body, head, and facial motion and expressions synchronized with their spoken voices during guest interaction and conversation.

The Muppet Mobile Lab is a unique interactive guest attraction which embodies truly engaging character personalities that instantly and naturally connect with humans in such an immersive manner that the entire apparatus is accepted as an actor rather than as a machine. This characteristic almost completely overshadows the incredible technical achievement of multiple control systems seamlessly combined into one device � in that park guests instantly relate to the characters rather than noticing the technology.

The Muppet Mobile Lab, which currently operates daily at Hong Kong Disneyland, proves that the attraction can integrate human interaction in any location in any language, without requiring prior guest knowledge of the supporting back story. During the development of the attraction, the Muppet Mobile Lab was demonstrated to guests at Epcot and Disney�s California Adventure to test its reaction with guests.

The Legend of Mythica at Tokyo DisneySea was created as a once-a-day, daytime spectacle for the fifth anniversary of the park, which is located next door to Tokyo Disneyland. The show is designed to play to all guests on a grand scale, utilizing both the water of the park�s central Mediterranean Harbor, and surrounding walkways. The show is a tour-de-force of imagination carried out by theme park and stagecraft expertise, creating and blending (on 10 waterborne barges) pyrotechnics, large-scale fountains, lifts as tall as 70 feet, and 130 performers on sea and land. The Disney characters are interwoven within a fantasy story among a dragon, a unicorn, a phoenix and a hydra � all of enormous scale so that thousands of guests can view the daily, 20-minute extravaganza.

Mythica�s success and popularity has exceeded all its predecessors on this water stage. The key is the scale, the fantastic sculptural centerpiece, and 10 barges that unveil myriad special effects, huge animated figures, Disney characters and 130 performers. From the centerpiece sculpture itself, fountains flow, Mickey Mouse rises 60 feet in the air and a �white goddess� rises 12 feet beyond even Mickey�all accompanied by a choreography of music, dancers, drummers, bungee jumpers and jet skies, creating an unparalleled visual spectacle! The show represents some of the very best international teamwork of Disney staff working with high-caliber industry designers and creatives, and Japanese builders. The spectacular result is still going strong, now beginning its third year.

EPCOT (the name was originally an acronym denoting �Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow� in accordance with Walt Disney�s original vision) is the revolutionary creation that demonstrated that education and entertainment can be part of the same attraction package and successfully presented in a theme park environment. Epcot combined thoughtful, intelligent content and visionary R&D (research & development), all powerfully delivered via state-of-the-art theme park storytelling and technical excellence. Even today Epcot ranks among the best-attended theme parks worldwide. The World Showcase, Test Track, Soarin�, Spaceship Earth and more continue to draw enthusiastic guests season after season.