D23 and Walt Disney Imagineering are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Tokyo DisneySea with a special virtual event featuring some of the remarkable people responsible for making the park what it is. The event, which is hosted by Leslie Iwerks, is available only to D23 members and is free for D23 Gold members.
The virtual event opens with a special welcome from Leslie Iwerks, who then moderates a panel with Emily “Emo” O’Brien (Portfolio Executive Producer), Daniel Jue (Portfolio Creative Executive), and Craig Russell (Project Integration Executive), some of the incredible people who helped create this amazing park. Together, they recall some of their experiences with the time leading up to the opening of the park and share their some of their thoughts on all the work that went into it.
“Having gone to Tokyo DisneySea as my first project out of college, I was just astounded by how much care and concern everyone on the jobsite put into what they were building,” O’Brien said. “From every minor little detail to the largest concepts everyone just really wanted to do the absolute best they could do.”
They then take a look at the upcoming Fantasy Springs expansion, which will bring the worlds of Frozen, Tangled and Peter Pan to life. This is going to be a very different type of FantasyLand from what we’re used to seeing in other Disney parks.
“We’re doing it in a much more immersive way in than fantasyland at our castle parks,” Jue said. “You know, you don’t really go into the story of fantasyland until you get ont the ride, you know the peter pan ride of the snow white ride. Here, you walk into the story which I think is going to be fantastic”
The panel was also asked about Duffy and the importance of that character to this park. Jue provided some history on the character and also admitted that Duffy has become “a phenomenon that no one could have expected.” He explained that Tokyo DisneySea provides a place for guests to escape the pressure of their day-to-day lives and be who they want to be. And that means they can share their experience with their fluffy friend.
Of course, they couldn’t let this panel come to an end without getting into what we can expect to see in the future. Russell took charge of this question and gave an idea of what’s coming beyond even the upcoming Fantasy Springs expansion.
“We’re not done with it yet,” Russell said. “After this eighth port of call, there is still more land and there’s more than enough imagination. We are actually in fantastically productive conversations with Orientalland company’s leadership about master planning sort of the future of both parks over the broader, the longer horizon.”
Following the panel, we got some looks around the park as some of the creative team discusses some of its most famous attractions and all the work that went into creating them. Some of the highlights include Raging Spirits, Toy Story Mania, Soaring as well as others.
Finally, they give us a look at the construction on the Fantasy Springs project. More members of the creative team talk about their excitement for the upcoming expansion and highlight the new hotel that will come as part of it.
You can still check out this virtual event for yourself, from now until February 27th. You can find more information on the event here.