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12 January 2006: Interview with Mark Mesko
Walt Disney World® Resort: Plugged In, have a great interview
with Mark Mesko - Technical Director, Show Ride Engineering, about
the ride system of Expedition Everest. It's available now at
www.disneyworld.com/podcast or via iTunes.
1 January 2006: In Search of a Story
To make Expedition Everest as authentic as possible, Imagineering visited the Eastern Himalayas on several occasions over the last 5 years. The photos below are taken from the most recent visit, during "Expedition Everest: Mission Himalayas".
Copyright 2006. THE WALT
DISNEY COMPANY
CULTURAL JOURNEY -- Joe Rohde, creative executive with Walt
Disney Imagineering, and Dr. Anne Savage, primatologist from
Disney's Animal Kingdom, are filmed leaving the thousand-year-old
Ding Guo Shan monastery in Sinchuan, China on their way to the
Valley of the Yeti. Rohde and Savage were part of
Expedition Everest: Mission
Himalayas, a cultural and scientific journey through the
Himalayas. Rohde joined the journey to investigate the powerful
legend of the yeti as protector of the mountain, bringing a new
level of authenticity to Expedition Everest --
opening in April at Walt
Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Copyright 2006. THE WALT
DISNEY COMPANY
IMMERSED IN THE REGION -- Joe Rohde, creative executive with Walt
Disney Imagineering, spins a prayer wheel at the ancient Ding Guo
Shan monastery in the Sinchuan providence in southwest China. Rohde
was part of Expedition Everest: Mission Himalayas, a cultural and
scientific journey throughout the Himalayas.
Copyright 2006. THE WALT
DISNEY COMPANY
IN SEARCH OF A STORY -- A young monk peers through a viewfinder
while Joe Rohde, creative executive with Walt Disney Imagineering,
interviews Rinpoche, a sacred man known as "the living Buddha," in
Sichuan, China. Rohde was part of
Expedition Everest: Mission Himalayas -- a cultural and
scientific journey throughout the Eastern Himalayas in search of the
legend of the yeti. Rohde's goal was to research customs, lore and
architectural style in order to bring a high level of authenticity
to Expedition Everest.
Copyright 2006. THE WALT
DISNEY COMPANY
REAL STORIES CAPTURED -- Discovery Channel interviews the Rinpoche,
a sacred man known as "the living Buddha," at the Huiyuan monastery
in Sichuan, China. Discovery Networks joined the Walt Disney Company
and Conservation International on a cultural and scientific journey
through the majestic Eastern Himalayas. Discovery Networks will air
original Everest-related programming across a number of its networks
including Discovery Channel, Travel Channel and the Science Channel
in April 2006.
31 December 2005: Joe Rohde
interview
There is a new interview with Joe Rohde on the Official Walt
Disney World podcast at
http://www.disneyworld.com/podcast.
16 November 2005: Disney Insider article
An article on Expedition Everest is now on the Disney Insider newsletter at http://disney.go.com/inside/issues/stories/v051115.html
9 November 2005: The Expedition Everest Logo
First seen by the public at the Expedition Everest press events, the logo below is now set to be the official logo of the attraction.
Copyright 2005. THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY
8 November 2005: Expedition Everest storyline walk-through
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- Ancient legend holds that
high in the Himalayan Mountains lives an enormous creature that
fiercely guards the route to Mount Everest.
Now that legend roars dramatically to life at Disney's Animal
Kingdom in a new runaway train adventure that combines coaster-like
thrills with the excitement of a close encounter of the hairy kind.
Expedition Everest is part of the 18-month "Happiest Celebration on
Earth," the jubilee honoring 50 years of Disney theme parks and
commemorating the 1955 opening of Disneyland. The celebration began
May 5, 2005, with the launch of the largest lineup of new shows and
attractions and continues through 2006.
Walt Disney World guests will discover for themselves the fearsome
lore of the yeti when Expedition Everest peaks in early 2006 at
Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park. Aboard out-of-control railcars
screaming forward and backward, white-knuckle adventurers swoop into
the unknown, braving twists, turns and drops inside and outside a
mighty mountain leading to an unforgettable encounter.
"Expedition Everest adds a new dimension to our storytelling in
Disney's Animal Kingdom," said Joe Rohde, executive designer at Walt
Disney Imagineering and lead designer of the park. "It's a thrilling
adventure themed to the tradition of the mysterious yeti."
The story begins when guests are transported to a distant world of
exploration and the mythical village of Serka Zong. A canopy of
prayer flags, an ornamental monastery, intricately carved totems,
and a garden of stone carvings of the yeti clutching the mountain
immerse guests in a far-off realm. The yeti's role as protector of
the sacred mountain is reinforced in this detailed environment rich
in culture and tradition.
"The Himalayan culture is full of ritualized architecture
encouraging great harmony and structure," Rohde said. "The colors of
the village, the carved animal heads on the doors, the totems --
it's all very symbolic and authentic."
Despite forewarnings, the proprietors of Himalayan Escapes tour
company entice explorers to embark on a rugged train journey to the
mystical Everest. First stop is Norbu and Bob's booking office to
obtain permits, and then it's off to Tashi's General Store and Bar
for needed supplies for the journey.
Next, explorers pass through an old tea warehouse that houses an
elaborate museum run by Professor Pumba Dorjay, a conservation
biologist who believes the yeti's existence is grounded in fact. The
richly designed yeti museum showcases artifacts reflecting Nepalese
culture, plus a history of the Himalayas and tales of the yeti.
Photos show sherpas and others who have conquered the summit.
Now equipped to conquer the mountain, trekkers board the Anandapur
Rail Service. This aging 34-passenger industrial railway, which was
once used to transport tea, is now destined for the foot of Mount
Everest.
As the steam train rolls through thick bamboo forests and fern
groves up the first hill through a fortress, ritualized music
signals riders to dangers ahead. En route a cluster of sacred yeti
totems and a massive yeti mural crafted on the rockwork gives
further warning to turn back.
The train continues across a teetering bridge into the mountain,
dives into shimmering glacier valleys and then climbs up through the
snow-capped peaks.
Skulking silhouettes and shadows of the lurking yeti, coupled with
startling special effects and climate variations, enhance the
attraction as the steam train darts in and out of the picturesque
mountain range.
But suddenly the train screeches to a halt near a gnarled mass of
twisted metal. In a fit of rage, the yeti has torn apart the track.
The thrills intensify as the runaway train moves both forward and
backward through darkened mountain caverns and icy canyons and
guests head for an inevitable face-to-muzzle showdown with the
towering yeti -- known to some as the abominable snowman.
The train accelerates at speeds up to 50 mph into a fog of spiral
curves taking mountaineers down a 80-foot plummet to escape the
wrath of the powerful yeti.
"Seeing the yeti will really startle the guests because it is so
real, so convincing," said Rohde. "It is the most mammoth and
sophisticated Audio-Animatronics figure ever created by Walt Disney
Imagineering."
Expedition Everest, towering at nearly 200 feet high and occupying a
6.2-acre site, will be located in the Asia section of the theme
park. It is one of 18 mountain attractions created by Walt Disney
Imagineering at Disney theme parks worldwide.
Expedition Everest will feature Disney's FASTPASS -- offered at no
charge to park guests -- designed to reduce wait times at popular
attractions in all four Walt Disney World theme parks. Expedition
Everest will have a height restriction of 44 inches.
Disney's Animal Kingdom is a 500-acre theme park where the exciting
worlds of wild and whimsical creatures come to life on an authentic
African safari, in an Asian rain forest, on a trip back in time to
the age of the dinosaurs and in other attractions and shows brimming
with stories about animals and encounters with favorite Disney
characters.
27 October 2005: Joe Rohde interview
 |
This is a partial transcript of an interview that our friends at
www.CoasterRadio.com conducted with Joe Rodhe, Executive
Designer for Walt Disney Imagineering and the Lead Designer for
Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park. To hear the entire interview, visit www.CoasterRadio.com. |
CoasterRadio.com: You know, one of the
things I love about Disney Imagineering, and we talk about this all
the time on CoasterRadio.com, is how you guys strive to give realism
to your guests and the most authentic experience as possible. Now
you guys aren’t designing this attraction in just Florida and
California, you have actually been to the Everest region, haven’t
you?
Joe Rodhe: I’ve been all over the Himalayas. We’ve gone from
one end to the other in the process of doing the design work for
this ride, but our next trip is to the Everest region. We’re gonna
be there in a couple of weeks. And that’s an interesting thing too,
because if you think about we, Imagineers, we think of ourselves as
authors, people who create stories of course, right? But rather than
creating them as written text, we create our stories with objects
and action. But we are still under the same obligations that any
author would be under and what they say about writing is, write what
you know. So, imagine if I had told you I had just written this
great novel and I was planning to publish it and you started asking
me about the novel and I said things like “well, you know I went to
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and I took the first three chapters
out of that because they’re really cool. And then I took The DaVinci
Code because it’s got some great stuff and I took some stuff out of
that and then I read Moby Dick and I took three chapters out of Moby
Dick and then I stuck them together and all those were great, so
this must be great, because it’s all based on that stuff. Instead
of, I have something to say, I have experience, I’ve been there,
I’ve seen it, I’m speaking from authority. Whose book do you want to
read?
CoasterRadio.com: Now is there anything we’re going to see
when we get to this new area of Animal Kingdom, that was directly
inspired by Nepal?
Joe Rohde: Well yeah, there’s gobs of stuff. The village that
we’ve created at the foot of the mountain is really one of the best
environments I think we’ve ever built, certainly at Animal Kingdom,
I won’t speak of the rest of Imagineering because there’s fantastic
environments everywhere. But it’s quite an amazing environment. You
know, we don’t really do replications, right? We create our places,
we create our stories. But we want to create a place, that when
you’re walking around in it, you still have the sense that “man,
this feels like REAL!” We collaborated with Nepalese architects and
woodcarvers and designers in creating a lot of the wood carved
detail in all the windows and doors and walls, including a very
authentic Nepalese pagoda structure, it’s called a Mandir, dedicated
to the mythology of the Yeti. It’s probably the only structure of
its kind in North America. And this was designed and produced for us
by these Nepalese woodcarvers. We brought it here and erected it as
part of the queue, and it’s just this fantastic carved wood pagoda
structure, covered in carvings and images of the Yeti that we
developed in tandem, in partnership with these Nepalese artists, and
that was pretty cool! We never could have done that if we hadn’t
gone there, met them face to face, had these discussions with them
and been able to share and develop a visual way of representing this
Yeti.
To hear the entire interview, visit
www.CoasterRadio.com.
30 October 2005: New concept art
Walt Disney Imagineering have released
another great new piece of Expedition Everest concept art.
Copyright 2005. THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY
27 October 2005: Joe Rohde interview
 |
CoasterRadio.com recently interviewed Joe Rohde, Executive
Designer and Vice President, Creative, Walt Disney Imagineering. The
full interview, which talks about the creation of Expedition
Everest, will be available on Monday, but until then, the guys at
CoasterRadio.com give WDWMAGIC.COM readers a special preview
of the interview. LISTEN NOW 2mins30secs, 1.8MB, MP3 |
2 September 2005: Height Requirement
Expedition Everest is currently set to have a height requirement of 44". As always with pre-opening information, this is subject to change.
2 May 2005: Joe Rohde - A Quest for Authenticity
A Quest for Authenticity -- Joe Rohde, Executive Designer and Vice President, Creative, Walt Disney Imagineering, collaborates with a monk in Nepal to learn the art of mining the raw earth to create colors. This unique method will be used to apply color and create authenticity to the buildings being created in the mythical village at Expedition Everest, the thrill adventure opening in Disney's Animal Kingdom in 2006. Walt Disney Imagineers went to great lengths to research the legends, architecture and lore of the areas they explored near Mount Everest to create a rich environment that reflects the spirit of the Himalayas . Disney's Animal Kingdom is one of four theme parks at Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Copyright 2005. THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY
22 February 2005: New concept art, ride vehicle imagery and more
Copyright 2005. THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY
Joe Rohde, executive designer at Walt Disney Imagineering and lead
designer of Disney's Animal Kingdom, explains the legend of the
fearsome yeti that will menace guests among the snowy peaks of the
Himalayas on Expedition Everest when it
opens in early 2006.
Copyright 2005. THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY
Walt Disney Imagineering's Rick Daffern (seated), senior show
programmer, and Larry McAfee (standing), principal animation
designer, review a computer model of Expedition Everest that allows
Imagineers to program the thrill ride "virtually" before
construction begins.
Copyright 2005. THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY
Model builder Mark Bishop of Walt Disney Imagineering applies
delicate details to a miniature version of the "steam donkey" train
cars that will transport guests to a thrilling encounter with the
legendary yeti in Expedition Everest.
Copyright 2005. THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY
One of the "steam donkey" train cars.
Copyright 2005. THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY
Above: Stefan Hellwig, senior concept designer and in-field art
director with Walt Disney Imagineering, describes the unique
architecture at Expedition Everest that will convince guests they
are trekking through the Himalayas en route to a high-speed train
adventure.
14 May 2003: Expedition Everest details
Specific information on the attraction is still very thin on the ground, however the following has surfaced, but is yet to be fully confirmed.
The ride system is a non-looping, high speed rollercoaster, with both forward and backward directions of travel.
Max Height of Track: 120 ft
Max Drop: 80ft
Max Speed: 50mph
Trains will travel in both forward and backward directions
The Story
Legend holds that high in the Himalayan Mountains lives an
enormous creature that fiercely guards the route to Mount Everest.
Now that legend comes dramatically to life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
in a new high-speed train adventure that combines coaster-like thrills
with the excitement of a close encounter of the hairy kind.
Walt Disney World guests will discover for themselves the fearsome
legend of the yeti when Expedition EVEREST opens in 2006 at Disney’s
Animal Kingdom theme park. The new thrill attraction was announced
today during the park’s 5th anniversary festivities at Walt Disney
World Resort in Florida.
“Expedition EVEREST adds a new dimension to our storytelling in
Disney’s Animal Kingdom,” said Joe Rohde, executive designer at Walt
Disney Imagineering and lead designer of the park. “It’s a thrilling
adventure themed to the folklore of the mysterious yeti.”
In Expedition EVEREST, guests board an old mountain railway destined
for the foot of Mount Everest. The train rolls through thick bamboo
forests, past thundering waterfalls, along shimmering glacier fields
and climbs higher and higher through the snow-capped peaks.
But suddenly the track ends in a gnarled mass of twisted metal and the
thrills intensify as the train races both forward and backward through
mountain caverns and icy canyons and guests head for an inevitable
face-to-muzzle showdown with the mysterious yeti -- known to some as
the abominable snowman.
22 April 2003: Disney Announces Expedition EVEREST
Copyright 2005. THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY