Joe Rohde comments on joining the 2024 class of Disney Legends

Mar 19, 2024 in "D23 - Official Fan Organization"

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Joe Rohde Disney Legend

Posted: Tuesday March 19, 2024 2:07pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Soon-to-be Disney Legend Joe Rohde has taken to Instagram to comment on today's announcement that the former Imagineer will be inducted as a Disney Legend at the upcoming D23 Fan Event in August.

Joe Rohde Disney Legend

Joe is best known for his time at Walt Disney Imagineering as the overall creative executive and supervising designer for Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park, including later expansions such as Expedition Everest—Legend of the Forbidden Mountain and Pandora—The World of Avatar.

Joe's other notable projects include The Adventurers Club (formerly a part of Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World); Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa in Ko, and in 2022, he received the Disney Conservation Fund's first Conservation Legacy Award and appeared on numerous documentaries about Imagineering.

Here is what Joe said on Instagram:

Check it out! I'm honored along with some other pretty cool folks to join the 2024 class of Disney Legends at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event…if you've never been, take it from me, it really is ultimate.

While I am flattered and proud to receive such recognition, the real honors go to the people who gave me a chance, the people who mentored and guided me, the people who forgave me when I did foolish things, the people who trusted me to direct them and lead them, the people who actually did the work with their own hands, my family who put up with decades of my coming and going, and not least the guests and audiences who receive all of our work with such enthusiasm.

And, regardless of whatever accomplishment warrants this honor, there would be no Disney Legends at all if not for the most legendary, Walt Disney himself, whose creative impact on an entire century will always far outpace any legends who trail in his wake.

As for me, I will have to decide whether I want to memorialize my handprints, or figure out some way to press the side of my head with my earrings into the cement. …in any case…see you there.

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MrPromey14 days ago

Oh, it is. It's just that you've made everyone here well aware of how triggered you are by the "asphalt" of Dinorama and the exterior of Mission Breakout to which I've seen nobody actually disagree and yet you keep going with it. At this point it's becoming difficult to tell if it's trolling or something more serious. :oops:

Epcot81Fan14 days ago

Ha! I'm sorry, I thought this was a thread about Joe Rohde! My bad!

MrPromey14 days ago

With soaring home prices and cost-of-living at an all time high, it's so nice you've given Joe a place to live rent-free!

HauntedPirate14 days ago

What was that again? One is deserving, one I don't know, and the other three are so far from deserving of praise it's not even funny.

Epcot81Fan14 days ago

PREMiERdrum14 days ago

If you don't already, give Rohde a follow on Instagram and study his posts. His understanding of the confluence between physical design, human experience, and thematic nuance is staggering, and his ability to educate others in a simple but meaningful way is incredible. A fun aside. In 2019, we used a song from Rivers of Light in our primary show for the marching band I work with. I reached out to Joe on a whim to discuss some of the visual concepts we were working on, and he replied thoughtfully and helpfully a few times throughout the process. An unreal experience to gain a personalized peek into his design mind!

mickEblu14 days ago

Great news. Now he’s up there with Anthony Anderson and all the other Disney Legends. They need to come up with a new honor for legends that’s worked on the parks. Only a window on Main Street means anything now.

yensid196714 days ago

I would rather have the concrete and the FoN back than what they built! As far as the Festival building...they could have torn down the one section where Moana is and renovated the other side where the Festival Building is now! And why are they calling it a Festival building when there is no spaces for a Festival...just a stage, test kitchens and a Meet 'n Greet!!?? I guess they are saying that the test kitchens make it a festival building?

yensid196714 days ago

And am I still mad for them tearing out the Fountain of Nations and NOT REPLACING IT! But I guess Moana is suppose to be the replacement!? HA! Far from it!

THEMEPARKPIONEER14 days ago

Y You’re right all the ground around it was terribly landscaped and I wasn’t even a fan of the flower beds that they had around it, what they have now and this would be fantastic. It wasn’t even the shows it was the waterfall itself, the sound and even the air that was produced by that flowing water is the only thing that saved that area and a cascading water feature like this would make that nature setting there going for now all the better. That would really make this better is if they had the guardrails right on the ends of the bottom pool closing in the flower beds around it. Sitting in greenery and feeling the output of that waterfall would be incredible.