Admittedly, “The Imagineering Way: Ideas to Ignite Your Creativity” (Disney Editions, June 2003) is a diminutive volume. Itty bitty. Only 208 pages. Its physical measurements? They’re a mere 7½ by 5¼ inches.
So who would imagine that the authors of this Camphor Tree Book could so much wisdom into such a tiny package?
Well, it helps that the “authors” of this book are some of WDI’s brightest and the best. Clever folks like Chris Carradine (the Imagineer who helped bring WDW’s “Pleasure Island” to life) and Bob Gurr (the man who … well, seems to have had a hand in the development every means of transportation that ever rolled through or around a Disney theme park). Imagineering big wigs like Don Goodman (President of WDI) and Marty Sklar (Vice Chairman and Prinicipal Creative Executive), as well as people that we all just miss a lot … like Walt Disney himself and the late, great David Mumford.
A broad section of the artists and engineers who work at 1401 Flower Street have contributed stories to this book. Some of these yarns run for a page or two. While others … well, they’re literally printed on the back on napkins.
I know that sounds kind of odd. But — when you think about it — what else would you expect from a book that goes into great detail about what it’s like to work inside a place like Walt Disney Imagineering?
Now don’t go and pick up a copy of “The Imagineering Way” and think “At last! Here it is! The book that finally reveals all of WDI’s deepest, darkest secrets.” This isn’t that sort of book. “The Imagineering Way” actually tries to teach you how to think like an Imagineer. How to keep your mind open to all the magical possibilities in everyday life.
Oh sure, you’ll find a few fun behind-the-scene stories in here. Like when Pam Fisher (a Senior Show Writer for WDI’s Creative Development department) reveals how Mark Sumner (one of the “ride guys” who works in Imagineering’s Ride Mechanical Engineering section) found the solution to making DCA’s “Soarin’ Over California” work by pulling his old “Cape Canaveral” Erector Set out of his attic. Or when Tony Baxter (Senior Vice President of WDI’s Creative Development department) talks about how he figured out how to pull off the giant-ball-rolling-towards-you illusion in Disneyland’s “Indiana Jones Adventure” while sitting in a car wash.
But this is mostly a book about how you, the reader, can make your own life more magical and imaginative by following the teachings / suggestions / examples of Disney’s Imagineers. So if you’re looking for a WDI tell-all, this isn’t really that book.
That said, I still found “The Imagineering Way” to be a most entertaining read. A book that’s jam packed with clever little yarns about how make your life more fulfilling and rewarding. (To be honest, it’s a real shame that Disney Editions didn’t get this book out into stores a few weeks earlier. “The Imagineering Way” would have made a really great gift for the more artistically inclined high school or college graduate. Ah well … there’s always next year.)
You get dozens of great, little inspirational stories. And let’s not overlook all of Larry Nikolai (Senior Conceptual Designer for WDI’s Creative Development department)’s illustrations, which feature everyone’s favorite purple little dragon, Figment. Plus the equally funny and/or caustic cartoons that Concept Designer John Horny, Joe Lanzisero (Creative VP of Creative Development) and George Scribner (Creative Executive for Imagineering’s Theme Park Productions division) contributed.
So if you’re feeling a bit boxed in these days, go pick up yourself a copy of Disney Edition’s “The Imagineering Way: Ideas to Ignite Your Creativity” and get inspired.
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