Walt Disney Co. recently released a few details about its upcoming Star Wars Land—very few.
The Burbank-based media maker is building the attraction at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. Chief Executive Bob Iger said in February that the 14-acre venture will open in 2019—a wide window.
The company released a 27-second video clip in March of one of the land’s creatures in development.
The latest word about the themed area is that it will be “interactive,” a fact that emerged 10 days ago at a Star Wars Celebration event in Orlando.
Disney didn’t provide much more beyond social media content and new renderings, and Disneyland Resort added no details. But a new attraction opening May 27 at Walt Disney World Resort; patent filings and other public information; and recent developments in a technology that uses both virtual and augmented realities, offer clues to what’s on the way.
Opening the Box
The Pandora attraction that opens next month at Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World near Orlando, is based on the “Avatar” movie and has been in the works for several years.
A Disney Imagineering executive told a trade magazine in 2015 of Disney’s goal to shift “from a more passive [guest] audience to an active one” through interactive and immersive elements.
Interactive experience involves guests’ active participation in an attraction, while immersive experiences happen in defined spaces, from a single room or vehicle to an entire area—such as a new attraction.
Pandora plans, for example, different experiences based on the time of day guests visit.
Patently So
Disney Enterprises Inc. in Burbank got a patent on May 17 for “User Interactive Living Organisms,” by which, for example, a guest who touches a plant would get an audio or visual effect in response.
Some U.S. theme park attractions can already identify users during a ride, and the patent suggests that guests giving their names before entering the area could later get customized responses.
Immersive Disneyland Resort attraction Soarin’ Over California, which opened in 2001, has already incorporated new technology. The original iteration was heavy on camera footage projected on a huge screen; a revamped version called Soarin’ opened last June with more computer-generated imagery.
Disney Co. social media postings for Pandora and Star Wars Land play up elements that include real and mythical creatures and plants; an “accurate representation” of real and fictional worlds; enhanced sensory experiences; attraction details that can be closely examined; and amped-up interactions with Disney characters.
The Mix
OC firms that develop content and products for virtual reality and augmented reality point to technology advancements that could signal what Star Wars Land might offer: the emerging realm of mixed reality.
VR involves computer-generated environments that the participant can engage with, from battling space aliens to watching an NBA game courtside. AR overlays a fictional character in a real place, such as a sidewalk or building, as with the “Pokémon Go” Game.
MR offers both experiences, giving users the choice of which to experience or to toggle between the two, like switching views on bifocals. It’s easy to see how the integration could inform the live, immersive interactivity of a place like Star Wars Land.
“Disney has the horsepower” for nearly anything, said Gary Thormodsgaard, vice president of emerging technologies at VR content developer Nostromo Inc. in Tustin.
He also described a currently available video projection screen that’s “clear and transparent, and we can put an invisible coating that allows programming of the screen to recognize and interact with.”
Danny Keens, vice president of content at NextVR in Newport Beach, said that “being able to move around in … experiences is the natural end for all of virtual reality.”
Neither executive said they know Disney’s plans and said some advances are several years away.
Then again, so is Star Wars Land.
