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The Imagineering Story
2019 · TV series · documentary · 2 seasons
Created by Leslie Iwerks
Explore the past, present and future of Walt Disney Imagineering with noted filmmaker Leslie Iwerks. Ms. Iwerks comes from a family with deep Disney history — her grandfather was an early Disney animator and her father is a former Imagineer — and her previous work includes profiles of Pixar Animation Studios and visual effects house Industrial Light & Magic.
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5 comments on Hacker News
If you’re a Disney+ subscriber, be sure to watch The Imagineering Story miniseries. Fun fact, it was directed by Leslie Iwerks, who’s the granddaughter of Ubbe Iwerks, the co-creator of Mickey Mouse alongside Walt Disney.
I wonder when and why they stopped making films like these. I've been enjoying watching Behind the Attraction and The Imagineering Story on Disney+ with my kids. They are full of these old films of Walt going over their ideas and explaining the things they are and have built. It's a shame that stopped.
Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space (2021)
A 5 part Netflix docuseries detailing the background and story of the Inspiration4 mission. I thought it was literally inspirational.
The Imagineering Story (2019)
A Disney docuseries focused on Walt Disney Imagineering and the history and creation of the Disney theme parks and attractions around the world. After watching this I had a whole new respect for Disney.
The Disney channel has a 6-part documentary. Parts 1 and 2 cover some of this. (But not the recycle bins.) Some cool engineering, um, I mean imagineering.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Imagineering_Story
https://www.justwatch.com/us/tv-show/the-imagineering-story
I'm surprised they didn't look at Walt Disney for how to run a successful creative company. His ideas apply equally well to software as they do to the arts.
I've been watching the documentaries on Disney+, particularly The Imagineering Story (great doc BTW). They talk about the history of the creative side of Disneyland.
What you learn is that when they are simply given a budget and told "build" they thrive. When a CFO type gets involved with Disney, suddenly their output drops, because that CEO is asking what the ROI is for everything they do. A lot of what they do fails and has no ROI, and the people that work there start to worry about what their ROI will be before they start working.
When the CEO just says "We're going to spend X% on research, here is the budget" then they thrive again.
I think this is applicable to software. When an engineer isn't asked to think about the ROI ahead of time, they are left free to come up with novel innovations. But if they know they will be judged on ROI, they will take fewer risks.
This of course is all predicated on being a profitable company. You have to already have a good cashflow to have the freedom to say "just go create".