Andy Castro went to the "Making of the U.S. Presidents" panel, and here are his pictures!
The panel discussion was split into two parts. First, Imagineers Eric Jacobson, Kathy Rogers, and Pam Fisher talked about the updating of Walt Disney World's Hall of Presidents. Their portion of the event was a bit disorganized, and there were some technical difficulties, but there were some good laughs. But since the Hall of Presidents is already open at WDW, there wasn't much new to see or learn in this part.
However, here are some pictures of the three Imagineers and the keynote.
The second half of the show was lead by Imagineers Tony Baxter and Josh Shipley who talked about the new version of Disneyland's "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln," which opens at Disneyland in December.
The new show will be wonderful. They've returned to the original Royal Dano audio for the show, they're incorporating a lot of patriotic music and bringing back the popular "Two Brothers" song that used to be in the show. The new Lincoln animatronic will be highly advanced, and able to express more emotion than ever before.
The Opera House Lobby will be split into two pre-shows. The first area will feature "The Disneyland Story" with the opening-day model of Disneyland that was made for Disneyland's 50th Anniversary. New exhibits will further tell the story of Disneyland in the lobby, and this area will be connected to the new Disney Gallery being built next door in the Bank of Main Street.
Guests will then enter a sort of second lobby area, where the large United States Capitol Building model will return, and a new fireplace will give the room a very dignified and stately appearance. Tony Baxter said this area will be rich with details. Above the fireplace, a portrait of Lincoln will be present, and it will gradually change. The image below show the portrait and how it changes.
The next pictures are photos of a storyboard sketched by Tony Baxter depicting the scene of the show where Abraham Lincoln speaks at Gettysburg.
Tony also announced that they've gone back in and digitized Sam McKim's gorgeous paintings, and with the high-definition projector in the Opera House guests will actually be able to see the detail in McKim's brush strokes on the screen during the show. Amazing! This new "Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln" will be beautiful!
Finally, as we talk about Imagineering, here are some pictures of Jason Surrell who was at the D23 two days ago and signed the new edition of his fantastic Haunted Mansion book.
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Artwork: copyright Disney
Glad to hear they will restore Royal Dano's very unique voice which Walt Disney personally picked for the Worlds Fair presentation of Lincoln in 1964/65. The "2 brothers" song will also be welcome hopefully as at WDW 's American Adventure,with the WED/WDI Imagineers Jeff Burke and John Olson likenesses which make it special to fellow team members. Good Job Tony!
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