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205. You’re Going to Be OK: How Imagineers Manipulate Your Feelings in the Disney Parks - Distory Nite Shift
Description
From the moment you enter a Disney park, the Imagineers are intentionally manipulating your feelings and perspective.
They compress spaces before revealing enormous vistas, control what you can and can’t see, carefully transition you from one environment into another, alter architectural scale, and use visual order to influence how you experience the world around you.
Tonight on Distory Nite Shift, Kate and Joshua explore the psychology and perspective tricks hiding throughout the Disney parks through the ideas of Imagineers including Claude Coats, Joe Rohde, and John Hench.
We’ll explore Disney’s famous “Christmas Morning” views and how Imagineers use this technique in many of their most popular attractions across all the Disney parks. Then we’re heading to Disney’s Animal Kingdom to examine Joe Rohde’s fascinating explanation of how Imagineers intentionally move guests from geometric, human-controlled environments into increasingly natural spaces, and what feelings they wanted to evoke in the process.
Finally, we’ll dig into Imagineer John Hench’s psychological interpretation of Disneyland including visual cohesion, elements designed to make you feel safe, and more.
Clock in for another Distory Nite Shift as we follow some Imagineering rabbit trails and explore how Disney uses architecture, storytelling, psychology, scale, perspective, and carefully controlled reveals to influence not only what we see, but how we feel as we step into the Disney parks.
Resources referenced in this episode:John Hench's Psychological Interpretation of Disneyland:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yykXGfS8GbE&t=3sKate's books & Substackhttps://disneycicerone.com/E82 Disney Parks Soundtracks
https://www.epcotlegacy.com/music
Distory Nite Shift is a conversation between two Disney historians who have a combined 55 years of Disney history knowledge. The “after-show” of Distory with Kate & Kirk, this late-nite conversation for Disney history lovers is hosted by Kate the Disney Cicerone and Joshua of E82 | The Epcot Legacy.
Nite Shift is broadcast every other week, opposite of Distory with Kate & Kirk.
Join us LIVE on YouTube every week for Distory! Be notified by subscribing to Kate’s Youtube: @disneycicerone
You can also find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter X, and also at disneycicerone.com & epcotlegacy.com
View full video versions of each episode at Disney Cicerone's YouTube channel HERE OR on the Spotify version of our podcast.
Joshua’s resources:
Kate’s resources:
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