The D23 Fantastic Worlds Celebration finished yesterday, November 20th, with the panel Creating Fantastic Worlds: A Journey Into Disney Worldbuilding. The event featured streaming panels, but this one was an exclusive for D23 Gold Members. The host was Justina Ireland, the author of Star Wars The High Republic: A Test of Courage and Star Wars: Lando’s Luck (2018). Ireland had interesting questions and was a fun host. Her favorite world was Wakanda so I hope she writes a Black Panther novel or trade paperback. There was a number of creative people on the panel across the Disney spectrum. Paul Felix is a production designer at Walt Disney Animation Studios. He is working on Raya and the Last Dragon, he was also production designer for Big Hero 6, and worked in visual development of Mulan (1998).
Noah Kocek is a production designer at Pixar Animation Studios. He helped design Onward (2020), he was the set designer for Wall-E (2008), and digital artist for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003). Walt Disney Imagineering senior creative executive, Luc Mayrand, worked on Mission: Space and Treasure Cove at Shanghai Disneyland. He had models of spaceships on his bookshelf. Ryan Meinerding, VP of visual development at Marvel Studios, helped design the look of the Marvel Cinematic Universe from Iron Man (2008). Next is Andy Park, director of visual development at Marvel Studios, he is working on WandaVision and Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. He had mini-statues of Marvel characters in display. Another member of this prestigious group is Mark Miller, executive creative producer of ILMXLab, he has worked on Vader Immortal and Star Wars: Tales of the Galaxy’s Edge.
They were asked about inspiration of Disneyland and the parks. Meinerding mentioned seeing the EPCOT souvenir book which showed concept drawings of Living Seas. Andy Park spoke about growing up in Anaheim, “Disneyland has a special place in my heart.” Miller discussed the inspiration behind Vader Immortal, “I was always wondering what Vader was doing between Episode IV and one.” Paul Felix noted that Tarzan started out as a television animation project. The objective was to capture the “pulpy quality” of the Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novels. Research trips gave perspective especially at the “rainforest in Africa.” Ryan Meinerding spoke about developing the visual style of the Marvel Studios films. It was about “problem solving about the character” and “trying to legitimize the superpower.”
Mark Miller during the course of working on Vader Immortal ended up with discussions about “How many troops Vader would have at his castle.” His team also worked with the question, “Why is this story in VR?” The question about “creating rules of these worlds” had Noah Kocek explaining that for Onward, “New Mushroomton was originally going to be set in the Mid-West.” Ultimately, the design team realized “This needs to be in the big city.” Paul Felix was discussing Big Hero 6 and how designing San Fransokyo led to research trips to Tokyo and noticing, “overloaded power lines” that was used in the film. Mark Miller discussed talking with Imagineers for Star Wars: Tales of Galaxy’s Edge, “we started talking to the people who were building Galaxy’s Edge before they were building it.” The game explores areas beyond Black Spire Outpost.
Luc Mayrand talked about working on a themed land and rides, “you have to compose it” in a world of 360 degrees. It has to be “multi-sensory” and a “shared experience” with different guests. He said about rides that hold 30 people, “enough to be a mini theater”, has to engaging for all of the riders. Noah Kocek noted one research trip, “For Wall-E we got to check out the dump”, which got some laughter. Mark Miller went to the set of Rogue One and talked to the director Gareth Edwards for Vader Immortal. Paul Felix said that research trips were taken to Bali, Cambodia, and Laos, for Raya the Last Dragon. Andy Park said about research trips, “ours was a trip to the comic book store.” Which was funny, but you don’t need a passport to be swept away in a comic book world. All of the panelists and host brought insight to the thinking behind some of the best films, animation, and theme parks that are a part of Disney’s Fantastic Worlds!
#D23, #CreatingFantasticWorlds, #JustinaIreland, #PaulFelix, #NoahKocek, #LucMayrand, #RyanMeinerding, #AndyPark, #MarkMiller
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