Up next in 10
The Power of Possibility: The Blue Sky Process | D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event
Aug 15, 2026
The Power of Possibility: The Blue Sky Process | D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:09
Imagine
0:10
Blue Sky Studio has been the creative
0:12
birthplace of so many projects, but Blue
0:16
Sky doesn't necessarily mean no
0:18
turbulence. Let's take a closer look at
0:21
how they bring projects to life.
0:30
>> Hello.
0:32
Hi.
0:35
How are there so many of you?
0:37
Well, it's so nice to see you. I'm
0:39
Thomas, and I'm a creative director.
0:41
>> And I'm Jillian, I'm a creative
0:43
producer. And we both work
0:45
in Blue Sky. We're going to talk to you
0:47
all about what we do in the earliest
0:48
early stages of any of our ideas.
0:51
>> Uh
0:52
you know, really Blue Sky is not only a
0:54
process at the very beginning of any
0:56
project, but it's a group of people that
0:59
are dedicated to that work. Uh it's a
1:01
very small but mighty group of creative
1:04
directors, producers, coordinators, and
1:07
uh yeah, we get together all the best
1:09
creative minds around Imagineering and
1:11
really the ones in the company to come
1:13
together and kind of ideate on what are
1:15
the best possibilities of any guest
1:17
experience, um every possible aspect of
1:20
that, uh from food to roller coasters to
1:23
all the things that you know, we really
1:24
like to live in the what if space uh in
1:27
these early early days and kind of
1:29
explore an idea every possible which
1:32
way. And uh today we're going to take
1:34
you through that process and share some
1:35
more recent things that have come out of
1:37
Blue Sky.
1:38
And uh yeah, it's going to be super fun.
1:41
>> Well, in Blue Sky, uh we love a good
1:44
analogy, so please bear with us today.
1:47
Um I'm going to make a process
1:48
presentation fun, and we are going to
1:50
bring in
1:51
um the process of how an idea and a
1:53
story becomes a studio and turns to a
1:57
project, a thriving blossoming project.
1:59
So, a big thing that our studio, as we
2:02
get to work in Blue Sky all day, is we
2:05
champion the early creative efforts to
2:07
start with as much data and information
2:09
as possible. And we do this by
2:11
partnering with a lot of different
2:14
people across the company. Blue Sky
2:15
doesn't just sit in our own little
2:17
confines and come up with ideas in a
2:18
void. So, we work with our franchise
2:21
partners, with our business partners, we
2:23
talk to our partners constantly about
2:26
what's going well, what's not going
2:27
well, and the guest experience. And we
2:30
are always looking at our creative
2:32
leaders about what types of experiences
2:34
they're seeing out in the world.
2:36
Um, and all of that, all these
2:38
particles, bear with our analogy, they
2:41
are a big part of this process that come
2:44
together to our Blue Sky little cloud
2:46
and form a
2:47
>> They form a brainstorm, really. And then
2:50
it starts to rain. I don't think you
2:53
follow our analogy, but we we talk
2:55
>> about brainstorms. It's really the first
2:56
place where we get to gather a whole
2:58
bunch of Imagineers together, and we
3:00
said, "Wouldn't it be fun if we do XYZ?"
3:02
And then we start figuring out really
3:04
product that kind of wants to take
3:05
shape, and we bring people from every
3:08
kind of discipline of over 150 some odd
3:10
of their Imagineering, if it's
3:12
estimator, construction manager,
3:14
creative director, story always, concept
3:17
artist. It doesn't really matter cuz we
3:18
like to champion good ideas can truly
3:20
come from anywhere. So, once we have
3:22
hundreds and hundreds of sticky notes,
3:25
sketches,
3:26
little nuggets and seeds of ideas,
3:28
whoop,
3:29
hopefully
3:30
>> that seed becomes viable and begins to
3:33
grow roots. Um, and we get really
3:35
excited about the potential. So, we put
3:37
together a team, we keep nurturing it,
3:40
growing that idea into a concept.
3:43
But as any good gardener knows, if we
3:45
have other gardener friends out there,
3:48
um, you need to learn how to tend to
3:50
these plants early on to get them to
3:51
sprout. Some seeds need more water, some
3:54
seeds need more light, some seeds need
3:56
more nutrients, so we are constantly
3:58
exploring the world and researching is
4:01
the biggest part of our process.
4:04
Um it is most important to play along
4:07
the way, as you can see Thomas takes
4:09
this very seriously.
4:10
>> Very seriously about silly things. So,
4:13
how can we be expected to build things
4:15
for our guests if we're not willing to
4:16
do those things ourselves? So, we like
4:18
to play and climb around and end up in
4:20
places and sometimes in harnesses in
4:23
another country where we don't speak
4:24
their language. It's all about figuring
4:26
out what kind of thing can inspire the
4:28
next guest experience.
4:30
>> After we thoroughly research an area
4:33
that we're working in, of course then a
4:36
seed maybe begins to sprout. We have the
4:38
early
4:40
um
4:41
ideas that are coming into a concept.
4:46
But Thomas, we don't stop there, do we?
4:48
>> No, we never stop there. Especially
4:50
these little baby plants need a lot of
4:52
nourishment and a lot of tending to. So,
4:54
now we need to ideate and explore every
4:57
possible aspect about that idea, every
5:00
nook and every cranny, every type of
5:02
thing. Does it have smell? Are we on a
5:04
roller coaster? All those sorts of stuff
5:05
and we start to really explore them of
5:07
kind of what are the ride systems? What
5:09
emotion are we trying to tell with our
5:11
story? Where's it going? What shape,
5:13
what color, what texture? You know, what
5:16
emotions are we trying to help the
5:17
guests have? Is it for really, really
5:19
little ones? Is it for the thrill
5:21
seekers? And kind of where that story
5:23
wants to go. So, it's a really exciting
5:25
phase, but ideas at this phase are
5:27
really, you know, they're tender.
5:29
They're really kind of fragile, so you
5:31
have to really think about that and
5:33
sometimes toss them out, put in some new
5:35
ones and kind of keep going. Just part
5:37
of the creative process.
5:40
>> And last but not least, Thomas, we can't
5:43
just ideate all day. We need to test it.
5:45
>> No, sticky notes will only get us so
5:47
far. So, now we get to actually test it
5:50
and start prototyping stuff and starting
5:52
to figure out whether there's a there
5:53
there before we can start taking it to
5:55
our partners and kind of go from there.
5:57
So, a lot of the ways that we get to do
5:59
that can be of various types of ways.
6:02
You know, sometimes you can bolt a bunch
6:03
of plywood together and put it on the
6:05
back of a truck and that becomes Seven
6:07
Dwarfs Mine Train Magic Kingdom in
6:08
Shanghai Disneyland. Or what we get to
6:10
use a lot of today, like VR headsets,
6:13
robot arms, or getting to work with our
6:16
R&D and ride partners and getting to
6:19
figure out things on trackless ride
6:20
vehicle platforms, which really help us
6:22
kind of do anything. You can choreograph
6:24
those and start to figure out what the
6:26
emotion and is it honestly is it fun,
6:29
right, at the core of all of this. So,
6:30
it's super fun to test all that stuff
6:33
out cuz it starts to feel a little more
6:34
real.
6:37
>> And with just the right amount of
6:39
ingredients, a concept can begin to grow
6:41
into something beautiful.
6:44
But as any good gardener knows, for my
6:46
gardener friends out there, please
6:48
excuse all of my love of plants and my
6:50
analogies, but trimming and shaping is a
6:53
big part of the process and with that
6:57
leads to more blooms into a fuller and
6:59
bigger projects. So, always at
7:02
Imagineering we're looking at what are
7:04
the most efficient ways to do things?
7:05
How do we do things in a new way that
7:08
maybe won't take as long or can bring
7:10
things to the parks faster and so that
7:13
all uh
7:15
become these constraints that we
7:16
actually embrace in Blue Sky and they
7:18
become the building blocks for a project
7:21
to flourish and create even more blooms.
7:25
Um so then once we build and open what
7:27
you get to we we test and prototype and
7:30
create the idea, we then toss the
7:32
bouquet off to the project teams and
7:34
they take it from there and they're the
7:36
ones that really build and establish
7:38
what you get to experience in the parks
7:40
all day.
7:41
>> It's always a little bittersweet in
7:42
being in Blue Sky when we hand off a
7:44
thing that we love so much, but the
7:46
project team's always add stuff that we
7:48
never even got to think about and
7:50
it's really quite amazing when you go
7:52
and you send it away and then you come
7:53
back and you're like, "You added that?"
7:55
That's way better. It's really exciting.
7:58
>> All right, now enough with the plant
8:00
metaphors. Thank you for sticking along
8:02
through that process. But but now we're
8:04
going to show you some actual projects
8:05
that our team at Blue Sky has been able
8:07
to work on, champion, and get to the
8:10
parks over the past year or so.
8:13
So, Thomas, want to talk about some of
8:15
the first ones?
8:15
>> Oh, man. Yeah, let's talk about a couple
8:17
things
8:18
here at Walt Disney World where I live
8:20
and spend most of my days and then also
8:22
in Walt Disney World at Hollywood
8:23
Studios and over at Disneyland and Star
8:26
Wars Galaxy's Edge, we did a couple of
8:28
new kind of updates to existing guest
8:30
favorite attractions in really exciting
8:32
ways. One, the first one being Buzz
8:34
Lightyear Space Ranger Spin. Hopefully,
8:36
people have gone and seen it. It's the
8:38
first ever one of those kind of Buzz
8:40
Lightyear rides that we did in Magic
8:42
Kingdom.
8:43
We got to update the entire targeting
8:45
system of that attraction and it became
8:47
a huge hit and it's a thing that all
8:49
families can go and ride and who knew
8:52
that having untethered blasters was
8:54
going to be so different for us in Walt
8:56
Disney World, but we've seen a
8:58
tremendous guest lift and we got to
8:59
introduce a new character, who is his
9:01
buddy who's kind of your testing robot
9:03
in the beginning scenes and I really
9:05
love it. It's turned out amazing and
9:07
that team did such great work.
9:09
Another one that the Millennium Falcon's
9:11
Smugglers Run. I think Mark Rogan is
9:13
always a good thing. Hopefully, people
9:15
saw Rogan. He's back there. He's looking
9:17
for snacks. He's very cute. But we loved
9:20
all of that stuff and then we talk about
9:22
re-themes. Julian and I both got to work
9:24
on a couple of them.
9:26
This one is very near and dear to my
9:28
heart, which is Rock 'n' Roller Coaster.
9:30
We got to add the colorful and humor of
9:33
the Muppets and that was a really really
9:35
fun project of
9:37
you know, kind of giving this evergreen
9:39
rock band their due and they got to move
9:42
in down the street to Two Force Records
9:43
and it's honestly really funny and
9:46
I'm super proud of that team.
9:48
>> Another recent re-theme we helped
9:49
shepherd Three Blue Sky. We don't just
9:52
work on attractions. Recently in Hong
9:54
Kong, Wayfinder's Table opened. This is
9:56
a Moana inspired restaurant. So, we were
9:59
looking at how can we bring new stories
10:01
and convert this space into something
10:03
that is very vibrant and magical
10:06
bringing new IPs to that part of the
10:09
park that didn't have.
10:12
And of course, of course, as Blue Sky we
10:15
think about the big expansions, what are
10:17
the new ride systems we're going to be
10:20
developing, what are the new
10:21
attractions, new lands and all of that.
10:23
But, we also look at every scale. So, of
10:26
course, some of the new builds that are
10:29
going to be coming soon might not just
10:31
attractions. We help with the
10:34
ideation all parts of the resort. So,
10:36
there's going to be a new east esplanade
10:39
entry experience for the Disneyland
10:41
Resort and a parking structure to really
10:43
change that whole experience. So, that's
10:45
something that we've been able to help
10:47
with that project team championing that
10:48
forward. And then of course, new builds
10:50
like the wonderful Coco themed
10:52
attraction coming to Disney California
10:53
Adventure which you all have seen over
10:55
here to our right.
10:57
So, that is in a nutshell kind of the
10:59
scope and scale of types of things that
11:01
Blue Sky works on. We're not just
11:03
working on what you would classically
11:06
think of as the big Blue Sky ideas. We
11:08
work in every different facet and all
11:10
sizes.
11:10
>> We love all of it. I think the the ones
11:13
when we do re-themes are just they're so
11:15
fun cuz they come with such different
11:16
bumpers and I love running out of them,
11:19
but I think the spirit of all of them is
11:20
always the same. What's going to make
11:23
kind of the biggest impact for our
11:24
guests. Sometimes there's going to be
11:25
small things like a Space Ranger spin to
11:28
really giant things. So, I think every
11:30
part of them our Blue Sky team gets
11:32
be at the early early days and get to
11:34
bring in so many people and I love the
11:36
collaboration of it.
11:39
>> So, Blue Sky exists to keep evolving and
11:43
imagining new things, constantly seeding
11:46
new things into our parks with new
11:48
magic.
11:49
>> And Blue Sky, we continue to ideate and
11:52
celebrate
11:53
that a good idea can truly come from
11:55
anywhere and from anyone. You know, Walt
11:58
said it best that, you know, Disney will
12:00
never be completed. It will continue to
12:02
grow
12:03
as long as there's imagination left in
12:04
the world and we try to take that spirit
12:06
every day with what we get to do in our
12:07
studio. So, thanks for letting us talk
12:09
to you and have a good D23.
12:11
>> Thank you all. Have fun.
12:12
>> [cheering]
#Travel & Transportation