Monday, October 31, 2011
Elephants Really Do Fly at the Disneyland Resort
Disney Parks Blog: He’s baaack! Last May, one of our African bull elephants from the Jungle Cruise needed a “check-up.” (This happens once every 7-10 years.) Our special elephant, however, can’t be removed by boat or car. This is Disneyland Resort, where elephants fly! So our popular pachyderm was hoisted into the air by a helicopter and flown backstage, where a team waited to refurbish him. Now he’s gone back to the jungle.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
17 comments:
This is fun. Ok though I have to admit when I read the first little excerpt of it, I thought that they were going to go all "Operation Dumbo Drop" style on it because I was hoping it was a real elephant. But then I was wondering why it couldnt get backstage. Anyway, I think that maintenance of such attractions is something that we dont always consider. So having to helicopter it out, if you have the ability, wouldnt be that bad. But if that wasnt an option, maintenance would be something to consider when the attraction is first installed. It is also just really awesome to see an elephant fly through the air.
It seems as though they could have made this maintenance easier. If you can get people out to the unit why not make it break up into pieces that could be brought out without a helicopter. The Mouse has more money than god but really guys this could be made simpler and less costly.
That's pretty cool. It's always interesting to see the innovative approaches people have to solving problems. In the entertainment industry we are always running into strange problems that were not considered at the beginning. Something like having to lift an elephant statue for refurbishment is a prime example. I'm sure maintenance was put under consideration, but it's impossible to forsee exactly how time and weather will end up affecting such a unique structure and how in turn it will have to be dealt with. In addition, it's great that this was videotaped, because watching an elephant that isn't Dumbo fly is cool within itself.
While the idea of flying in and out a scenic piece for refurbishment is both hilarious and kind of baffling; I give a lot of points to Disney for how organized they made the entire process look. I am guessing that this is not their first time flying their fake elephants in or out, but at least based on how the video made the activity look, it seems like a pretty non-event. Part of me almost wonders if back when the initially designed Jungle Cruise if the fact that the elephant would have to be air lifted was discussed and established long before he even came into existence.
The image of an elephant flying through the sky was very theatrical. I enjoyed it. The fake elephant also seemed to be very well made, and reminded me of the dinosaur in the Purnell lobby, and how it is painted.
I trust Disney to do the most efficient thing; however; it is interesting to me that that was apparently using an actual helicopter. I wonder if they considered that when originally building and placing the piece. Did they factor in renting a helicopter every 7 years into the budget?
In response to Rachel's post, they probably didn't factor the price of the helicopter into the budget because its tough to budget seven years in advance (or however old the elephant is), but also, Disney clearly has the money to do all they need to do and more. They didn't just rent a helicopter, they rented a really expensive and big helicopter, bigger than they needed to do the job. I'm sure they had their reasons, or maybe it was a helicopter that they own but weren't using elsewhere that day.
When I saw this video I couldn't help but contemplate the rigging involved in this entire ordeal. It looks like they also had to build a special mobile unit to move the elephants around on the ground. I wonder what kind of professionals they had for the rigging on this project, and in light of recent conversations, I wonder what kind of insurance they had, or if they were covered under disney.
So many expectations of them randomly flying a real elephant across the park, not necessarily let down. born and raised californian my whole family is quite enamored with disneyland and there for very familiar with the jungle cruise ride. gotta say I'm rather impressed with the entire operation. Kinda jealous that I wasn't on this haul or even there that day. Rather curious though what the actual weight of the elephant was and how difficult the haul was
Wow this seems like a whole lot of work to repair a single elephant. Only in the magic kingdom would so much effort be put in to preserving a single piece of their kingdom. Their attention to detail is always superb. Although it does seem that there could be an easier way to perform maintenance.
I thought this article was totally about something else. Dumbo related or something. Ha! Now I've seen an elephant fly, kind of. Anyway, like Sonia said I've never actually thought about the maintenance for things like Theme Parks. The cost must be exorbitant to fix Mr. Elephant every seven to ten years. The rigging, the helocopter, the people working. And when did they do this? Before the park opened or does Disneyland have days off at all? I know Disney World is open everyday of the week. And there are more things to fix in a park than just one elephant. I have to wonder how much that cost yearly to keep a park clean. Something new to think about.
They seemed very organized and had the process down. Like others have said i was half hoping it would be Dumbo style or a real Elephant. I know Disney has more money than god an can afford to fly a helicopter to pick up their "sick" elephant, but i really do want to know the price difference between using the helicopter and refurbishing and just making a new one and taring the other apart and taking it out with a 4x4 truck.
Luke brings up a great point. You think when they build all of their attractions they would come up with an easy way to maintain them. I wonder if they thought they would need to fly the elephants out from the beginning. You don't think about flying elephants at Disney unless its Dumbo. In my opinion they probably didn't factor the helicopter into their budget because they probably didn't think about maintaining it with a helicopter, not because they didn't think about maintenance, but just because that didn't need to be on their radar. It might actually be cheaper to take the elephants out with helicopter then having to destroy parts of the attraction in other ways or going "over" land to get the elephant out. When you really want to design a realistic attraction you don't include paths to get animals out, it would kind of be an eye sore.
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?
I feel like Disney has just about everything they do planned down to the finest detail. For example, when the street artist, Banksey, put up a dummy near the photo op for Thunder Mountain Railroad as a sort of political message, it took park operators all of two minutes to close the ride, remove the dummy, and have undercover park security take one of his accomplices to a back room for questioning. You would think that an organization as tightly managed as the Thought Police would be able to make a more convenient route to this so called "elephant." I will admit, however, that flying an elephant around by helicopter is about as cool as it gets.
I had no idea that Disney had to go to this extent to repair the elephant. I guess I just never thought about how Disney's set and prop pieces were placed into their attractions.
Was there any other way to do this? A helicopter seems like a pretty high expense for this repair. Though I did really enjoy seeing the elephant fly in the air.
On another note, if Disney only has to repair this elephant every 7-10 years, the work and engineering placed into the elephant must be really great.
Although I applaud them for doing a regular check-up on such aspects of their park, I must agree with Luke in the fact that it could have been transported to have maintenance done in a more reasonable manor than the hassle of a helicopter. They should have thought of this ahead of time, all the way back to the blueprints of the exhibit and the makings of the elephant itself. But being that they didn't they made the best out of the situation they had and were organized in doing so. They got the elephant in and out without a scratch, well no more than it already had!
Transporting scenery can be a creative task. It is comforting to know that Disney has to be creative with there transportation as well. Only they have lots of funds, the folks in poor theatre have to be a bit more creative. Flying dumbo in this video has many risks, such as what happens when the elephant accidentally falls? Lots of damage.
The video for this post was unfortunately unavailable. I do think the concept of an elephant flying over Disneyland is incredibly interesting though, and is something I would definitely like to see. This was absolutely an interesting and creative way to solve problems, and makes me wonder why and how this elephant, which is definitely not one of the most technologically advanced things in the theme parks. It's also interesting to consider that Disney has practically unlimited funds to give their many Jungle Cruise elephants a first-class helicopter ride every few years. It makes me wonder if the elephants in Disney World, which was made after the California ride, get this princess treatment. I wonder what that little guy was thinking and did up there on his magical Dumbo ride, and what guests must have thunk when they looked up on their vacation.
Post a Comment