www.themeparkinsider.com: Disney's Tony Baxter was the lead designer on many of the theme park industry's most beloved attractions, including Splash Mountain, Star Tours, and the Indiana Jones Adventure. Earlier this year, Disney honored Baxter as one of the company's Disney Legends, and last week, the company unveiled a window tribute to Baxter on Disneyland's Main Street USA.
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Relationships with your fellow co-workers have far reaching implications, as exemplified by this article. Not only are there people you do or don’t want to work with, a competitive environment fosters pride, rejection, and a class divided hierarchy. This would be the kind of system mentioned when they speak about 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 year olds all in the same corporation. What Walt Disney did instead was to have a greater divide, so instead of competition there was cooperation. The older generation must empower and teach the younger generation so the Disney magic could continue. As a direct result, the younger generation was empowered not from a place of having to prove themselves, but instead they were already believed-in, already selected. Instead of having the best idea that they could sign their name to, they wanted the best idea for the project. This is exactly the kind of creative relationship that is most conducive to theater. In lieu of pride, the best interest of the production takes preeminence. As a director, this is the kind of tone I want to set for all collaborators on a production.
I found his journey through becoming theme park attraction designer to be very interesting and exciting. It was kind of surprising how he ended up changing from architecture to theater design and finally ended in Disneyland. Based on his interview, I think that trying from the bottom, but still keeping in mind what a person is aiming for is very important because he was firstly working in Disney land for ice cream, then operation, and finally designer. In addition, not only I found fascinating on how he got to interact with first-generation people who worked with Walt, but also it is really cool how he learned so many stuff from relationships with them. In his interview on Marc Davis and Claude Coats, I found that how some of important aspects or personalities of Claude are exactly what people in theatre need: open to absorb ideas and building upon concepts with the input of the people he worked with. I found so many similarities that went along with theatrical world. I was really glad to read this interview because I never had a chance to hear or read about a deep insight of Disneyland attraction designer.
From the articles I've read about it, Disney Imagineering sounds simultaneously amazing and ridiculous. Something about being expected to work ridiculous hours but at the same time only have superficial benefits that are at the same time an incredibly creative work environment... But I digress. Everything involving Disney and Disneyland is magic. Ask any small child or, really, any grown child as well. Everything is magical and absolutely enclosed in a fourth-wall type of environment. And the magic of Imagineering seems to be just that- figuring out how to make it not only based in physics and reality, but still be able to provide an illusion to the general public. Baxter's journey is a success story that is probably less successful now than back then, but still one that sounds inspiring.
I grew up at Disneyland and have ridden and seen the work of Tony Baxter since I was very young. He is one of the people I look up to most and this article was really exciting because I learned things about him that I didnt know. It was really exciting to hear that Baxter, like myself, was also an architecture student who then left architecture to study theater design. Leaving the architecture program was one of the hardest things that I've ever had to do, but I did so with a plan and hope that studying theatrical design would eventually help me achieve my long term goals. One of those goals happens to involve Disney Imagineering. After I work in theater I hope to eventually become a Disney Imagineer and build upon the magic that is Disney. Baxter talked about how he and his generation were presented with the challenge of building upon an already existing expectation of Disneyland. Today's generation and future generations of imagineers will have similar challenges. There will be the same expectation to make things better and build upon existing attractions while at the same time creating something new that is exciting, but also in essence what Disney has worked hard to become. Hopefully one day I will be able to work with Tony Baxter creating a new and even better Disney than ever before.
Tony baxter has been an inspiration for me since i was much younger and first had the dream of working at WDI. basically ever since i first experienced what WDI does i have wanted to work there and have structured my life and goals accordingly. reading this interview with tony, it actually reminds me a lot of how i think. Its all about what you want in the end and then figuring out goals of how to get there. as tony explains you have to always be looking towards the next thing and pushing yourself to be even better. I think its awesome that the company is recognizing him for all his years of work. I hope i get to work with or at least meet tony baxter some day.
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