We Call It Imagineering | Soundscapes

There's a Great Big Beautiful

Tomorrow Just a Dream

[Music]

away when someone asks you what your

favorite part of a Disney park is what

do you say one of my favorites it has to

be the music whether I'm walking down

Main Street or riding a doom buggy in

the Haunted Mansion or maybe blasting

through space with a Guardians of the

Galaxy there's nothing quite like the

soundtrack to a Disney Experience as a

filmmaker Walt Disney showed us how the

right song can create these deep

emotional connections to the stories

that we all love Disney imagineers they

follow that same principle today

infusing music into everything that they

do it literally sets the tone for our

experiences now here in Star Wars

Galaxy's Edge Music permeates the whole

place you hear it everywhere you hear it

in OG's

Cantina drifting out of the windows as

you walk through the marketplace there's

even a radio station that plays in the

land and all that music it has one

purpose to make you feel like you've

traveled to a galaxy far far away

because that's what music does it

transports us it transforms us almost

like magic so let's go talk to some of

the magic makers at imagineering and

find out how they breathe life into our

Disney experiences through

music there's really no secret about our

approach

we keep moving

forward opening up new doors doors doing

new

things there's really no secret about

our

[Music]

approach we keep moving forward moving

forward moving

forward opening up new

doors doing new things

because we're curious and curiosity

keeps leading us down New Paths we're

always exploring and

experimenting we call it

imaginary music is enormously important

to all things Disney all of our

attractions anywhere on the globe depend

on music to carry their emotional thread

and that is no coincidence you have to

have underscoring to thread you from

room to room just like you have from

scene to scene in EM Motion

Picture it'd be very difficult to

imagine going to Pirates of the

Caribbean and not finding music that was

aggressively Jolly Buccaneer and things

from the time of the

Pirates

y you couldn't go into the Haunted

Mansion and have happy songs for

springtime when you live in a world of

cobwebs and Atmospheric

Gloom so the music has its own character

just like like every single inhabitant

of every

attraction we are here in Nashville on

Music Row cutting some new tracks for

our country bear musical jamere show

maybe more energetic of the double

chorus so we wanted a Fresh Approach to

the show taking the the classic country

bears their humor their attitudes

putting in this authentic country flavor

we're rolling one two

one two

3 we wanted the diversity of songs we

pulled from multigenerational range of

Disney films and songs we wanted to pay

our due to country music going through

these songs with Mac this is going to be

bluegrass it's going to be pop country

just figuring out what style of country

music we want to record this

song for us it's like how do we properly

embody the characters while also

delivering it in a way that feels

believable within interpretation we

become also a voice actor has to honor

the song and the intent but also be true

enough that it's

[Music]

believable are we happy we're all happy

with everything cool yay there's a

tradition to the country Bearer jamere

that has to be respected multi

Generations have been there with their

family you try to honor these songs and

just bring high quality players and

happy environment around it and it

really manifested to take wonderful

Disney songs and put them in the hands

of some phenomenal musicians and then

run them through some bears how can you

not have fun doing that what surprised

me was Max's chord chart instead of

having a full score where you have the

bars and the notes there were some

scribbles chicken scratch the whole band

knew exactly what you were talking about

give me some exaggerated stops on those

two six minors you know like R you can

kind of shriek it a little bit

okay they lay it down once and you're

like wow that feels kind of good and

then they start saying well I'm going to

do this here and I'm going to do that

there a Stato one wouldn't hurt anything

we got the little walk down to the six

at the end of the line one more like

that later roll and then they play it

again and the song is there you

literally just feel it unfolding in

front of you and it's just magic no I

won't leave no I

won we're just trying to keep a little

cuz it's the only Cor so yeah yeah so

you're making a statement there you know

no I won't leave right no I won't leave

yep yep yep

[Applause]

yep

[Music]

again that'll harmonize really cool

right I was happy three Tes ago I just

like listen definit it you got it we

definitely have it when I got to hear

the whole concept behind the country

bear musical jamb B it really helped me

put myself in the shoes of Trixie as she

is kicking off the show and you've got

all of these scenes of these different

things that she has tried and failed and

she's keeping on trying I have felt that

way plenty of times and so it was really

really neat once I knew that concept to

just throw myself into that head space

and know it's more about telling that

story exactly and getting the emotion

across more than it is about singing

Everything perfectly and what do I want

the folks in the audience to feel when

they hear it it makes me want to try

everything so I sure hope that it makes

these folks want to try everything

too yeah buddy well that was

fun we're standing right in front of

It's a small world one of the most

famous attractions originally the

attraction was going to be called

children of the world and the concept

was that each group of children from

each country or continent were going to

be singing their own national anthems

and they did a mockup of that and it was

a

cacophony you couldn't create the sound

zones or the orchestrations or have any

sort of consistency with all of these

different songs going on at one time so

Walt went to the Sherman Brothers and

said fix this the Shermans wrote a very

simple song Verse Chorus Verse Chorus

repeat but yet as it grows as as you

hear it in different languages as you

hear it in different orchestrations it

becomes more and more a part of the

journey the goal of the attraction the

evolution of the music of It's a small

world is really emblematic of what goes

on in the imagineering process you start

out with a great concept and then you

explore the practicality how things

might work how things might not work but

that leads you down a path that you

might not have expected

[Music]

today we're doing finishing touches on

Disney dreams at sore the music is so

important in this show and this all

original score we were tasked to create

a short film in the sky initially we

were going to do a 6-minute show with

500 drones we put these great pieces of

music together went from 6 minutes to 9

and 1/2 minutes and how many drones does

it feature I think we're at 800

plus this is moment we've all been

waiting

for that was great I like that it's

really interesting being in this studio

and you think you're all good to go and

then you hit record and you're like oh

we've got to make some changes but it's

really great having the arranger who

arranged all the music being in the room

and being able to get the entire score

to just be aware and and have the

cohesiveness of the team to bring

everything together is what makes the

process so fun how would we feel about

doing a

so you're just holding C the whole time

in one and then it follows the melody in

the other change the world yeah and on

world we could add the fifth we'll do

that same open fifth thing can we keep

the third and the yes yes okay one two

three you can change the world that

sounded great in here the show is Disney

dreams at Sor and it's a drone show in

the sky the story is taking these

characters that fly and how their dreams

elevated them to bigger Heights I think

the most special story behind this song

is the fact that after the brainstorm

you went off on your own and wrote a

song and presented it and said this is

so inspiring to me that I felt the need

to write it when I was writing the song

I was just thinking taking your dreams

to new heights letting all of your

doubts go that was where I drew

inspiration for the song the first

couple lines it was directly to my

daughter I just imagine my daughter

hearing the song in the park and and

walking away with that message of you

can achieve

anything a and never look

back come on everybody here we

go Walt Disney was not a musician but he

understood the innate emotion that music

could convey when Walt established Walt

Disney imagineering to help build his

original theme part who did he staff it

with his filmmakers they thought

musically so it just translated

naturally Walt felt that the theme park

experience was basically walking into a

living version of the Disney motion

picture that you'd grown to know in love

already well just like Motion Pictures

need to have their mood established

through music and soundscaping so do

attractions in the Parks so if you're in

an area waiting for an attraction and

you hear music in the queue area that

music is is the Overture to your

Broadway show it's getting you ready for

the experience it's transporting your

mind subliminally so that you're in the

right place when your adventure actually

[Music]

starts welcome to Studio C here at

imagineering where we do a lot of our

audio designing and actually we got John

Dennis over here John why don't you

introduce yourself a John Dennis I'm

creative director for music and on

Tiana's by You Adventure we got to work

with Terence Blanchard here a seven time

Grammy Award winning two-time Oscar ated

composer Trumpeter arranger producer and

Native Son of New Orleans oh man thank

you we got Megan and Megan's been

working on a bunch of stuff these two

just got back from Tokyo actually Megan

you know a lot better than I do what

goes on in this room this is Studio C

where we mock up spaces you can see

there's hundreds of speakers around here

where we create bubbles of audio that

can move anywhere we want to place them

it's that immersive storytelling and

it's just amazing how quickly music

shift gears cuz we only have 5 6 7

minutes in an attraction to tell a story

so we have to get you ramped up and

you're coming from something else that

was probably really fun and stimulating

now I got to get you into New Orleans in

a different time period And this is the

important thing about that

subconsciously moving them to a place

that when they get on the ride they're

actually in the right frame of mind for

what they're about to experience and

that's again where the music you guys

are putting together for the queue is so

important I remember I kept asking you

how much music yeah do we need and I

think initially you say h maybe about 90

minutes and I went excuse

me and then fear set

in I love the fact that you guys think

about everything in terms of the

experience that people are going to have

from the time they walk through the

front door go back to the original music

selection process talk a little bit

about the variety of ensembles to

represent the musical culture of New

Orleans you have the traditional stuff

then you have the modern Jazz stuff and

then you have the Street Band stuff and

trying to bring all of those together

this project was the same thing as

trying to find the right cast for a film

you have to have the right people

involved bring in some of my heroes like

Charlie Gabriel Leo Chase preservation

Dirty Dozen and the people that we chose

came in with that beautiful energy and

just made us

[Music]

smile this isn't just background music

like in a restaurant or something like

that you're setting a time period you're

telling a story and you said for you

when you grew up that this assignment

you were kind of born for it what were

the things that you tapped into that you

went oh I know I want that kind of feel

because that's how I felt were there

certain songs or certain things you were

looking for textures oh definitely and

the the cool part about it was one of

the bands that came in with the small

bassum you remember and they thought

that well it'll be better for the record

I'm like no dude no we want you to do

what you do on the street really what we

want is that energy

that's that's what we

want you took us on a journey from Blues

to Jazz to the traditional Brass Band my

favorite nugget was right where we

started at the top of the set list was

an iconic song of New Orleans yeah bason

Street Blues Bas Street Blues and Terren

wasn't sitting back producing that one

he was on the floor playing yeah yeah

yeah and leading the band and that is

really to me what set the tone Oh well

thank you for the rest of the session

that was the first one that was the very

first one we tracked should we listen I

want to hear you

play you know the thing about working on

Tiana's Bayou Adventure that's different

and working with you guys and working on

a film is that when I'm working on a

film the story is done the tempo the

decisions about how it's shot location

actors their accents and all that stuff

it's all done so I'm reacting to that

right you know the thing that was cool

cool about this was that this was done

in Reverse we were able to create the

story music we were constantly talking

about storyline that's right cuz there

was a framework we had for a story but

we needed the music to create the

infrastructure of how this story was

going to move that's what made it cool

cuz dude it just kind of like set us

freak you know well leging is an

incredibly collaborative environment and

I think it does bring out the best in

really creative people like yourself

that's what you feel well thank you man

thank you cuz that's exactly what we

felt an amazing experience this one I'll

never forget

[Music]

man Buddy Baker did the orchestrations

for the Haunted Mansion creating

cinematic creepy sounds and

instrumentation there is a track of grim

grin and ghosts in the graveyard he took

his music score and notated it backwards

so the electric flute was played

backwards note fornote but then he

reverse the tape and it's playing

forwards but when you play the flute

you're

exhaling now the musician is inhaling

and making the noise because it's

backwards and it sounds so creepy and

[Music]

frightening hey this is PJ Morton I'm

here with Trisha and we're about to ride

Tiana's B adventure for the first time

I'm about to hear my song for the first

time on the ride special spice come with

us let's do it let's go yeah y all right

here we

go thank you

guys wow here we go here we

go it's been a lot of work leading up to

this point what are you looking forward

to when you get on the ride seeing it

all together beautiful I love

it oh yeah last time I was here I just

had to imagine

it and to hear my song I mean goes with

without saying I I'll probably be

emotional the first time hearing it you

know hey hey

y'all just as a kid I've always been

inspired by the big songs of Disney for

me and my sister it started with a

little mermaid singing those songs and

so it's just always been a part of our

Lives I always feel like they were so

well written you know Timeless so as a

young songwriter I always said I want to

write Timeless

things oh

yeah never my wildest dreams that I

think it would happen this way you know

an attraction is just such a different

thing a physical thing that

lives and how do it feel to have Ana

singing the song that you wrote yeah I

mean it's princess TI you know it's like

I mean it's the official she was great

to work with and it came out great thank

you I appreciate that you don't see my

shoes right yeah PJ Morton is so genuine

and warm and welcoming I'm listening

it's a free happy bouncy song to take

you on this journey because you're me do

it again spice makes us

complete one more

time man she look so good man wow yeah

wow what are people expecting when they

get to this end section for that final

scene we knew we wanted a celebration we

knew that we wanted something that would

welcome people in so you have to I guess

honor honor what's been there and and

also introduce something new and fresh

to it you have to get lyrics that speak

to everyone and speak the right way so

it was a fun process for me as a

songwriter I wrote that I wrote that

song

that's wow yeah wow

[Music]

[Applause]

[Music]

it's

amazing she's

[Music]

amazing wow that finale room is just

like amazing I mean it puts you right

into it the music is playing the band is

playing of Misfits which I love

everybody's welcome it's a party seeing

that seeing it done seeing the

animatronics which are topnotch and of

course the icing on the cake for me is

that my song is playing and it went from

writing a song at the piano to an

attraction with all these things going

on that that was the feeling I got a

dream come true people say that all the

time but this is literally a dream come

true to be at Disney

[Music]

There's a Great Big Beautiful

Tomorrow shining at the end of

day one attraction in particular played

for many years at Disneyland and is

currently at Walt Disney World was part

of the progress land exhibit a show

called the Carousel of Progress and in

that there's a particular theme song

which I'd love to underscore because it

really is Walt Disney's philosophy set

to music Here's the original Disneyland

1967 45 RPM sleeve of the Carousel of

Progress song and it's called There's a

Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow written by

Richard and Robert Sherman who really

were Walt Disney's voice his thoughts

set to music I think that as long as

there is Imagination left in the world

and as long as there is imagineering

left in the world we can continue to

look forward to those great big

beautiful tomorrows just just as Walt

Disney

intended well a beautiful tomorrow just

a dream away that says we're going

places there's progress ahead

[Music]