Disney Imagineers

Broad topic: Disney Imagineers

Narrow topic: The Inventions of the Disney Imagineers

General purpose: to inform

Specific purpose: By the end of the speech, the audience should know who the Disney Imagineers are and three different inventions they have created.

Thesis: The Disney Imagineers have invented many things that have changed technology today.

I. Introduction

A. Imagineer is a term that is not found in the dictionary. It combines the words “imagination” and “engineering”. It is the act of learning and succeeding by dreaming and doing.

B. The first Imagineers were hand selected by Walt Disney to help design Disneyland and create the other theme parks all over the world. Since then, they have expanded and invented many new products.

C. I am only 20 years old, and yet, I have been to Disney World 21 times and have witnessed the work of the Disney Imagineers first hand on various occasions.

D. The Disney Imagineers have invented many products that have changed technology today such as specialty hair dryers and robotic human torsos and everything in between.

E. I will be touching on three of their inventions: animatronics, fluid projection screen and synchronized parade routes.

F. Transition: One of the first great inventions by the Disney Imagineers were animatronics.

II. Animatronics

A. Disney desired to give life-like movement to 3-D figures.

B. They used cams and levers to move the figures

C. The cams and levers were not working so well, so they combined this idea with an electric-hydraulic-pneumatic approach.

D. They also used magnetic recording tape and solenoid coils that would trigger one another to produce action.

E. First audio-animatronics were used in Disneyland.

1. The Enchanted Tiki Room opened on June 23, 1963.

2. It had a cast of 225 birds, flowers, masks, drummers, and tiki poles.

3. The birds would click their beaks, swivel around on their perches, and sing and talk to one another.

F. Transition: Another invention that was created by the Disney Imagineers was the fluid projection screen.

III. Fluid Projection Screen

A. It is a fluid screen that is generated by pumping water through a screen nozzle and having an axial flow director and a nozzle insert on it.

B. It creates a screen of water that can be projected upon.

C. If the water is not at the right pressure and the flow is not correct, the screen may have holes in it and then the projection will not be seen on it.

D. The fluid projection screen was first used at Disney’s MGM Studio’s Fantasmic! and The Adventures of the Little Mermaid.