Immersive experiences have the opportunity to bring people into an all-encompassing exposure to art and creativity. Now, Denver is getting it’s own immersive experience featuring the work of Disney’s animations for all ages.
It's as Walt Disney said: “Fantasy and reality often overlap.”
Through a partnership between Lighthouse Immersive Studios — the Creators of Immersive van Gogh — and Walt Disney Animation Studios, Disney Animation: Immersive Experience opened Thursday at Lighthouse ArtSpace Denver, 3900 Elati St.
The exhibit has already opened in Cleveland, Nashville and Detroit prior to coming to Denver and will open next in Boston. The world premiere was held at Lighthouse ArtSpace Toronto in December 2022. Additional cities are being scheduled now, with Tokyo being the first city to get this immersive experience outside of North America.
Featured films include newer productions like Encanto, Zooropia and Frozen in addition to Disney classics such as The Lion King, Peter Pan and Pinocchio.
Oscar-winning producer J. Miles Dale, who won best picture in 2018 for The Shape of Water, worked with Mexico City-based Cocolab and the Creative Legacy team at Walt Disney Animation Studios to create this immersive experience. Special Projects Producer and Oscar nominee Dorothy McKim is leading the project for Disney Animation. Lighthouse Immersive’s Global Creative Director David Korins, who has been a Tony Award nominee credited in work of more than 20 Broadway shows, worked on environmental design.
The Disney company did not want to do its own immersive experience and were excited at the opportunity to bring on Dale to produce it, he said. From beginning to end, Dale said it took about six months to create.
“With the success of van Gogh we went to Disney,” Dale said. “We wanted to broaden the medium with something narrative and Disney was the obvious choice.”
One of the things Dale wanted to bring to the exhibit was a way to honor the animators. In the two-room exhibit, there are videos and pieces of information scattered throughout the first gallery showing the drawings and work that brought Disney’s characters to life.
“From Steamboat Willy to a talking cartoon to a color cartoon to the multiplane camera, we wanted people to come through, get a little smarter, see how it was made, maybe be inspired by some of the stuff in there,” Dale said. “We had unlimited access to the Disney archives which is a very rare thing, and when we went in there and were exposed to it we were very much kind of inspired by what we saw" and wanted to show people that.
The Animation Research Library houses everything that has been filmed by Disney, including drawings and painted cells. The producers want this to be an educational experience as much as a show, McKim said.
“Seeing some of the visual development art is like something that's never been seen before,” McKim said. “And a lot of times, people ask ‘What do you think Walt would think about this?’ He was all about the future … He would be so proud right now of this.”
Both Dale and McKim said changes will continue to be made to the film, like adding “Under the Sea” and possibly bringing in brand new movies as Disney reaches its 100 year anniversary in 2023.
Mitch McClaren from Thorton attended the VIP opening night with three others. He said that he liked the way the production was layered across different music, movies and characters.
“Growing up a Disney fan, it was a large enjoyment to be able to see kind of a flashback of everything mixed in with the new modern stuff for sure,” McClaren said. “I love kind of how they were able to transition everything and that they were showing different bits and pieces, it wasn’t just kind of one wall [of the same].”
Denver resident Josie Hunt said she loved the movement of aimnations across the floor that follow visitor’s walking around the gallery.
“Watching the kids dance around and jump on the floors [is] probably what made me smile the most,” Hunt said. “Just how they combined everything together as far as like the villain scenes and the love scenes and the whole flying scene was really cool too.”
Wait until the end, for the total of about an hour, to experience 500,000 cubic feet of galleries with bubbles.
Tickets start at start at $39.99 and are on sale at disneyimmersive.com.