We Blew it as Fans and Missed This Completely!

This summer Disney will be unveiling the newly remodeled entry for California Adventure, Buena Vista Street. Watching the buildings and street take shape has been a lot of fun. Photos and videos from intrepid park guests have detailed the demolition and rebuilding of this area into something beautiful. Disney itself has been showcasing the work through models and videos in the Blue Sky Cellar. I think we missed something in all the excitement though, and it's pretty awesome!


In a very brief 10 second long clip from one of the Blue Sky Cellar videos about Buena Vista Street we can see a projection mapping test on the Carthay Circle Theater model. Here, watch for yourself. Skip to 4:22.

The camera is panning up the model and you can clearly see video being projected on it. An arm is clearly moving on the right side towards the end of the 10 seconds. You can see ceiling lights overhead in the room the test is being shot in and even the shadow of the table the model is sitting on at the beginning.


Disney has been investing a lot of effort into projection mapping recently. The World of Color tour, Let the Memories Begin shows on Cinderella Castle and the it's a small world facade and just this weekend Paris' Disney Dreams show. DCA already has World of Color so I don't expect this to be anything huge like Dreams, just a small, several times a night display, maybe a couple of minutes long. It would make sense to make it about the premier of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs since that is the time period and historical significance of the Carthay. In fact, it actually looks like the arm and peasant sleeve of Snow White being projected in the video clip.


So, if they are planning on doing this, there would need to be a place for the projectors to sit. I am not an expert in setting up projection mapping, but there are two possibilities here. To cover the entire theater facade there are two possibilities:

Three projectors to cover the entire facade

Two projectors may be enough as well

Three projectors seem to offer much greater coverage and overlap, but it might be possible to cover the whole thing with just two as well. Like I said, I'm no expert in setting something like this up and it would depend a lot on the angles between the BVS buildings and Carthay as well as any obstructions (trees, lighting poles, etc). It looks completely doable.


It might be worth watching the construction of the skyline around the circle area for possible projector emplacements. Has anyone noticed anything yet?


This may just be wishful thinking, but it is fairly obvious that they at least had this idea at some point. Whether it is still happening or was just a test that later got canceled, I don't know. I think it could work really great within the theme of the area as a tribute to the movie that made all of this possible and that actually premiered in the locations real life namesake. Here's hoping this actually happens.