Hi there, I'm Amiyrah Martin,
host of the planDisney Podcast.
And we have our very first piece of bonus content for you.
Check out this interview with a Disney Imagineer on how they're bringing
Avengers Campus to Disneyland Paris to life.
Hello, Beth.
It is so great to meet you.
And I'm just really excited that we're going to dive in today
and learn all about the amazing things that you do.
And maybe you're going to give us some secrets about Disneyland Paris
and Avengers Campus.
I'm excited. I'm so glad you're here.
Well I'm excited too, Amiyrah.
I'm very excited because, you know,
I'm Beth I'm the Creative Director
on the Avengers Campus.
And I have been for the last four years almost.
So it's been a long time that me and not just me, many people
have been working on this project, November 2018.
So it's a long time.
So, I'm very excited that we are finally at this point where we can start
to talk about sharing the Avengers Campus and opening it up to the new recruits.
And you just answered my first question.
Look how in sync we are today.
I was going to ask you about a little bit about yourself
and what you do for Walt Disney Imagineering.
I know you're an art director and can you tell us just a little bit
more about maybe your day to day, or really your big role
in creating this amazing space at Disneyland Paris?
Okay, sure. Yeah.
So, my title is Creative Director and I've been working on the
Avengers Campus with teams from the Marvel Studios,
of course, as we develop the concept.
So, initially what we do is we start with ideas.
What are we going to do?
You know, what is this new campus going to be?
And we leveraged a little bit of the same concept,
a storyline which is, you know, the world needs more heroes.
And so Tony Stark and his Avengers pals decided that the way
to discover, recruit and train the next generation of superheroes
was to set up this global network of campuses.
So that's the storyline and what that means
for us, for me as a creative director, is that I develop all of the
all of the aspects within the different, all the storyline aspects
talk to the different people as to how we're going to design it and build it.
Make sure that from the time that we imagine it, it actually looks
and feels like it once it's there.
So by the time that a visitor comes,
it's still exactly what we imagined it was going to be,
you know, all those years ago when we first designed it.
Oh my goodnes. - So a lot of my day is,
is to do with quality of audio
and video and color and architecture and working with other
art directors, with different vendors around the world.
We have designed certain things in different places of the world.
We bring them together, all together
at the end of our design and we put them on the campus.
That's the really fun part of the job for me.
All the toys are together, we put them all together and that's
when really it starts to become a real place.
Oh my gosh, that sounds like a dream.
Like just bringing dreams into reality.
You have the best job, you have the best job.
We do have the best job, yeah.
You do! I know.
I have more questions for you, though, so let's really get into it.
So, I know from, there's surprise live action
stunts to heroic encounters, there may be two
action packed attractions and extra special themed restaurants.
And I hear there's a boutique, but can you dive a little
deeper into the details of what guests
might expect to find when they come to visit?
Of course. So, you know, as a guest enters the campus and, you know,
as I said to you, this is story-wise in story,
this is a place where the guests are going to become new recruits
because The Avengers are looking to train up the next generation of superheroes.
So just like any campus, there's going to be the sorts of addresses
that you would find on an almost normal campus.
So there's a research and development facility.
There's a place to train alongside your favorite heroes.
There's a headquarters where something might happen.
And we'll get into that a little later on.
There's a laboratory that was set up a long time ago
by Hank Pym and has now been converted into a place where
we'll be able to go and test out innovative experiments around food.
And there's a place also where Tony Stark and The Avengers
repair and store all of their special equipment
that they need would be for battle, or in between missions.
And so that's also a place where you can come in and have something to eat
during the day when you need to refuel.
Oh, my goodness. So much to do.
So much to do. I love it.
Okay, so we heard that there's an exclusive attraction coming to Disneyland Paris
called Avengers Assemble Flight Force.
Can you tell us what guests are going to experience
on this high speed roller coaster?
Yes, of course.
Now, of course, it is a high speed roller coaster, but in story,
because as a guest, you're coming into a recruit
and so what you will
experience as a new recruit is there's this really fancy headquarters.
Of course, The Avengers always have this very contemporary, slick,
latest technology spaces that they develop their new technology in.
And this is what you see as you come into the campus,
there's this really interesting contemporary facade with this animated
thing that's happening on the front of it.
And what that thing is, is it's Friday, Tony Stark's virtual assistant.
She actually is sort of running a lot of things
that are going on on the campus so she's present at the exterior of the campus.
And then when we go into the headquarters
we can hear Friday's voice and we're going to the headquarters
because as a new recruit, we're going to learn what values,
what morals, what qualities does it take characteristics to become an Avenger?
So, we see these images of our Avengers as it
is it values, is it nobility, is it speed, is it courage, all these things.
But as we go into the headquarters, we hear Friday
telling us that there's a situation, yellow alert.
Now, we don't know what that means, but we're asked to proceed
into the Situation Room.
And there we discover that there was effectively a situation.
And Tony Stark needs all hands on deck.
So, he's calling for all of The Avengers.
We need some help, there is some Kree missiles that are headed towards Earth.
We need help.
So he's looking for people to help.
He's got Captain Marvel on there.
As it turns out, we get recruited.
Us new recruits
to get on board the new hypersonic that was developed by Tony Stark
and get out there in this space battle to help Tony,
to help Iron Man and Captain Marvel before the missiles head towards Earth.
So that's going to be our mission.
We'll see if we're successful or not.
But I think we might be.
Oh my gosh. That sounds so exciting.
Just being looped in to the mission
that is exactly what people want, especially when they go to visit
any of our Disney parks.
So, that is super exciting,
but I know there's another
great attraction, great experience that we need to talk a little bit about.
So, Spider-Man Web Adventure, and I know it's part of the lineup as well.
How are guests able to jump into the action?
Slinging webs, actually, just like Spider-Man
and using innovative technology?
Okay, so again, I'm the recruit.
I'm here at the campus, right? And guess what?
Over there I see this big web logo, you know, a Spider-Man logo.
I look at that and that building over there is called the Web Workshop.
And that Web Workshop has been set up by, again, Tony Stark to put people like
Peter Parker who you might know is very close to Spider-Man.
So Peter Parker, who's a young inventor and all of his inventive gals and guys,
and they're discovering, they're working on projects,
you know, new technology that future heroes are going to need.
So today, for me as a recruit, it's an open house day.
So I get to go in
and I get to see some of the projects that these guys are working on.
And hey, Peter Parker is in the house today
and he shows us some of the experiments he's been working on,
one of which is this cool, prototypical vehicle
that is going to take us through the underground tunnels of the campus.
And another little thing,
which is a little kind of cute sidekick, called a Spider-Bot.
Now, this Spider-Bot, Peter thinks is really cool,
but he's cool, but he's designed it to have the self-replicating feature.
And guess what?
It goes awry and it starts self-replicating and going crazy.
And again, he asks us to please come and help
and he calls Spider-Man, I need help Spider-Man.
And Spider-Man says, hey guys, the Spider-Bots are going crazy.
He shows us how to sling the webs.
We've got to get down
into the slinger vehicles and go through the tunnels.
And we have to help capture the Spider-Bots
before they wreak havoc on the campus.
So, that's how we get to be part of the action in that Spider-Man Web Adventure.
Oh my goodness.
It's a very super, I can't wait for you to do it.
It's a really cool, fun family adventure.
And we are slinging webs.
It's also a game, you know, so that when I'm in
when I'm in that prototypical vehicle, we can actually score points.
And so I'm gaming beside the, you know, my neighbor next door or
the person behind me.
So when we've actually left the experience,
we have a lot of fun seeing how well we did.
How many Spider-Bots did you capture?
It's a great family adventure. - Right, exactly.
Yeah, it's so great
that they get to do it together and then it's great memories,
which is always a great part of visiting Avengers Campus
or any of the Disney Parks.
And super active because, you know,
because we really are we're immersed in this whole, we go
through four different zones within the tunnels of the campus.
And each time there's this new things that we have to
figure out what's going on
and we have to just sling those webs like super quickly.
So at the end of it we've got a good workout.
Yes, you got your arm workout in for the day.
I love it.
Alright, I have one last question for you, then I'll let you go.
But I want to know.
What are you personally most excited for guests to experience, or a detail
maybe they may discover as part of this expansion?
Right. So, you know, I would really like personally, you know,
the core philosophy of The Avengers is a very optimistic one.
And it's one about sharing power.
You know, one person who decides to share power becomes a hero
and more than one person who decides to share the power becomes a team.
And together, we're stronger together.
And so what I think is really empowering about the campus is
if the guests really feel like they're part of a bigger universe,
they become something that's just bigger than the campus itself.
It's connected to a larger universe,
but not only connected to the largeness of the universe,
but we hope that and I hope that guest, that recruit, will feel connected
to the everyday hero that lives inside each and every one of us,
because that's what we're hoping to promise to these recruits
that we will connect to the big universe and the hero inside us.
I love that so much.
Beth Clapperton, you are our hero.
Bringing all of this to life. - No, no, no, no.
We're so excited.
Thank you so much for joining us today. - You're very welcome.
Oh my gosh.
You've given us so much to think about and get excited for.
And we cannot wait for Avengers Campus to open at Disneyland Paris.
Thank you so much. - You're very welcome.
I can't wait for you to come to Avengers Campus at Disneyland Paris.
That was so much fun to watch.
Now, be sure to check out this month's full episode,
all about Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.