FARON KELLEY: This weekend is the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend.
We'll have 26,000 runners.
This is one of our biggest race weekends ever.
LUIGI PRIORE: Today we're gonna meet with the developers of Sorcerer's Arena.
Then we're checking out new content that's just about to launch.
ROBERT MAXHIMER: This is the launch of the traveling exhibition
called Inside the Walt Disney Archives.
ANNOUNCER: Three, two, one...
Go!
FARON KELLEY: There's no other place
you can actually run through the Disney parks.
They come into Epcot, they see Spaceship Earth.
You run through Cinderella Castle.
I mean, that's a fairytale in and of itself.
This weekend is the Walt Disney World Marathon weekend.
We'll have 26,000 runners.
This is one of our biggest race weekends.
So in about six hours or so, this'll be packed.
-Hello. -KELLEY: Morning. How are you?
-Doing great. -KELLEY: Good.
In addition to running through the incredible Disney theme parks,
you get Disney characters, you get a one-of-a-kind Disney medal.
Nowhere else can that happen.
We're gonna go over the river and through the woods
to the start line now.
Everyone takes their job seriously.
They care so much about the runner experience.
46.2 square miles of people coming together
to make this experience for our guests.
Here we are at the actual start line.
You don't see the stage here right now, but it's down the road getting built.
They're going to be putting it and hoisting it into place any minute now.
We're getting our corral set up.
So fencing is going in place.
Putting more entertainment, video screens down the street
so everybody can see everything no matter where they are.
We gotta have fireworks at the start.
So we got our pyro towers out here all ready.
These guys have been working all night to make sure that there's that moment
at the start that everybody feels special.
Before I worked here, I was a runner.
My very first half marathon was right here at Walt Disney World.
In fact, I have my very first medal with me.
2005, I ran the half marathon
and got the amazing Donald medal.
Being a runner, I put myself in the shoes of those
that will be at the starting line.
Runners have already started to arrive.
This is exciting. It's getting real now.
Some of the first busses are getting here.
It's 3:17, so this lot opened 17 minutes ago
and you can see they're starting to come in.
This is awesome. It is the best part of the day.
SCOTTY SCOGGINS: Right now I'm excited and anxious
and nervous all at the same time.
I had knee surgery two months ago. I'm a little nervous about that,
but I'll make it.
A little nervous. I didn't sleep last night. Not a minute.
But I'm excited.
You can't ever take these distances for granted.
They're always a challenge.
We have so many people that are running in honor of someone.
I actually lost my father to lymphoma and, um, it happened...
It was one of the few race weekends I missed.
So I'm very close to the stories they tell
and the fight that they're fighting on behalf of somebody else.
CRIDER: In 1996, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.
I went through treatment, chemo, three surgeries,
so I wanted to do something where I could be active
and raise money for others to help cure cancer.
I'm running the half marathon in honor of my mom and dad.
I'd never run. I started when I was 51 years old
after my mom passed away.
She was diagnosed with leukemia.
All these people that are running for causes,
they have that same bond and when you're running with them,
it feels like you can do anything.
Folks, I gotta thank you.
I gotta thank you for the hours of training,
rolling out of bed, being here this morning.
You are the people that make this race happen.
You are the ones that we do it for.
Give yourselves a huge round of applause, folks,
because this day is all about you.
(CHEERING)
DONALD DUCK: Three, two, one, run!
KELLEY: As soon as we get that start command, then the fun starts.
This is the reward for all those mornings, all those hours.
Go out there, enjoy this.
CRIDER: I love running down Main Street. That's probably one of my favorite things.
And all the pictures that you get, the memories,
it's more important than whatever time you run in the race.
Stop for the picture.
When you're running long distances, it's hard to keep your mental state right.
But when you're at Disney, there's the castle
and there's characters all over the place, even though it's long, it's enjoyable.
(CROWD CHEERING)
KELLEY: This is the part we wait for.
This is the moment where you see those faces.
They're tired, but they're happy.
Awesome job.
-Thank you so much. -Good race.
KELLEY: When you see those faces
and see that medal go around their neck and they go,
"You know what, if I did this, what else can I do?
"Can I keep going? Can I do other things?"
So many first timers that come out, they'll do the 5k,
they'll graduate to a half, they might run the marathon someday.
And what's exciting is they go back to their hometown and they keep running.
They keep running these races and it changes their lives
and for us to be just a chapter in that story, a chapter in that book,
that's kinda the neat thing about what runDisney does.
I'm Luigi Priore. I lead the Disney and Pixar Games team.
We're the lucky people who get to make video games for the Walt Disney Company
based on Disney and Pixar characters.
-Hey, Mike. It's good to see you. -What's up? Good to see you.
PRIORE: Today we're at Glu.
We're meeting Mike Olsen and his team, the developers of Sorcerer's Arena.
We're checking out new content that's about to launch.
Sorcerer's Arena is the deep strategy RPG for mobile platforms
where you collect Disney characters to compete in an arena.
OLSEN: Check this out. PRIORE: What is this?
I had to show this to you guys before we got started.
This went up this last week.
WILL ROSAS: Look at this. OLSEN: Yeah.
PRIORE: Why don't we have this?
The sorcerer, too.
OLSEN: The Disney universe is massive.
In our upcoming game, we have over 200 characters that come alive in the game.
It shows all the different characters.
ROSAS: Oh, my goodness. Look at Stitch.
We're really diving deep into the vault from the history of Disney and Pixar.
We can sit and talk about this all day, but we got a lot to cover today.
PRIORE: Glu and Mike Olsen's team are amazing.
They're best-in-class partner.
When we have our experts,
our game designers and artists sit down and work with this team,
they're fans, we're fans and we're all experts together
to make the game even better.
-You put the posters up? -OLSEN: Posters are up.
I've been at Glu for about three years.
From the day I joined, we were building the prototype with the idea
that we were going to pitch to Disney.
We on the Disney side had always wanted to do an RPG.
We're in a room and they say, "We wanna make a game
"with Disney and Pixar characters." We go,
"We want to work with you." So it all works out.
OLSEN: During the development phase when we first start out,
we start on paper or whiteboard.
We're just ideating, deciding what we want to do.
Then what we move to is an environment that we call a white box
where we don't care about the visuals at that stage.
All we're really trying to get right is the feel.
Does the game feel right in your hands?
Then from there we evolve into,
"It's time to put the artistic touch to it."
Lot of characters in the Disney universe have softer, rounder shapes.
We tried to amplify some of the boxier, edgier shapes.
ROSAS: Oh, look at Hook. He looks so great.
Looking at our characters, your team has really delivered
a whole new side that we've never seen before.
Everybody in the game is battling,
but you have to try to maintain their personality throughout all of that.
Because we were making a battling game,
we wanted to age it up a little bit more.
We did do a lot of sketching and painting and drawing.
Ultimately, we had to get it out of 2D and really test it in the 3D environment.
MICHAEL WYATT: So many characters in the Disney slate.
When we first started this, we had I think 50?
We couldn't stop ourselves from making them.
How do you choose between all of your favorites?
-And there were a lot of arguments. -(LAUGHING)
PRESTON: Then you get to take the characters into battle,
which is more fun 'cause you see them do something they don't traditionally do.
In the same way that the films are evolving,
we want to make sure that we are going to where gamers are playing, right?
It's always a chance to build those deeper connections or even create new fans,
so we're excited to build and deepen those connections
with a lot of different characters.
So Ariel was in the green light pitch that we had done.
That was the first thing we brought in the very first meeting
and just wanted to make her feel empowered and awesome.
-She's so ready. -Yeah.
-She's gonna take us on. -The trident helps.
Because they're experts on all things Disney and Pixar,
when we hit a wall, "I can't think of a name for this ability,"
it's like working with another game designer.
Here they're bringing their expertise and knowledge to the table
which has been very helpful.
WYATT: With leveling up your characters and making them powerful,
we do unlock new abilities for them that you get to use as well.
So players who might not be as familiar with an RPG genre,
aren't completely overwhelmed.
But we also want to make sure that the people who do love RPGs
and more core mechanics can see that those things are present.
-Gotta have it there. -WYATT: It's a little dance.
That attention to detail, it all pays off in the end, right?
Yeah. Exactly.
I don't know if we can get to level three through here.
-Send me... -MAN: The updated version?
OLSEN: When we go worldwide, that's just the start.
We'll be releasing new characters.
As an example, we just finished putting in some characters from the film Onward.
McDEVITT: I'm excited about these characters. They're a dynamic duo.
They play off each other very well,
so let's run them through and see how that plays out in the game.
So Ian, he's super confident at this point,
so he gets down into position and (MIMICS ELECTRICAL HUM)
charges up and just lets that lightning fly right at a single target.
NEWCOMER: And then, Barley, you got a lot of these moves
where he's (CLEARS THROAT) clearing his throat in a way.
We want to play up the theatrics for him
and try to get him to feel like that support character
on the screen for everybody else even.
Barley's going to get super into it and he's just gonna like, "Yeah! Rock out!"
PRESTON: Just like that.
I tell you, they do. It's a big thing in the film.
-All right, Newc, make it come to life. -(LAUGHTER)
With a game like we're releasing, it really is just the beginning.
Now we have to find ways to make the game fun and interesting
for years to come.
They're gonna be a strong pair.
-PRESTON: Yeah. -Let's hope so.
PRIORE: Games change all the time.
Few years ago mobile wasn't a big platform, now it's gigantic.
And we want to get that out to the audience and see how they respond.
I think they'll respond positively.
-Thank you all for being there. -Thank you.
OLSEN: All right, onward to next week.
(ALL LAUGH)
As game developers, this is exactly what we live for.
We love that challenge.
We love to be able to work with the likes of a Disney team
to really have this game come to life.
MAXHIMER: We have 40 crates in this show.
Four hundred and sixty-five objects.
The process is the crate is opened, the object is taken out,
then it's installed directly into the case or put on the wall.
To see it hung at a height to make it come to life is pretty exciting.
(DRILL WHIRRING)
This is the launch of the traveling exhibition
called Inside the Walt Disney Archives,
which is premiering here at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana.
This year we celebrate our 50th anniversary
and it has grown to what you see here today.
We have over 450 objects on display
and this includes all aspects of our collection,
from textiles to original art to props and original documents.
BECKY CLINE: We've been doing a 12,000 square foot exhibit
at the D23 Expo every two years.
Our exhibits have been so popular, people say, "We wanna see them.
"We don't live in California, we can't go to the expo.
"We wanna see them. Can you bring it to us elsewhere?"
We have traveled some exhibits in Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan,
but we had never traveled on exhibit in the United States.
So we kinda came up with this idea to do a traveling exhibit program.
We brought it back from Japan, retooled it,
and the response has been great, so we are building this particular exhibit
to be able to be packed up and moved from venues about every six months.
So the event starts in a few hours
and we're doing our first walkthrough this morning
to give my final notes and then open the doors later this afternoon.
VICTORIA GERARD: If you go through this gallery,
you see that the archives talks
about how their collection has grown from a research library
to developing into something comprehensive.
CLINE: The Walt Disney Archives started with one person, Dave Smith,
who was hired by Roy O. Disney.
When Walt passed away, Roy took on the reins of running the company
and he hired Dave Smith who was a young librarian at UCLA
to come in and inventory Walt Disney's offices.
So Dave went in and spent a year cataloging everything,
down to the last paper clip.
He went to Roy with the idea of taking this wonderful company
and making an archive to keep track of everything going forward.
And Roy loved the idea.
MAXHIMER: Now we celebrate our 50th anniversary
and we look back on that
and it's amazing, the growth that we've gone through
and the evolution to what we are now.
-CLINE: Whoo-hoo, this is so exciting! -This is it.
-Oh, wow. -BOTH: The final walkthrough.
I'm so excited to see everything in place.
So we're going to walk through the exhibit momentarily with Becky Cline
and we're really excited for her to see it
and get the final green light for tonight.
That looks cool. I like the way you hung that, Robert.
-It's good. -Yeah, that looks great.
-And of course... -Walt's office.
-Yeah.
MAXHIMER: Behind me is the recreation of Walt's office
from the film Saving Mr. Banks.
When the film was in preproduction and all the way through shooting,
they actually came in and worked with us.
They looked at correspondence letters,
they looked at Kem Weber, uh, drawings of Walt's office
to give them an idea of what Walt's formal office would actually look like.
This was a good opportunity for us to really show what we could do
and it turned out magnificent, as you can see.
We put one piece in here that I know you're curious about.
Yeah, I want to know more.
The snow globe is actually from Mary Poppins.
They found that in the janitor's office
and he saw that little snow globe sitting up on a shelf above the desk
and he knew immediately what it was. And so he talked to the janitor
and he said, "Where did that come from? Do you know what that is?"
The janitor said, "No, I thought it was cute. I found it in a trashcan."
And so, that's one of my favorite pieces.
GERARD: That's a great story, too.
-I think everything needs a good story. -Absolutely.
CLINE: Oh, cool. Okay, this is a good one, too.
-Tell us what you did here. -Well, the idea behind this
is the founder's case, right? So Walt Disney and Roy Disney
and some of the original artifacts we have from them.
Such as the number one ticket.
That to me is kind of a crown jewel of our collection.
GERARD: Yeah, that's very exciting. MAXHIMER: Yeah.
CLINE: Roy Disney bought that on opening day.
He went to the ticket booth before anyone else showed up at the gate
and bought the very first ticket to Disneyland.
That's so cool.
CLINE: Dave went through his files in the '70s and that ticket was there.
When you talk about the crown jewels of the archives, this is it.
Yeah, this is really beautiful. You got Zorro's sword
and the Mary Poppins blocks and the Mary Poppins carpet bag,
Davy Crockett's coon-skin cap
and the bedknob from Bedknobs and Broomsticks which is fun.
That's one of my very favorite objects.
All in all, do you feel good about it?
Oh, yeah. I love it. I think it looks great.
-MAXHIMER: Fantastic. -It's an exciting experience
for people to come in and get close up.
And I think you've managed to really tell the story of the archives
-and it's a hard story to tell. -It is.
GERARD: Anytime you walk through a gallery you've worked on for so long,
it is kinda magical to see it manifest.
But when I see items that remind me of special Disney moments,
you kinda make these connections
and here I am having a hand in bringing that here.
So ultimately, it's really important for me,
but I hope everyone has that experience when they walk through here.
MAXHIMER: It's important to preserve these objects
because if we don't take care of them
the way they should be taken care of, nobody else will.
CLINE: The exciting thing is that we're the archives.
We're not just old stuff, we're relevant.
We'll continue saving things.
And this is our 50th anniversary,
but I can absolutely envision another 50 years easily.