Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring the Muppets and Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run (featuring The Mandalorian and Grogu) opened at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World on May 26, 2026. These new experiences include a heightened degree of Imagineering details, especially Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, which now combines the legacy Disney attraction with Muppet Vision 3D and Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. In this episode, we discuss how Disney updated these attractions in a quick period of time and the easter eggs you won’t want to miss from either attraction. Plus, I interview four Walt Disney Imagineers who worked on these experiences, including Bette Lombardi (Producer), Vanessa Huber (Project Manager), Justin DeTolla (Creative Director), and Morgan McDowell (Senior Software Project Manager).
Special thanks to James from Guide2WDW for joining me on this episode.
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Imagination Skyway is a Disney Parks and Imagineering podcast. Episodes explore attraction design, recap Disney news, and dive into the stories behind the magic, including interviews with Disney Imagineers, Disney Legends, and other Disney creators. Not affiliated with or endorsed by The Walt Disney Company. Disney is a trademark of The Walt Disney Company.
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Transcript (Auto-Generated)
What Imagineering secrets can be found at Rock n Roller Coaster, Starring the Muppets and the updated Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run attractions. Stay tuned for some fun details about these new experiences. Welcome aboard Imagination Skyway, your guided tour through the worlds of Disney and Imagineering. I’m your host, Matthew Krul, and it’s my job to explore the stories and places we love and the people who bring them to life. In today’s episode, we discuss two major attraction refurbishments that opened this month at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World rock n roller Coaster, starring The Muppets and Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run featuring The Mandalorian and Grogu. While each attraction opened on May twenty six, twenty twenty six, my special guest and I both had the chance to preview these attractions ahead of their opening day and to speak with the Imagineers who developed these updates thanks to an invitation from Disney Parks. In this episode, we’ll discuss everything we learned from Walt Disney Imagineering and from our own observations about these new experiences, including some Imagineering details you will not want to miss. After our conversation, make sure to keep the podcast rolling because I am including my interviews with not one, not two, but four Walt Disney Imagineers who worked on these attraction updates. As you fasten your seat belt, I encourage you to take out your mobile devices and search for Imagination Skyway on your favorite social media app. And if you’re looking for ad free episodes and bonus content, which I have a lot right now, become an Imagination Skyway Pass holder at patreon dot com slash Imagination Skyway. And if this episode leaves you longing for that next trip to Disney or any other destination, reach out to our partners and sponsors at KMV Travel voted the top travel agency in Orlando in twenty twenty five. To get started, visit KMV Travel dot com slash Skyway. As we begin our journey, please remain seated. Keep your hands and arms inside the podcast at all times and enjoy your journey aboard Imagination Skyway. This week was a really big week at Walt Disney World because we had so many attraction openings. There were seven major experiences that opened up this past week. Specifically on May twenty sixth, the kick off, Cool Kids Summer, and two of those experiences have existed, but are updated and refreshed with these new versions of attractions. And we’re going to dive specifically into The Imagineering details and some more Easter eggs and things you should look out for with these two, which are rock n Roller Coaster starring the Muppets and Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run, featuring The Mandalorian and Grogu. And to chat with me about the subject I brought back onto the show, James from guide to WDW. James, welcome back to the show, sir. Good to have you here, Matt. So happy to be here. This was like one of the biggest weeks that I can remember at Walt Disney World. So many different things happening at the same time. And two of my personal favorite rides being updated and upgraded in really major ways and really fun and unexpected ways. So I’m really excited to dive into the Imagineering here. Yeah. I’m so glad that this was the first opportunity we had to also meet in person. So it was awesome to get to sit down and chat and to cross paths and geek out about things as we were all getting, getting content on our phones, just like, you know, having expressions to each other like, oh my gosh, this is so cool. Uh, it was just, it was just a lot of fun. And these as like, so you said, these are two of your, your favorite attractions. So I’ll have to ask even before we get to the newer versions. When you heard the news about these updates, I think perhaps the, the softer blow was for Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run because it’s still pretty much the same attraction just with an updated storyline. Um, rock and roller coaster. Similar story. It’s still the same ride. It’s still got the same blueprint and layout as the rock n roller coaster starring Aerosmith version. But how did you take the news when you first heard about these changes? Uh, your instinct is exactly right, because when they announce the updates to Millennium Falcon, millennium Falcon is always a ride that I really, really love. I’m a huge Star Wars fan. Huge Star Wars nerd, and I think I love it more than a lot of people. Um, it’s always one I love just jumping in the single rider. I even like engineer, uh, the old engineer experience. I just like pressing the buttons. They’re fun buttons to press. Uh, but when they said like, okay, it’s a new storyline. And then once they reveal the destination. So I was like, okay, everything sounds great. I’m so on board for this. Um, Muppets was a more complicated story. Uh, just with the, mainly with the loss of Muppetvision 3D. That is a attraction that is near and dear to my heart. A personal favorite one that I have very fond memories, uh, growing up, uh, watching with my parents and then taking my kids to see it, they saw it like right before it closed for the very first time. Uh, you might be able to hear my kids in the background. Um, running around. Uh, but we’re both dads. We’ve got kids in the back. Emily, I think, has screamed in the back of my podcast episodes before. Yeah. We’re used to the screaming and the running and the footsteps and all that. Um, so when they announced the Rock n roller coaster starring the Muppets, it was kind of a unexpected, like curveball. Like, I know there was a niche fan kind of theory of like, oh, they should put Muppets here. But most people were saying like, oh, it should be this band or that band. They should update it to Queen or Taylor Swift or something like that. So when they announced The Muppets, I was like, okay, I’m intrigued. I’m optimistic, but kind of like cautiously so because kind of going into this, I was just kind of like, well, now this is the Muppet Ride at Walt Disney World. And how is that going to feel losing Muppet Vision now having this thing that is arguably the most intense ride at Disney World, the, the one of the highest height requirements. Now that’s the Muppet ride. And so that was kind of my feelings going into it of just like, um, I was unsure about like, like, just like my feelings about it. It was just like lots of mixed feelings of just like I was excited that the Muppets were coming back. Like almost immediately. It was only about a year gap when they weren’t there. But also like, you know, it was something where it was just like, okay, I’m, I’m interested. And I, I’m interested to see how I feel once I actually get to experience it. Yeah. For me, it was a lot like the comparison would be. Not many fans lamented the transformation from Star Tours to Star Tours. The adventure continues. Same universe, same storyline. Just updated with more options and with exciting updates and lots of added rewrite, ability to star tours. And now, of course, to Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run as well, where the rock and roller coaster transformation not to be. I think the closest analogy was moving from maelstrom to frozen ever after, because you’ve got the same exact, Again, same exact ride. Um, but now you have a new storyline, a new universe, new characters. Not quite the same experience as it was before. Yes, it’s got the same drop. It’s got the same backwards portion. All that with rock and roller coaster, same exact, you know, people looked at a few of my videos and said, oh, the ride looks slower. And I said, no, it’s literally the exact same ride. It’s still zero to fifty seven and two point eight seconds. Like you sit in that car and you know, it’s not any slower. Uh, it’s got the same inversions. Like the track is unchanged. And think about the timeline that they from when they closed rock n roller coaster starring Aerosmith to opening rock n roller coaster starring the Muppets, there’s just no time to gut and create a new track and a new layout. Absolutely. It was clearly the same exact ride, but it was this real total flip of the characters that are in there. You know, for me, though, and you can tell me if you feel the same way. The vibe of the attraction is kind of the same to me. Um, you know, it’s just got for me, it’s got more than it did before. Like you’ve still got the same, the same premise backstage. You’re going to, to see a band perform at G Force Records instead of Aerosmith. It’s Doctor Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. You still have them late to this concert that they should have been at already. You still are given those backstage passes. You’re still boarding a limo or a limo in this case, limo. Yes. Thank you. Doctor Bunsen honeydew. You know, you still have that alleyway. You still bore the attraction. You still got that? That iconic countdown to the launch. You’ve got music blasting in your ears as you’re riding the attraction. Um, you know, it still has the same vibe. It’s just a little zanier and a little and a lot more Muppets. Um, yes. And I compared it as like this. This Venn diagram is how I described it to people, where you have these three circles of legacy Rock and Roller coaster, Muppetvision, 3D and Doctor Tooth and Electric mayhem, and you sort of put them in this. This central point between those three circles is rock n roller coaster starring the Muppets. And, you know, I felt when I was just experiencing this and especially walking through it, I was felt like I was back at Beacon Barrel. Um, at, when it first launched and we got that incredible preview of Beacon Barrel because I was like, I was, I would have been people should be glad that I wasn’t there opening day because that would have been that annoying guest like, excuse me, can I, can I look at this little detail over here? Can I like, I was just scouring everything because there’s just so much detail that’s like completely spread throughout every single square inch of this space. Yes, I one hundred percent agree. I think that Venn diagram is a great analogy. And I talked to David Breccia, the Imagineer, who was the story lead and writer on, uh, Muppet rock and roller coaster. And he compared it to they were thinking of similar to Muppet Christmas Carol or Muppet Treasure Island, where it’s like, okay, we have the Muppets and they’re doing rock and roller coaster, like rock and roller coaster is now this like classic theme park story. And now you have the Muppets playing those roles. And it’s like, that’s something where it’s like, oh, this. Everything clicked in for it to me, where it’s still rock and roller coaster. It isn’t just rock and roller coaster with a Muppet paint job. Um, you know, just making like the guitar outside look more, you know, psychedelic. It is. Okay. You have all of these Muppet characters that people love taking on these roles of the band and the manager and all these different things, and going through the queue. It is clear Imagineering understood the assignment. They understood what people love about Muppet Vision, what makes the Muppets work. And like, I made a joke video where I was like, oh, here are the top three hundred Easter eggs in Muppet Rock and roller coaster. I might call it Muppet vision just because I haven’t slept much. Force of habit. Yeah, yeah. But I was like, top three hundred Easter eggs. And then Kermit said, you have a minute and a half. And I was like, okay, top eight. But I was like, you might be able to make a three hundred Easter egg list because everything is jam packed with so many details. All of the album artwork that they have on the walls is like custom and has different jokes. There’s, uh, there are references to a tribute to all nations, but mostly America. Like there are there’s pizza, Rizzo boxes and flyers like there. Um, we had like an incredible privilege to be able to just like walk through this queue as much as we wanted to. And like, I was as excited to walk through the queue as I was to go on the ride. Um, which and I do really like the ride, but it was just like, there’s so, so much the, um, the opening rotunda, kind of the lobby you go through has a live stream and there’s over thirty minutes of content and there are these little thirty second to minute long bits where it’s like they have celebrity cameos. There was one with like Weird Al and Fozzie kind of playing off of each other. Um, there are these really funny bits that I think, like people will start to quote and start to glom on to. Similar to what they did with Muppet Vision. But it’s a perfect thing of like, you’ll go through it, you’ll see probably like one, two or three of those. And then the next time you go on, you’ll see something else completely different. Uh, and so there’s so much just in there and so much love that’s that they put into every single corner of this. Q and of this ride that it is just like, okay, that Venn diagram that you described, that’s exactly it. Yeah. There are a lot of different directions. I want to go with this. I think the only criticism I have of the new experience is that rotunda, because like you said, I didn’t realize until I also spoke with an Imagineer. And there’s I actually spoke with four throughout the day. And there’s over the point that there’s over thirty minutes of that footage. You’re in that rotunda on a good day for. And I mean a good day, meaning having a long time in there, like two to three minutes. And so you’re going to have to ride that, you know, at minimum ten times to get to see every bit of it. I’m wondering if it’s a simple get lucky with the timing and the loop too. Yes. Yeah, exactly. I’m wondering if it’s as simple as like, you know, that that long stretch outside where there’s really not much to look at as you’re going up the ramp, um, to then go around the side of the building. If they just added like TVs in there, like similar to like added some monitors that that would be smart, um, to get people to see more of it. I also see like, you know, you mentioned rewrite ability. And I think that is the key word for both of these rides that we’re talking about today where, uh, you know, they have, they have the thirty minutes, uh, in the queue that you’ll probably see different parts of each time you go through. They have a different character makes an appearance in the pre-show. So it’s like Fozzie can make an appearance. Sam Eagle, Miss Piggy, um, I’m sure I’m forgetting it’s something like five different characters. Um, yeah, I’m trying to remember them too. Yeah, that shows up, uh, right on the monitor, right behind the scooter animatronic, who is like one of the most amazing animatronics that I’ve ever seen. Um, yeah. Which we can talk about a lot. Let’s talk about. Yeah. Uh, and then, and then also there are the five different songs on the ride. And then, uh, after the ride, uh, right before you exit the vehicle, there’s Statler and Waldorf, and they have a lot of different lines of dialogue that they can say. So there’s just, you know, this ride is going to feel a bit different. You’re going to get different gags each time you go on it. Yeah. The pre-show was the one that surprised me. I didn’t realize until, you know, it might have been a third time I went through because I think maybe the second time I watched it, I said, you know, maybe this is maybe I just didn’t catch this the first time because the first time I was filming it and I was trying to just, you know, pay attention to every little detail in there. So the second time I’m like, oh, I forgot that maybe this character appeared here. But then the third time I’m like, wait a second. No, this is not exactly the same preshow that I saw before. And that’s interesting that it is different every time you experience it or, you know, you might not get the same pre-show twice. They really loaded it with we should. You know what I want to talk about here is Easter eggs and some of your favorite details because whether it’s the pre-show, the, the queue, the load area, even the gift shop rock around the shop. There are so many Easter eggs for Muppetvision 3D. Um, did you have any particular favorites of the three hundred that you could have mentioned? The three hundred. I really love the. Because it is such a Muppet joke on. There’s one of the signs that you go by right before the corkscrew on the left hand side there is, it looks like a yield sign. It says obligatory Easter egg, and it’s the silhouette of Waldo, the spirit of 3D. And that’s just like, okay, it’s you. It’s there for like half a second as you’re going by it. I’m sure a lot of people might not even notice it the first couple times they go on this ride, but then once it clicks, it’s like, oh, it’s Waldo. They fit in a great Muppet Vision Easter egg into this. And it’s just like the and it’s, um, you know, there’s only so many Easter eggs that they could put on the actual rollercoaster itself because it is only a minute and a half and you are going really fast on it. So that I really love that I, uh, the keys under the mat, uh, that one is, uh, you know, reference to the Muppet vision cue. And then, uh, this time it’s piano keys and that one you can only find at the single rider line. Um, so there’s, but like, there are so many, they’re literally like, um, uh, David, the engineer I mentioned earlier was saying like, each time he would go back into the queue, he would notice new things that the, the new props that people would, uh, put in. So there were even Easter eggs that he was noticing and finding new, uh, right as the ride was, uh, leading up to opening. Yeah, I, there was a, there was so much in the queue and true point. There were so many deep cuts and not only references to the show, but the pre-show of, of Muppetvision 3D and one eye. As soon as I passed it, I took a picture and I sent it to my wife because it’s. It’s such a silly inside joke or reference that she loves, which is the very beginning of the Muppetvision 3D preshow, where they have the, uh, basically maintenance crew that’s putting the sign up. Um, and it’s got, you know, Chuck is the, is the main, I guess, manager or foreman or supervisor for it. And there are two references to Chuck that I found in the attraction. And one of them, as you’re walking in the, the Non-single rider, the standby or lightning lane, because after that it’s after the pre-show, it’s merged at that point, um, is as you’re going past the, the turn point to go toward you like angle a little bit to go towards the, the load area. There’s a sign that says another good job by Chuck’s Uptown Construction Company. Pedestrian detour, expected completion date TBD. Uh, on site foreman Roy, who’s another character that was in that part of the pre-show. Um, and it says safety first. If you see an unsafe condition, report it. Uh, and then there was another one that popped up in rock around the shop that I need to find real quick in my, my camera roll. But it was, it was literally a, another reference to, oh, it was Chuck’s foreman hat. That’s right. Chuck’s foreman hat. And below that are two boxes that say m v three D. So that’s literally muppetvision 3D. Um, and so I just thought that that one was a lot of fun. And then the, as I was focusing so much on Chuck, I forgot the other one I was going to reference. Um, but there’s a. Oh yes, the pre-show, that’s what it was. And so in the pre-show, I mean, there’s a lot in the pre-show, I think you’ve even covered in your content the pizza Rizzo um, pizza box that’s there and there’s sort of like one of the penguins has a slice of pizza off to the side, but in the beginning of Muppetvision 3D, the actual show when Waldorf and Statler are having their banter about the 3D show, they say, hey look, an orchestra of penguins! Yeah, probably took the job for the halibut. And there’s literally in between them this like in between the two, in between the two penguins at the sound booth, there is a, a, an ice bucket filled with halibut. So it’s such like these are such deep cuts like, no, I guarantee ninety eight percent or more of the people who did Muppetvision 3D, it would just go way over their heads right between the wall. The Waldo um, obligatory, uh, Easter egg reference. The chuck references the halibut in between the two penguins. But to your point, Imagineering definitely understood the assignment. And I think they proved that they get it like they they understand the reverence for Muppetvision 3D. I don’t think this is exactly what guests and fans were hoping for when they said they were going to find a way to keep Muppetvision 3D alive. Like, I think there’s probably maybe something else in the works, but this is at least in some way, to keep the spirit of Muppetvision 3D alive with this new attraction. There’s just. That was so much. That was one of my big takeaways where, you know that losing Muppet vision definitely was hard and hurt personally. Um, I took it very personally. No. Uh, but after going through this, one of the things that I’ve always said about Muppetvision was like, the pre-show is as good as the show or something where it’s like, you want to go and watch that whole pre-show loop. And I feel like this carries on that legacy and pushes it even further. There are so many more details, so many more references. There’s so many things that they’re drawing on references to, uh, the Aerosmith version of The Ride. There are cameos by Illeana Douglas, who played their manager, um, and, uh, Ken Marino, who had a non-speaking role before he was famous as like a sound engineer, uh, in studio C with Aerosmith. And he gets a nice cameo in the live stream and at the concert, and there’s a, uh, there’s a plaque on the wall to Lifetime Achievement award to him. And it has like really nice message of just like, oh, see how far you’ve come, which is like, you know, it’s not talking about necessarily Ken Marino, but it’s talking about Ken Marino. And it’s one of those things that it’s like, if you’re a fan of rock and roller coaster, there are those nods to it. There’s the black Les Paul on the wall right behind scooter. There’s there’s so much of that there. There’s so much of Muppet vision in there, and there’s so much of just like the DNA of the Muppets itself that it gave me those feelings of Muppet vision that I was really caught off guard of, just like I was not expecting to get that much just in this queue and on this ride. Yeah, there was a, there was even in the before the pre-show, there’s all these posters on the wall of different, uh, you know, all the different Muppets characters. I know there were references to like the Muppets movie that are throughout the queue, um, throughout the ride. And there was a reference to the Miss Piggy, um, with her, Like her big solo number, I forgot. I wish I would have taken a picture, but there’s a reference where Miss Piggy’s like, you know, excited for her. Her big number, um, in Muppetvision 3D and whatever her quote was. And that’s just, of course, whenever I record, I always forget the direct quotes. So I need to write these down. But like, whatever that quote is, it’s actually quoted in a poster very small at the bottom. And it’s one of those things where having this chance to walk through and be that geek, you know, going through and just like looking for all these Easter eggs, I just, you find these little things here and there. And you mentioned the scooter animatronic. And I think that this is another one of those details that most guests are not going to catch, how brilliant it is because of how brilliant it is. Right? It’s just one of those things that it’s so it should be obvious. It almost makes you feel like you’re looking at a real Muppet. And there’s a reason that that’s the case. And, um, you, I mean, you do deep dives on the tech side and you do so much deep research on it. And we even talked about this a little bit when we were chatting at Hollywood Studios, so I’d love if you could talk a little bit about the scooter animatronic and how brilliant it is. Yeah, the scooter animatronic is great. And it’s also it is one of those things where you see how far things have come because they do have the original Statler and Waldorf animatronics like they, they did some like, you know, touch up work on them to, to put them at the end of the ride. And then also the Penguins, I believe those are the same figures that were in Muppet Vision, but you can see kind of how limited their motion is. Scooter looks just like a Muppet, like right in front of you being puppeteered, uh, to the point where like his arm, there’s an arm rod, uh, pushing his arm up and down so it looks like he’s being puppeteered. And they actually mocked the Muppet, and they have a great picture that at first I thought that was a joke because it was just like, seems like this thing of like a Muppet labs like, okay, this is how extreme the technology is of scooter with the ping pong balls and the black and white kind of patterns. But no, they actually mo capped the motion of scooter to really capture how expressive these Muppets are. And like, one of the things that was just the coolest, like kind of like life highlight thing that we got to do was we got to see the Muppets up close in person, uh, perform live and scooter was there. And I have to say like, you know, beyond that, just being like a really cool thing to do, being able to be just a few feet away from scooter, as you know, he’s being puppeteered. It feels the same as he does in the pre-show. Like the effect is the same. It wasn’t like a thing of like, oh, here’s an approximation. It feels very much like they’ve captured the essence of this character, and it’s just kind of makes me like, go like, okay, I want them to go further with this. I want them to do more Muppet animatronics. Because if you think about like something like frozen, where those animatronics are brilliant and so smooth, but there’s a layer of translation there of like going from computer 3D animation to physical animation in the real world, which they do a brilliant job with, but with a Muppet, it’s like one to one. Like it feels like they’re actually there. So, you know, this is my kind of pitch of like, I think Muppet rock and roller coaster is so good. They should go further. They should do more with the Muppets, make that whole area a Muppet Studios section. Bring back the idea of the great Muppet movie ride. That was kind of a concept before Jim Henson passed of just like, I want to see a classic dark ride, kind of a, you know, it’s the Muppets doing a classic Disney dark ride, a similar way of the Muppets doing rock and roller coaster. Yeah, this is not necessarily a, um, an episode about predictions, but one of the things I’ve been predicting, especially as these little pieces have been coming together, is that once Villains land is open, villains unfairly ever after will either go away or it will move to Magic Kingdom because then it’s not it’s not gonna make sense, right? To have villains unfairly after and Hollywood studios and you literally have a whole villains land. I mean, it makes a little bit of sense because you’re not maybe not going to Magic Kingdom that trip, but, um, that does leave room to your point. And there is, it’s, there’s backstage roads back there, nothing they haven’t dealt with before. Right? Like there’s nothing that they haven’t been able to extend backstage and, and expand the backstage roads and move some services around and some service buildings around. So I, I foresee like that building next to Muppetvision. Oh my gosh, we did the same thing. You did rock n roller coaster. You know, I don’t think it’s just going to be I don’t think Muppetvision 3D is coming back, but some advanced update to a Muppet Show show of some kind or Muppet experience. And to your point, they’ve proved. And yeah, it was great that they for multiple reasons, we had the chance to see those Muppets up close, the real Muppets up close because it does validate how realistic that animatronic is. So they’ve proved that they could do a show with animatronic Muppets and make it believable that those are like one to one, the real Muppets. And that leaves a lot of possibility for that section of the park, which right now is a thrill heavy except for the beauty and the beast show is a pretty thrill heavy section. So that’s one of those areas where thinking of like rider swap, like my wife might go and ride Tower of Terror and Rock and Roller coaster, and I take their girls over to magic of Disney Animation or the, you know, the baby care center over there or the Disney Junior Mickey Mouse clubhouse live show, or the one magic of Disney animation opens. So there’s a lot of potential in that courtyard for its expansion. And yeah, maybe it will be a future Muppet home. Um, yeah, I would love to see that. And that’s, I’m really rooting, uh, like the, the reactions that I’ve seen have been overwhelmingly positive and I’m really rooting that this is so much of a success that it just tells Disney, hey, keep going with the Muppets in the parks that there are so many ways, different ways that they can utilize the Muppets in the parks, whether it’s a thrill ride, whether it’s a dark ride, whether it’s a show. I think the more Muppets, the better. Yeah, I want to make sure we spend a little bit of time at least talking about Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run, because then I also have a third thing I want to attach to this real quick. But, um, final thoughts about rock and roller coaster, anything that we missed? And do you, I’ll ask have a favorite. I know the answer because we talked about it, but a favorite soundtrack of the, the five on the attraction. Uh, I’ll, I’ll answer that question first because I kind of leads into like the, the moment where the, it really clicked for me, which was, uh, writing and love roller coaster came on, I got for, I went on it four times. I got four out of the five songs. Uh, there’s not a bad one in the bunch. I got everything except for song two, but Love roller coaster was the one where I found myself singing along, and the only other time that that’s happened is on Guardians, where I’m singing along to the songs. Uh, when September comes on and, uh, and stuff like that. So I was just like, oh, then being able to change up the soundtrack, have these different things. It feels more like a party. It feels fun, you know, it feels very different getting love roller coaster versus Def Leppard versus Born to Be Wild. So it actually, you know, the the Aerosmith medleys before. Well, I thought they both were good. Um, or maybe I think there was two or three of them, but they were very similar. They kind of like bled into each other. It had kind of the same sound profile, whereas this you have a bit of classic rock, you have a bit of funk. The Walking on sunshine is surprisingly great. And I think that, you know, rock and roller coaster was my first big roller coaster with an inversion. And it was something where I was like, I was terrified to do it. I didn’t even know what a coaster could launch like that. And so like I have the picture of myself, I look terrified, but after I went on it, I was hooked. Like it hooked me on big roller coasters. And, and I think I was, you know, that was nineteen ninety nine. So I was, you know, twelve or thirteen at the time. And so I think that by adding the Muppets in, making it feel more like a party, making it feel more fun, making it chaotic in this great way, I think it’s going to be more approachable for that. Like, you know, the realm of eight to twelve year olds who are like, you know, maybe they maybe Big Thunder is like the biggest coaster that they’ve done so far. And they’re, you know, they’re like, okay, I’m going to do a coaster with a loop and this is, you know, uh, rock and roller coaster has for many years been like, okay, that is your, your gateway coaster. I think this is just secures it to be that gateway coaster even more for the future. And by having the electric mayhem be the starring act and having these guest stars, they can update it more easily in the future and have different, you know, they can add in new songs much more easily than if they were working with a third party band. So I just think that this just sets it up so well for the future and carries on the legacy of what everybody loves about rock and Roller coaster, but just makes it so much more. Yeah, I, from the time they announced it, said this gives the attraction a much longer shelf life because of its reprogram ability. Now you have the Muppets as this catalyst for any rock band or any soundtrack they want to put in there. They could do a a holiday version, they could do a, you know, they could take it any direction they want. And they chose songs that are a little more timeless, uh, much like, you know, the, the Aerosmith soundtrack. Some of them are similarly timeless now. They’re classic rock. And so, but even then, like if one of the songs, for some reason just people lose interest in it, or it’s no longer as relevant to people or no longer as you know, I don’t think no longer be as fun, but they could always swap it with something else. So it’s great that they now have this and they, they own the Muppets, right? So like they could theoretically just bring doctor teeth and the electric mayhem back to record something new. And so it’s nice that they have that ability. Um, and I think the last thing I’d, I’d actually, it will come up in one of the imaginary interviews you hear later in this episode, but the number one hundred came up a lot. There’s over one hundred Muppets featured in the attraction. There were one hundred songs considered for the attraction. And, um, I got to interview the creative director, Justin Dattola, and he said that he wrote it one hundred times during the during the refurbishment to get the, the soundtracks and the experience just right. So that’s commitment. That’s what some of the Imagineers got to do, right? Got to write something one hundred times to, to get it just right. Um, anyway, so there’s, there’s so much to talk about with rock n roller coaster, but I think this gives listeners a good sample of what to expect and how the update was thoughtfully delivered. And again, you’ll hear if you listen later in this episode to some of the interviews I had the chance to record with three of the Imagineers who worked on rock n roller coaster in different capacities. But, um, let’s transition over to Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run. I think this is a little bit of a shorter conversation because it was not a complete reskin of the attraction. It was more like, again, sort of the upgrade from Star Wars to Star Wars continues and more of a software upgrade than a hardware upgrade. So I think people walking through, like if you had no idea that this ride was updated, if you walk through the queue, like you’re not going to know anything until you get to the pre-show, and then you’re like, oh, wait a second, this is not the same thing as I rode before, right? And even the pre-show changes are very subtle. It is essentially the same pre-show with Hondo. Chewie comes in, but they removed all the references to the resistance. Um, And it actually makes the story work better. Where before it was like, oh, Chewy’s lending you the Millennium Falcon so you can help out the resistance. And now it’s chewy, is parking the Millennium Falcon there. And Honda is like, hey, I got a ship you can use. Um, and it’s very subtle and I think most guests might not even notice that there’s a difference. But it’s one of those things where it’s like, oh, this feels like you’re a smuggler. This feels like you’re, you know, you’re doing something you shouldn’t be doing. Whereas it’s like, kind of like, why would Chewie give the Falcon to some randos? Um, so it actually, I think is one of those things where it’s like, it’s a very subtle little difference, but it makes, it makes the story work even more. But like you said, going through the queue, going through the pre-show, really all the way up until you’re about to get into the cockpit, everything feels the same. Yeah, it’s, it’s certainly the case. And now the again, this is really a program update and it feels like something that was always destined for Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run. I feel like they designed it for this purpose to eventually get this sort of update. And it’s, it’s really it’s obviously timed well with the opening of The Mandalorian and Grogu in theaters. And now you have revised positions or updated positions. I mean, obviously the pilots are the same, but engineers, um, got an an upgrade on the attraction. Mhm. And, and, uh, so now I feel like everyone, I don’t know is your favorite position now engineer or I feel like a lot more people might fight over that position now. Yeah, I, I love engineer. I, you know, I still think pilot is the best. I still think that is the one that’s the most engaging. You have the most control over what’s happening. Um, there’s, you know, this is one of those things where this update, in some ways it’s very subtle, but in a lot of ways it’s huge because, um, they upgraded the engine from Unreal Engine four to Unreal Engine five. And so the graphics are much better. And so and they made a lot of like gameplay tweaks where it’s like much clearer of like, oh, you’re supposed to fly under this thing or between these things as the pilot. And so they, and it, you know, at the very beginning, there’s kind of like a branching path where you can go choose to go to the left or the right, which they didn’t really have in the previous version. And so now there’s a, you know, even though the pilots pretty much the same, it just felt a little bit tighter and a little bit more like, okay, I have actual influence over what’s happening. Uh, but the engineer is great because there are two big changes. Uh, one of the engineers and it’s random, uh, it can change sides gets to pick which of the three destinations you go to. So you always start on Tatooine and then you can go to Cloud City, uh, Coruscant, or, uh, the wreckage of the second Death Star above the forest moon of Endor. And so, uh, one of the engineers gets to pick that, um, that destination, which all of those three destinations are wildly different and add a lot of rewrite ability. And there’s. Within those, there are different things that can happen. Um, the other thing that the engineer has is a rogue button, which is like the best button ever, because you press that button and a little like scene with Grogu plays on your screen where he just does something cute, or he’s eating cookies, or he falls off his seat or something happens. But one of the times when I was on Coruscant, I realized when if you press that button, it starts playing the cantina band music, whereas if you don’t press it, that music doesn’t play. So I think that there are going to be secrets and going to be things that people uncover as they keep playing this. I went on this ride ten or eleven times trying to be like, okay, I want to cover all the secrets and all of this and all that. And, you know, I had a pretty even spread between the three planets and there are still things that I’m like, oh, I, I don’t think I uncovered all the secrets or I don’t think I uncovered that. And like, that’s a really unusual thing to do of go on a ride eleven times and be like, okay, I’m ready to go on it more and try to uncover more of these things. So, um, the, the Grogu button is definitely like, pay attention to it and worth pressing because it does seem like it can unlock things. Yeah. Speaking of unlocking things, I didn’t do a deep dive on this and probably should have before this, but there I saw after the fact when I was reviewing other creators content and trying to figure out like what everybody else got. Um, there’s a Grogu mode, much like in the previous version, there was a Chewbacca mode. So did you unlock that or you know any more about it than I do? I, I unlocked the Grogu mode. So the big difference, it’s very similar to Chewbacca mode, where Chewbacca mode was like, instead of hearing Hondo throughout the ride, you just hear Chewbacca. And it’s just kind of like this chaos mode. But before you had to have every single person, all six people do like a sequence of buttons to get to activate it. Now you only need two people to do Grogu mode. I guess because it’s so easy, a baby could do it. Uh, and it’s the two gunners. Uh, and it’s like you have to press the. There’s like a row of four buttons right below your screen. You have to press the back button like towards the back of the cabin. Hold that down and then hold down the big like orange button. And then once they both do that, every button will light up green. And then you have rogue mode. And it’s just like Grogu coos the whole time. And, uh, different Grogu things play on every single screen. And, uh, I would not recommend it for your first time on the ride because it is a lot going on and you just don’t get any of the instructions or any of the context of like, okay, engineer, do this, okay, gunner do that. Uh, so that is a definite thing to do. Like, you know, once you, once you have a group that, you know, everybody’s already done it and, uh, everybody wants Grogu mode. Yeah. That makes sense to wait for something like that. Um, now I, I’m kind of tossed on whether or not I think this is going to stay as The Mandalorian and Grogu for a long time. Like definitely, I think for a good solid year plus maybe year and a half, like, you know, I could see this staying this way, but I’m wondering if they have made so many updates to start towards the adventure continues. And they have these promo versions that seem to align with Star Wars movies that come out. And I’m wondering if maybe by the time we get to the next Star Wars movie, this might change again to something else. Do you get that impression as well? Like, I don’t get the impression this is going to stay this version for like four or five years. I that’s just, again, me sort of like putting on my prediction cap here and thinking about what might come next. My, I, my impression more so is that this is the version of the ride going forward. Um, but it also kind of sets the template. Whereas, uh, the original version of the ride that opened in twenty nineteen, it was very clear, like, okay, they want to have multiple missions, they want to have multiple destinations. And I think even Wall Street Journal reported that they had like five planned and that they ended up with one. And so that was always part of the original intent of this ride. Um, I think things are unlocked a lot more now that Disney has a deeper partnership with Epic Games. Uh, who makes Unreal Engine? Um, and they know a thing or two about releasing many, many updates, uh, because you know, the now having this run on Unreal Engine five, uh, they’ve, I believe they’ve upgraded all the computing hardware and they, one of the things that was incredible about this was that they were able to basically reimagine this ride without closing it for a single day. Yeah. And we were able to preview it while it was still open to regular guests who were getting the Corellia version. Uh, and they just had one of the simulators set to this new mission that we were able to ride, which was just like one of those things where it’s like, okay, they engineered this in a way that it can be updated. And I hope that they will. I hope they keep adding different missions. And maybe it’s kind of like, hey, you don’t know if you’re going to get, uh, The Mandalorian coming up and saying like, hey, help me out on this mission. And then maybe like, uh, Ryan Gosling’s character from Starfighter comes on in a few years and he’s like, hey, help me with this mission. And, you know, sends you to different planets. Uh, you know, you might go to Hoth or whatever it is. So I think that that kind of sets the template for this ride to be updated for the future. But if this is what we get for the next five plus years, I think there’s enough variety in here that people are going to enjoy it. But I’m always hopeful that Disney’s able to update it and keep adding more, similar to what they did with Star Tours. And I think that that was made possible with the fact that, like once Disney acquired Lucasfilm and ILM, that made it much easier for them to add those sequences. And now that Disney has such a deep partnership with Epic Games and that One and a half billion dollar investment. I’m hopeful that this means like, and they’re using Unreal Engine everywhere. Uh, so I’m really hopeful that it’s like, hey, their pipeline to be able to add an extra planet to this or add an extra mission is not so big that, you know, it wouldn’t be a huge surprise that once they’re, once they do starfighter or, you know, episode ten one day that they could add in some new planets because I think that would just really make this, uh, attraction have such a great lifespan. Yeah. And I agree that this is certainly a step up from the original version with all the variations that are now possible. And the rewrite ability factor on this has definitely gone up. So I think that it will probably, at least I don’t see it necessarily going back, except maybe they do have the ability to like split it in half because there’s two different, um, sets of two carousels on the simulator. so they could theoretically split it. And you can pick like Mission space orange or mission space green. But it’s, uh, I think that at least in some form, it’s either going to be this or something next, like it’s going to be something even bigger. Yeah, I don’t think, I don’t think they go back because Corellia is like the, the only time I believe that appears in any of the films is solo, which is not something that people are like, you know, begging not the best Star Wars movie. Yeah, not the best Star Wars. You know, I’d like to find, but not the best Star Wars movie. And, you know, looking at this, uh, version of it, they, they brought in a lot of the classic John Williams music that was missing from the original version. Uh, you go to Tatooine, you go to all these other things, other planets that are from the first six movies. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I think that they were trying to be like, okay, let’s give people more of a classic Star Wars experience. And so I and the fact that everything is up Rezzed everything is running on a new engine. I think the work that they would have to do to up rez, you know, everything was running on Unreal Engine four before. I don’t think the juice is worth the squeeze, and I don’t think that they want to necessarily go back to something that doesn’t deliver that classic Star Wars experience as much as this does. Yeah, yeah, I absolutely agree. So two great attraction upgrades at Hollywood Studios. And I didn’t prep you for this, but I also didn’t, you know, we just heard as we’re recording this today, like news today about carousel of progress and the updates that happening to that. So I feel like, especially as two Imagineering geeks, this is a, it’d be a missed opportunity not to talk about it a little bit. Um, and I know this could probably be its own episode, but, um, you know, for the, I’ll just pose the question, you know, what are your initial thoughts about the updates that we learned about today? You know, I’m really surprised at my I reaction to it? Because Carousel progress is one of those near and dear attractions to my heart, similar to Muppet Vision, where it’s just like I have so many great nostalgic memories about it. And, uh, it reminds me of my childhood. It has such, this great history and lineage that draws back to Walt. And it’s my wife’s favorite attraction. She, my wife did not grow up as a Disney person. She went to Disney World once, uh, when she was a kid. And that was her like the one thing she was like, oh yeah, dude, do they still have that thing where like, you go back in time and see all the, all the different decades? And I was like, oh yeah, carousel progress. And so she loves carousel progress. And I, when they announced it and once we like saw what they’re doing that the, you know, they’re not just adding the Walt animatronic, but they’re actually basically doing a complete overhaul and setting it in all these new decades, everything kind of clicked for me. I was like, oh, this is a really smart update because the original version of it set when when it was in nineteen sixty four, it would have related to audiences so much of just like, hey, this. You might not have been what you lived through, but it’s what your parents lived through or your grandparents lived through. And you heard those stories of like, oh, this is what it was like with the icebox. This is what it was like when we would blow a fuse, remembering having like the, the wiring hanging down for the electric lighting, uh, and all of those jokes would have hit. Whereas today people have nostalgia for the ride and not those eras. And all of those jokes hit because people went on the ride. And so it’s kind of become this like meta thing where it’s a ride about itself rather than a ride about progress itself. And so I think having these updates and setting it in these eras that, you know, now, I’ve lived through too many of the decades that they’re talking about. I’m feeling very old. Yeah. But it is this thing of like, you know, oh, they’re going to be able to talk about, you know, uh, the inventions that we grew up with, whether it’s like VHS tapes and VHS tape. Dial up internet, TV or the internet and and all those things. And then also, just like setting the setting the final scene in a John Hench inspired, far flung future that’s off planet is just this thing that’s like, okay, this is it. It feels like it belongs in Tomorrowland. Again, it makes sense in Tomorrowland if like, and it feels like this thing of like, oh, you’re going to get the, the original intent that Walt had of like, look how far we’ve come. Look at these things that you can remember growing up with or hearing about of like these things that we thought were these amazing innovations and were at the time, but now are funny to look back at and think about. And I think that it’s just going to give this show a whole new life. Yeah, I’m very excited for it. I was saying in the quick little podcast episode I produced this week about it that the, um, the well, I mean, if you’re listening to this episode, it was a few days ago, but for our purposes, it was today. Um, it was, you know, just reflecting on how smart to your point, this update is. Um, I said the only operational challenge is this now going to have weights. And so like I’m predicting like where the queue is going to go because there’s now I think going to be a queue for this because right now you just literally walk into the attraction and get on the next show. I do not foresee that being the case, especially day one or week one. Um. Oh yeah. But it’s so smart to carry us from because I had predicted when they announced the Walt animatronic that it was going to be Walt introducing Carousel of Progress, it just makes sense to have him there. And now it literally carries us from nineteen sixty four World’s Fair Waltz to nineteen sixty nine. Um, and then taking us forward from there. And to your point about like the generations and, you know, my parents were around in the sixties and so going to see that with them and myself and our, my daughters will be able to each relate to something That’s um. Well, they weren’t around in the two thousand, but like we can reiterate to them like, oh yes. Like my parents say, like they remember when there was the moon landing or, you know, I remember the, you know, very vaguely the eighties, but like more so I remember the nineties. And so all the technology that was around it, the like, I remember Y2K, I remember that New Year’s Eve nineteen ninety nine very well. And all the technology that was there and the sounds and all the things are just going to resonate a little more. Um, you know, I definitely foresee a lot of the same dialogue just being updated, you know, instead of traveling from New York to California in only three days, you can travel from New York to California and only five or six hours, you know, like it’s right. A lot of the same jokes and references. Uh, someone commented on my post today, you know, like, uh, man thinks he’s going to land or, you know, Neil Armstrong thinks he’s going to land on the moon. It’ll never work. You know, like, you know, like something like that. Like a lot of the same little digs from the, the first original. And honestly, I’ve said to people to like the version that you are now familiar with that maybe is nostalgic for you is not Walt’s carousel of progress. It’s like people forget that. Like, yes, it’s similar, but it’s not. The nineteen sixty four sixty five World’s Fair carousel of progress. It’s the nineteen ninety four Carousel of Progress update. So this update will be like the fifth major revision. I think there’s been like smaller revisions within there. It’s kind of hard to like nail down exactly, but it is like they they changed it. Moving from the sixty four World’s Fair to sixty seven at Disneyland. And then once they moved it again to Disney World, it changed. And they even had a long stretch where they didn’t have a great big beautiful tomorrow, which, you know, that that is they’ve confirmed that that song is returning. They’re not getting rid of the song, but imagine if they were doing that of like, you know, today that was like, oh, we’re getting rid of that song that the internet would have melted down. Uh, so I mean, they kind of are already, but like, so the, this, this show has changed a lot and it has changed a lot over the years. And I do think like, I think about my son right now, he’s five and he does ask about like, what were things like in the eighties? And he does call it all, call it the olden times, uh, which is very mean. Um, but it is just like this thing of like, oh, I do think there is going because it is a, you know, you have a closer touch point whether you live through it or whether you’re a generation or two away. It’s, you know, people in your life that are like, oh, I remember when I had the phone with a giant cord or I had like the, you know, the cell phone that was as big as my head. Yeah. Um, or whatever, you know, Tamagotchi or, you know, and they, um, they, I think that I feel like this is an attraction that is very revered within Imagineering and that they understand how important this is. And based off of recent track record with things like beacon Barrel, with things like test track, with all of the new updates and upgrades that have happened this summer, I feel like it’s in very good hands. And so I’m very optimistic about, okay, this is a big change. This is a big swing. Like I think the safe move would have been like, hey, we’re updating the last scene. We’re keeping everything else the same. We’re updating the last scene because that’s kind of like what the predictable move would have been. And we’re updating it to be in the far future, which I think could have been a fun update, but I think this is actually going to give the show a new life in such a smart way. And I’m, I’m really excited to see what they announce further for it and what they show further for it, and then being able to watch it next year when it’s supposed to open. Yeah, I think we’ll have to come back and talk more about it when they have more information. I’m expecting we’ll probably get more at D23 or even after that. So, um, you know, I’m sure there’ll be even more to talk about, but I, I agree completely with, with the assessment of what this attraction is going to be and how it’s going to be a big, a big swing. But I think it’s also going to be a big hit for what the park needed and what this attraction needed. Um, so I’m optimistic about all that. So, uh, James, this is the second time I’ve had you on the show, but I want to make sure people know where to go, where to connect with you because you put on such great content. Um, like I love watching your content as well. So where can people go to find all your, all your videos and all the content you have? So I am on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, uh, at guide number two w d w except on Instagram. I’m guide number two Disney. Uh, and you know, I call it Disney intelligence for smarter vacations. It’s both the strategies to be able to, you know, go into the parks with, uh, and have a great time. And also the stories behind the magic that, you know, will help deepen your understanding of what goes on into all of these attractions and makes them work. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I will make sure everyone knows where to go. I’ll put that on the the link description of this episode or the links in the description of this episode. But, uh, James, so great having you on the show. And for everyone listening, stay tuned because we’ve got some Imagineering interviews coming up next. Matt, thanks so much for having me on. It’s always a pleasure. Same here man. All right. Well, Betty, it’s so nice to meet you. I would love to start by you talking about your title and your role on the rock n roller coaster starring the Muppets. Of course. So I was the producer of this attraction, so I was really after me to bring the story to life. I have creative directors from both the Muppets studio side and the Wdi side that come together and create a story that I then work with all of our different subject matter experts to bring to life in the attraction, and also helping push for the right story is as a producer’s job to allow others to do their job. And if there’s something blocking them from doing that, I get in there and find out what it is, remove it so we can keep moving forward. I love that, and we should start with story because everything starts the story. Absolutely. You’ve been paying attention. So Rock n roller coaster has been here for a couple of decades now. And for the most part, especially walking through here, I think most guests will realize that the, the structure, the the blueprint, the bones of this attraction remain exactly the same. How did you incorporate the Muppets into this classic Disney’s Hollywood Studios attraction? You saying the word bones is exactly that, right? We had existing conditions that we had to work with. We had to make them. They had to make them work. So but we had a lot of opportunities, a lot of unused spaces in here. So like the gallery case, were you able to go through the queue? I did go through the queue. Yeah. The gallery case just using extra, just taking, taking up the space, adding color, adding light, a lot of wall space, a lot of those graphics of albums and historical Muppet references and stuff. But also in the pre-show, we really want to use utilize that space by cutting it off. I don’t know if you realize, but the last show was very far back. We brought a whole new wall forward so we could bring the action much closer to the guests, make the Muppets and the characters much more present. So much more lively, much more funny and humorous. But also, once you get into the alleyway, also just packed it full of props and decor that you probably recognize from Muppet Vision. And, you know, just things surprise and delight for everybody. Yeah, it feels in many ways, like elements of Muppetvision 3D made their way here, and a lot of the characters made their way here as well. I noticed the Penguins in the pre-show. There were so many little nods and Easter eggs even above us here, there’s the, uh, Chuck reference to Chuck and Muppetvision 3D. So what you know, in what ways did you think about the Muppetvision 3D is now going to have a, you know, a new attraction over there? Um, how did you think about the Easter eggs from Muppetvision 3D and their placement here at Rock and Roller Coaster? Muppetvision is such a beloved attraction. We really had a great opportunity to really pay homage to it, just like cherish and honor its legacy over here with all those characters. Like you said, we have over one hundred different Muppet characters in our entire show there. In the background, in the foreground, we got some characters out that you haven’t seen in a long time. So being able to just like bring that, you know, that joy that was from over there and just kind of implement it into your. But using it as a tool to tell our new story with it was just, it was a fun challenge to do. It’s find the right balance. Right? Yeah. It is definitely find the right balance. I, I didn’t realize there were over one hundred characters from the Muppets in here. If you stand over in the rotunda, that first scene in stand by those monitors, they’re they’re playing media all day. There’s like, that’s where you’re gonna see most of your characters there. That’s great. Now, another critical component of rock and roller coaster is music, because it is rock and roller coaster. So how did the team go about deciding on the final set list from the Electric Mayhem final set list? You know, we tried over one hundred different songs. It really was a you come in the room, everyone has ideas. What would work with this ride? It’s all about the energy of the song. So we also wanted to consider a lot of different artists, a lot of different genres and eras of rock and roll, but also how it would work with the electric mayhem and on the high energy, the high energy of the ride. So it really was just looking at each song, evaluating, seeing how it works on the ride with the. It’s really kind of about vibes too. You know, we looked at it virtually to see how it looks when we’re riding through it. You’ve got to get on the train too, because that’s a whole different aspect. What you actually get it on the train to hear it in your ears the whole time. So that was a very, very fun aspect. Going through songs, finding out which ones would be best for the story and best for just bringing new life to it. Yeah, and it feels that way for sure. Okay, now rock and roller coaster. As I said, you know, it had its its original version. Now it’s a Muppets version. What sort of Easter eggs can guests expect from the original attraction? From the original. Oh, from the from the attraction. You know what we want out of this one as well. So over in the pre-show, you may recognize a couple of lines of dialogue in there that pays that pays little attention to what it was before. That’s great. And my last question for you is, now that it’s fully here and guests are going to start experiencing it soon, what are you most excited for guests to see when they ride this new attraction? Oh, well, let’s just see. Other than everything. No, I mean, really just I think we did a really great job with this IP in the brand quinine in this attraction. I’m really excited to see people enjoy it. Appreciate that we have the Muppets back at Hollywood Studios, that they have a new home. So that I think that’s great to see. That’s wonderful. Well, thank you for spending the time, of course, and I hope everybody gets a chance to check it out. Oh, no. Me too. Thank you so much. So we’re here at Rock n Roller Coaster starring the Muppets. And it’s great to meet you, Vanessa. I love if you could start with your role on this project. Yes. So I’m the project manager for the project. So, um, making sure that everything was delivered, um, as attended and, and on schedule. So that’s, that’s my role. I can say that it definitely delivered. It’s an incredible attraction, incredible experience. Can you talk a little bit about how you integrated the Muppets into the legacy rock and roller coaster attraction? Yeah. So, um, obviously the Muppets energy, I think really, um, fits here really well with the high speed thrill of the attraction. They’re a really silly, funny ru. Um, they also have the iconic electric mayhem band. Um, so they kind of slide right into DeForest records really well story wise. Um, but in terms of how we, how we brought them in here, um, the electric mayhem’s obviously the star of the concert, um, scooter being the icon of the pre-show. Um, a lot of the elements that we have in here are also some are nods to Muppet vision. Um, some are nods to just the long history of media that surrounds the Muppets. Um, and then of course, there’s some nods to what used to be here before. So if there’s a lot of Easter eggs, if you poke around. I’ve noticed so many of them. And when you mention the fact that scooters, even in the pre-show, he was also in the pre-show at muppetvision. So the placement feels very appropriate for that. Yeah. Now, in terms of project management, this is an attraction that when you think about the turnaround time from when Rock n Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith closed to when this attraction. I know we’re in previews, but it essentially looks completely show ready. How did you deliver the new updated experience with all of these updates of the attraction in such a short period of time? Yes. Yeah. Uh, a lot goes into it. So, um, obviously there’s a lot of things that happen before our time even starts. Um, so there’s a lot of planning that takes place with getting the figure tested, um, and ready ahead of time so that by the time we install it, there should be like minimal risk. Um, same thing with just the development of all of our show set, our graphics show lighting all of our elements. Um, so we placed a lot of focus on planning those things in advance so that our actual delivery and field could be just come in, put things in place so we can get this open to guests as quickly as possible. Yeah. So a lot of development in the pre downtime phases to be able to, to pull that off. That makes sense. What was the most complicated part of this project? Yeah. I think with any attraction, um, that’s a ride. The logistics of doing things with an active ride and um, all the safety that goes into that as well is a big thing. Um, there’s a lot of planning that takes place shift wise, uh, to make that, that happen and get work done around a, a live roller coaster. Um, so I would say that was the, the hardest part. Yeah. That makes so much sense. So my last question for you, there are five soundtracks on this attraction. Which one is your favorite? My favorite is Love Roller Coaster. That seems like a very popular one. I was going to say song two just because of the Woohoos. Yeah, the attraction. But Love Roller Coaster is a great answer. Yeah. Well great job Vanessa. Thank you so much for your time and it was wonderful chatting with you. It’s great to meet you. So we’re here once again at Rock n Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith. And I’m here with Justin. It’s so great to get to chat with you. Likewise. Can you start by just talking a little bit about your role on this project? Yeah, sure. So I’m a creative director. I did partner with another creative director from the Muppet Studio, but together we worked with concept designers, story writers, uh, audio. Um, and basically got everyone swimming in the same direction. Yeah. I would love to talk about the partnership with the Muppets. How did that collaboration help to bring this attraction to life? Well, Imagineering wanted The Muppets to begin with. When we knew we were doing a rethemed, Muppets immediately came to mind. So we contacted the Muppets studio. They were enthusiastically excited about, uh, becoming part of it. And it was really just a great partnership throughout. That’s great. Can you talk a little bit about the process of bringing the Muppets? And I almost feel like there’s a Venn diagram here. It’s a little bit of electric mayhem, a little bit of rock and roller coaster, a little bit of Muppetvision 3D. Yes. The intersection of that feels like this attraction. So how did those pieces of the Venn diagram come together? Well, we wanted to pay homage to the Muppetvision 3D attraction. That’s an attraction that’s near and dear to all of our hearts. So we wanted to make sure that part of that made it over here. And we accomplished that with some of the Easter eggs that you see and hear in the videos and also in the queue. Um, in terms of the Muppets, as I said, you know, that was a partnership that happened really early on. And, uh, Danny, who’s my creative partner over there, uh, did an amazing job at creating so many of the assets that you see throughout the attraction today. And then, uh, the rock and roller coaster just felt like the logical place for the Muppets to move because of the music, because of the comedy and the lightheartedness of it. Yeah, it feels like it should have been here all along. It just feels like it was meant to be for that’s what we hope for. And the hope was that the attraction felt lived in by the Muppets, and the storyline would be created. Yeah. Do you have a favorite Easter egg? Because I feel like there’s tons in the attraction. I do. I have two actually. One is the Blast Off mural. If you were in pew and you turn around, you could see it up on the scaffolding. That’s when the original Muppet movie. Oh, amazing. That was pretty cool. We were excited about getting that in. And then there’s also a Muppetvision 3D camera up in the queue as well that I really enjoy. That’s great. I feel like I’ve spoken so much about the queue with a few other Imagineers I’ve spoken to. I haven’t spoken a lot about or asked a lot about the ride itself because it’s the same exact, you know, quote unquote ride, you know, system as rock n roller coaster starring Aerosmith. But I have also noticed that there were some enhancements that were made throughout the ride itself. So can you speak a little bit about that? So two things that really stand out in my mind when you ask that question. First of all, the audio we, um, you know, it’s thirty years ago since this was last updated. Yeah. And, uh, we went in and were able to really push the audio to its limits, where we have really clear broadcasts of the songs that we picked and selected. So really happy with the way that turned out. And then the, um, the pre-show is also something I’m extremely proud about. The pre-show came together in a way that it always felt like it was there. Yeah. And so we were excited about that as well. Yeah. It, you know, speaking of music, there are, I know, five songs that you landed on, but like anything else, I’m sure there was a ton. We had over one hundred songs in the running. So how did you narrow down on the final five? Well, so what we did is a process of video rides, so virtual rides via video and then also physical rides. We went on and just listened to the song and said, this, does this fit? Does this fit the mold for what we want to accomplish here? And so we would narrow down and ride and then narrow down and ride again. And eventually we got there. So how many times did you end up riding this attraction? Around one hundred. Well over one hundred. I hear that number one hundred keep coming up. Yes. Because I also heard this over one hundred Muppets characters, or about one hundred Muppets characters that are out here. Yeah. That’s amazing. Some deep cuts too, like Uncle Deadly. Yeah. And Big Mean Carl. So hopefully you caught some of them. Yeah. Um, there are also some celebrity cameos. Yes. In the queue. So how did that come about? Well, the Muppets have always lived alongside of Hollywood, uh, celebrities. And so we felt like it was just a natural extension to bring in our ride as well. One of the celebrities I’m most excited about, it’s a, it’s a bit of a deep cut is Ken Marino, who was in the original Aerosmith attraction, and we brought him over to the Muppets attraction here, uh, as a as a record executive that’s moved up through the ranks. And so we were pretty excited about that. That’s a real touch. Uh, a callback to G-Force Records. Yes. I love that evolution from, from the old attraction to the new one. Um, two final questions for you. Once a quick one, Which is your favourite soundtrack on the attraction? Love roller coaster with Questlove and Jennifer Hudson? That’s like the number one answer. I really enjoy it, really. It’s so much fun. So much fun to ride. And the second one is, uh, or the final question I should say is when this attraction officially opens. Twenty six the twenty six um, what are you most excited for guests to see or experience when they get to? I think it’s really exciting that, uh, a whole new generation of fans are going to inherit the Muppets, uh, in, in a really fun and new way. So, so really just hopefully they enjoy the, the roller coaster, of course, because that’s the heart of the attraction and the music. Yeah. But, um, really enjoy the Muppets being present throughout. Yeah. Well, I’m sure everyone will love it as much as we all have been enjoying it. Yeah, it’s been great. Thank you so much for your time, Justin. Likewise. Yeah. All right. Um, well, Morgan, it’s so nice to meet you. I’d love if we could start with your role on Millennium Falcon smugglers Run. Yeah. So I’m Morgan McDowell. So at Imagineering, I’m a senior software project manager. And then for this, this new bounty hunting mission at Falcon, specifically, I got to oversee and kind of lead all of our Florida install activities here locally at Hollywood Studios. That’s wonderful. Can you talk a little bit about how you incorporated the story of Mandalorian and Grogu into the legacy Millennium Falcon Smuggler’s Run attraction? Sure. So, um, so we still have Hondo Ohnaka here at Black Spire Outpost, and he’s still running a very legitimate shipping business for us here. Um, but here, I think weaving in, you know, our Mandalorian Grogu, um, you know, Hondo has kind of found out about the New Republic kind of has these bounties that they like to catch. Um, so Hondo makes a deal. Um, all he needs is a crew and a ship. Um, and that’s kind of where our guests come in. Right? So they’re our crew. Our ship’s going to be the Millennium Falcon. Um, but you know, Din Djarin and Grogu are going to tag along to help our crew succeed in their bounty hunting mission. It feels a lot like when Star Tours became Star Tours. The adventure continues with the expansion of that universe. Did you look at all to that attraction for inspiration for how to perhaps reprogram this one? Um, I would say technically very different. Yes. There were actually a lot of times where we were like, well, how did they do it? How did we pull this off? And it’s like, well, it’s a whole different ball game over here. So then, um, so that was, that was fun. But yes, we did occasionally look at that. Right. But I do think kind of when you look back at the updates for, for star tours, right? I think it’s taking guests to these iconic Star Wars locations and landscapes, right. And I think we, we did kind of pull inspiration from that right now that guests get to go to Tatooine, you know, the wreckage of the Death Star, Bespin and Coruscant. Yeah. Now, one of the pieces of feedback I know a lot of guests had for the legacy attraction was that everybody wanted to be the pilot. It seemed like it was the most popular role in the experience. So now I know that it’s a little different, like there might be some more competition between whether you want to be an engineer or a gunner. So how did you think about the changes to the roles on the attraction? Yeah, I think a lot of it comes down to so honestly, it kind of starts with the tech updates for the attraction. Um, we were able to upgrade to the Unreal Engine five, um, running all new show game computers here at the attraction to support um hardware that can do more, write more and more efficiently and visually better as well. Um, but starting there kind of gives us those creative unlocks that we see now in the, in the game, in the video game, the attraction itself. Um, all three roles are enhanced, right? I think in their own way, you know, pilots get, have the ability to fly through these new locations, but also these new locations have branching directions that you can go, right? So if you fly left the first time. Or maybe you see a tunnel up there. You should try flying to it, right? You can fly through all these different spaces in a new way. Our gunners, you know, you still have the ability to go manual or automatic, but maybe what you’re shooting and what you’re doing is different depending on what bounty you pick. And then our engineers, of course, kind of have a more of a spotlight now as they’re in charge of which bounty we go after, which planet we end up flying to. Um, and I like to say they’re also the key component here for Hondo, um, smuggling those crates, tractor beaming in the crates for us. So Hondo can, you know, make some money out of this deal. I feel like there are so many different planets in the Star Wars universe. So how did you narrow the choices to the ones you selected? Right. Um, I think when at Imagineering in general, right, when we look at a new project or we look at what we’re doing, I think we always ask ourselves, like, what planet do I want to write as a fan? Right? As a fan, as a guest, like, man, what do I want to do when I fly the Millennium Falcon? Where do I want to fly the Millennium Falcon through? Um, I think me personally. Right. I think Coruscant is pretty near and dear to my heart. It’s very reminiscent of like, uh, you know, our classic, like, Obi-Wan and Anakin flying through a very crowded right traffic scene. Um, so I think that’s really fun and being able to give, give their guests and give fans the ability to live out without their Star Wars dreams. That’s incredible. A lot of that, I’m sure came to life because of, at least in some way, a partnership with Lucasfilm, of course. So can you speak a little bit more about that partnership? Yeah, we worked with Lucasfilm throughout this entire project. I always love we’re all Disney, so we’re all one family. We love getting to work with our internal, our internal partners. Um, but you know, the goals of like, we’re going to open this day and date with the movie. Um, and we’re gonna, you know, we’re working with Lucasfilm on the, the new assets added to the game. Um, maybe, you know, maybe some Easter eggs from the movies, right? Just translating that right from Lucasfilm IP into our attraction IP and what that might be. Do you think audience viewers who go to see the film are going to find any surprises or nods to the film and the attraction? I haven’t either. I mean, it’s coming out. Yeah, I can’t. You’re not the first person to ask me that. I’m like, I don’t know. I haven’t seen the movie. I’ve seen the attraction. I’ll find out. Yeah. Um, well, my last question for you is, what are you most excited about now that this attraction is here for guests to see or to experience? I think I’m excited for I think the core of this attraction, right, has always been the, the dream fulfillment, right. Of flying the Millennium Falcon. I think I’m most excited for our guests now to fly the Millennium Falcon through super identifiable and identifiable fan favorite locations. Um, I think it’s just, it’s fun, it’s lighthearted, it’s whimsy. Yeah. It seems like such a great transformation of this attraction. And, um, thank you, Morgan, for your time today. Thank you. We have a great day. Welcome back to Imagination Central. Before you exit this episode, remember to follow Imagination Skyway on social media and share the show with anyone who might enjoy listening to our program. If you’re looking for ad free episodes and lots of bonus content, you can become an Imagination Skyway Pass holder at patreon dot com slash Imagination Skyway. 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