On the other hand Walt Disney was a creative maniac with a large fortune and desire to invent theme parks. Imagineering is the one valve in the heart of Disney.
I agree 100%, based on the desire for theme parks it fits.
But from the outside looking in what is "Disney". I would wager that for the vast majority of people Disney is Mickey Mouse, Frozen, Lion King, etc. basically media. Obviously I would say that people would also say the parks. But I doubt the word "Tech" is anywhere in the vast majority of people's opinion on what Disney is.
It is wild to think that behind what is a media company, is an organization with strong engineering talent. I mean it seems like that the robot engineering specifically rivals most of what else is out there.
That isn't saying there are not more advanced robotics, Boston Dynamics projects are a big example.
But there is also something to be said that this is probably going to be in a park in just a few years, if not sooner. It isn't going to sit in research stage forever.
But it is a really weird timeline that Disney is associated with advanced robotics and other crazy things that Disney Imagineering does.
Disney corp. and their brilliant animators and technicians invented various parts of animated films during an intense period of RnD, both technical and creative. This culminated in Snow White which was the first animated feature film (afaik) and it was a huge hit.
Hollywood was the Silicon Valley of the 20s and 30s. They were using and inventing cutting edge tech!
I love applying this to our technology companies. Sure, we get products like Google Search and Gmail and Facebook and Messenger and Instagram and Tiktok. Everybody calls them tech companies. Like everyone assumes Disney is media. But in reality they are ad companies. Like Disney is a theme park company.
