Free Disney Zoom Backgrounds & Wallpapers

disney cruise line zoom background

With many people attending school or working from home, video conferencing via Zoom has become a common way to connect with co-workers, classmates, friends, and family. Several readers have asked for Walt Disney World and Disneyland virtual backgrounds in response to our Disney iPhone Wallpapers . ( New releases February 13, 2021. )

I’m a big fan of fun backgrounds for video calls. While I personally prefer the cheeky Zoom backgrounds featuring Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment, Central Perk from Friends, the office from…The Office, Ron Swanson’s desk, or Twin Peaks’ red room, Disney backgrounds also offer geeky goodness.

For some reason, it never occurred to me to create my own Zoom backgrounds out of my own photos prior to readers asking about it. So, I did a little research–Googling “what makes the best Zoom virtual background” to determine if certain color choices and layout styles were better, and created some free Disney Zoom backgrounds out of photos I’ve shot at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland & DisneySea, and Disneyland Paris.

As with the iPhone wallpapers, we’re offering these backgrounds as an exclusive thank you to our email newsletter subscribers, and we plan on expanding this gallery over time. (Leave a comment below if you have any requests!) Additionally, if you were sent this link by a friend who is a newsletter subscriber, please be sure to sign up for the newsletter , so you receive updates and future Disney virtual Zoom backgrounds as they are released.

February 2021 Update: Our latest batch of new Zoom backgrounds fixes our glaring oversight of not offering any daytime photos of the parks. Many of you pointed out that since most of your Zoom calls are during business or school hours, daylight backgrounds work better than nighttime ones. We’ve remedied this, adding blue sky photos of every Walt Disney World theme park, plus other new designs!

Now some instructions for obtaining the high-res files so that these Disney photos look crisp and beautiful–and you can fool your colleagues and classmates into thinking you’re really at Disney during your virtual meeting. You’ll be the envy of your office! 😉

(If you need them, there are instructions for adding a virtual background into Zoom below the photos.)

Instructions:

1. Hover your cursor over the photo you’d like to download and use. 2. Right click the photo and choose “Save Image As…” 3. Save the image to a location on your computer 4. Photos are already sized appropriately for installation and use in Zoom. If you’re using the background for wallpaper purposes elsewhere, you may have to adjust the photo, resizing it and/or scaling it down.

disney cruise line zoom background

Once you have Zoom open and and you’re logged in, navigate to the gear icon on the top right under your profile picture.

In the Zoom settings, click on the “Virtual Background” tab on the left side menu and from here you will have the ability to add, remove, and edit your virtual background image. Here you’ll see a variety of Zoom’s pre-loaded background photos. Above those images is a little plus symbol–click on that.

You’ll then be prompted to select an image from your computer to add as a background. Select the downloaded photo, and then the next time you’re on a Zoom video conference, you’ll see your Disneyfied background, instead of your home office, couch, or bed. It’s great for those of us who want to meet in Fantasyland…or just don’t want our colleagues seeing whatever weird stuff we might have on our shelves!

If for some reason you do want to “impress” your colleagues with a background showcasing “your” rad Disney collection, here ya go:

disney cruise line zoom background

If you’d like to see additional photos I’ve shot of the Disney Parks around the world, please visit my photography portfolio . If you’re interested in purchasing Disney photo prints for your office or restroom, check out some recommendations and tips (and where you can just download other photos for free).

Need Disney trip planning tips and comprehensive advice? Make sure to read Disney Parks Vacation Planning Guides , where you can find comprehensive guides to Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and beyond! For Disney updates, discount information, a free download of our Money-Saving Tips for Walt Disney World eBook, and much more, sign up for our free monthly newsletter !

Your Thoughts

Any issues downloading? Disney Zoom virtual backgrounds you’d like to see us make? Any other questions about downloading or installing these photos as your backgrounds? We love hearing from readers, so please share any other thoughts or questions you have in the comments below!

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Written by Tom Bricker

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So excited to use these soon! Love the blog and your amazing pictures. Thank you! If you ever get back to CarsLand, it would be great to have that as a background too.

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Thank you for making these backgrounds available to us! I’ve always thought you take beautiful pictures! Makes me want to go back to DL and WDW every day!

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How in the world did you get these gorgeous shots with zero people? Amazing

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Thank you for these amazing photos – totally made my day!!

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Tom you’re the best! I enjoy reading your blog and your photography is amazing!!! Thank you for these beautiful pictures for my next zoom meeting.

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Thank you! Your newsletters are always a treat to read and your photography is absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much!

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We these oh-so-magical, absolutely STUNNING photos!!! Thank you. Such a gift.

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Can you use these photos as a wallpaper on your iPhone? If so, how do you add it to your phone? Thank you for sharing these awesome pictures!

Oh never mind I figured it out. Thank you.

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Thank you so much for these images. Anything so happy as Disney World is very welcome in these times!!

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Have really enjoyed your photos of the parks.

Do you have any featuring disney cruise line ? the ships featuring both outside and onboard, the ports, the excursion sites, Castaway Cay, etc

Please included tips for the ones of us with only mobile devices for internet connecting.

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Tom I am a huge Haunted Mansion fan so anything to do with Haunted Mansion would be awesome! 🙂

Tom, the pictures are stunning! Makes me long for a Disney trip even more. Not sure when we’re going to make it from Canada. The pictures with the castle are my favourite! Fingers crossed for 2022 trip!!

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These are AWESOME! Thanks for sprinkling pixie dust during the pandemic!

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Thank you! Using one today. Got any from inside Pirates of the Caribbean?

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Wow, Tom–that “My Best Photos” folder on your smugmug link!

Thank you for the generous offer of your photos as Zoom background scenes. Brilliant!

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Anything more “morning” or “daytime’ish” from any of the parks? Disneyland? Especially since classes are held during daytime hours. Thanks again for everything!

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Thank you! Would love some videos backgrounds!

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Thank you so much. These are gorgeous!

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Would love to see something from AK … especially the Tree of Life or maybe the Safari area.

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I would also like to have a photo or two from AK.

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The Disney Cruise Line Blog

An unofficial disney cruise line news, information, weather, and photo blog..

The Disney Cruise Line Blog

Disney Cruise Inspired Wallpapers

Mobile wallpapers have been created specifically for Apple iOS and Android devices. Formats include retina display iPhone / iPod (960 x 640), iPhone 5 (1136 x 640), iPhone 6 (1334 x 750), iPhone 6 Plus (1920x 1080) iPad (2048 x 1536). Additionally, the Android wallpapers are all 960 x 800.

Desktop wallpapers have been created in the following screen resolutions: 1024×768, 1024×1024, 1280×1024, 1680×1050, 1920×1080, and 1920×1200.

A Wonderful Sunrise iPad 2048x1536 Wallpaper

5 Replies to “Disney Cruise Inspired Wallpapers”

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Ahoy! We are cruising magic from Galveston to Barcelona. I was hoping to find more info. We are so excited!!! This is a great blog!!!! Thnk you;-)

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I was on the Disney Cruise line of August 15th 2012 and i would like to say thank you for all the enjoyment.

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Matthew, I am sure Disney Cruise Line would love to hear you had a great time.

Here is their contact/feedback page. https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/contact-us/

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Getting ready for our third Disney Cruise. The kids are so excited. Shhhh….. don’t tell them, but so are mom and dad.

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I just took my 6th Disney Cruise in a row, the best vacation ever. My family and I love to cruise on Disney and will continue every year for as long as we can. Disney does it right!!!!

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  • Video Calls

Download These Disney Park Zoom Backgrounds For Video Calls

Catch me using these disney park zoom backgrounds in all video calls from now on.

disney cruise line zoom background

The Disney parks may be closed for the time being , but that doesn't mean we can't take a mental holiday and pretend we're hanging in the land of churros and Dole whip. Luckily, we now have more than just our imaginations to help, thanks to the ready-to-download Zoom backgrounds recently shared by the Disney Parks Blog . The free backdrops feature picture-perfect scenes from various amusement parks across the globe, including Disneyland Paris, Aulani in Hawaii, Epcot, and Tokyo DisneySea. It's pretty hard to pick a favourite!

To pretend you're posted up in front of Cinderella's Castle or Epcot's Spaceship Earth during your next virtual happy hour or work meeting on Zoom, simply right click the image of your choice to download it to your device (yes, for free!), and then follow these nifty instructions to upload it to your Zoom profile . Check out all the park-themed backdrops ahead, and if you're craving even more magical Zoom customizing options after, these Disney princess backgrounds should help.

These Tie-Dye Disney Spirit Jerseys Just Scream Happiness

Tokyo DisneySea Zoom Background

Tokyo DisneySea Zoom Background

Disney Springs Zoom Background

Disney Springs Zoom Background

Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle Zoom Background

Disneyland Sleeping Beauty Castle Zoom Background

Epcot Zoom Background

Epcot Zoom Background

Avatar Flight of Passage Zoom Background

Avatar Flight of Passage Zoom Background

Hong Kong Disneyland Resort Zoom Background

Hong Kong Disneyland Resort Zoom Background

Disney World Cinderella Castle Zoom Background

Disney World Cinderella Castle Zoom Background

Aulani Zoom Background

Aulani Zoom Background

Shanghai Disneyland Enchanted Storybook Castle Zoom Background

Shanghai Disneyland Enchanted Storybook Castle Zoom Background

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Zoom Background

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Zoom Background

Disney Cruise Line Zoom Background

Disney Cruise Line Zoom Background

Pixar Pier Zoom Background

Pixar Pier Zoom Background

Disneyland Paris Sleeping Beauty Castle Zoom Background

Disneyland Paris Sleeping Beauty Castle Zoom Background

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Downloadable Disney Vacation Club Virtual Backgrounds

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  • Disney Vacations

Bring the Magic of Disney to Your Next Zoom Call With These Movie-inspired Backgrounds

Take your next call from Andy's bedroom in "Toy Story."

disney cruise line zoom background

Life as we know it has come to a screeching halt. As the world attempts to fight off the Coronavirus, people have been asked to socially distance — which includes working and learning from home — and to stay away from all of our favorite places . However, destinations are hoping to bring a few smiles to people’s faces as well as their newly implemented Zoom meetings with custom-made backgrounds. And now, those destinations include animated Disney movie locations .

“Ever wish you could immerse yourself in a Pixar movie? Well, now you can! With video calls and meetings on the rise, Pixar Animation Studios wanted to share a little fun to brighten up your next chat,” Disney shared in an announcement. “Now, you can choose a backdrop from your favorite Pixar movie and ensure your next video chat will take you to infinity and beyond!

The new backgrounds include the iconic walls of Andy’s room in "Toy Story," which comes with the puffy little cloud wallpaper and all.

Fans of the "Incredibles" can also download and use the mansion backdrop from "Incredibles 2 ." And, those who want a more down-home feel can download and use the house Carl and Ellie built together in "Up," or get cooking by choosing the kitchen background from "Ratatouille."

But that’s not all. Disney is also offering up free Zoom backgrounds from "Brave," "Finding Nemo," "A Bug’s Life," "Monsters Inc.," "Cars," and more. To download backgrounds via mobile all you need to do is find the image you’d like to download. Then, use your finger to hold down the image and select add to Photos. Check out all the options for free Disney Zoom backgrounds on its website now.

Want even more Zoom background fun? Check out a few travel-inspired backgrounds so you can pretend to be taking your calls from just about anywhere. And if you're looking for someone new to call on Zoom, Airbnb just launched online experiences that'll give you some serious face time with goats in New York.

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  • D23 / Other Disney Stuff

Spruce Things Up on Your Zoom Calls Next Week With These Fun Disney Holiday Backdrops

by Melissa Roden · December 18, 2021

disney cruise line zoom background

Since many of us are still working for home, Disney has come up with a fun (and adorable) way to spruce up any Zoom calls that you may have schedule for the week leading in to Christmas!  D23, Disney’s official fan club has unveiled a trio of fun Zoom backgrounds that are sure to put a smile on the faces of your co-workers. 

Here’s a look at each of them. Have fun picking your favorites. 

disney cruise line zoom background

  Mickey and Minnie – We love this snowy scene featuring Mickey and Minnie all bundled up for the season with a snow-capped Cinderella Castle in the distance! 

disney cruise line zoom background

Princess Tiana and Louis the Alligator – Though they rarely get snow “Down on the Bayou”, we couldn’t help but share this fun backdrop featuring Princess Tiana and Louis.  Instead of the Castle in the background it is Tiana’s Place from the film Princess and the Frog . 

disney cruise line zoom background

Goofy and Max – This background has to be my favorite with Goofy and Max having some winter weather bonding time.  I love that Goofy is wearing reindeer horns! 

We hope you’ve found a favorite backdrop above and will use it during your Zoom calls!  If you need help figuring out how to set up Zoom backgrounds, Disney recommends that you visit Zoom Support for the latest step-by-step guide on how to bring the festive fun. 

Readers are encouraged to keep following along with MickeyBlog for more Disney news and updates. We’ll be coming to you LIVE from the parks throughout the holiday season. 

disney cruise line zoom background

Have you heard the news!?  Disney packages are currently available through 2022!  Book your getaway with ME before the end of 2021 and I’ll throw in a Disney Gift Card!* Plus 1 lucky family will be picked each month to receive a special in-room delivery from Disney Floral & Gifts!  Simply fill out my form below to get your FREE, no obligation quote. 

With new policies and procedures in place for next year, there’s never been a better time to work with an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner who can help you navigate through Disney World’s new way of doing things! Just fill out my form  HERE  to get your FREE, no-obligation quote. Alternatively, feel free to reach out at  [email protected]  or follow along on  Facebook

Tags: Goofy holidays Louis Max Mickey and Minnie Princess and the Frog Tiana Zoom Backgrounds

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Melissa Roden

As an agent with MickeyTravels and a Blogger with MickeyBlog I enjoy sharing, tips, tricks and advice to help readers and clients get the most out of your time with Disney. When I'm not helping clients plan their perfect holidays or nab those hard-to-get discounts you can find me enjoying a Dole Whip at Disney World with my daughter! Reach out for a FREE, no obligation quote at 1.800.801.4025 or find me on Facebook !

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At Home , Walt Disney World

Virtual zoom backgrounds of the disney parks and resorts.

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disney cruise line zoom background

With many of us at home, video conferencing has become a favorite way to connect with co-workers, classmates, friends and family.  For many of us, that means scrambling to find a clean corner of the house and quickly stacking books to place your laptop on so you can limit the extraordinary amount of chins you suddenly seem to have. While I can’t help with the unflattering angle of the laptop camera I can save you from finding a decent background.

I have created some Zoom backgrounds from my favorite Walt Disney World Photos just for you. Bring a little Disney Magic to your meeting, class, or wine time!

How to Add The Background

How-to-set-a-virtual-background-in-zoom

The virtual background feature allows you to display an image or video as your background during a Zoom Meeting. This feature works best with a green screen and uniform lighting, to allow Zoom to detect the difference between you and your background. But you can do it without one! Just make sure both your computer and Zoom are completely updated .

Once you are logged into zoom click the arrow to the right of the camera and select virtual background.

Select Your Background

Changing-your-zoom-virtual-background

Select from your already uploaded backgrounds or click the arrow to add options from your computer. I have included 3 for you here. Just right click the image and save it.

Then all you need to do is make everyone else jealous they don’t have a cool Disney parks virtual background like you do.

Disney-Zoom-Background- Castle

Want More Zoom Background Choices?

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I created an additional 25 Walt Disney World Zoom Backgrounds, but couldn’t put them all up without risking my website running EXTREMELY SLOW. Enter your email below to have them sent to you and add a touch of magic from your favorite park or even resort.

Images Include: The Wilderness Lodge, Harambe in the Animal Kingdom, Haunted Mansion, Battuu Marketplace, Main Street USA, The Floating Mountains in Pandora, The Grand Floridian Lobby, Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood Studios and More.

Have a favorite location that you did not receive? Respond to the email and I will search the photos of my many trips and customize it just for you!!

Discover more of Walt Disney World:

  

disney cruise line zoom background

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disney cruise line zoom background

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disney cruise line zoom background

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8 More Disney Zoom Backgrounds to Enjoy at Your Next Meeting

For better or worse, or somewhere in between, Zoom meetings have become a part of our life that isn’t likely to completely disappear any time soon. If you’re going to have to have a Zoom meeting anyhow, you might as well have fun with it, right? Our in-parks team takes a LOT of photos every week from all around Walt Disney World. Some of the photos end up in the blog, on our web site, or on social media. But with so many photos, there’s some that we personally love, and so we want to share some of those with you so you can use them as a Zoom background at your next meeting.

Looking for information on how to use these Zoom backgrounds on your machine? See our first Zoom picture sharing post here.  And if you use Microsoft Teams instead of Zoom, you can find directions here .  Now, on to the photos!

disney cruise line zoom background

Plus, as a bonus, here’s two VelociCoaster ones from Universal Orlando for you to enjoy!

disney cruise line zoom background

Do you have a favorite out of this batch? Any requests for future Zoom backgrounds? Let us know in the comments.

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Marah Eakin

Meet the Disney Imagineer Building You a Real-Life Holodeck

Person wearing a VR headset while standing on the HoloTile stage with a VR street scene in the background

Lanny Smoot builds lightsabers for a living. No, not like the ones kids used to create with flashlights and plastic tubes—realistic extendable ones, with penumbral edges and laser-blocking abilities. Like an actual Jedi. He’s whipped up giant electromagnetic eyes, too, as well as an omnidirectional HoloTile Floor , which adapts to user movement and—like its spiritual parent, the Star Trek Holodeck—anticipates a world in which users can slap on an AR/VR headset and climb mountains or run marathons without leaving a single room.

Building gadgets normally cooked up by Star Wars directors or visual effects supervisors is Smoot’s whole deal. A research fellow at Disney , his job involves a lot of making the science and technology behind Imagineers’ ideas actually work. Smoot, who began his career at Bell Labs, holds more patents than anyone at Disney—106 right now, with a few more “in the oven,” he says. He has been with the company for over 25 years and is only the second Disney employee ever inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

“I thought I was the first,” Smoot says, perched near a unicycle in his otherwise unassuming office on the Disney campus in Burbank, “but when someone told me I was the second, I immediately started thinking of colleagues who are very competitive, like, ‘Oh, it could be this one, it could be that one.’”

Later, he found out who beat him to the honor: Walt Disney.

Since its inception in 1952, Walt Disney Imagineering has been behind the launch of 12 theme parks, a planned community in Florida, five cruise ships, and dozens of resort hotels, shopping experiences, sports facilities, and entertainment venues—including some on Disney’s private island in the Bahamas. Responsible for everything from architecture to lighting to graphic design, the company’s Imagineers believe in not just creating new attractions, but also doing what Disney himself called “plussing”—constantly upgrading and innovating around the company’s existing attractions. Disney’s filmmakers build worlds that fans can watch onscreen; the research team builds in-canon worlds where they can avoid sunburn while sucking down blue milk and waiting to pilot the Millennium Falcon .

While different branches of Imagineering might use bakery smells to entice guests into Main Street eateries or employ forced perspective to make the Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella Castle appear taller than it actually is, at Disney Research , Smoot’s department, Imagineers use science and engineering to push the boundaries of the company’s parks and attractions. They’ve created a “ Stuntronic ” Spider-Man capable of flipping through the air above the Avengers campus, and they’ve put riders on a swivel with the invention of the Omnicoaster system , which can rotate guests 360 degrees and launch them backwards, like on Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. They also developed BB-8, creating a functional droid that could adorably coast around both movie sets and Disneyland’s Galaxy’s Edge .

Amongst all those brilliant minds, Smoot stands alone. As the only research fellow in Disney’s history, he’s held in high regard at the company. Doug Fidaleo, the director of the Disney Research Lab, says “Lanny embodies the purest spirit of imagineering, and with infectious optimism, creates unimaginable new realities that inspire the world.” Disney patent attorney Stuart Langley refers to Smoot as one of the most prolific Black inventors in American history. That orange orbicular droid the company was looking for? Smoot designed the drive system . Did Madame Leota’s floating head scare the crap out of you in the Haunted Mansion? Consider yourself delighted by his ingenuity.

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Person posing next to a large electromagnetic eye sculpture on a wooden pedestal in a white room

Lanny Smoot with one of the many inventions he's worked on: an electromagnetically driven animatronic eye.

Smoot’s love of all things electrical began about 58 years ago, when his dad—an “itinerant inventor” with a high school education—brought a battery, a bell, a light bulb, and some wire into their Brownsville, Brooklyn, home. He showed his son how to wire a circuit and, “once he got the bell to ring and the lamp to light,” Smoot says, “it lit up my entire career.”

There weren’t a lot of Black engineers to look up to in his neighborhood, but Smoot says he grew to admire characters like Mission: Impossible ’s Barney Collier , who could put together the show’s gadgets and hold his own in hand-to-hand combat. In junior high, a counselor steered him toward Brooklyn Technical High School, and when it came time to apply to colleges, he got into every one he tried for, from MIT to Columbia. He just couldn’t pay for them.

Somehow, though, Smoot’s name got to a recruiter at Bell Labs (at the time the preeminent research facility in the world) who told him that they’d pay for his college and give him a summer job, as well as eventually pay for his master’s degree. Smoot agreed and eventually joined Bell’s technical staff. There, he invented some of the first widely used fiber-optic transmission systems, as well as circuits that helped network pay phones together.

In the '90s, Smoot says, he developed an interest in people at home being able to control what they were seeing at sporting events. His resulting invention, the Electronic Panning Camera, allowed viewers to zoom around on whatever they were watching and made quite a splash when it debuted at the annual National Association of Broadcasters meeting in Las Vegas. That’s where Disney approached Smoot, asking to rent the system for a new project they cagily explained was about looking at animals “down in a pit.” (It was really for the company’s new Animal Kingdom park, and Smoot’s cameras were used to help staff and visitors keep track of elephants and zebras traversing the faux savannah.)

Smoot's meeting with Disney proved indicative. R&D at the company often takes the form of a black-box operation. Imagineers may know what they're working on, but revealing too much kills the magic, so the public only ever sees their work in parks or cruise ships. Documentaries like The Imagineering Story offer insights (the basketball court under the Matterhorn is real ), but they can feel like curated curtain-raisers. What Disney Imagineers actually do often remains a mystery to most people. “I don’t think it necessarily helps them as much as they maybe think it does,” Todd Martens , who covers Disney and its parks for the Los Angeles Times , says of the secrecy. “When you get off of the Haunted Mansion attraction, you always hear people talking about how the illusions worked. That makes you want to go in again, because then you get a sense of what’s really involved in making it.”

A job offer came shortly after Smoot met with Disney reps in Vegas, and soon he was running the company’s research site on Long Island. A move to Southern California with the rest of his group came in August 2000, and now he’s spent decades building contraptions and solving tough technical questions for the company’s parks and resorts department.

Person shot from above in a lab with various machines and lab equipment covering the desks

Smoot's workstation is full of inventions-in-progress.

While Smoot is technically a Disney Imagineer, he doesn’t identify as a creative person. Or, at least, not creative in the same way as the company’s artists, sculptors, and architects. “Back when I worked at Bell, I was an engineer and my boss was an engineer and the president of the company was an engineer,” he says. “We were very good at what we did, and we made all sorts of things, but how they looked wasn’t important.” At Disney, the aesthetics and engineering both have to be impeccable. “I can draw a picture so I’m able to build something,” Smoot says, “but to make it look good, I call on my buddies.”

Smoot’s admirers might say that argument is a bit self-effacing. His accolades speak to the beauty in his work. “Whether they’re doing very hard science or engineering or working in some other technology, [inventors] see the elegance in what they’re doing and in how they’re presenting it to the world,” says Rini Paiva, the National Inventors Hall of Fame’s executive vice president of selection and recognition.

Smoot hand-picks his collaborators, and the projects he pursues. Bobby Bristow, an R&D Imagineer at Disney, says that in the eight or so years he’s worked with Smoot in what he calls the company’s “black ops” department, they’ve tackled “hundreds, if not thousands” of prototypes, many of which have never seen the light of day. “I’ll go home at night thinking about what we’re going to be doing the next day and how we’re going to approach and tackle it, and then when I come in the next morning, Lanny will be like, ‘No, no, I got this totally new idea when I was driving in,’ and then we’ll end up working on some other crazy thing,” Bristow says.

At Disney, Smoot says, he’s also presented with all manner of technical challenges, thanks in part to the company’s wide-reaching scope. “I can wake up in the morning and start designing something that’s going into a cruise ship, and in the afternoon I’m working on something that’s going into Disneyland,” he says. “Three days later, someone will come to me with an issue that has to do with how our movies are made.”

Though ideas at Disney aren’t always developed in a linear fashion—a prototype of an invention might be started years before the company finds the place to put it into action, or an idea for something artistically cool might germinate for a bit before Research figures out the technology—Smoot has worked on a few things with a hard deadline, including the lightsabers for the Star Wars Launch Bay in 2015 and the Galactic Starcruiser in 2022.

While one could argue that not everything Disney makes is pure, inspirational magic, Smoot designs everything he works on to either entertain or spark joy. “There are engineers that have to work on things that can hurt people or that aren’t necessarily that good, and that’s never something I have to worry about,” Smoot says. Instead, he jokes, he just concerns himself with how Madame Leota will “float” through her seance room every few minutes for years on end. (He also had a hand in the operation of the Haunted Mansion’s stretching paintings, which were refurbished a few years back.)

Citing Arthur C. Clarke’s third law that “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” Smoot says part of his work is about conveying a smooth and perfect sheen of surprise. When parents take their kids to a Disney park, they want those kids to have the same experience they did, even if all of the tech has been replaced.

Smoot points to Madame Leota as an example. Online, people had all kinds of theories about how Disney made the Haunted Mansion character fly—proof that Smoot’s tricks worked. “I read some descriptions from people who loved it and how they thought it worked, and without going into too much detail, I’ll say they were completely wrong and completely simplistic,” he says. “That’s when I said, ‘OK, yeah, what we did was good.’”

It’s this kind of impact that moves Smoot’s work beyond the realm of cool gadgetry. Paiva says that “when we look at potential inductees, we’re looking for inventors who have US patents that cover their work, which certainly Lanny has, but beyond that, we’re looking for inventors whose work has made societal, economic, and cultural impact.”

While Smoot’s Disney career has certainly wowed and enriched the lives of park goers and cruise ship passengers over the years, his work on teleconferencing at Bell was also an important factor into his induction, as was his work with aspiring young inventors.

“I’ve become a bit of a role model for young Black kids and people of color and women who have been looked over or not been in the room where things are done,” Smoot says. “I came from Brownsville, and I didn’t have a lot of money. Even today, I am one of the most thrifty people when it comes to building things. Some people say, ‘I can't start my work unless I have this much money,’ but I'm like, ‘OK, I have a broomstick and I can take the keyboard apart …’”

Lonnie Johnson —a Black inventor and engineer who made the Inventors Hall of Fame for his work as the inventor of the Super Soaker as well as for his ongoing interest in renewable energy technology—says that Smoot’s outreach is vital, particularly for kids of color. He grew up in the '60s, joined the Civil Rights movement, and worked on the Galileo mission for NASA. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory may sound far removed from Disneyland, but Johnson says the experiences of prejudice can often be the same. “Peoples’ expectations are not what they would expect from someone who looks different from the way you are,” Johnson says. STEM needs people like Smoot, he adds, because “our world would be better served if we had more engineers from all backgrounds.”

Person sitting in an office chair next to a desk in a lab with various machines on shelves behind them

Smoot has 106 patents right now, and a few more “in the oven,” he says.

As every park from the Magic Kingdom to Universal Studios becomes a franchise-ful playland, the onus is on Disney to make its themed worlds more extravagant, and also more personalized, customized, interactive. Disney plans to invest $60 billion in the growth of its parks and experiences over the next 10 years, and surely a chunk of that cash will be needed for new gadgets from Imagineers.

MagicBand+ wristbands, which allow people to access parks and unlock hotel rooms, aren’t actively used to track guests , per se, but one could imagine a world in which they’re used to hone someone’s ride experience—saving your high score or upping your level of difficulty on Toy Story Mania , for instance, or having the animatronic Tiana call out your name as you pass on the new Bayou Adventure . And while Disney’s Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser resort didn’t take off , immersive experiences like its Star Wars cantina have, indicating that fans want to put themselves into the world of their favorite movies.

There are new Frozen -themed lands coming to Hong Kong Disneyland, Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris, and Tokyo Disney Resort. A new Zootopia -themed land opened late last year at Shanghai Disney Resort. ( Disney Research developed Duke Weaselton , a walking, jumping robot, for that one.) Disney Cruise Lines currently visits 94 ports in 40 countries with its five ships, and it plans to nearly double the line’s capacity in the next two years. There’s even some speculation that Disney might open a fifth theme park in Orlando, a suggestion that’s not out of the question given that the company currently holds about 1,000 acres of vacant land in the area—the equivalent of about seven Disneylands.

It’s easy to envision how Smoot’s HoloTile might integrate into those future Disney attractions. Users could walk at their own pace while traversing some virtual- or mixed-reality experience, or vehicles could spin and whirl through a trackless ride. A Disney Cruise passenger could groove through a dance fitness class on the tiles, or a park guest might be able to safely traverse an MCU-level clash on foot. Smoot even sees the tiles being used for staged productions, calling legendary choreographer and director Busby Berkeley’s immense, geometrically precise dance routines an inspiration .

The HoloTile has the potential to reach beyond the parks, as well. Gizmodo called it a “VR breakthrough,” while TechCrunch deemed it “an extremely clever and honestly quite elegant solution” to VR’s movement issues. While Disney typically doesn’t license out its technologies, Smoot says he’s already told his higher-ups that he thinks this invention could be big. He’s fielded some requests from interested collaborators. Whichever direction he goes, Smoot isn’t standing still.

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