Meet the real-life sorcerers behind Disney’s magic.

For the most part, we can all agree that Disney creates so magical things. It’s not by mistake that they pride themselves in making magic happen in the form of movies and theme park attractions. While kids and kids-at-heart just want to consumer those creations, others understand that there has to be more than wishing that makes these dreams come true.

That’s very much the responsibility of Disney Research.

It’s a relatively small team of academics, scientists, and entertainment industry professionals who make up The Walt Disney Company’s research and development (R&D) arm. They aren’t tasked with specific things like making Star Wars Land, which belongs to Walt Disney Imagineering. Rather, they are tasked with doing research and creating new things with that research that could possibly find its way into projects like Star Wars Land.

According to their official website, Disney Research was created back in 2006 when Disney bought Pixar. They were inspired because of Pixar’s in-house research team that created new tech to tell the stories in its film.

Today, the team has flourished to include an international network of research labs. Researchers themselves work by doing both basic and application-driven research to accomplish their goal of creating and innovating. For the decade they’ve been around, they very much are accomplishing that mission with creating some awe-inspiring things.

They created a software that allows filmmakers to change the emotions of the actors they film. They created the a smartwatch that identifies what you’re touching. They even created a tiny robot that can climb up walls (seen in the video below).

If you want to get your hands on these incredibly cool products, don’t hold your breath. Since Disney Research is tasked with creating only concepts and prototypes, it could be years till these products make the consumer or business market, if at all.

For now, you can just rest in knowing that Disney is continuing Walt Disney’s legacy of creating practical magic. Here’s hoping it all appears before us soon.

…or you can just apply to be a Disney Researcher yourself and make that magic happen!

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