Soarin’ Around The World used helicopters and drones to capture new imagery

Earlier this week, the new flight plan for the iconic Soarin’ attractions at Disney Parks debuted at places, well, around the world.

The hang gliding attraction now takes people to some of the planet’s most iconic landmarks including the Pyramids at Giza and the Fiji Islands. In order to take us there, Imagineers and their teams had to once again first fly over to those places and capture them on film.

Similar to a movie production, Disney’s teams partnered with production teams in the various locations where the landmarks are, along with a new camera system developed by Imagineering.

“We invented a state-of-the-art camera system to provide the highest resolution experience for our guests,” said Portfolio Creative Executive Tom Fitzgerald. Like the first iteration of the attraction that debuted at Disney California Adventure Park in 2001, flyovers to film scenery were recorded with a camera system that produced imagery that was good for its time.

Thanks to technology, the new system does capture very crisp imagery and balanced colors that extend beyond our home theater HD technology.

While the imagery is more stunning on the attraction, what’s more stunning is how they captured it.

Disney released footage of the amazing aerial work that the production helicopters did to capture some of the landmarks like Monument Valley in Utah and The Great Wall of China. Some of the other destinations they captured like the Taj Mahal and the real Matterhorn in Switzerland were more difficult to capture due to their locations.

To capture those landmarks where a loud helicopters couldn’t reach, Imagineers reportedly turned to drones. Drones operate near silently and can carry camera systems as small as GoPro cameras whose footage would rival that of cameras that are nearly quadruple the size.

The result of the cameras and the flying vehicles is an old attraction made entirely new again. Just bring in Patrick Warburton as your flight attendant and the catchy re-recorded soundtrack and flying is amazing once more.

Soarin’ Over The World is now open at Shanghai Disneyland and Soarin’ Around The World is now open at Disney California Adventure Park in California and EPCOT in Florida.*

*And each attraction takes a different flight path, so be sure to fly them all!

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