Every childhood visit to Disneyland provoked the same argument between Patricia L. Caplette and her brother over which ride to hit first.
He wanted to head straight for the Haunted Mansion; she insisted on Pirates of the Caribbean. So they bargained: If she could start the day with her favorite scurvy crew, he could end it getting spooked.
"It still brings me back to that moment each time I go on this ride, because I'm basically going back to being a little kid, starting out my Disney day, going on Pirates," said the 27-year-old illustrator from Diamond Bar. "Even going on it as an adult, 20 years later, or just walking past it, it still brings up those memories."
These days, Caplette is not just another nostalgic "park guest," as Disney likes to call its ticket holders. The master of fine arts student at Cal State Fullerton was among five interns who spent the summer with Walt Disney Imagineering's Blue Sky program, brainstorming attractions for the parks.
The notoriously secretive Imagineering, which is responsible for developing new ideas and rides for the theme parks and resorts, took the unprecedented step of granting access to its creative trove -- a database with more than 1,000 technologies and ride systems known as the "blue sky project" -- in hopes of sparking ideas for future attractions.
This approach of bringing together "people who know too much and people who know too little" is a time-honored way to foster creativity, said Stanford University engineering professor Robert I. Sutton, who has studied innovation and has no affiliation with Walt Disney Co.
History is replete with examples of outsiders whose new perspectives, when paired with expertise, can produce groundbreaking work, Sutton said. Take the example of Apple Inc. founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, who, with some business oversight from chip industry millionaire Mike Markkula, revolutionized the computing industry.
"Disney's very smart to do this," Sutton said. "Not knowing how it's supposed to be done is very important."
Not that anyone would accuse the folks at Imagineering in Glendale of running out of ideas. Rather, the Imagineers were seeking insights into the kind of entertainment that would resonate with the generation that grew up with game controllers and computer mice in their hands.
