Sightlines: How Disney Controls What You Can See

Disney sightlines are SO genius. It's really a work of art. It makes me wonder what life would be like if cities and neighborhoods were designed with this much care

I was injured when a ride malfunctioned at Disney. I was swiftly taken to a train station looking building and whisked back behind to where guests wouldn’t see. When the ambulance came, it was silent, no lights. And was hidden behind a large wall. No guest ever had any idea that just feet away from them someone was being loaded into an ambulance.

The “what building, theres no building!” Is like genuinely funny and not even too out of place in the context of toontown tbh. Good on them for that one.

What made Disney World and Land so good is immersion and world building within the Theme Park industry.

Love that Morocco pavilion so much. It's the only pavilion in which the country's government aided in the design. During the pavilion's construction in the 1980s, then King Hassan II actually sent Moroccan artisans to design and create the many mosaics. Due to Islamic religious beliefs on the content of art, the mosaics contain no representations of people. The pavilion's minaret is based off one from the Kutubiyya Mosque in Marrakesh, and the real mosque's minaret was built around 1195. Because of its religious meaning, the pavilion doesn't light up during fireworks. The pavilion's fortress walls were based off Chellah which was once a heavily fortified necropolis in what's now Rabat, the country's capital. Not a tree having to do with sightlines but another special tree at Disneyland is the Dominguez Tree in Adventureland. It's a Canary Island date palm that was originally planted in 1896 by the Dominguez family who once owned the orange grove that's now Disneyland. The tree was originally a wedding present given to the grandparents of Ron Dominguez who later sold the grove to WED Enterprises for Disneyland, under the condition that they leave up the palm. Hence why it's there! Ron didn’t leave Anaheim after Disneyland arrived, in fact, he started as a ticket tacker on opening day! He held several positions within the park. He retired in 1994, and was honored with a window on Main Street!

There's even immersion when it comes to the transit built to take people to the parks. This is not a sightline thing but on the MTR's Hong Kong Disneyland Resort Line, it's a shuttle service between two stations, Sunny Bay and Disneyland Resort. Sunny Bay station has a futuristic theme, while Disneyland Resort station has a Victorian theme. The idea was that the train would act like a time machine, taking people from the future to the fantasy world of Hong Kong Disneyland. The trains themselves are very different from the rest of the MTR network as they have Mickey-shaped windows, Mickey-shaped handles, and bronze statues of Disney characters in glass displays. Another example is Magic Kingdom. The reason they put the parking lot on the other side of Seven Seas Lagoon and you have to take a boat or monorail to get to Magic Kingdom from the parking lot is they wanted the immersion of feeling like you're on a journey to a magical place, with the castle revealing itself as you get closer. On top of working around the fact the site of the lagoon was deemed unstable and unsuitable for construction, so the earth that was removed from that site was relocated to form a ground-level floor for Magic Kingdom, and it became Seven Seas Lagoon. When they cleaned up Bay Lake, they found pure white sand, which was used to create the beaches.

You don't realize how important this aspect of disney is until you go to universal. Universal does NOT control sightlines and it severely affects the impact and immersion of their parks for the worse. Disney does it right.

There is one big "weenie" at Disneyland that helps the park as a whole -- the Matterhorn. But this is a sightline from outside the park. For years, when my family would come to visit Anaheim, we kids played a game -- who could spot the Matterhorn first? That mountain was a promise of a magical day ahead and drew us, as a family, in the direction of Mouse Town :-)

I beg to differ on the opinion that you won’t find high levels of detail at the universal parks. Diagon Alley is easily the most well themed land in any park I’ve visited. Fantastic use of sight lines and utilizing a superb weenie (the dragon).

I actually got to talking with one of the managers of the Tower of Terror, and the sightline with morocco and the tower is actually a myth! it was a complete coincidence, and they mentioned that if it was planned, the tower would've been painted the same color as morocco

I absolutely love these videos about Disney, found it through the Urban Exploring video and am excited to see you continue on the topic! As someone who's never been to Disney parks, or cared much for Disney itself, you've definitely made me a lot more interested with your videos

When i was at disneyland, i happened to see the tree that blocks the matterhorn. I thought it was just a coincidence at first, but then i remembered it was disney.

I think one sightline failure that’s worth mentioning is WDW’s clear view of the backside of Galaxy’s Edge being in clear view from the highway.

Mission Breakout is a great ride but good god is that building an eyesore. Just a hideous mass of industrial pipes and garbage ruining the views in the whole resort.

Loved loved loved this video. Thank you for taking the time to make it. I’ve seen sideline videos, but they don’t cover all of the types of variations. Thank you for putting it all in one video.

You are absolutely crushing it with these Disney videos and you can tell by the viewership on them too! Congrats!

I've always been obsessed with the strong theming in Disneyland and other Disney parks. The very deliberate sightlines play a big role in that. Excellent video!

There's a big sightline problem at the Magic Kingdom with the addition of the Tangled restroom section. The Rapunzel tower should be viewed as a visual weenie for the west side of Fantasyland, leading you down that path past Small world and Peter Pan's Flight. Instead, the tower is off centre which means you can't see it. The tower is mostly visible from the Haunted Mansion end of Liberty Square, and it totally takes you out of the immersion of that land. It was an early indication that all was not well in the world of Imagineering.

One of the most surreal experiences I've had at a Disney Park was because of sight line of Cars Land. I was staying in one of the hotels blocked by the sight line. It was possible to look into the park from my hotel room. It took me a while to realize that because a big part of the sightline was that cut out. Broke the illusion of how big Disneyland was. When I went to Cars land it took me awhile to realize where i was and what I was looking at even though I had already seen the back of the illusion. I really enjoyed this video talking about the massive attention to detail in the Disney Parks. My favorite part was the explanation about the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean.

4:09 YEAHH STRETCHING ROOM! My favorite factoid to share in line EVER