Here's a peek behind the curtain at its latest adventure
If there is one thing Disney knows how to do, it is turn a big idea into an even bigger story.
Now, the company is giving audiences a peek behind the curtain at its latest adventure: Disney Abu Dhabi.
The plans for the highly anticipated resort feature in Disney+’s Worldbuilders documentary, offering a glimpse into the thinking, creativity and sheer ambition behind bringing the Disney magic to Abu Dhabi.
And judging by the people involved, this is not a project being approached with small dreams.
Outgoing Disney CEO Bob Iger describes Abu Dhabi as “an oasis of the world”, rather than simply a crossroads, highlighting the emirate’s location and the fact that around a third of the world’s population can reach it within four hours.
“We like being in this region,” Iger says, pointing to Abu Dhabi’s potential, optimism and forward-looking approach.
For Disney, he explains, the opportunity is about thinking big, building big and creating something with real ambition.
That ambition is echoed by HE Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, who describes the project as a carefully curated experience that pays homage to the past, offers a glimpse of the future and “cements our present”.
And then there is the storytelling.
Tom Fitzgerald, Chief Storytelling Executive and Senior Creative Executive at Walt Disney, explains that one of the big questions for the team was how to organise a Disney park in a place as geographically and culturally diverse as Abu Dhabi.
The answer, intriguingly, came from the emirate itself.
The team was inspired by Abu Dhabi’s different biomes, Fitzgerald explains, and the stories they naturally create. Because, in the Disney universe, setting is everything.
“Once upon a time” is followed by a place – “in a kingdom far away” or “in a galaxy far, far away” – and Fitzgerald says place-making is key to storytelling.
That idea could make Disney Abu Dhabi feel distinctly different from the company’s other parks around the world.
Rather than simply dropping familiar Disney worlds onto the island, the project is being designed around the character and environment of its host city.
For Al Mubarak, that also forms part of a much bigger ambition for Abu Dhabi: investing in the creative industries and using imagination as a catalyst for a new generation of thinkers.
After all, Disney’s worlds have already inspired generations through Star Wars, Marvel, Pixar and Disney’s own legendary characters. Now, the hope is that bringing those worlds to Abu Dhabi could inspire people to create entirely new ones of their own.
Iger, meanwhile, returns to the importance of imagination. Reflecting on his time at Disney, he says working with storytellers was one of the most rewarding parts of his career, describing his role as supporting and challenging creative minds rather than telling the stories himself.
For him, great storytelling has limitless potential, provided there is enough ambition behind it.
“You have to dream big,” Iger says.
And if Worldbuilders is anything to go by, Disney Abu Dhabi is certainly dreaming big.
You can catch the documentary live on Disney + (last 5 minutes of the programme)
