Imagineer Podcast

Joe Lanzisero began working at Disney as a Feature Animator just a few days after graduating from CalArts in 1979, working on movies like the Fox & and the Hound and The Great Mouse Detective. Less than a decade later, Joe made the jump to Walt Disney Imagineering, where he eventually rose to the rank of a Creative Senior Vice President. Perhaps what’s most amazing about Joe is that his projects literally span the globe. He developed attractions at Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disney Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Disney Cruise Line. Some of Joe's most notable attractions include Toontown, Mystic Manor, Tower of Terror at Tokyo DisneySea, Grizzly Gulch, Toy Story Land (Hong Kong Disneyland), and more. After nearly three decades at Imagineering, Joe retired from Disney in 2015, but his work continues today through his own company, Lanzisero Creative. In this podcast episode, I chat with Joe about his early years growing up near Disneyland, his time at Disney Animation, and his many years at Ima