Immersive Disney Animation Premieres In Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES -- Following celebrated premieres in 13 cities and rave reviews from critics and audiences across North America, Lighthouse Immersive Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios have announced that Los Angeles will be the next city to premiere Immersive Disney Animation on June 23.

The Los Angeles iteration of Immersive Disney Animation will be housed in Lighthouse ArtSpace Los Angeles – the same venue that was home to the popular Original Immersive Van Gogh – in the iconic former Amoeba Music Building at 6400 Sunset Blvd.

Tickets for the Los Angeles presentation of Immersive Disney Animation start at $29.99 and go on sale at 10 a.m. May 12 at lighthouseimmersive.com/Disney.

The creative team behind Immersive Disney Animation is led by Oscar-winning producer J. Miles Dale (Best Picture 2018 -The Shape of Water), Special Projects Producer Dorothy McKim (Oscar-nominated, Get A Horse!), who is spearheading the project for Disney Animation, Lighthouse Immersive’s Global Creative Director David Korins (Tony Award-nominee for Hamilton, Emmy Award winner for Grease Live) and Mexico City-based Cocolab.

Immersive Disney Animation saw its celebrated world premiere in Toronto in December 2022. The exhibition is now open in 13 North American cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Cleveland, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Las Vegas, Minneapolis, Nashville and San Antonio and its first intercontinental presentation in Tokyo, with additional cities soon to be announced.

“We are proud to announce that we will be presenting this spectacular exhibition in the birthplace of Disney Animation, where our studio’s first creations took shape,” Disney Animation Special Projects Producer Dorothy McKim said. “We can’t imagine a more fitting locale for this celebration of Disney animation, and the incredible artists and animators that bring these worlds to life.”

Creating iconic animated stories for all ages for nearly a century, Walt Disney Animation Studios has joined forces with North America’s top creator of experiential projection exhibitions (including The Original Immersive Van Gogh) to present the music and artistry within Disney Animation’s canon of films—from hits of today like Encanto, Zootopia and Frozen, to all of the classics including The Lion King, Peter Pan and Pinocchio.

The creative team for the Immersive Disney Animation is led by Oscar-winning producer J. Miles Dale.

"As a filmmaker, I am always seeking out ideas that can engage an audience in new and interesting ways, and to show them something that they have never seen before," Dale said. "Using the new technology that the immersive experience offers is exciting, but it’s important that it not interfere with the emotional investment that Disney fans have in the characters and storylines that audiences have come to cherish. This groundbreaking approach that Lighthouse Immersive Studios has created does exactly that by giving the viewer the sensation that they are actively sharing the space with the characters they most love from the Disney Animation library. Most of our guests have seen these films multiple times, but they tell me that they feel as though they are seeing them in an entirely new way.”

Mexico City-based Cocolab worked with Dale and the Creative Legacy team at Walt Disney Animation Studios to develop the program for Lighthouse Immersive Studios. Special Projects Producer Dorothy McKim is spearheading the project for Disney Animation.

Having been a part of Disney Animation for over 40 years, I truly consider this one of the great joys within my career, partnering with Lighthouse Immersive to bring our characters, stories and films to audiences in thrilling and new ways,” McKim said.

Additional interactive features within the projection show include responsive floor projection design that moves with the audience and custom bracelets that light up in sync with the projections and based on the audiences’ movements through the galleries.

“Just imagine journeying through Zootopia with Judy Hopps, diving to the ocean floor with Ariel, flying on a magic carpet with Aladdin, and stepping into Casita with Mirabel and the family Madrigal. This is where the Immersive Disney Animation takes you," Ross said.