Disney brings projection mapping to topiaries at the 2024 EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival

Mar 07, 2024 in "Epcot International Flower and Garden Festival"

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Projection-mapped Dante topiary

Posted: Thursday March 7, 2024 8:00am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Walt Disney Imagineers have introduced projection mapping effects for the first time at the 2024 EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival in Walt Disney World.

Projection-mapped Dante topiary

In Mexico, Disney's first-ever topiary, enhanced with special projection effects, features Miguel, from the Pixar Animation Studios film "Coco" with his great-great grandfather's guitar and Dante, in his alebrije form, flying over a marigold bridge.

Brittany Smith, Production Designer for Senior Specialty Design with Walt Disney Imagineering, explained, "Once we decided to create Dante, I immediately began testing glowing materials, like solar-charged paint, and various effects to portray his ethereal glow. During the day, Dante looks like the rest of the topiary family. As the sun begins to set, guests should start to see hints of the solar-charged paint beginning to glow. At night, Dante's glow will shine even brighter through the use of projection-mapping technology. Pushing contrast between day and night allows us to incorporate more lifelike elements into these characters, providing guests with an unexpected element of surprise in the evening."

Watch the video below to see some of the behind-the-scenes work on the new topiary.

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SoFloMagicJun 01, 2024

Prob takes a bit to get em all out. Permanent ones will probably stay I'd imagine. I don't really remember the before times

castlecake2.0Jun 01, 2024

So are they just leaving all the kiosks shuttered on display all summer?

BrianMay 22, 2024

Not exactly breaking news, but a local band called 'Legacy' is replacing 'Epic Live' in the Garden Rocks concert on 5/21 - 5/23 in case there's any fans of either out there.

ToTBellHopMar 26, 2024

Epcot is definitely beautiful during F&G.

SaucyBoyMar 26, 2024

Good morning from Epcot! I don’t know if it’s because I haven’t done Flower and Garden in four years but I think this is the prettiest I’ve seen Epcot in a long time; absolutely stunning!! And the weather today? Sublime!

CntrlFlPeteMar 14, 2024

it was a real mix of 'crowds'. Based on T-shirts, Rick Springfield brings people to the park -- public schools are out this week (at least in Polk county) -- AP block out dates start coming up in the next couple of weeks -- Spring break from other areas -- International tourism has seemed strong at Disney (my opinion) the last 8 months or so. But it was really crowded compared to what it had been since the last race weekend. For my wife, my mother-in-law, and myself, it was chicken and waffles, butterfly gardens, then home for it was a bit too much for us and it is easy for us to come back another day.

HauntedPirateMar 13, 2024

Opening day was busy, so to hear that a recent day was busier is … interesting. And telling.

Andrew25Mar 12, 2024

F&G booths haven't been busy at all outside first weekend. But the park is busy, so I'd imagine it has to do with either less disposable income (mostly from APs), or items no longer as exciting or worth trying. Lots of booths this year solely offer some sort of vegetarian option as the only item, and those have been empty. There is definitely festival fatigue at this point. Festival of the Arts was quite busy, so I think people are interested in them still... but not a new one each month lol Sooner or later they will need to incentivize guests to go in the summer... so they'll need to come up with a summer festival soon

CntrlFlPeteMar 12, 2024

We went on Monday and I would say that Spring Break is certainly happening. I would not claim that I have been to each day of the festival, but I can certainly say that Monday was the busiest we have seen Epcot during this year's F&G. We were there on opening day and the crowds on opening day where nowhere near what we saw on 3/11 (save for the queue to get into Creations on opening day).

HauntedPirateMar 11, 2024

There would be some value to that educational piece, I'd imagine. But here we are. We were there are the start and it was obviously very busy, but it's interesting to hear that crowds seem to have died off rather quickly, especially on a weekend. We'll see how things go over the next month with Spring Break ramping up quickly, I'm rather interested in hearing more boots-on-the-ground reports of crowds for F&G.

tpoly88Mar 11, 2024

There is a lot that goes into it and difficult keeping the flowers looking great in the FL Heat. I do wish they had some more of the educational aspect they used to have with workshops and teaching different techniques in gardening. i know its not really sexy but i used to like talking with the botanists about different plants and flowers. Went yesterday and the Festival seems very empty like they removed a lot of Kiosks and festival tents. Was not crowded at all yesterday given that its spring break. What few food pavilions they did have I didn't have to wait at all.