A few weeks ago, Disneyland fans were in a bit of an uproar over the discovery that AI-generated artwork from Redbubble was hanging prominently in the new Haunted Mansion gift shop. We now have an explanation about the art in Madame Leota’s Somewhere Beyond.
After the internet caught on, the Redbubble artwork was removed from the gift shop, but many asked, “How did this happen?”
Now we have an answer!
We got an answer during an LA Times interview with Kim Irvine, Executive Creative Director of Walt Disney Imagineering.
Irvine stressed that the piece was only to be used temporarily. They were still getting pieces in and it was a placeholder, saying,
“They felt like it would be appropriate for a short time until they could put something else in,” Irvine says of the ill-fated art. “They never intended to do anything bad, and it is gone now. We’re going to bring something back in that is hand-painted, like all of these other pieces are.”
She was very surprised that fans caught it at all, saying,
“How they can find one thing out of all this cool stuff…”
According to Irvine the new gift shop was in the works for ten years! She also admits the size of the shop is small, which led to problems when trying to cram it all in,
“To shoehorn anything into tiny Disneyland is really hard,” Irvine says, adding, “a lot of people in merchandising would have preferred it was bigger.”
The goal seems to be to create as much of it in-house as possible, but Imagineers will use items from other locations if it fits the project.
For example, the new garden area has some pieces they procured from other vendors, like the sleeping lions that were acquired from a Chicago company or the two griffins, which came from a marble shop in Alhambra. Other “mystical” items were found in area antique shops.
If it fits, then what is the difference if they created it in-house or gave work to others?
The bigger issue was the AI painting, but we have an answer as to why that was added. I give her credit for being open and honest about it.
What do you think? Comment and let us know!
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