What is The Optimist?

What or who is The Optimist?  Well, if you have been looking at various Disney websites lately, you will know that this is a new alternative reality game (ARG) that Disney has launched as we get closer to the D23 Expo in August.  This ARG began with a young woman named Amelia, who has found some of her grandfather, Carlos’, documents as she was going through some of his belongings after his death.  Among these documents are lots of letters, photos, and other correspondence that link Carlos to the 1964-1965 World’s Fair, especially the It’s a Small World attraction.  Amelia knows that Carlos was a writer and that Disney was interesting one of his works called “Orbit’s Story.”  We do not have a clue as to the plot of this story yet. There have been other links to the fair as well.  In particular, there is a website for a Michael T. Lott, who also “worked” at the fair.  You can actually correspond with the websites and call the phone numbers to hear from the people involved in the various projects upon which Carlos was supposed to have worked.  There are many nods to Disney history past and present, and it has been great fun to discover what the next step in the game will be.  There is a mystery surrounding the game because there are different codes and secret project names that we do not know yet.  Once we know the secret codes, then more information will be learned, and we will be closer to figuring out what Carlos’ link to Disney and the Fair was. 

This game is fun because all of the players are just fellow Disney history nerds like myself who enjoy researching the potential leads that will help to discover what Carlos was up to.  It is fun to stay in character and really play along.  For example, the reference to M.T. Lott is actually not a real company; it was a dummy corporation that Walt Disney set up in order to buy the land that was needed for the Florida Project.  There are lots of anachronisms in the game too, but it is more fun to play the game and solve the mystery than point out the flaws.  All in all, I think that this game is leading up to marketing for the new Brad Bird Tomorrowland movie that will hit theaters in 2014.  If that is the case, this is a great advertising strategy because it lets people get excited and have fun researching Disney’s past.  I can’t wait to see what new twists are thrown at us as the game continues.  So, if you are interested, you can go to http://storyorbit.com/ in order to check out the game so far.  Until next time, have a magical day, and keep moving forward!

From Walt Disney Imagineering:

The worlds of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy were only the beginning...

Walter Elias Disney was an optimist who believed in creating a living blueprint for the future. He and his Imagineers - those creative and skilled professional wizards who combine imagination and engineering - made fantasy into reality and built the magic of the Disney Theme Parks.

But, what if that was just the beginning?  Amelia, a young filmmaker, has stumbled upon a revolutionary secret...and she needs your help. Collaborate with other curious individuals around the globe to solve a mystery that traverses the web, Disneyland® Park, and beyond before culminating at the D23 Expo.

Join Amelia and explore Walt Disney’s secrets of Tomorrow…