Oogie Boogie Bash!

Disney California Adventure Seasonal Overlay

In 2017, Disneyland’s Halloween Party moved to Disney California Adventure. In the initial opening year, our art director pitched a very comprehensive concept that would make a big statement that this was the place to be on Halloween! Ooggie Boogies Bash was born!

That pitch included a big entry statement, re-lighting the parade route, “something special” on Carthay Circle and a complete Carsland overlay.

Part of my job was to convert the Oogie Boogie bat tree concept art into reality for the entry statement and to create the vignette of flying bats escaping the Carthay Circle tower. I was also responsible for tracking and supporting staff graphic designers and contract designers on the creation of custom scary movie posters for Carsland and development of a banner program on Buena Vista Street.

For the park entry’s Oogie Boogie vignette, I first came up with a structural concept based on birds’ wings to run past the Disneyland Structural Engineers and outside vendors as proof of concept. Establishing scale worked out to be 70 feet wide and 28 feet tall, and the moon was 24 feet in diameter The perfect grand entrance to set the mood for our Guests!

A full SketchUp model was required for the Carthay Circle tower bats in order to get the right density of bats so that they look like they were swarming out of the tower. From there, I determined we could use 3 bat shapes for the final design to hide all the structural support. This simplified the fabrication and allowed for flexibility.

Coordination with engineers inside and outside of Disney was paramount for the final attachment details as new structure had to be incorporated into existing facilities.

In the end, the Oogie Boogie was a resounding success both for our guests and for the company.

Coordination • Graphic Design • Vendor Contract Documentation Management • Fabrication Art Direction, Supervision and Installation