Disney Patent Could Be a Perfect Fit for the Encanto Ride

A Walt Disney Imagineering patent application from February 2025 was published today. And with D23’s Experiences Showcase happening Saturday night, the timing couldn’t have been more perfect.

The patent, titled “Elevation Change Illusion Through Set Design,” describes a ride system that could be a perfect fit for the Casita in Animal Kingdom’s upcoming Tropical Americas land. The filing’s abstract describes an attraction that makes riders feel as if they’re traveling up or down through a multi-story building, even as their vehicle moves along a flat track.

That illusion is created by manipulating the architecture around riders, changing their sense of what is level.

Making a flat track feel like a climb

The concept centers around forced perspective, something Imagineers have embraced for decades. If you’ve ever walked down Main Street, U.S.A., marveled at Cinderella Castle, or taken in Pandora’s Floating Mountains, you’ve experienced forced perspective.

In a nutshell, it’s an optical illusion that makes something appear larger, smaller, farther away, closer, higher, or lower than it really is by manipulating scale, angles, and lines of sight.

It allows Imagineers to create enormous vertical scale without requiring a ride vehicle to actually travel several stories. Imagine how big the already massive Encanto show building would need to be if ride vehicles had to traverse multiple levels. This patent alleviates that need.

In this case, Disney is messing with the straight lines we expect to see in most architecture. The ride vehicle can travel on a flat track, while the scenery is skewed just enough to trick the brain into thinking it’s ascending or descending. Set pieces can be positioned at unusual angles relative to the ride vehicle, creating a second vanishing point above or below the normal horizon. As riders move through the scene, their surroundings make it appear that the vehicle is climbing or descending even though the track isn’t.

Once the climb is complete, the set pieces can gradually return to a normal orientation, ending the illusion.

Imagineers have other tools in their arsenal. Repeating patterns can add to the illusion by getting progressively smaller in the distance. Lighting and paint can draw the eye exactly where ride designers want it to go. And let’s not forget the ride vehicle itself, which can pitch, roll, or yaw to reinforce the illusion.

The particularly interesting part is that the core illusion doesn’t require giant moving sets or projection screens. Disney says the technique can create the sensation of elevation change through geometry and forced perspective, although projection, wind, sound, and other effects could certainly be added.

Like I said, this sounds perfect for a ride that will take us inside the Casita, just after Antonio has received his gift and his room has transformed into a rainforest.

We’ve seen how convincing the illusion can be

Universal Orlando already has what I consider the gold standard for attractions that convince you a ride vehicle is doing far more than it actually is.

The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man at Islands of Adventure and TRANSFORMERS: The Ride-3D at Universal Studios Florida set the standard for making guests feel as though they’re rising and falling far more than they actually are. But those rides aren’t doing exactly what’s described in this patent. They accomplish much of that illusion by synchronizing physical ride vehicle movement with massive projected environments. Rise of the Resistance does a little of that as well.

This patent is different. It’s all about manipulating physical scenery and forced perspective.

So here’s the caveat. This might not be for Tropical Americas or any other attraction currently in production. But a patent for a ride system that makes riders believe they’re traveling between the stories of a building, published while Imagineering is developing a ride that takes us inside Casa Madrigal? This feels like something.

Hopefully, Neil Patrick Harris will let us know we’re right during the Horizons: A Carousel of Progress Disney Experiences showcase on Saturday night.

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