Disney Toy Story Zoetrope at Hong Kong Disneyland

When In Manila, you need to fly over to Hong Kong and check out the coolest gadgets and gizmos a plenty!

In case you didn’t know yet, I’m one of the biggest geeks out there! And though Space Mountain, the Jungle River Cruise or even the Disney Fireworks Show may be crowd favorites at Hong Kong Disney, one of my personal “super likes” there was the Zoetrope!

The coolest thing EVAR!!! The Disney Toy Story Zeotrope. Pretty much an animated statue illusion thingy at Disneyland Hong Kong.

A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of action from a rapid succession of static pictures. The term zoetrope is from the Greek words “zoe”, “life” and τρόπος – tropos, “turn”. It may be taken to mean “wheel of life”.

It consists of a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides. Beneath the slits on the inner surface of the cylinder is a band which has either individual frames from a video/film or images from a set of sequenced drawings or photographs. As the cylinder spins the user looks through the slits at the pictures on the opposite side of the cylinder’s interior. The scanning of the slits keeps the pictures from simply blurring together so that the user sees a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion, the equivalent of a motion picture. Cylindrical zoetropes have the property of causing the images to appear thinner than their actual sizes when viewed in motion through the slits.

Oh and did I mention how much I liked watching that Toy Story Zoetrope?!?!? But do note that the video I took is in no way a proper justification of seeing this in person! The video didn’t quite catch the coolness and essence of the Toy Story Zoetrope.

Of course, the Zoetrope at Disneland Hong Kong is extra special, not only because it has your favorite characters from the Toy Story movie, but also because the “images” that usually make a Zoetrope are actually statues or action figures that are made to move seemingly in 3D (but better).

Anyway, I ended up watching the Disneyland Toy Story Zoetrope go round and round, over and over again. I think I watched it like five times and still laughed like a kid every time.

You can find the Toy Story Zoetrope by the Main Street area of Hong Kong Disneyland, at the “Art of Animation” theater way over across the City Hall right when you enter the Disneyland Park. Be sure to stop by there as many of my friends overlook this!

Oh and it’s also really cool to stop by the Art of Animation theater as you’ll see many different sketches and early animations from your favorite Disney movies. It’s a celebration of Disney and Pixar animation with the Toy Story Zoetrope as the highlight! Pretty much, don’t miss this!

When In Manila…. I mean…. When In Disneyland Hong Kong, be sure to check out the cool animated illusion of the Toy Story Zoetrope at the “Art of Animation” theater in the Disneyland Park.