Walt Disney Imagineering has filed a new patent that could change how you experience certain theme park attractions. Filed on February 10, 2025, the patent describes a way to make you feel like your ride vehicle is going up or down, even though the track is completely flat. Here is a simple breakdown of how it works and where it could show up.
The Basic Idea
Think about looking down a long hallway or a straight road. The sides appear to get closer together the further away they are, meeting at a single point in the distance. Your brain uses that point to figure out where you are headed.
Disney’s trick adds a second set of decorated elements alongside the ride track, but these are built at a slight angle rather than perfectly straight. That creates a second point in the distance, sitting just above or below where the real one should be. Your brain sees the two points, gets confused, and reads the gap as movement. You feel like you are climbing or dropping, even though you are not.
No screens, no motors, and no moving parts are involved. It is all done with the physical design of the set.
How the Set Is Built
The key is in how the decorations are constructed. Things that are normally flat, like floors, window ledges, stair steps, and roof edges, get built at a slight tilt instead of perfectly level. Things that normally stand straight up, like door frames, support columns, and stair railings, get built a little off vertical too.
Each change is small. But when all of these details are slightly off at once, your sense of direction shifts enough that the illusion kicks in. Since nothing is actually moving, the setup is very reliable and easy to keep running day after day.
The Angles and the Eye Trick
The patent describes the angle of the illusion as somewhere between 10 and 20 degrees off the flat path of the ride. Around 15 degrees is given as a good example. That range is enough to feel like a real slope without looking so extreme that guests see through it.
To help hide the trick, a bright or interesting prop is placed at the far end of the track to draw your eyes forward. When you focus on that, the tilted set pieces stay toward the edges of your vision where they are harder to notice. Color gradients, lighting changes, and repeating patterns that shift in size as they get further away add to the overall effect.
Could This Show Up in the Encanto Ride?
The patent does not name any attraction. But the Encanto-themed ride being built at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a reasonable guess for where it could be used.
That ride takes place inside the Madrigal family’s magical home, the Casita, and the story involves visiting different rooms and levels of the house. This illusion could make guests feel like they are moving between floors without Disney having to build an actual sloped or multi-level track. A stairway scene inside the Casita would be a natural fit.
It is worth noting that Disney files many patents that never make it into an actual attraction. Nothing is confirmed here. Still, the timing and the subject matter make it worth watching as that project gets closer to opening.
Final Thoughts
This patent is a good example of how Disney approaches ride design. Rather than spend money on moving parts, the team found a way to fool the brain using nothing more than the shape and angle of the set around you. Whether it ends up in the Encanto ride or somewhere else entirely, it is a reminder that some of the most convincing moments in a Disney attraction are created not by machines, but by a careful understanding of how we see the world.
Written by
Rachel Van Norman
Contributing Writer
Rachel fell deeply in love with all things Disney as a little girl. Now as a wife and a mother herself, she shares this Disney obsession with her son and everyone around her. From her love of princesses to eating all the Disney food, Rachel spends her time radiating Disney magic and keeping everyone up to date on Disney news.
