Tim Landry

Preston Timothy "Tim" Landry is an American filmmaker and visual effects artist. He had a long career making magic, starting with his education at USC Film School, and those skills have served him well in a wide range of mediums. Tim Landry also served as a board member for the prestigious Visual Effects Society for many years, and had collected numerous awards ranging from the CLIO to the Emmy to multiple THEA awards for theme park work.
Tim Landry worked as a visual effects supervisor in commercials, television, and feature films, and finally many years as an employee at Walt Disney Imagineering, contributing to some of the most spectacular and complex attractions enjoyed by millions worldwide. His film credits include George of the Jungle, The Sixth Sense, Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. He also contributed to classic theme park attractions, such as The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, The Hall of Presidents, and Soaring: Fantastic Flight. His work as a Disney Imagineer can be seen in all the Disney Parks worldwide as well as the Disney Cruise Ships and Disney+. Beyond the specific projects, Tim Landry documented his experiences and challenges as well as the ups and downs of being an artist in his film Shoveling Pixie Dust: a Memoir released in 2021.
==Biography==
===Life and career===
Preston Timothy Landry was born in the army hospital in Ft. Huachuca Arizona. Following his education at the University of Southern California's vaunted film school, Tim Landry worked as a visual effects supervisor at Dream Quest Images, which was later purchased by The Walt Disney Company in 1996, subsequently renamed "The Secret Lab" in 1999, and ultimately closed down in 2001, leaving most employees of Dream Quest now unemployed, Tim Landry included. Landry took what small jobs he could get for several years, mostly compositing, matte painting, and some set supervision for projects that would be finished in another studio without him.
Early in his career, Tim Landry worked as cel painter on the short comedy Gravity (1976). He also received awards and acclaim for his innovative and ground-breaking student films Chapter 21 and Cabbages and Kings or the Dancing Princess. He then worked as a visual effects artist on projects, such as the science fiction thriller Freejack (1992) and the science fiction comedy Coneheads (1993).
After being given the title of visual/digital effects supervisor in January 1993, Tim Landry contributed to the creation of television series, such as The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. (1993), Earth 2 (1994-1995), JAG (1995-1996), Invasion (2005-2006), and Prison Break (2005) as well as to the Alien Nation television movies Millennium (1996), The Enemy Within (1996), and The Udara Legacy (1997). Landry also contributed in doing only one shot for Star Trek: The Next Generation series.
Film work includes the comic adaptation The Crow (1994, with Dariusz Wolski), the comedy Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde (1995), the television movie Moses (1995), Disney's comedy Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves (1997), the comedies George of the Jungle (1997) and My Favorite Martian (1999), the comic adaptation Inspector Gadget (1999, with Brian George), the thriller The Sixth Sense (1999), the action comedy Shanghai Noon (2000), the family adventure Snow Dogs (2002), the action comedy Bulletproof Monk (2003), the thriller Out of Time (2003), the fantasy film Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), and the family movie Charlotte's Web (2006, with Dominic Scott Kay).
===Walt Disney Imagineering===
During the time working at "The Secret Lab" under Disney, Landry became acquainted with Walt Disney Imagineering, which was trying to finish Disney California Adventure, with Landry himself assigned to creating effects for a couple of media projects for the park, including The Bakery Tour and Golden Dreams. Golden Dreams, a 70 millimeter epic showcase which gave a glossy politically correct history of California, was the first time Landry dealt with 70 millimeter film and contained the first four thousand frame composite shot that he'd ever worked on. Landry worked on CinéMagique, another 70 millimeter delivery and a loving tribute to the movies which combined live actors, theatrical effects, and film effects that ran for over forty six thousand performances at Disneyland Paris. CinéMagique became a career favorite project for director Jerry Rees, producer Tom Fitzgerald, and Landry himself serving as visual effects supervisor.
This was prior to The Secret Lab being closed down by Disney in February 2002, leaving most employees of Dream Quest now unemployed, Tim Landry included. He took what small job he could get for several years, mostly compositing, matte painting, and some set supervision for projects that would be finished in another studio without him. Some additional work included reconstructing a decimated VFX studio and several projects, but Landry ultimately found himself in freelance again, and seemed unable to land a job.
====Full-time employment====
In 2005, Landry returned to Walt Disney Imagineering for full-time employment at after initially being called in for converting the Submarine Voyage attraction at Disneyland into Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. Taking the job, Landry moved toward a career that provided opportunities to learn, have fun, and make a difference while strengthening other families and bring more joy to the world. For the submarine project, Landry would be breaking ground in technologies that he would use for the next 15 years: projection effects, using projected video and strange ways to accomplish real world illusions. Having crossed over into the theme park world rather than creating magic for the screen, Tim Landry was creating illusions in the real world, which he said was "an exhilarating and challenging new frontier." He also considered the people he got to work with at Imagineering as "often smarter, kinder, and less full of ego than their equivalents in the film business," which Landry believed he could be comfortable.
In Disneyland, Landry got to work with a group of Imagineers in a laboratory sandbox to develop new projection effects that expanded their tool set. Some of these new techniques were applied to effects that expanded their tool set. Some of these new techniques were applied to Snow White's Adventures, Alice in Wonderland, Indiana Jones, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Trader Sam's Tiki Bar. Landry also had the opportunity to contribute new effects to classics, such as The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the 2011 updated version of Star Tours. In EPCOT's Spaceship Earth, Tim Landry led a team to create a time portal depicting a group of cavemen, even directing the live actors who were playing the cavemen. Landry also got to work with legendary animator Eric Goldberg in adding Donald Duck to EPCOT's Mexico pavilion, as well as contribute frosty effects to Frozen Ever After of the Norway pavilion. In Disney's Hollywood Studios, Landry did the Journey into Narnia: Creating The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian.
In 2012, Landry helped create and install The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow, an interactive walk-in attraction featuring a special appearance from a hologram of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. As the VFX lead, Landry concocted, supervised, and created most of the special effects. He developed the wide stormy clouds animated sky element that runs throughout the attraction, which was later repurposed in other attractions, such as Beauty and the Beast in Tokyo. Landry even wrote one of the jokes that Depp delivered, "Come back in eight minutes and we'll do it all over again eh?" According to Tim Landry, the limited throughput of the 2012 attraction forced its premature closure in November 2014.The Legend of Jack Sparrow - YouTube
For the Disney Dream, Landry helped redesign some of the spaces in the ship, including children's play areas as well as the entryway and wall layouts of the Animator's Palate restaurant. Landry also created the opening and closing sequences for the Undersea Magic show as well as Animation Magic, another Jerry Rees special which became a big hit with guests. Despite being given a diagnosis and treatments to chronic lymphocytic leukemia, Landry worked on the Mystic Manor, an attraction for an expansion of Hong Kong Disneyland that referenced the Haunted Mansion. Under the leadership of Joe Lanzisero, in collaboration again with Jerry Rees, they set ambitious standards for the E-ticket attraction, laser effects, lots of mechanical and projection magic, and a finale that utilized 20 projectors and blew out a whole wall of a gallery using concepts Landry helped design. The very first image guests see as they enter the attraction depicts a fictitious 1916 opening day for the mansion, and since he was doing the artwork, Landry added himself and his wife Maureen along with a young Walt Disney and his brother Roy.
Although his supervisor recommended that he not travel because of his health, Landry contributed to five total attractions in the Shanghai Disney Resort, including Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure, a huge and completely new version of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, having developed several of the spectacular effects. However, Landry's work was overshadowed by the large dome projections of ships provided by ILM. Landry was responsible for the stockade heads effect, an animated backdrop to the sunken ships graveyard, some sky animation, the transformation of Jack Sparrow from a skeleton, and the gold to seaweed effects at the end.Shanghai Pirates of the Caribbean - YouTube 
However, due to layoffs, Disney lost many of the most experienced and knowledgeable managers who held the tribal knowledge that made Imagineering function. While Landry managed to keep his job, he struggled to get on big shows and never was allowed to head up a major team again. But despite the frustration with the new management, Landry was still having fun as an Imagineer, taking the small projects and making them look big.
===Later work===
In Disneyland Paris, Landry helped add six new effects in a whirlwind four-day installation to their budget-challenged upgrade to Peter Pan's Flight, which in Landry's opinion, came out as the best version of the three Peter Pan attractions he'd been involved in all the Disney Parks. Landry did the "C'mon everybody. Here we go!" animation which replaced a cutout, the Thames water, animation on Big Ben, the Second Star to the Right effect, all the water and waterfalls in Neverland, water with Tiger Lily, and the ride's finale waterfalls.Peter Pan Disneyland 2015 - YouTube Landry also helped add the same new climactic scene to Big Thunder Mountain in Paris that was added to Disneyland in California. In a long overdue upgrade to the Paris version of the Haunted Mansion called Phantom Manor, Landry was involved in assignments, like adding stormy skies to several scenes and animating new changing portraits for the entry hall. One of the paintings in the hallway, created by artist Greg Pro, featured a cowboy who bore a strong resemblance to Tim Landry, making him one of the 999 happy haunts that inhabit Phantom Manor.
In Tokyo Disneyland, Landry was assigned to Tokyo DisneySea's Nemo & Friends SeaRider, his fifth worldwide Finding Nemo-based attraction, in which guests get shrunk to the size of a fish to swim and play with Nemo and his friends. He worked on the pre-show where a demonstration of the shrinking process begins the experience, and contributed the shrink effect to the main simulator ride. Landry also worked on Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast, where he contributed media bits all through the attraction, though his main focuses were the "Be Our Guest" scene, the Beast's resurrection and his transformation back to the prince.
Because Landry's disease started to catch up with him in October 2018, he had to get approval from his doctor to travel and continue work on Soaring: Fantastic Flight. Landry was heavily involved in the introductory pre-show when guests arrive at Camellia Falco's (Stacia Serdig) special gallery to see her painting come to life. He supervised the creation, animation, and compositing of a computer-generated falcon into the scene, which worked out so well the falcon was put on the big screen in the ride's main show as well. Additional hints that Landry was involved in the project included the name "Timoteo Leandro" and another appearance in a portrait elsewhere in the attraction.
Of the reactions to Soaring: Fantastic Flight, Landry was most pleasantly surprised by the vast majority of guest reactions on social media online that said they were "moved to tears" by the attraction. At one point Landry got to personally stand anonymously in the attraction and observe the look of wonder on guests' faces, hear their gasps, and hear their spontaneous applause. Landry believed it didn't matter that guests had no clue who he was because he'd made a difference in people's lives that would continue with new guests every day for years to come, something Imagineers strive for.
===Retirement===
After over 15 years working at Disney theme parks throughout the world at Walt Disney Imagineering, Landry retired and created Shoveling Pixie Dust: a Memoir, a film which documented his overall career. Beyond the specific projects, Landry would speak of his personal experiences and challenges, such as facing health issues, like chronic lymphocytic leukemia, all while maintaining his faith in God. Shoveling Pixie Dust premiered in 2021 to positive reactions of audiences at film festivals.Tim Landry's "Shoveling Pixie Dust: a Memoir" - YouTube
==Filmography==
Year	Film 	Position
1997	Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves 	Matte artist: Dream Quest ImagesVisual effects supervisor
1997	George of the Jungle 	Visual effects supervisor
1998	Meet the Deedles 	Matte artist: Camelot Films, Inc.Visual effects supervisor
1999	My Favorite Martian 	Visual effects supervisor: opening sequence
1999	Inspector Gadget 	Pre-vis supervisor: DQI
2001	Golden Dreams 	Visual effects supervisor
2002	Snow Dogs 	Visual effects supervisor
2003	Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl	Visual effects supervisor: BWVFX
==Trivia==
*Landry is one of the few individuals that had worked on both Disney Parks attractions and the film franchise based on Pirates of the Caribbean.
==External links==
*TimLandry.com – official site
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*Artist and Imagineer Tim Landry
*Tim Landry's "Shoveling Pixie Dust: a Memoir" - YouTube
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*Tim Landry at LinkedIn.com
*Tim Landry on Memory Alpha
*Tim Landry on Haunted Mansion Wiki
*Tim Landry on Pirates of the Caribbean Wiki
*Tim Landry on Wookieepedia
*158. Imagineer Tim Landry on Creating Effects for Movies and Theme Parks - Tomorrow Society
==Notes and references==
Category:Males
Category:1950s births
Category:People from Arizona
Category:American people
Category:Animators
Category:Imagineers
Category:Visual development artists
Category:Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
Category:George of the Jungle
Category:Inspector Gadget
Category:My Favorite Martian
Category:Meet the Deedles
Category:Snow Dogs
Category:Tokyo Disneyland
Category:The Haunted Mansion
Category:Pirates of the Caribbean
Category:Epcot
Category:Disneyland
Category:Walt Disney World Resort
Category:Magic Kingdom
Category:Star Tours
Category:Soarin'
Category:The Hall of Presidents
Category:Walt Disney Imagineering
Category:Touchstone Pictures