The Magic Carpet, a supporting character in Disney’s 1992 animated feature film Aladdin, works through a machine equipped with winches and tracks, functioning like a pulley system. The secret to the carpet’s flight lies in the cleverly concealed supports, designed by a theatrical illusion designer. The Magic Carpet is a sentient Persian carpet whom Aladdin befriends while traversing the Cave of Wonders.
The Magic Carpets opened on May 23, 2001, in the newly created Agrabah Bazaar (an expansion of Adventureland). The VFX supervisor reveals behind-the-scenes secrets about the magic carpet. A thousand years ago, one-hundred magic carpets were woven and enchanted by the legendary sorcerer Khuriya. When he sensed his death was imminent, he instructed his creations to scatter themselves. The carpet is attached to thin, nearly invisible wires, which are connected to fans at each corner. When the carpet “flies”, the fans rotate, making the wires hard to see, especially with the right stage lighting.
The magic carpet in Disney’s “Aladdin” flies through a marionette puppeteering system fixed above the stage. The carpet that the actors ride on during “Whole New World” is attached by strings. The carpet first appears in the near end of The Cave of Wonders stage where it serves as a mount for Aladdin to fly around before he would get down to the surface.
As “A Whole New World” plays, the actors sit on a neoprene mat with thirty-six motorized pins controlling its shape, sitting on top of a seven-axis flight simulator. The magic carpet’s flight and its role in the musical have left many people wondering and questioned how it works and fly seamlessly on its own.
📹 ALADDIN THE MUSICAL | How does Aladdin’s Magic Carpet Fly? | Official Disney UK
Would you like to explore A Whole New World using Aladdin’s magic carpet? Go behind the scenes and delve into the magic to …
📹 Magic To How The Magic Carpet Works For Aladdin The Musical
People have wondered and questioned how the Magic Carpet works and fly’s somehow seamlessly on its own with a smooth …
These are wires that spin around really fast. Think of a helicopter. When the blades spin really fast, it is almost impossible to see them from a certain angle. With wires, there are a few mounted to each corner and it spins at a high speeds in which human vision can no longer see the suspension. Also, if you look at the article, the carpet only flys in the middle area of the stage. By spinning it around through a crane-like hoist, it gives off the illusion that the carpet is moving forward and backwards. Another layer of evidence is that there is a patent online for this kind of technology. I’ve seen this show three times on broadway, and I am absolutely 1000% sure that this is how they make it fly.
This is not done by drones… Ever heard of David Copperfield? Technology that assisted David Copperfield to fly was used for this. Using drones would be highly unsafe and unreliable. You can’t see it in the article but when perusal this live, if you watch closely you can sometimes see the wires. The wires are very fine and string that spin rapidly which is why you don’t see them.
Thats still not how it works. The carpet flies with three wires on each corner that spin in a circle at a speed that allows the eye not to see it. It really is just wires. Drones would cause far too much wind and noise to be used in a production like this, especially with the actors microphones being so close to where the “drones” would be mounted.
All these whacked out spinning cables and flying drones theories are beyond absurd… have none of you ever thought about the reality of that idea? The noise would be so obvious and loud, the rolling fog on the floor would be blown all off the stage, and the actors would be dangerously close to the machinery. I cannot handle the level of stubborn naivety in some of these comments. People literally insulting others for stating they are incorrect when it’s so obvious that this proposal is beyond poorly conceived and completely impossible.
First of all it isn’t drones… there are no drones unless they are the size of a helicopter that is able to lift a human. Broadcast drones which are the size of a small round table barely have enough lift to lift the camera along with the wireless transmitters and batteries. John Gaughan was the person who invented this technique for David Copperfield which Jim Steinmeyer consulted with (who is illusionist designer fro Disney Theatricals). They are very thin steel cables that are essentially a loop which is then spun at high speeds to reflect as much light to give the appearance of them almost being invisible. With David Copperfield there is only one loop, for the magic carpet it is two loops. If you make contact with them, you’ll get a very nasty friction burn and cut. The circles in the four corners of the carpet have nothing to do with the flying. They are covers to hide the lights which up light the actors during A Whole New World so followspots don’t have to be used which then cast shadows on the star cloth behind.
Yep! It must be drones, drones that make no noise and or air turbulence, as in, blowing crap all over the stage and that are powerful enough to lift two humans!! Dude! If you believe this is drones because you cant figure it out then you probably believe the earth is flat cause it looks flat from your point of view! Hello!
People are saying wires which might be the case but if it was drones they do not take up a whole lot of air because they mostly depend on their power source to make them spin enough and they are specially designed not to take up that much air due to the fact that there is 1 in each corner. Plus this just a hypothesis.