Tony Wayne Baxter is a Disney Legend Imagineer and was former senior vice president of creative development in Walt Disney Imagineering. He was highly involved in the development of Disneyland Paris as executive producer, as well as the remodels of Fantasyland of 1983 and Tomorrowland of 1998 in Disneyland Park.
Notable attractions and areas which Baxter had a hand in developing have included Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Star Tours, The Indiana Jones Adventure, Journey Into Imagination, updating the Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, Splash Mountain, and was a creative consultant Splash Mountain's successor attraction Tiana's Bayou Adventure. Tony Baxter additionally conceived of the unbuilt Disneyland expansion Discovery Bay.
Tributes[]
Barnabas T. Bullion
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad: The logo for the Big Thunder Mining Company is modified from the initials TWB or "Tony Wayne Baxter" (albeit with the W flipped into an M). The evil Big Thunder Mining Company owner Barnabas T. Bullion is modelled after Tony Baxter. In the queue for the Magic Kingdom's Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Barnabas T. Bullion's relative who T.W. Bullion's name is likewise a tribute to Tony Baxter's initials. Also in this version of the attraction's queue is paper identifying the train breaks were patented by T.W. Baxter.
- Main Street, U.S.A.: In Disneyland's Main Street above the Magic Shop is the window "Main Street Marvels Tony Baxter, Inventor Imagination is at the heart of our Creations".
- Star Tours: The Adventures Continue: The code " TWB3000" appears in the queue, referencing Tony Wayne Baxter's initials as well as the serial ID of the cruiser in the original Star Tours attraction.[1]
- Tiana's Bayou Adventure: One of the employees of Tiana's Foods is named "Tony".
Trivia[]
- Tony Baxter had initially wanted the IP re-theme of Submarine Voyage to be based on Atlantis: The Lost Empire rather than Finding Nemo.
- The land which Baxter had planned for Discovery Bay was instead used for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.
- During development of Disney Kingdoms; Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Tony Baxter said that he didn't like his likeness being used for the villainous Barnabas T. Bullion. It should also be noted that the 2013 backstory expansion of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad referenced but did not follow Baxter's backstory for the attraction, used Bullion to replace Baxter's character Henry Ravenswood, and later imagineers would attempt to retcon Baxter's backstory for the attraction while still referencing its locations, story beats and characters.