Disney's Mickey Mensa Club

It's nearly 7 p.m. on Friday. But Bran Ferren, Walt Disney genius-in-residence, is wandering the halls of a nondescript building in Glendale, Calif. He isn't eager to unwind for the weekend. He's still savoring the visions that crystallized during the day. "What we are really doing here," he says, "is finding new ways to do a very old thing--and that's to tell a story."

Disney has been honing its storytelling art for decades. The company virtually invented the recipe for entertainment that delights both the young and the young at heart. Now, the challenge is to find ways to apply that formula to tomorrow's high-tech entertainment--and keep the profits rolling in. That's the job of Disney Imagineering, where Ferren is president of research and development.