3 questions for a Walt Disney Imagineer about why Disneyland is a 'living, breathing thing' that changes with the times

Jeanette Lomboy has the kind of job that never fails to start conversations: Walt Disney Imagineer. Those are the wizards tasked with making Disneyland — and the many other Disney parks that pepper the globe, from Paris to Shanghai — the most magical places on Earth.

"I make friends all over the world," Lomboy tells Yahoo Entertainment. "Every time I tell someone that I get to create rides for Disneyland, it's a great way to break the ice."

Once upon a time, of course, no one knew who or what an "Imagineer" was. In Walt Disney's day, the people who designed and built attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean and Space Mountain were largely anonymous to the world at large. Nowadays, though, the company is more open about revealing the mixture of art and science that goes into creating that specific brand of Disney magic through in-depth books and streaming series like Behind the Attraction.

Lomboy is among the Imagineers featured in the show — currently in its second season on Disney+ — and relishes the opportunity to speak directly to the next generation. "When I was a little girl, I didn't even know Imagineers existed," she explains. "And now, one of my greatest joys is getting fan letters from kids who love all of this. One of the most touching was from a little girl who saw the first season of Behind the Attraction. She found me online and sent over a photo of her with a construction hat on and wrote: 'I didn't realize I could build rides, and I can't wait to be just like you someday.'"

One of the responsibilities that comes with being an Imagineer is ensuring that the Disney parks change with the times... even when some of those changes attract controversy. In a candid conversation, Lomboy reflected on the dual responsibilty of honoring Disneyland's past while always looking towards the future.

1. The Pirates of the Caribbean episode points out some of the ways that ride has changed over the years. And the Disney parks in general are generational experiences, which sometimes results in generation gaps. How do you balance pleasing young parkgoers who are creating new memories with older ones that are trying to relive their memories?

Well, Disneyland has been around for almost 70 years — and, by the way, Walt Disney never said that it was complete on opening day! He always said that it was a living, breathing thing that was constantly going to change. That's exactly what we've been doing while still remembering who we are and the legacy of what it meant when Walt said, "Let's create a place that's about dreams and making dreams come true." That's true today almost 70 years later, and it will be true in another 70 years, even if Disneyland might look different than it does today.

Pirates of the Caribbean is my all-time favorite attraction. But when I was a little girl, there was no Jack Sparrow! So my [childhood] version of Pirates of the Caribbean is different from what you see today. And that's not bad — it's just different. My children have no idea what the ride was like without Jack Sparrow. We've seamlessly integrated the evolution by putting characters from the film property into a ride that's 60 years old. On the flip side, we have a version of Pirates of the Caribbean at Shanghai Disneyland that is one-hundred percent focused on the film, with some nods to the original attraction. They can live at the same time and in different parts of the world while still sharing the DNA of what makes the attraction great.

For the little girl whose first memory of Disneyland was being on Pirates of the Caribbean with my grandfather, it's humbling to know that I had the opportunity to include the first female pirates at Disneyland. And to know from here on out that every generation of children and little girls to come will know that there are female pirates in Pirates of the Caribbean is so gratifying. It's why we do this job: It's a love letter to our own pasts and the Imagineers that came before us, as well as a reminder for all the Imagineers to come who will help evolve the story and make it better someday soon in the future.

2. Splash Mountain recently underwent an extensive renovation that will make it a Princess and the Frog-themed ride. That followed a Change.org petition that criticized the previous Song of the South-related imagery. Do you listen to parkgoers when they say, "We're ready for a change." Or were those discussions already underway internally?

We have Imagineers all over the world who are in the parks everyday and they are fans, as well as guests. We're the torchbearers of the guest experience and we take things every seriously anytime we make a change. It can be as simple as a bench: You might want to move a bench or take it out, but I can promise you that at any one of our parks, there's a couple who proposed on that bench or children who took their first step by that bench. And those memories are crystalized for a lifetime. So whenever we make a change, we do it because we're committed to what Walt said about Disneyland being a living, breathing thing that changes and brings things back even better than they were before.

I was personally part of the change when The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror became Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout [in 2017] at California Adventure. We underwent a similar amount of concern about being able to change a beloved attraction into one that people had never seen before. It was a wonderful challenge to say, "I think we can do this better." We brought back great characters that are funny and humorous, and paired thrills with humor and music. I'm biased perhaps, but as a fan of Disney parks, I personally think what we brought back was better. That's what we always strive to do when we look at anything in our parks.

3. Epcot has evolved in such an interesting way. Where do you see that park going in the future?

I still remember the first time I went to Epcot! I was probably 10 years old, and it seemed so big and so different from my home park, which was Disneyland. At that time, we didn't even have California Adventure! But I still think that sense of discovery and understanding in the future is very much a part of Epcot's DNA. One of the things that I love is that we have taken the spirit of the World Showcase — this global community and [a place] for our guests to experience parts of the world that they may never go to — and integrate Disney stories and characters in a really smart way.

Like putting Ratatouille in France is brilliant, right? You can go to the France pavilion at Epcot and have the most amazing French pastries and then go see the Ratatouille characters, and it all fits within that setting. And, by the way, Ratatouille was based on the real French experience — that's what the film's inspiration was. We've had some attractions and rides at Epcot, but never on the scale of Ratatouille. So I think when we're smart about how we can integrate the stories we tell and the research we do, it all comes together in a seamless way. That's what you're seeing playing out in the evolution of Epcot.

Behind the Attraction is currently streaming on Disney+