Progress City, U.S.A.

A saw a story yesterday that made me realize that there have been a lot of little bits and pieces of news trickling out lately about new attractions that are coming to some of the less-covered Disney parks overseas. These developments don’t tend to get the coverage that new American attractions receive, so I thought that I’d summarize them here.

Now, I know I’ve been a bit of a Debbie Downer lately, what with all the disappointing shenanigans at Feature Animation and Parks & Resorts, but I’m afraid that won’t be turned around by these projects. One can pretty much guarantee that any new project at Tokyo Disneyland will be top notch due to the incredibly high levels of quality and service that the Oriental Land Company manages to achieve, but even they’re getting stuck with some new attractions that are less than… inspiring. But let’s take a look:

Concept art for Fantasmic! at Tokyo DisneySea (Disney)

The most recent announcement came a couple of days ago when the Oriental Land Company announced that it would be replacing its current night-time water show BraviSEAmo! with the similarly punctuated Fantasmic! The new show will debut in April 2011 as part of the celebrations surrounding Tokyo DisneySea’s 10th Anniversary, which is on September 4th of that year.

This might seem underwhelming to Disney fans, who might already have seen Fantasmic! in either California (where it’s played since 1992) or Florida (where it debuted in 1998). Thankfully we can hope for a little of that OLC magic (and their roughly $33.5 million investment) to update the twenty-minute show, as the announcement promises scenes from Aladdin, Cinderella and Finding Nemo. One can expect some new staging, too, on the waters of the park’s Mediterranean Harbor area. The concept art above shows Mickey atop some kind of ziggurat rising out of the water, and it seems apparent that the setup of the show will accommodate the larger lagoon.

BraviSEAmo! will perform its last show on November 13th, 2010, and preparation for Fantasmic! will begin soon after. While it might seem sacrilegious in Disney circles, I really am not a fan of Fantasmic!. In fact, I kinda hate it; it’s just not my thing (save for the giant MechaMaleficent). But hopefully the OLC will pull out all the stops to make it worthwhile. After all, their live shows typically tend to blow the offerings in the American parks completely out of the water.

Of course, DisneySea has been paying the price lately for its decade of awesomeness by receiving a string of cast-offs from other parks. Last year they got Turtle Talk with Crush, which fits beautifully with the 1930s ambiance of the American Waterfront area and the stylish S.S. Columbia. The American Waterfront will be the site of DisneySea’s next expansion, arriving in 2012. We’ve talked about this one before – behold:

Eeeeeehh… (Disney)

Toy Story Mania! (what’s up with all the exclamation points?) will be added to the New York area of the American Waterfront. Hopefully its budget of $129 million will lead to a little plussing.

Now.

Over at Tokyo Disneyland proper, there are a few new attractions on the way. The park, of course, has recently received the massively popular Monsters, Inc. dark ride. While unannounced, it also seems certain that the park will be receiving the upgrades to Star Tours that are on the way to parks stateside. In 2011, Mickey’s Philharmagic will be added in Fantasyland. While that’s perfectly reasonable, it naturally makes me sad because it necessitated the loss of the legendary Mickey Mouse Revue which I will now never be able to see in person. Between the Revue and Meet the World, replaced itself by Monsters, Inc., Tokyo Disneyland was a haven for attractions that should exist at Walt Disney World and I always hoped to see them myself.

Anyway.

Another attraction I’d always wanted to see at Tokyo Disneyland was the Cinderella Castle Mystery Tour, a walkthrough attraction that took guests through the bowels of the park’s iconic castle. This attraction has to be one of the most truly bizarre in Disney park history, leading guests through a series of encounters with various villains to a final confrontation with the Horned King from The Black Cauldron as he tries to raise an army of the damned.

So, yeah. I kinda hated to miss that one. It sounded insane, it was the sole attraction ever to reference The Black Cauldron, and it furthered my inferiority complex about the Magic Kingdom having the only one of the first four Disney castles to not have an attraction of its own. But the Mystery Tour closed in 2006, without replacement. Until now.

Now, I understand the closing of the old attraction and I understand the desire to make the new walk-through, which opens in 2011, focus specifically on Cinderella. After all, it’s her castle. And if we’re embarking on a brave new world of endless princess meet-and-greet interactive experiences, this would be a reasonable place for one. But I want you to take a moment and absorb the piece of concept art that was released to accompany the press release announcing this attraction. This wasn’t released as part of a sequence of renderings, or to emphasize one specific aspect of the project. This was, and as far as I can tell still is, the only piece of artwork that has been released to promote this new attraction. Can you tell I’m really wanting to build this up? So much that I’m going to put a page break below to make you click through to see?

Drum roll, please – gentlemen, behold!

(more…)

Oh for the love of…

ARE YOU EVEN TRYING ANYMORE??

New Tokyo DisneySea Attraction: Toy Story Mania!
Based on the Disney-Pixar Toy Story film series, Toy Story Mania! is an interactive ride attraction through the world of Woody, Jessie and other toys from the films. Guests board the ride vehicle and, wearing 3-D glasses, take aim at virtual targets in a series of fun and exciting games featuring 3-D images.

Attraction Facts
Opening date: 2012 (tentative)
Location: New York area of American Waterfront

COME ON!!

Feel the flow, here we go…

What better way to clear out my bookmarks than to start out with a nearly year-old post from Passport to Dreams Old & New? When Foxx originally posted this piece about the new souvenir guidebooks at Walt Disney World, I was excited to hear about the possibility of a return to the classy park guides of old. Sure as the world, I was able to pick these up in March and they’re a vast improvement over recent guides. And, as Foxx says, the fact that they’re not hardcover or printed on high-quality paper is offset buy their shockingly reasonable price. Big applause to author Jody Revenson, designer Steven Rosen and editor Wendy Lefkon.

Disney & Siemens team up to keep us safe.

Disney fans have long bemoaned the lack of merchandise for characters outside of the company’s mainstream. Thankfully, the folks at Electric Tiki have stepped up and obtained a license to produce figures, maquettes and statues of fan-favorite Disney properties. Early releases will include Darkwing Duck, Roger & Jessica Rabbit, maquettes based on Mary Blair’s Alice in Wonderland designs, the Rescue Rangers and – yay – the Rocketeer.

At last – a nice explanation of what, exactly, the deal is with the mysterious Bonnet Creek Resort.

The Financial Times has lunch with John Lasseter, featuring some interesting discussion of his 1983 firing from Disney. Why don’t I ever have lunch with John Lasseter?

Here’s a photo update from last month with some news regarding expansion at Disneyland Paris.

Word leaked last month that, considering Detroit’s current woes, General Motors might be unable to come to suitable terms to extend their sponsorship of Test Track. Their most recent ten-year sponsorship contract was set to expire at the end of March. A spokesperson for GM admitted in March that talks were still underway, and that the company very much wanted to continue the deal, but with the company’s financial future imperiled it might be difficult to explain the roughly $5 million annual fee to Congress.

Sources from Toyota admitted to the Orlando Sentinel that they have had internal discussions on whether to enter into sponsorship talks for the attraction, but as of March further speculation would be premature. It’s assumed that if a new company took over the attraction that, much like Siemens did with Spaceship Earth, they would want to put their own stamp on the pavilion. As I’m not much of a Test Track fan, I’m pretty much of the opinion that anything they’d want to do would be an improvement. Nothing against GM, but this is one rumor that I hope has legs.

You must read this. I wish it was mandatory reading at Team Disney.

Mickey’s Philharmagic will open at Tokyo Disneyland in 2011. While this is understandable, I will mourn their loss of the Mickey Mouse Revue. That and Meet the World were two treats that I was always excited about someday seeing in Tokyo.

More from Passport to Dreams – this time about Tomorrowland. There are interesting ideas here, and this is something I’ve written about myself. WDI needs to decide what Tomorrowland is going to be.

A great resource: Theme Park Paper.

What the?!

And so we continue…

#5 – Rethink Tomorrowland

Welcome to… THE FUTURE!!!

I realize that most of my discussions so far have involved the Walt Disney World resort, as that is my main area of concern. This item, however, applies equally to all the Magic Kingdom parks worldwide and is an issue that should be addressed and coordinated at the top levels of Imagineering to ensure the best possible consistency of vision across all the parks. There’s trouble in Tomorrowland – all Tomorrowlands, actually – and something needs to be done to rectify the situation.

It seems to be some strange quirk of history that Tomorrowland is the area of each new park to receive short shrift. With both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, Tomorrowland was barely functional on opening day. In both cases, Tomorrowland was the last area of the park to be built and seemed to suffer from the rush to opening day and the scarcity of funds due to cost overruns elsewhere. Walt Disney World fans might be shocked to see pictures of Tomorrowland from 1971 – not only was there no Space Mountain or Carousel of Progress, but no Astro Jets tower or WEDway station either. The land essentially ended right past where Stitch’s Great Escape is today. Disneyland’s situation was equally dire – with the madcap rush to have things functional for opening day, Imagineers hustled to cram in sponsored exhibits and “attractions” such as the “Clock of the World” and the “Bathroom of the Future” just so guests would have something at which to look.

Some of our theme park is missing: The Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland in 1972 (Photo from AllEars.Net)

So unsatisfactory was Disneyland’s Tomorrowland to Walt’s exacting standards, it received a massive expansion in 1959 and a complete overhaul in 1967. Sadly, as I mentioned recently, this 1967 “New” Tomorrowland remains the greatest realization of the concept to date. Walt Disney World’s Tomorrowland, while larger, was missing certain attractions and was never as thematically consistent (as wonderful as it was, If You Had Wings was no Adventures Thru Inner Space, thematically speaking). Tokyo Disneyland received a stripped-down clone of Walt Disney World’s Tomorrowland, missing the critical element of motion created by the PeopleMover track.

When Imagineers created Disneyland Paris, they attempted to avoid the pitfalls of having to update the area for the sake of modernity by re-thinking the land from the viewpoint of Victorian and Edwardian futurists such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. The result, dubbed “Discoveryland” and owing a great deal to Disneyland’s abandoned Discovery Bay concept, was well-realized but suffered from a lack of later expansion and, again, missed that “second level” effect provided by a PeopleMover track, monorail or skyway. Hong Kong Disneyland took a fantastical approach to Tomorrowland as well, with a neon-heavy retro-cartoony feel akin to Walt Disney World’s 1994 Tomorrowland remodel which transformed that land into a Buck Rogers-inspired, neon future-deco “future that never was”.

The glowy science-fantasy future of Hong Kong Disneyland

Tomorrowland’s drift from science-fact to science-fantasy, and from attempting to provide a window into humanity’s future to relying on character-heavy franchise tie-ins, shows that no one can really get a handle on what this land should be. The fact that the concept of Tomorrowland has become increasingly jumbled since 1967 shows how much the company depended on Walt to drive innovation and push for consistent upgrades. Walt Disney died before 1967’s Tomorrowland officially opened, and without his unifying vision and willpower the same lack of purpose that led to the eventual abandonment of the EPCOT city project in Florida also led to the abandonment of Tomorrowland as a constantly-changing vision of the future. This is easily illustrated by the quantum leaps in design, technology and scope that occurred in the twelve-year span between Disneyland’s opening in 1955 and the New Tomorrowland of 1967. That decade saw numerous changes in Tomorrowland, and ended in a complete rebuilding of the area. Compare that to the current day, when it’s been a full fifteen years since the opening of Walt Disney World’s Tomorrowland of 1994; many of the original plans for that renovation were never even realized, and the only changes since have come in the form of new, low-budget cartoon-based attractions.

The High Water Mark: Disneyland’s New Tomorrowland, 1967

These new attractions, built to capitalize on popular characters from Disney (and especially Pixar) films, have often been criticized for turning Tomorrowland into “Fantasyland East”. Bringing characters from Toy Story, Lilo and Stitch, and – most egregiously – Monsters Inc. into Tomorrowland destroys all pretense of attempting to create a coherent theme of futurism. Moreover, these attractions tend to be franchised and retro-fitted into other parks, leading to thematic non-sequiturs such as Buzz Lightyear inhabiting the Vernian steampunk future of the Parisian Tomorrowland.

Then there’s the original Tomorrowland – that wonderful Californian vision of the future from 1967. It was, in great part, destroyed a decade ago to make way for the now-infamous Tomorrowland ‘98. Culled from a variety of stylistic sources, including the Parisian futurism of Jules Verne, the golden age sci-fi stylings of Florida’s park, Eisner’s obsession with “Montana future”, and precious little from the original Imagineering plan for re-design called “Tomorrowland 2055″, the Tomorrowland of 1998 was a disaster upon opening and remains widely loathed today. Several attractions closed to make way for the remodeling, and were replaced mostly with shops and restaurants. The centerpiece of the new land, the Rocket Rods, took the place of the PeopleMover but was soon forced to close because a lack of funding led to shortcuts in its construction which rendered it prone to breakdowns and eventually inoperable. Thus Disneyland’s once-vibrant Tomorrowland sits desolate, with an empty PeopleMover track and a net loss of attractions.

This is the situation we find ourselves in, and no matter how it happened it needs to be turned around. Disney needs to devote the effort and, most importantly, the funding to take care of this situation not only in one specific park but in all five of its resorts. There needs to be coordination at the highest levels to determine a specific theme and purpose for each individual Tomorrowland, and a concerted program to fully fund and construct each individual concept as quickly as possible. Tomorrowland is a mess, and Disney has pussy-footed around the issue for years. It’s time to fix it. My suggestions:

Disneyland

The rusty, rocky future of 1998

The first and once-greatest Tomorrowland is, strangely, the most in need of immediate attention. Some elements of Tomorrowland ’98 have been removed or painted over, but many unpleasant vestiges remain. The 1998 remodeling was a half-hearted effort that attempted to cheaply put a Discoveryland veneer over the original 1967-era Populuxe infrastructure, and the result was a chimerical disaster.

The greatest amount of damage that was done to Tomorrowland’s infrastructure resulted from the Astro Jets being removed from their location atop the WEDway station and being relocated as a new spinner ride amongst Eisner’s “Montana future” rockwork at the land’s entrance. Not only did this ruin the thrill of the Astro Jets and remove the land’s traditional “weenie”, but it also provided a massive hindrance to traffic flow between Tomorrowland and the Hub. Job one for any Tomorrowland refurbishment should be returning the Astro Jets to their proper place atop the WEDway station and doing any necessary refurbishment work required to get both the Jets and the WEDway operating again.

The dominant rumor at the moment is that as soon as the economic crisis eases up and the corporate offices release the purse-strings, Tomorrowland will be the first area of Disneyland to receive attention. The Imagineers are well aware of the land’s current unfulfilled promise and now that John Lasseter has influence at the highest levels, the creative neglect of the Eisner years should come to an end. Imagineer Tony Baxter, it is said, has a plan. How soon that plan is revealed is anyone’s guess.

My opinion is that they should return Disneyland’s Tomorrowland to its roots – a real-life exploration of science and technology with an eye towards humanity’s future. While I’ll admit that a return to its kitschy Populuxe roots would be highly enjoyable – Saturn V and all – I think the concept of 1967’s Tomorrowland could easily be updated for the modern age. Space travel is no more of an everyday event for the average person than it was then; NASA’s planned Ares-series rockets – intended to return us to the moon and later take us to Mars – provide a nice analogue to the Apollo age of the 1960s. Issues with transportation are just as relevant as they were then, and science has learned a lot about what fills that “inner space” that we once were able to explore at Disneyland.

Disneyland’s Tomorrowland should be sleek, modern, and relevant. It should look forward, not backward or sideways. There’s room for the whimsical and fantastical – we know of many fantastic abandoned concepts from the past and who knows what WDI can come up with to revisit futuristic themes with modern technology.

Walt Disney World

While I’m usually of the opinion that Tomorrowland should reflect and expand on its original intent, I’m willing to cut some slack in Florida. The Orlando resort is blessed by EPCOT Center, which gives Disney the opportunity to explore the ideas that Tomorrowland was created to espouse, but in a much larger scope. EPCOT has (or, rather, should have) the actual future covered, so that gives Tomorrowland a little room for zaniness.

That doesn’t mean it should be a free-for-all. Monsters, Inc. has got to go. Thankfully, its simple construction should mean that it’d be easily to pluck it out of Tomorrowland and remove it to Hollywood Studios’ Pixar Place, where it’s somewhat thematically relevant and hurts no one. Stitch’s Great Escape has to go – mostly because it’s awful – and as we already have one Toy Story-themed shooter at the Studios I think that gives us free reign to re-think Buzz Lightyear.

So, where to start? First, pick a theme. I really don’t mind the whole Buck Rogers 1930s future angle, but it needs to continue all the way through the land. Compare the area leading from the Tea Cups down past the Speedway to Rockettower Plaza – you can almost see the seam where the money ran out and they just gave up. It’s possible to be fantastical and classy at the same time – witness Metropolis – without being overtly cartoony.

Then they need to pick a roster of attractions that fits whatever theme they select. This fits my personal agenda of moving the Carousel of Progress to EPCOT. I love the Carousel, although it needs updating, but it doesn’t fit the rest of Tomorrowland anymore. It would make a lot more sense at EPCOT, perhaps at the end of Innoventions East where it could serve as a grand finale of sorts for the “Road to Tomorrow”. In its place in the fantastical Tomorrowland could be an animatronic spectacle akin to the once-proposed Plectu’s Intergalactic Revue.

Something needs to be done with the abandoned Skyway station, the expansion pad beside it, and the demolished Galaxy Theater. The Speedway needs to be completely re-imagined, with at the very least a conversion to electric cars. As I’ve mentioned before, I’d like to see its footprint reduced by having a multi-story ride building with indoor and outdoor segments, which could feature black-light vistas of the “City of Tomorrow” akin to the former finale of the World of Motion.

Imagineering could then come up with new concepts to replace Stitch, Buzz, and the Monsters. The Monsters theater could always be reverted to CircleVision – I enjoyed the concept of Timekeeper, although its execution was a bit over-the-top. Or, perhaps, a re-voiced Timekeeper and Nine-Eye could take over a redesigned Monsters theater for a new show. One final option would be to incorporate the Monsters show space with the adjoining Buzz ride, creating enough room for a truly special dark ride of some sort. The entrance and queue could be on the Monsters side facing the hub, making the land more open and inviting from the entrance. If they really wanted to go far out, why not a ride based on those insane Ward Kimball cartoons for the Tomorrowland-themed Wonderful World of Color shows in the 1950s?

Admit it – this would make a killer ride

Perhaps a Kimball-themed dark ride about zany alien invasion could be paired with Plectu’s Revue and a flying saucers attraction in the former Galaxy Theater location to create a sort of Tomorrowland Roswell – Area 71? I think anything’s game for Tomorrowland as long as we have the luxury of EPCOT to represent the “real” future.

Tokyo Disneyland

It looks awfully familiar, but doesn’t it seem like something’s missing? (Photo from Disney and More)

Tokyo has farther to go, as their Tomorrowland is sort of a stripped-down version of Walt Disney World’s original 1970s version. Here’s where things get dicey, as they’re just preparing to debut an incredibly expensive, E-ticket dark ride… themed to Monsters, Inc. I don’t know what to do with that. My feeble lizard brain cannot reconcile the issue.

Much like at Disneyland, there was a plan for a complete makeover of this Tomorrowland in the 1990s. Known as “Sci-Fi City”, the concept was a combination of Florida’s neon-retro Buck Rogers “future that never was” with the lived-in, rough-around-the-edges future of Blade Runner. Sci-Fi City would be a total conversion of the land, with several new attractions unique to the Tokyo park. Eventually, though, the land’s multi-billion dollar price tag led to its postponement when that money was instead routed to the construction of the DisneySea park. To date, the only concept from the plan that has seen the light of day was the planned retheming of Tokyo’s Star Jets; the flying saucer-shaped designs seem to have been used as the basis for Hong Kong Disneyland’s Orbitron.

I ain’t gonna play Sci-Fi City

No doubt, the plans for Sci-Fi City were impressive. The combination of unique attractions, kinetic atmosphere and visuals, and the addition of the necessary “second story” to Tomorrowland with a Rocket Rod-spinoff ride served to create a unified and immersive themed area that did not skimp on detail. While the plan was not as based in hard science as the original Tomorrowland, it wasn’t an overtly cartoon-driven vision and many elements – such as the area themed as an asteroid mining colony – gave a real otherworldly feel missing the from other parks.

So what should Tokyo’s Tomorrowland be? Should it merely elaborate on more traditional themes, or should they go whole-hog and do something totally new like Sci-Fi City? I’d like to see a new, unique Tomorrowland with the full backing of the Oriental Land Company, but there’s still the unfortunate fact of their own recent Buzz Lightyear attraction and the brand-new Monsters, Inc. E-ticket. And, sadly, despite Michael Eisner’s attempt to the contrary, the Tokyo resort doesn’t have a Disney-MGM derived park in which to dump this sort of attraction. Maybe Tokyo’s Toontown needs a Pixar-centric cul-de-sac?

Disneyland Paris

Discoveryland is a fantastic concept that has never been fully exploited. Euro Disney’s financial woes precluded a great deal of park expansion after its opening, although the 1995 addition of Space Mountain is often cited as a key element in rehabilitating the park’s image and financial stability. Discoveryland was, for years, left in neglect and never really expanded on; many rides originally conceived for the park have never been built. In recent years, the park-exclusive Le Visionarium was replaced by another Buzz Lightyear clone.

Still, the fact that not much expansion has taken place in the area means that little has been done to destroy the overarching theme of the area. The foundation is still there to create a fantastic Verne-derived land, and Imagineering’s archives are full of unrealized concepts that could be easily adapted to the theme. The Toon Studio at the neighboring Walt Disney Studios park would be an excellent place to relocate Buzz Lightyear, as that park has not yet been saddled with Toy Story Midway Mania and there would thus be no duplication of theme. Then all WDI would have to do is add those critical elements of motion that make Tomorrowland “a world on the move” (steam-powered WEDway?) and bingo – a unique Tomorrowland with a cohesive and interesting theme.

Hong Kong Disneyland

Hong Kong Disneyland’s Tomorrowland – like Kristen Chenowith, quite pretty but very small

As mentioned earlier, Imagineering went with a neon-retro design for Hong Kong; in effect it’s most similar to Walt Disney World’s 1994 redesign and the chrome-and-primary-color exterior of Florida’s Mission: Space. But there’s not a lot there; the area has four ride attractions, none of them unique to the park. Hong Kong’s Autopia does have one nice feature, though – its cars run off of electricity.

Hong Kong’s Tomorrowland is essentially a blank slate – some nice atmosphere but it could go in many directions. Yet Hong Kong Disneyland’s need for expansion is so desperate that it might be a while before Tomorrowland receives attention – current rumors point to Adventureland as the site for the next expansion, if it indeed comes, and after that it’s expected that the park will add a Frontierland or Toontown.

In summary…

There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow: Disneyland, 1955

It’s possible for each of the five Tomorrowlands to have a unique and special identity that doesn’t betray Walt Disney’s original intent for Disneyland’s “world of tomorrow.” I think that they should run the gamut from science-fact to science-fiction, but even when they delve into the realm of science-fantasy the focus should remain on humanity’s promise for the future – not on toys, monsters, superheros, or any other franchised product.

Ladies and gentlemen, your new chair of the Federal Reserve

So, the economy.

With the Dow plunging straight into the Briar Patch and investment banks worldwide failing like the Disney Institute, one might wonder what the economic crunch might mean for Disney’s plans for upgrading their theme parks. In the last few days, we’ve started to get a few hints as to the mindset in Burbank and what it might mean for expansions both announced and rumored.

Concept for Disney-themed Urban Entertainment Center from the 2006 Walt Disney Company annual report

The first salvo of cutbacks came on Tuesday when Disney’s partner in Tokyo Disneyland, Oriental Land Company, announced that it had canceled its plans to build a series of self-contained urban amusement centers in major Japanese cities. The project was first announced in May of 2007, when Oriental Land Company proclaimed their desire to expand beyond their Tokyo base:

Oriental Land Co., which operates Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture, together with Walt Disney Co. of the U.S., plans to develop indoor entertainment facilities in major cities outside the greater Tokyo area. The facilities will feature restaurants, shops and entertainment spots intended mainly for women and families. The business plan will aim for a grand opening sometime after 2010.

The plan was outlined in Oriental Land’s midterm business outlook for the fiscal years through March 2011. Entertainment, dining and shopping at the facilities will draw on the Disney brand and provide visitors with plenty of choice. Investment is expected to reach tens of billions of yen per facility.

Developers hope to open at least one of the facilities by 2010 at the earliest. “We are targeting visitors in outlying areas who live far from Tokyo Disney Resort,” said Oriental Land Vice President Akio Nagaoka.

- Nikkei Weekly, 21 May 2007

Prior to the Japanese announcement, speculation was rife that Disney and its parks chief Jay Rasulo intended to build these Urban Entertainment Centers in a variety of locations worldwide. Wanting to expand into new markets, especially in Asia, Disney could build these centers in major cities without the investment required by a full theme park. A number of sites, notably Singapore, were mentioned. Oriental Land Company was looking at a number of sites in Japan, such as Osaka and Fukuoka, for its entertainment center.

OLC’s plans were canceled when it was determined that the potential for profit in the new project did not justify the required investment. Even with the faltering global markets, this seems somewhat surprising considering that Tokyo Disneyland has just come off a year of record attendance. After all, if the Urban Entertainment Center doesn’t make economic sense in Japan, perhaps the most Disney-crazed society on the planet, where could it succeed?

The idea of regional entertainment locations is nothing new for Disney; plans for similar, smaller regional attractions go back to Walt’s time. The concept had a resurgence under Michael Eisner, but each of these attempts also failed at some point in their development. It’s clear that Disney in general and Rasulo in particular still has a fetish for the regional entertainment concept, but the history of the idea as well as the OLC withdrawal begs the following question: If Disney can’t even manage to keep a chain of Disney stores open and operational, how will they pull of this more daunting task? If the Celebrity Sports Center, Disney Store chain, Mickey’s Kitchen, DisneyQuest and Club Disney all flopped in some way or another, how long will quixotic Disney managers continue to daydream about diluting the brand by putting Disney attractions in major cities worldwide?

DisneyQuest Chicago: FAIL.

But the OLC news was confined to Japan. How will America’s economic woes affect domestic parks? In the last couple of days we’ve heard from Al Lutz and Jim Hill on the subject, and the news is mixed. According to Lutz, the projects that had been approved and are in the pipeline for California Adventure are essentially safe. Later phases of the California Adventure remodel and further Disneyland additions seem to hinge on what happens next in the economy. Both Lutz and Hill agree that projects yet to receive final approval, like Walt Disney World’s Little Mermaid dark ride, will likely see delays as Disney executives wait to see which way the financial winds blow. Nothing’s been canceled, it seems, but a wave of postponements are probable.

More intriguing is that Hill confirms some rumors, previously mentioned here, about major changes in Florida’s Magic Kingdom. A potentially massive remodel, which Hill says has possibly been delayed, would eventually result in an overhaul of the park’s Fantasyland area to bring it up to a higher standard of design and theme. Hill repeats the rumor of the Little Mermaid attraction, which he claims will be so large as to necessitate the relocation of Dumbo the Flying Elephant around a hundred yards to the east. He also confirms rumors of a Snow White themed family coaster, and states that the Beauty and the Beast attraction previously alluded to would be a new dark ride designed to replace the current Snow White’s Scary Adventures. Also mentioned is a new shop themed to the forthcoming Princess and the Frog.

Perhaps most surprisingly, Hill drops a new rumor – the possible retheming of Mickey’s Toontown Fair to resemble the look of Disney’s preschooler-targeted television series Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. This is news to me, but while I certainly have no affinity for Toontown Fair I would hope WDI would aim for something a bit more inclusive than toddler TV fodder. Hill also mentions that next year’s Space Mountain remodel will last seven months, which seems to indicate that the Florida resort’s management won out in their race to the bottom and that Space Mountain will not receive the major, head-to-toe overhaul that Imagineers had intended. Walt Disney World management, far more concerned with efficiency than show, originally consented to a lengthy overhaul similar to Disneyland’s successful remodel of recent years. But cold feet prevailed and management backed down on keeping the ride closed for such a long period of time. Here’s an idea – if you think it would so adversely affect the guest experience to have a single ride closed, doesn’t it stand to reason that you need to add some more rides?

In any case, that’s where we stand. Waiting for Burbank to make up their minds before we can see if any true expansion is coming soon to Orlando. If I may be so bold, let me make a suggestion to my pals in the Team Disney building:

Build it. Build it all. Sure the economy is in shambles now, but it will recover. It always recovers. Wall Street is the largest collective of drama queens in the history of history and they known only two emotions – greed and fear. They’re losing their minds right now but will soon realize that the world isn’t coming to an end and things will stabilize. Liquidity will return, hopefully we’ll get some decent regulations restored, and after an enormous reset we’ll have an economy not quite as based on fluff and nonsense. The mortgage market, like the dot-com bubble before, was just another instance of greed creating an entire economy based on candy floss and fairy tales. So, a lot of people got hosed and hopefully we’ll see some changes in the next year that will prevent such shenanigans in the future. In the meantime, people aren’t going to stop going on vacation forever and they definitely won’t stop seeing movies (after all, Mickey rose to fame in the Depression), so if things soften up, don’t despair.

The McCain Youth Economic Outreach was a dismal failure

When the economy sagged in the 1970’s, Disney management lost confidence. Without Walt and Roy to kick them in the pants, things stagnated under Card Walker’s gas crisis-induced paralysis. Plans for the three “lost resorts” were canceled, and we lost Thunder Mesa and other attractions. Eventually things kicked back into gear with EPCOT Center, but the reticence to build in the mid-1970’s left Disney poorly positioned to capitalize on later public demand.

The Asian Resort – shoulda, woulda, coulda

If guests are more willing to stay at home than to come to Florida, give them a reason to come. They certainly aren’t going to stretch their dollars to come all the way for a new parade or marketing campaign. They’ll come for new rides. Start building now, and when this credit crunch is over you’ll be ready to open brand new attractions in time to welcome the newly-reinvigorated global economy. Even if the dollar devalues spectacularly you can lure plenty of Britons over. On the other hand, if you wait for the economy to be fully healed before you start anything new, you’ll have years of stagnation under your belt and people will drift away. We’re nearing 20 years since the last Magic Kingdom E-ticket – get to work.

And you’ll achieve that sense of conquest
As your affluence expands
In the hands of the directors
Who invest as propriety demands

All from tuppence…