Progress City, U.S.A.

…at Southwestern Oklahoma State University:

Mr. Brad Fitzgerald, Instructor, Department of Industrial & Engineering Technology, received $13,607 from The Disney Corporation for SWOSU/Disney RFID Project Phase II – FY09 to support real time learning experiences for SWOSU students, encompassing quality control, manufacturing operations, statistical analysis, and marketing.

Now I wonder what interest the Disney company would have in RFID research…

Source

Long before the Pueblo Room was a glint in Dick Nunis’s eye, planning was underway for Walt Disney World. Who knows how long Walt had mulled privately over his ideas for a megaproject in the east; but even before the scope of his plans for the Florida scrub became apparent to the public, work was going on at Walt Disney Productions to define what, exactly, this project would be.

The following is an internal memo from WED Enterprises that details a planning meeting for “Project Future” that took place on June 14th, 1965. The meeting allowed Walt to present his ideas to the board members and legal staff of Walt Disney Productions, lawyers and consultants from the state of Florida, and Disney’s legal staff from New York City. This would, in turn, allow the staff an idea of the project’s scope and needs so that they could then begin researching and crafting the necessary legal groundwork. This planning would eventually culminate in the special district legislation in the Florida legislature that led to the Reedy Creek Improvement District and the creation of Walt Disney World.

Walt’s ideas for the property at this point were spelled out only in the roughest brushstrokes, but you can still get an idea of what he was driving at. While some of these ideas were clearly pie-in-the-sky, there are some interesting thoughts here about the underlying ethos of the resort and I leave it up to you to determine how well the company has carried over those philosophies into the modern day. It’s also amusing to see the concerns that faced the early planners, and how those concerns still rear their heads today.

“PROJECT FUTURE” PLANNING MEETING — JUNE 14, 1965

WALT DISNEY

Walt began by emphasizing the need to know “what kind of project would do well” in Florida.

Walt suggested this kind of study, together with our experience at Disneyland, would provide the background to help determine:

(1) What kind of facilities are required
(2) Who we will cater to – the Disney audience
(3) How we can get the tourist to stop for an extended period, and
(4) How big Project Future need be to start.

There would be, Walt said, a lot of things “like Disneyland”; but there would also be a lot new. He pointed to the World’s Fair as an analogy, graphically showing the Disney appeal in the East, and especially the population centers of the East (also a major source of Florida’s tourist market).

Walt expressed concern over the lack of permanent residents in the Orlando area, pointing out that other areas of the country are much better in this regard. Thus, the Florida market poses a different set of circumstances from Disneyland, which draws most heavily on a local California audience.

In terms of the hotels/motels, Walt emphasized the basic requirement to hold the visitor … to keep them in the area for an extended period. While the theme park would be the catalyst, reasonable prices and complete facilities (from trailers to sleeping bag areas) must be provided. He pointed to the skiers as an analogy; they don’t want to spend money for lodging, but they don’t hesitate to spend money for the skiing facilities per se (ski lift, equipment, etc.).

Walt emphasized the need to control the area, so that it does not become the jungle of signs, lights and fly-by-night operations that have “fed” on Disneyland’s audience. By keeping standards high, we can maintain the prestige of the entire area. The Disney motel/hotel facilities, for example, would be priced competitively with anything else that might be built in the area … but would be better places to stay, in every way.

Walt talked in terms of making everything its own attraction and tourist draw … the lake, the motels/hotels, fishing or whatever other facilities. These would each feed the Theme Park … and by offering diverse recreation activities, we could keep people in the area for a longer period of time.

“We’re ready to go!”, Walt said — ready to do the necessary analyzing and studies to determine the facilities required … then on to the Imagineering and finally the engineering.

As to “duplicating” parts of Disneyland, Walt suggested the public would expect it (many people could go to this park who would never be able to get to Disneyland). And Disneyland attractions are proven, engineered and ready to go into this Park.

A major consideration, Walt emphasized, would be to plan more for Rain (we can enclose big enough areas so people can keep spending money even if it rains). Recalling the Houston Dome, Walt commented about how big an area could be enclosed, and suggested there would be far less maintenance under a roof.

The basic point Walt made here is that enclosing means this concept could be built anywhere … even closer to the prime population markets of the East and Midwest. And, therefore, there could even be more than two Disneylands.

As to industry in the Project Future complex, Walt suggested industrial plants — with strong restriction — could be built along the road into and out of the Theme Park area … thus giving industry a tremendous Billboard exposure. (For comparison, see the land values along the Santa Ana freeway.)

Thus, Walt talked in terms of these basic areas:

(1) The Theme Park
(2) The motel/residential areas
(3) The industrial complex
(4) Other recreational facilities – the lake, golf, etc.

And so it began…

The mysterious rendering in question

So here’s one for you – what’s this a picture of?

I found this rendering in the State Archives of Florida, listed as an “Artist’s rendering of Disney World, Orlando”. There were no specifics, and no date.

If I had to guess, I’d say that it dates from the late 1970s or the very early 1980s. It’s in a style very similar to the EPCOT renderings from that time. My first thought is that it’s something to do with Lake Buena Vista, perhaps a convention center.

You can tell that it has at least three entrances, and you can make out the flags of several nations in the fountain out front. It doesn’t seem to be a hotel, as it’s fairly low and flat and there aren’t individual windows for guest rooms. That’s what made me think it’s some kind of convention facility. It could be offices, but the commercial space designed for Lake Buena Vista also tended to be high-rise buildings. Could it even be a shopping mall?

So, any ideas?

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…)

Um…

Executive Vice-President, Senior Creative Executive for Walt Disney Imagineering Tom Fitzgerald has been appointed as the senior imagineer for the Disneyland Resort. Disneyland portfolio leader Tony Baxter and Disney’s California Adventure portfolio leader Bob Weis now report to Tom Fitzgerald.

Yep. That.