Across the continent in Anaheim, Disneyland fans are preparing for the opening of the Blue Sky Cellar. This new preview center, an homage to the lapsed Disney tradition of similar in-park exhibits, will showcase art from the impending billion-dollar renovations to California Adventure. The Cellar, located in California Adventure’s former Golden Vine Winery, opens to Annual Passholders this Thursday and to the public next Monday, October 20th. It will feature art from the first phases of the remodel, including the redesigned Paradise Pier area, Buena Vista Street entrance plaza, Cars Land and Little Mermaid attraction.
The best way to keep track of the constantly shifting plans for California Adventure is the project tracker thread at MiceAge. From there I gleaned the following image, which brings me to my point:
A handful of displays have already appeared outside the Cellar, giving brief overviews of the new areas. The map above is included in the artwork, and if it’s familiar to Disney fans that’s not by accident.
The whimsical California Adventure map is clearly designed to echo the classic Disneyland souvenir maps of the 1950’s and 60’s. It’s a fun touch that not only presents some exciting art for new guests but provides a nice nostalgic link to the past for fans. It shows, in a small and almost imperceptible way, that the new development at Disney’s California parks is being done with a strong and respectful eye towards the past and the cumulative history that has created the vast legion of Disney park fans in the first place. And that’s fantastic.
What’s not fantastic is that while west coast fans have Disneyland-devoted folks like Tony Baxter and John Lasseter working slavishly to restore that resort according to its founding principles, those of us enamored of Disney’s Orlando empire have no such champion. It’s occasionally obvious that someone at WDI is aware of Walt Disney World’s history pre-1995; from time to time we’ll get something neat like the retro EPCOT merchandise and maps that trickled out for that park’s 25th anniversary. Every now and again something really cool and subtle will happen that will make fans say, hey, somebody on the inside “gets it”.
But mostly, the Florida property seems like a vast hodgepodge of concepts arranged without thought or plan. This is bitterly ironic considering how deftly and skillfully it was once conceived, created and managed. It lacks the detail and nuance of Disneyland, and has no champion to push for the changes it so deserves. The Florida property houses four theme parks with more conceptual range than any of Disney’s other parks; EPCOT Center alone once presented a slew of daring ideas of the sort that are exceedingly rare in the realm of themed design. Yet all this promise and all this initial bold intent have been left, abandoned, in the Florida sun because it’s much easier to crank out new attractions without heed for how they would fit into any larger conceptual framework. There’s no place on the quarterly report to attach a figure for “big ideas”.
I love Walt Disney World and there are lots of Imagineers doing great work at WDI. Every now and again something great happens to make it through the gauntlet of corporate managers and into the parks. I just fear that the Florida property will never, ever begin to reach its full potential until it has someone at WDI who loves it as dearly as John and Tony love Disneyland. Until someone positioned sufficiently high in management is willing to fight for it, and to understand the unifying ideas that make it great. Maybe it’ll never happen, but hopefully fans of the “Vacation Kingdom of the World” will one day have a reason to head down to the Cellar themselves rather than just to hit the bottle.
I’ve been occupied with a bit of research lately, trying to cobble together something interesting as well as trying to ascertain what the current economic situation is going to mean for the tenuous future of many long hoped-for park enhancements. So I’ll let other writers do the heavy lifting, as I empty out my bookmarks once more and share a few interesting stories from the last few months.
When we previously discussed the impending vintage Disney park music boxed set, Disneyland Goes to the World’s Fair, it was scheduled for a November release. Now that’s changed, but while park music fans might be frustrated with a delay in this long-hoped for boxed set, they’ll be pleased with the eventual outcome. Disney park music overlord Randy Thornton has stated that the set will now be released in February, a delay necessitated by the last-minute addition of new material to the collection. An entire extra disc of music has been added, making the final release a whopping five discs. Thornton has yet to announce what this new disc will consist of, but thankfully he was able to secure the funding and time to make this the best release possible.
For more about Thornton, his work at Disney and the philosophy behind his groundbreaking park music releases, check out this interview recently published at LaughingPlace.
One of my patented latter-day Disney diatribes involves the galling lack of any Disney-related content on the Disney channel. Ever since we lost Vault Disney lo those many years ago, fans have had to look elsewhere for their fix of Walt-approved entertainment. Thankfully, my beloved Turner Classic Movies has stepped up to the challenge and a posting on MiceAge has revealed that December will be a good month for television-viewing fans of classic Disney live-action film. What’s more, TCM will debut a new 90-minute documentary, The Age of Believing: The Disney Live Action Classics. Gotta love TCM. The schedule:
December 7th, beginning at 12:00 PM:
Treasure Island (1950)
Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
Old Yeller (1957)
The Parent Trap! (1961)
Pollyanna (1960)
The Barefoot Executive (1971)
December 14th, beginning at 12:00 PM:
The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (1969)
The Strongest Man in the World (1975)
The Absent Minded Professor (1961)
Son of Flubber (1963)
The Age of Believing: The Disney Live Action Classics (2008)
The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975)
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again (1979)
December 21st, beginning at 12:00 PM:
The Black Hole (1979)
Escape to Witch Mountain (1975)
Return From Witch Mountain (1978)
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971)
Candleshoe (1977)
Freaky Friday (1976)
December 28th, beginning at 10:30 AM:
The Age of Believing: The Disney Live Action Classics (2008)
The Shaggy Dog (1959)
The Shaggy D.A. (1976)
The Love Bug (1969)
Herbie Rides Again (1974)
Herbie Goes to Monte Carlo (1977)
Herbie Goes Bananas (1980)
The World’s Greatest Athlete (1975)
TRON 2 (or TR2N) is on the way. After managing to announce the film without actually committing to it at this year’s ComicCon, Disney executives confirmed the project at a lavish Hollywood shindig in September. Jeff Bridges spoke to The Guardian about the project, mentioning that some degree of motion capture technology will be used in the project. Director Joseph Kosinski spoke to Ain’t It Cool News, revealing that the film will be shot in stereoscopic 3-D and is aiming for a release sometime in 2010. Original TRON director Steven Lisberger is indeed consulting on the project, and Watchmen costume designer Michael Wilkinson is also on board.
Also announced at September’s Disney press event was that Johnny Depp would indeed be returning to the high seas in a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean film (surprise!) as well as saddling up as Tonto in the Jerry Bruckheimer-produced Lone Ranger revival (surprise! in a non-ironic way!) John Lasseter showed up to trumpet that Cars 2 has been bumped up a year to 2011, which no doubt led to a ticker-tape parade at Disney Consumer Products. No word on what happens to the two Pixar films already announced for 2011, but whatever happens to newt and The Bear and the Bow, it looks like Uncle John’s attempt to top pigs with pigs is on its way. The Brad Lewis-directed film will be preceded by several new shorts, known collectively as “Cars Toons”, which will play on the Disney Channel and possibly in theaters. The first of these shorts debuts later this month.
Jeff Kurtti’s long-awaited book about prominent Walt-era Imagineers finally shipped recently after years of delay. Thankfully, it’s a good read and includes information about a number of individuals who not only made critical contributions to the development of theme parks but might also not be well-known to the general public. Disney historian Didier Ghez has posted an interview he conducted with Kurtti.
Quick Hits:
– Discussing the legacy of the 1941 Disney Studios strike
– Proof that the Disney Studios was a friendlier place to work than Don Draper’s office
FREAKOUT!
From the “writers I wish I were” department: EPCOT Central is back with as concise distillation as I’ve found discussing what’s wrong with Team Disney’s mindset these days. Meanwhile, Passport to Dreams Old & New takes a look at walkthough attractions from the parks’ past and present. Germane considering the impeding re-opening of Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough, I’ll bet you’ll never have realized how much you missed CommuniCore.
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
Apparently Glen Keane has been taken off of Rapunzel. Dean Wellins too. The film has been given to Nathan Greno and Byron Howard, both of whom worked on the upcoming Bolt (Greno as storyboard director and Howard as co-director).
The film has been Keane’s pet project for several years, so this turn of events is rather shocking. It’ll be interesting to see how things shake out – one wonders what Lasseter is up to.
Update: The story seems to have broken first on Cartoon Brew, where former Disney animator Floyd Norman confirmed its veracity. Considering that Keane has spent seven years on the project, this shakeup can’t have been taken lightly. It appears, according to Ain’t It Cool News, that the reason being given for Keane leaving the project involves non-life threatening health issues. If this is truly the case, we certainly wish Keane well.
Keane will continue on the project as an Executive Producer and Directing Animator, while Wellins will pitch a story for a new feature while also directing a new CG short. AICN prints the following, which they claim is the in-house memo that has been issued at Walt Disney Animation Studios:
For nearly two years, Glen Keane and Dean Wellins have been directing partners on Rapunzel. As Glen lessens his directorial responsibilities to attend to some non-life threatening health issues, their involvement on the project will shift. Glen will step back as a Director but stay attached to Rapunzel as an Executive Producer and Directing Animator. At the same time, Dean will move into development to pitch three new ideas for one of our future feature projects and focus on directing one of his CG shorts.
We are happy to announce that Nathan Greno and Byron Howard have accepted to partner as directors on Rapunzel as we continue to hone the story in anticipation of our Holiday 2010 release. We want to welcome Nathan and Byron to the project and thank Glen and Dean for their great contributions to date on Rapunzel.
Thanks
Ed
After taking Chris Sanders off of Bolt (then called American Dog) and now this, Lasseter has certainly shaken things up. Let’s hope it’s for the better. Cartoon Brew floats the idea that Lasseter and Keane have different story sensibilities; I remember this being said about Sanders as well. Let’s hope that WDAS continues to have room for all manner of ideas, as long as they’re all good.
Update: The story that’s slowly emerging (see in the comments below) is that Keane is, indeed, stepping down for personal health reasons. At this point, it’s hard to tell what else is happening with this project. Watching the development process from afar is like trying to figure out why someone’s marriage works the way it does; there’s just a whole lot you don’t see and about which you can’t possibly guess.
One reason this story struck such an immediate chord with me is that I’ve really been trying to reconcile in my mind two very distinct yet divergent concepts. The first is that I want WDAS to be a place that not only excels at the tried-and-true Disney story model, but also allows for the occasional “out of the ordinary” project that breaks the mold a bit and allows a particular artist’s style to shine through. While it might not be easy to accommodate both very different processes, I’d still love to see it happen.
Maybe I’m just bitter because I want to see the Brizzi brothers return and make something insane and gothic, but doubt that would ever happen.
My second belief is that Lasseter and company really, really know what they’re doing. The two Pixar films which had conspicuous director changes were Toy Story 2 and Ratatouille. To say both of those shakeups worked out nicely is an understatement. It’s also true that this sort of thing happened all the time under Walt, and most always worked in the favor of the project. I just hate not being able to have my cake and eat it too – which is why I’d probably be a terrible director. Take the Jungle Book for instance; while the end product was a success and more effectively conveyed Walt’s vision, I hate that we’ll never see Bill Peet’s darker and more atmospheric take on the material.
So as much as I hate we won’t see any more of Chris Sanders’ work at Disney, I know that American Dog was troubled and it seems that Sanders left of his own volition. While it seems that Bolt lacks the visual flair of the earlier project, everyone seems to agree that Chris Williams and Byron Howard have done a bang-up job whipping the film into shape. And maybe that’s just what Rapunzel needed, too. Seven years is a long time for any film to be in development, and it appears from comments elsewhere that the film’s story was far less complete than I was aware. Even the greatest animators aren’t necessarily great directors; regardless of other issues, if the film still doesn’t have a workable story after seven years perhaps a shakeup was called for. Disney can’t develop the film forever, after all.
Thankfully Keane will still be animating, and hopefully he’ll be in good health soon. My one hope is that they don’t abandon the visual style that has been developed for the film – that seems to be the strong point of all of Keane’s years of effort. Interviews in the past have relayed Lasseter’s fondness for the film’s look, so hopefully it won’t be in jeopardy.
Maybe someday we’ll find out the full story behind this, maybe not. But in the end we’ll likely get a great film – that’s what it’s all about, after all – and forget all about Rapunzel‘s decade of drama.
The backstory of the occasionally-lamented ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter (Walt Disney World, 1995-2003) was that aliens had arrived on Earth to set up trade relations. X-S Tech, a sort of intergalactic Halliburton, had set up shop in the Tomorrowland Interplanetary Convention Center to demonstrate their latest teleportation device. Then – spoiler alert! – something went terribly wrong.
Part of the attraction’s ambient backstory were the pictographic alien glyphs that lined everything from the show’s entrance to the ride control consoles. To clue cast members in to the language of X-S, the following translation key and sample phrases were contained in the attraction’s training manual.
From the Progress City archives comes this collection of 33 tall tales and true from Disney history. Available in paperback, hardback, and ebook formats.
about prominent Walt-era Imagineers finally shipped recently after years of delay. Thankfully, it’s a good read and includes information about a number of individuals who not only made critical contributions to the development of theme parks but might also not be well-known to the general public. Disney historian Didier Ghez has posted an 
Ladies and gentlemen, your new chair of the Federal Reserve
Concept for Disney-themed Urban Entertainment Center from the 2006 Walt Disney Company annual report
The McCain Youth Economic Outreach was a dismal failure
The Asian Resort – shoulda, woulda, coulda
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