There’s been a lot of thought lately directed towards the problems facing the Disney theme parks, and how – if possible – they can be resolved. One rather shocking discovery I’ve made, and which I plan on addressing more in the future, is that a tide seems to have turned against Disney on the fan message boards and social media. Fan boards have typically been on the sunny side in the past, happy to accept whatever Disney hands down, but this seems to have changed. Sometimes it seems that folks like myself, who have tended to view the company with a critical eye and were often branded cranks in the past, have become among the least despondent members of fandom.
This has taken me by surprise, and I’ve been at a loss to really explain it. As I’ve said, it’s an odd time to be a critic, with the company willing to spend once more but making dubious choices in the theming of these multi-million dollar expansions. Even more baffling is Walt Disney World, my personal area of greatest interest, which seems to rise and fall on a daily basis; depending on which subject you’re addressing – attractions, entertainment, foods, transportation – you can waver between optimistic and despondent on an hourly basis.
Big new Fantasyland plans? Yay! Decaying Tomorrowland? Boo! Tasty new burgers at Pecos Bill? Yay! Shortened hours and generic chicken nuggets at Columbia Harbour House? Boo! Classy new Town Square Theater? Yay! The hideous Stitch stage blaring Cotton Eye Joe in Tomorrowland? Boo!
It’s hard to keep track. And it’s hard to really chart the progress of the resort when you have snazzy new rockwork going up in Fantasyland but monorails falling apart outside the gates. What is most baffling is that many of us feel that the absolute nadir of the Magic Kingdom is behind us, and the park has seen an overall rise in quality and maintenance over the last few years. While it is far, far from its historical peak, of course, it’s at least better – better than when Under New Management festered in Adventureland, or the Exposition Hall remained empty, or the 20,000 Leagues lagoon sat stagnant and filled with floating garbage. The Magic Kingdom is better off, and the other parks are certainly no worse off than they were five years ago, so why are so many people worried? And why does the future quality of the resort feel like such a dicey proposition?
Video leaked today of a presentation during which Imagineer Kevin Rafferty shows a pre-visualization video detailing a full, computer-generated ridethrough of the upcoming Radiator Springs Racers attraction for California Adventure.
Obviously, spoilers await…
It looks fun. And that just underscores what we’ve recently discussed – it’s a lengthy, detailed, elaborate, technically challenging and fun-looking ride… based on Cars. In a giant land based on Cars. Taking up a huge portion of a park that is called “California Adventure.” And so, no matter how much money, talent and effort was expended… it’s still Cars.
But hey, no poop jokes! At least the franchise is taking a turn for the classy.
One hallmark of Walt Disney World since its very earliest inception is the ambitious master plan; the sweeping, grand vision which is slowly whittled away and watered down once the practicalities of construction and the vagaries of history take their toll. While the construction of the resort in the late 1960s involved a massive amount of terraforming and infrastructure creation, which resulted in miles of newly-dug drainage canals and the dredging of an entire lagoon in front of the Magic Kingdom, there were other major landscaping projects that never came to be.
This is apparent as far back as the public’s first glimpse of the Florida Project, with Walt’s “EPCOT film” from 1966. The large map of property, which Walt famously stands in front of during the film, depicts a Bay Lake that has been artificially expanded so that it reaches all the way to where EPCOT Center now stands. Had this plan come to fruition, it could possibly have covered the area now occupied by Fort Wilderness, Port Orleans and Dixie Landings.
Over the years, other plans were hatched to enlarge and link the small natural bodies of water on property. At one point, what is now the Sassagoula River was to be widened so as to link a series of recreational areas north of the Lake Buena Vista village; even EPCOT Center’s World Showcase Lagoon was once designed to extend beyond the current row of pavilions into a larger lagoon beyond.
So while it’s fascinating, it’s not completely jarring to take a look at early plans for the Disney project…
To find obscure, forgotten zoning details like this:
The “lagoon” labeled here is what is now the Seven Seas Lagoon; you can also see the site of the Polynesian resort hotel. Of the two sites labeled “future hotel site”, the rightmost was once earmarked for the Venetian resort and the square site to the left, where the Grand Floridian resort sits today, was intended for the planned Asian resort.
What’s of interest is the area behind the Asian site, labeled as “future lagoon extension.” It’s odd to think that the Seven Seas Lagoon could have theoretically been extended to wrap around the Asian resort, north of what is now the Grand Floridian’s parking lots and covering what is now the site of the Floridian’s convention center. Of course there are many zoning and land-use provisions hidden in the depths of the Reedy Creek Improvement District’s many master plans from years past, and I’ve never seen any suggestion that Disney had seriously considered extending the lagoon.
We’ve just talked about things that are well-executed with which I philosophically agree, and in some ways this falls under the same category. I’m uneasy with the idea of character meet-and-greets, yet I realize that they’re here to stay at Walt Disney World and there’s nothing we can do about it. So, if we have to have them they can at least be done well, and fit their surroundings. Thankfully, that is the case with the new Town Square Theater, which occupies the space on Main Street, U.S.A. formerly home to The Walt Disney Story, various preview centers, and later the Main Street Exposition Hall. The Expo Hall had areas dedicated for character-themed photo ops, but they were clumsily organized and poorly integrated into their surroundings. The Theater, which opened earlier this year, involved a total reconstruction of the building’s interior and finally uses a show space specifically designed for its intended use.
Where this project diverges from things like Carsland or Avatarland is that it isn’t obtrusive, doesn’t occupy a large tract that prevents future development, and doesn’t soak up vast resources that could be better spent elsewhere. It doesn’t “feel” wrong where it is. Best of all, the meet-and-greet is fairly seamlessly integrated with Main Street. The idea of “Toontown” taking over Main Street gave me a severe case of the vapors when rumors about this project began to emerge, but thankfully from the exterior the building looks exactly like it should – the Town Square Theater. Inside you pass through a number of waiting areas that slowly ease you into the cartoon world, but in perhaps the most merciful aspect of the project Imagineers decided not to go with the over-done and corny “toon” stylings of over-inflated, plastic-looking furniture and accessories, with “moldy fig” sagging lines and faux-“whimsical” zaniness. While some of the accessories in Mickey’s dressing room are still slightly too oversized for my taste, it looks far less fake than the slapdash surroundings often found in Toontown-like theming and works well in making the cartoon characters seem to overlap with real-world surroundings. The use of real materials and more realistic designs is a huge improvement over the plastic-y, on-the-nose “toon” look.
I’m sure you’ll find more super-detailed walkthroughs of the attraction online; I merely strolled through and took some photos of details which I found interesting. Unfortunately for you budding theme park explorers, the operations staff is so ruthlessly efficient in cramming people through that it’s pretty much impossible to examine, much less photograph, most of the details, and there’s probably a lot of references in Mickey’s dressing room that have yet to been discovered simply because there’s no way to catch a second to examine them. But here are a few things I did notice…
For Disney fans of a critical bent, it used to be easy knowing where to channel one’s rage. Disneyland falling apart from neglect and mismanagement? Blame Paul Pressler and his gang of idiots. Key elements of Animal Kingdom’s master plan left out on opening day? Blame Eisner, or the “pencil pushers”. California Adventure? Blame everyone VP level or above. Once Disney began its long slide into mediocrity, beginning noticeably around 1994 and cratering out about ten years ago, the villain was remarkably consistent and easy to identify – cheapness. Penny pinching. Cutting corners. Basically, the refusal by management to commit the resources necessary to creating new things in the tradition that made Disney great.
A lot has changed since then. Management is different at the top, and in many places at the bottom as well. Eisner’s replacement, Bob Iger, seems much more willing to spend on projects that he finds worthwhile and he mended a number of bridges to the creative community that had been burned. John Lasseter of Pixar was brought in as a creative consultant to Imagineering, which many – including myself – thought simply had to be a good idea. Most importantly, money is being invested in the parks; a billion dollars has been poured into an effort to make California Adventure habitable, a long-needed overhaul of Florida’s Fantasyland is underway, and other projects wait in the wings – projects like the Avatar-themed area of Animal Kingdom that surprised everyone when it was announced earlier this year.
From the Progress City archives comes this collection of 33 tall tales and true from Disney history. Available in paperback, hardback, and ebook formats.
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