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Although the volleys from both sides have decreased, this thing with “it’s a small world” is not over. It’s just the thin shell of a much larger egg. It has nothing to do with the personalities involved, their creative ability, nor their passion for the Disney product. No one is doubting any of that.
No. It has to do with a choice made by someone (or someones) in Disney parks management. A deliberate choice that has many of us worried.
John Nadleberg, who has recently set out with his own blog, summarizes excellently:
Disney is over cartooning their parks, they have been doing it for a while, and although it has been tolerated for one reason or another, it is often not appreciated at all. They are wrecking what were once theme parks with all kinds of entertainments by changing them to ones that have one single type of entertainment.
Movie people originally constructed Disneyland, and in a way, going to a Disney park is very much like going to a multiplex theater to see different types of movies, with each area within the park representing another type of film. This theater has a western, that theater has a horror film, the other theater has a drama or a comedy, and yet another has an animated feature. What they have been doing, and are continuing to do, is turn every single theater in that multiplex into being about animation, and they are doing so with very little artistic integrity. The shows they produce with this mindset are often very poor and poorly received. Shows, such as Soarin’ and Expedition Everest don’t follow this mindset and are their great recent successes.
This is the story of how Disney’s Virtual Magic Kingdom (VMK) came to its end and how and why it doesn’t have to be that way.
The year is 1959. Walt Disney’s Magic Kingdom of Disneyland is just about to enter its third year of operations. Disneyland has been very successful not just in attendance, but in creating a new type of community; a remaking of Main Street America in Walt’s image. Walt calls Disneyland his great experiment. He uses it to cross-promote his movies, television shows, and his growing interest in urban planning.
However, something is not quite right. The surrounding area has penned his magical kingdom in with cheap looking motels and tourist traps. Disneyland really needs to grow, add new attractions, even remake whole parts of the theme park that just aren’t working. Walt has got grand ideas, add a steel roller coaster hidden inside the Matterhorn, bring online a monorail system (even extending to Downtown Los Angeles), remake parts of Fantasyland, Frontierland, Tomorrowland and even Main Street. Perhaps to open even a whole new city where urban blight will be a thing of the past.
All that will cost money, take time, and talent. Those are resources Walt could use elsewhere in his growing company. So he decides that his ‘experiment’ in 360 degree themed entertainment has been a success. But he wants those customers go enjoy one of his other projects where there is a higher margin so he can afford his future plans.
So, shocking everyone who has come to love and enjoy Disneyland, worked there, made friends there, even come to regard its wide avenues and wondrous attractions as part of Americana itself, Walt Disney decides to end his experiment and set up shop elsewhere (perhaps Florida, where he’ll have more room).
Here is a math question for all of you, taken directly from “Fundamentals
of Probability with Stochastic Processes” by Saeed Ghahramani, Dean of the
School of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Mathematics at Western New England
College:
A child gets lost in the Disneyland at the Epcot Center in Florida. The
father of the child believes that the probability of his being lost in the east
wing of the center is 0.75 and in the west wing is 0.25. The security
department sends an office to the east and an officer to the west to look for
the child. If the probability that a security officer who is looking in the
correct wing finds the child is 0.4, find the probability the child is found.
Read the first line again. Consider the references to the
layout of Epcot. Not good is it?
Theme Park Insider is maintaining a list of verified accidents at theme parks across the nation. Sadly the most recent accidents have all occured at Disney parks.