Rebuilding Tomorrowland
from the copying-yesterdayland dept
A year and a half ago I went with some friends down to LA to check out Disney’s “California Adventure” themepark. I thought it was pretty weak. It seemed like any other amusement park, with the same sorts of rides. The thing I had always liked about Disney’s theme parks were that the attractions were different than the typical everyday amusement park. The weak California Adventure is apparently the result of the suits having a bigger influence at Disney Imagineering. They’ve cut back on staff by half, and tried to get them to do less imagining, and spend more time actually producing things for the parks. Of course, creativity doesn’t always work that way and some are worrying that Disney’s themepark innovations may be near an end.
Comments on “Rebuilding Tomorrowland”
Of course it's going down the crapper...
It’s a california themed park in California! It doesn’t matter what rides they put in it, it’s a stupid idea and disney are stupid people for doing it.
Disney and the Enthusiasts
The Amusement Park enthusiast community has hashed this out quite a bit over the past couple of years. (Check Rec.Roller-Coaster over on USENET.) The breakdown appears to be about 50-50 among those that have a strong enough opinion to express it. Half (myself included) enjoy the new parks. We think they still have it going. “It’s Tough to Be a Bug” is a good example of really cool work by the Disney folks. The other half think Disney is baked, and that the attractions are turning out like everyone elses. They like to cite Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Orlando as the place where all the magic went.
Don’t know. Ultimately, it’s cyclical. I think eventually they’ll get it back again.
Reflection of a larger trend
People want theme parks that cater to their sensibilities, their tastes; the generic Hollywood-style park is alienating, even to many Americans.
The South will perhaps see more Dixieland Theme Parks with confederate flags flying all over it, with mobile homes getting sucked into simulated tornadoes. Places with large Muslim communities could have Meccaland Theme parks with separate roller coasters for men and women. Northern Ireland theme parks could have green rides for Catholics and orange rides for Protestants. San Francisco could have a Fairyland theme park with a bunny mascot wearing black leather thongs.