A few quick things before we start today:
First the title of today's
column comes from a quote I gave the Times when they asked me what I thought
of all the changes coming to California Adventure (DCA). Second, this is basically
a recap of what Disney presented to their
cast members yesterday, so it's not a typical update. Finally, some of
the art used today is not the best quality. I did my best to fix it, but
you'll get the idea and I'm still grateful for the kind person who made it
available.
Let's get that lid off the Starbucks and get started shall
we? - Al
After we posted last Saturday that yesterday's big DCA announcement was
finally coming, there were some folks in Team Disney Anaheim (TDA) and in Burbank spitting mad that
their stealth media event had been foiled. Luckily the executives in Burbank stuck with the original announcement timeline in
spite of the cat being let out of the bag, and the result was the rather
unprecedented (for Disney) announcement of the dramatic and sweeping changes about to descend
on DCA in the months to come.
Everything to be included in Phase One, essentially a five year plan that
takes DCA through the summer of 2012, wasn't released yesterday however. But
there were still enough new rides and additions announced, along with some
surprisingly candid images of concept artwork and scale models released through
several media outlets, that the online message boards were at a fever pitch not
seen since the formal announcement of the 50th Anniversary plans was
made four years ago.
For Cast Members in Anaheim, an extra surprise on an already big day showed
up in the form of an afternoon Town Hall Meeting in the old Millionaire building
in DCA. Hundreds of the salaried folks from TDA and managers from the parks and
hotels were invited to the meeting, while the hourly Cast Members were allowed
to watch via closed-circuit television on the resort's CastTV network. The Town
Hall Meeting would be an ultra rare chance to see the reclusive Ed Grier and the nearly
nonexistent Jay Rasulo together in Anaheim, as well as a chance to meet the
creative mastermind behind the WDI makeover, Bob Weis the Executive Vice
President from Walt Disney Imagineering who was lured to the DCA project by John
Lasseter.
The meeting began with the two large video screens hanging above the stage
coming to life with a video greeting from Bob Iger. Dressed casually in a black
sweater and seated in front of artwork of the new Cars Land section of the park,
Bob was his usual laid back self and extended a warm thank you to the Cast
Members assembled. As Bob explained to the audience, all of the exciting details
about to be revealed were possible because of the hard work they had put in to
make the 50th so successful. Without their amazing results and the
record breaking attendance and continuing financial gains Disneyland has been
enjoying each year since 2005, expansion of the Resort on such a grand scale
would not have been feasible.
With Bob's simple and sincere thanks out of the way, the meeting turned to
the live stage in DCA and Ed Grier and Jay Rasulo. Reading from their scripts,
both Ed and Jay echoed the basic sentiment of Bob Iger and spoke for a few
minutes about how unprecedented this level of investment truly is in a theme
park that is only six years old. Jay surprised the audience by being candid
enough to admit that while some of the individual attractions in DCA like Soarin'
or Tower of Terror are popular with customers, the park as a whole has not
resonated with the audience and that customers feel the park lacks enough warmth
and emotion to make them want to stay for more than a few hours at a time.
The new lagoon show will help retain visitors.
With the scripted and rather stiff introductions concluded, it was then time
to get to the real star of the show, Bob Weis and his personal run down on the
first batch of projects to be revealed for Phase One. Bob began his presentation
by explaining that the expansion and makeover of DCA would be following a few
basic guiding principles, including the need to add the character of Walt Disney
to the property, the need to make the entire environment more detailed and
park-like, and the need to include more of the family-friendly Disney rides that
has made Disneyland next door so popular. With that, Bob began a presentation on
the three major areas of work that were announced yesterday; the completely rebuilt
main entrance area, the remake and retheme of Paradise Pier, and the 12 acre
Cars Land expansion.
First up was the news of the dramatic remake of the main entrance area. As we
had told you in previous updates, the two-dimensional and sterile entrance area
with a contemporary feel from 2001 will all be gutted. Never before has Disney
had to go in and rebuild an entrance area to a theme park before, but Bob and
his team feel this is absolutely necessary for DCA to not only fix the cheap
looking and unattractive entrance that leads to a barren cement plaza, but to
also set the stage for the rest of the park and create a unique and welcoming
buffer zone between the outside world and the experiences beyond.
Since we first told you about the plans a year ago, the original concept of
entrance turnstiles framed by Craftsman architecture hung with bougainvillea has
morphed into the jazzier version of the Pan-Pacific Amphitheater facade as
inspiration for the new entrance (the Studios park in Orlando has a similar
entrance). Set where the California letters currently
stand, the new turnstiles lead to a space similar to the Town Square in
Disneyland.
Art © Disney
Here's where the Pacific Electric Red Cars will stop to pick up and
drop off passengers, surrounded by new Mission Moderne buildings that will house
the Guest Relations office, stroller rentals, lost and found desk, and all of
the standard infrastructure a fancy Disney theme park needs near the front gate.
The Red Cars were a major plot point in the
Roger Rabbit movie.
In the middle of this square will be a flagpole and statue, finally fixing the
oversight DCA had on opening day of not containing a flagpole for the American
and California flags. The statue at the base of the flagpole is planned to be a
new spin on the Walt statue in the Hub at Disneyland. Except this time the
statue is of a much younger Walt arriving in Los Angeles in the late 1920's with
a cardboard suitcase and a much more wiry and and wide eyed version of Mickey
Mouse at his side. It is in this opening entrance area where the Imagineers hope
to lay out the concept of this being a park celebrating "Walt Disney's
California."
Art © Disney
Moving down the street, you pass under the art deco bridge that hides the
monorail beam. This bridge won't be too much of a focal point however, as the
long term plans for transportation around the Resort may have the monorail
moving from that circa 1961 path. The newly rebuilt street reminiscent of Los
Angeles 1920's architecture will still house stores and dining facilities, and Bob spoke
repeatedly about "pulling in" the scale and scope of that entrance area of DCA,
making it more intimate and approachable.
The entry street leads to a circular plaza with the trolleys and antique cars
circling the street. The entire area will receive curbs and sidewalks and
traditional street furniture. The current broad expanse of cement known as the
Sun Plaza is universally derided amongst Imagineers for having no curbs and no
welcoming feature that invites people to stop and sit. The parade route will no
longer pass through this section of the park, and that gave the Imagineers
leeway to make the streetscapes a bit narrower and add in architectural texture
and design elements that would not have been possible if they had to plan for a
big parade passing through there each day.
Bob explained that all of the new
buildings would be very individualized and distinctly broken up, much like Main
Street USA. He went into detail about the vast amount of work WDI has put in to
creating shops, restaurants and architectural features that will bring a
distinctly period and realistic feel to the area, all unlike the broad, bland,
and cartoon-ish two dimensional surfaces that are there now.
The northern edge of the new Walt Disney Plaza will be bounded by the big new
eye candy, and a structure that may become the parks signature icon, a remade
Carthay Circle Theater. (This was the Wilshire area theater Snow White was
premiered at in 1937.) Bob made the announcement that the theater would house a
"New version of the Walt Disney Story," which effectively ends Whoopi Goldberg's
reign as the Queen of California. For a time there was a concept to move a
slightly revamped version of Golden Dreams into this theater, but Bob and John Lasseter want to pursue the Walt Disney angle completely, especially at the
front of the park. So long Whoopi, it's back to Universal's trams for her. The trolley cars circling Walt Disney Plaza
will take a left turn and rumble down Hollywood Blvd., before traveling south
past the Tower of Terror and ending right at the entrance to the Cars Land
expansion.
Bob then turned his attention to Paradise Pier, and explained all about the
Victorian remake for that area that we've been telling you about all year.
Midway Mania (yes, that really is the title for DCA's version), was included in
the presentation, even though it is not formally part of the Billion dollar
budget. Bob went on to explain how the midway games will all be rethemed to
Disney or Pixar characters, instead of using the gimmicky California place names
in their theme. Sketches were shown demonstrating the elaborate detail work that
will soon sweep through Paradise Pier, and the sprawling beer garden and new
viewing terrace for World Of Color were mentioned.
Above left: Lagoon show
viewing area, right: Little Mermaid ride exterior
Below: The SunWheel gets a new face, based on cartoon short title art
Art © Disney
The modern Mickey Mouse
symbol on California Screamin' will be replaced by a period looking sign
advertising Paradise Pier. Mickey will instead take up residence on the Sun
Wheel, with its new Victorian loading area rebuilt around it. Bob also explained
how a new LED lighting system will be installed on the Sun Wheel that will offer
dramatically improved effects over the existing conventional lightbulbs that
always seem to be partially burned out.
In place of the Ratatouille coaster once
planned for the area, the existing Mulholland Madness coaster will be rethemed
as Goofy's Flying Academy, although this area and the space to the east where
the sunglass store and corn dog stand currently stand will be held for future
expansion.
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