No, let's back up again - I didn't "change my mind".
I was told that WDI had something up their sleeve, and was willing to wait to see how it turned out before passing judgement. What was described to me was not what was eventually built (that's a simple way of putting it, since I'm not at liberty to share all the details), so viewing the scene as installed let me make my decision. As it stands on its own within the ride, I don't like the placement of WDW's Hatbox Ghost.
Do you see now why I'm getting defensive? Come with the correct energy if you want to be met with it in turn.
I didn't realize what I said would be so upsetting, and still don't to be honest. That certainly wasn't my intent. I genuinely did not know that you disliked the Hatbox Ghost in its final form. What I recall you saying early on is that the placement would end up making sense, and I wasn't aware that your opinion changed when you saw the final product. If you did say that somewhere on here, then i'm sorry but I genuinely didn't know. I admittedly don't read every single post on here, but I also didn't get the impression from what I did read that you didn't like it.
The concept art that Disney released was the only preview material I ever saw of WDW's Hattie. This specifically-
And I don't like this concept. The lighting is definitely more striking here. And I'd be curious to know what sort of different and more elaborate plans there were originally. But again, I don't think any variant of this figure's placement at that spot would have turned out acceptable. Regardless of how much better it may have been in the planning phase.
It does go to show however that we should always take word of mouth from imagineers with a huge grain of salt. Even from very talented people such as Joe Rohde. I've been told some great things about Tiana, but a lot of this is just hearsay that even I maintain a skeptical mind for. And I definitely don't expect everyone here to believe it either. So it doesn't offend me when there's doubt expressed.
There are lots of things that scan as bad ideas before they're built that end up turning out to be good ideas. Pandora at Animal Kingdom, for example. The concept for Indy at Animal Kingdom appears to be much more aligned with that than with something like Chester and Hesters (which I do think *fits*, and has some cleverness to it, but ultimately does not satisfy as an experience for the Disney Park guest).
I disagree about Chester and Hester fitting. I acknowledge that people attempt to explain why it does and appreciate the effort, but I can't get behind it myself. It doesn't help that the area is just awful. I don't hate or blame Rohde for its inclusion, because he clearly had the rug pulled out from under him with the massive budget cuts and had much grander plans before that. With C&H being a last second addition done with a likely far less than shoestring budget. But I also don't think he's being honest when he promotes the land's merits. I doubt anyone involved with it would defend its quality or fit if you truly got them to speak off the record.
Doesn't mean I think what they're replacing it with will fit either though. Dinosaur and the Boneyard DID fit very well with the park, particularly the original CTE ride. It's a stupid decision to replace these rides instead of expanding the park around them. Dinosaurs are a pretty evergreen concept regarding popularity. If anything, it would have been neat to see them expand the concept of the land to include other prehistoric and extinct species as well. And I think there would be a ton of demand to see them do this.
Pandora also doesn't really "fit" with AK to me. It fits slightly better than C&H, but that's mostly because it at least attempts to create a lush jungle-like environment that blends in with the surrounding park to some degree. There are admittedly even worse things that could be build at AK. But as far as keeping to the original "philosophies" behind AK, I think it mostly doesn't really fit at all aside from some subtle ecology aspects. And even that is less about the impact on animals, moreso its impact on plants and especially the humanoid cat aliens. And I say this as someone who actually thinks the land is really cool when judged in a vacuum.
