Eddie Sotto's take on the current state of the parks (Part II)

[BlueSkyDriveBy]

Tony Baxter, for example came up through the model shop like many other Imagineers.

Which reminds me... tomorrow is Tony's b-day.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Baxter!

May all of your birthday E-Ticket wishes come true!

 

[BlueSkyDriveBy]

Eddie just put out a tweet that Tony is announcing his retirement tomorrow.

"Paging Mr Sotto... white courtesy phone for Eddie Sotto..."

 

[Eddie Sotto]

Which reminds me... tomorrow is Tony's b-day.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Baxter!

May all of your birthday E-Ticket wishes come true!

Well. Tony had a gathering at the Tam O' Shanter Restaurant today and reportedly announced that tomorrow he will be no longer be Imagineering on a full time basis but becoming a consultant. (Seems like retirement being on his birthday and all.) I'm sure something more accurate will be released by WDI that spells out what the arrangement and drivers are.

I always thought of Tony as part of the soul of WDI and learned many great lessons from him. He hired me. Will always be grateful to him for giving me a shot when WED had rejected me in interviews twice before! I hope he can use part of this next phase in his life to inspire others as he did me. I found that there is life after Disney and have been more challenged creatively after than when I was there.
I hope he finds those great projects and can spread his experience around. Maybe we will work on something together. Truly the end of a great Era, but I hope for him it's the beginning of another!

Thank you Tony for the good times!

 

[BlueSkyDriveBy]

I always thought of Tony as part of the soul of WDI and learned many great lessons from him. He hired me. I hope he can use part of this next phase in his life to inspire others as he did me. I found that there is life after Disney and have been more challenged creatively after than when I was there.
I hope he finds those great projects and can spread his experience around.

OK, here is the perfect segue to take the topic back to Hello, Dolly! and DeCuir's involvement on the film.

IMHO, Tony is cut from the same cloth as DeCuir. He has a terrific sense of environment and staging.

Eddie... would Tony be in a position to become the next John DeCuir for stage and film, now that he's a free range Imagineer of sorts?

 

[Darth Sidious]

I wonder if Tony Plans to start his own company like you have Eddie. I hope he still works on some projects around Disney but considering TWDC's misuse of his talents... I find it hard to fathom. Maybe the folks over at Uni will go all out to seek his consultation. They sure would be smart to do it, especially if the man has a chip on his shoulder and unrealized ideas in his mind.

 

[wannabeBelle]

While I certainly wish Mr Baxer only the best of all things, I think that losing him will truly be a great loss for the company. Marie

 

[harveyt0206]

Wow, what a loss for WDI. Best wishes to Mr. Baxter and a million thanks for all of the wonderful attractions and entertainment you have given this die hard Disney fan.

 

[Eddie Sotto]

I wonder if Tony Plans to start his own company like you have Eddie. I hope he still works on some projects around Disney but considering TWDC's misuse of his talents... I find it hard to fathom. Maybe the folks over at Uni will go all out to seek his consultation. They sure would be smart to do it, especially if the man has a chip on his shoulder and unrealized ideas in his mind.

Tony will be wildly successful as he has been approached throughout his career to do lots of big things. I predict, he will be busy as soon as the word is out. I'd love to work with him again on something as it would be interesting being on the outside of the Disney system. If what we hear is true.

 

[Eddie Sotto]

Wow, what a loss for WDI. Best wishes to Mr. Baxter and a million thanks for all of the wonderful attractions and entertainment you have given this die hard Disney fan.

Yes. Great thanks. We all have our "time". I had mine and now others have theirs and have done great things. Tony has had the longest amazing run and may have another in the future. I took a break and am loving it, looks like he may have one and it depends on what he's interested in doing. (I want to read it officially). WDI still does great things and is not a one man operation. Let's give Tony a warm welcome to the outside and let the "next gen" of Imagineers get a chance to build some dreams too.

 

[Eddie Sotto]

OK, here is the perfect segue to take the topic back to Hello, Dolly! and DeCuir's involvement on the film.

IMHO, Tony is cut from the same cloth as DeCuir. He has a terrific sense of environment and staging.

Eddie... would Tony be in a position to become the next John DeCuir for stage and film, now that he's a free range Imagineer of sorts?

You'd have to ask him. I don't see quite that same comparison. DeCuir was very hands on in design detail in a way that goes even beyond Tony. Tony is film director material. I see him doing a movie.

 

[Eddie Sotto]

Eddie just put out a tweet that Tony is announcing his retirement tomorrow.

"Paging Mr Sotto... white courtesy phone for Eddie Sotto..."

Hold the phone...I should have said becoming a "consultant" instead of "retirement". I kind of misspoke. My apologies. You don't realize how many followers you have till you tweet something.

 

[choco choco]

We should ask if he wants to get his own thread up. Or start a blog like Andreas Deja has.

 

[wedenterprises]

Wow, big news. I have always looked up to Tony and loved his projects. I am so happy I got to meet him, and present a concept right to him at ImagiNations. We brought him up on "stage" to help us with part of our presentation, which will always be such an amazing memory. The best part of that experience, however, was looking up into the darkened audience to see a dimly lit Tony Baxter with a giant grin on his face, smiling at our ideas. I never got hired at WDI, even after meeting him again many months after that, AND writing letters to him in Hail Mary attempts, but I will always be so thankful to him for giving me that thrill and for writing "best in show" on our score card.

I wish him the best of luck and I can't wait to see what he does outside of Disney.

 

[Pixiedustmaker]

I think it has been obvious that the upper brass (which I thought Tony Baxter was part of) haven't been giving Tony enough to do, or seeking out his advice.

Tony got the Sleeping Beauty walk-through put back in, and some nice upgrades to some show elements in Snow White in Disneyland . . . after these welcome changes, major refurbishments have strangely come and gone without Baxter plusses, IMHO.

Matterhorn's refurb was bungled, and nothing new was added, (though I think Tony hinted that something new might be coming, if I recall correctly). Obviously, Tony cares about Walt's first park, and this refurb appears to be a disappointment with fans.

Then they "plussed" the river in Disneyland by adding some plastic animals, and some animatronics which broke down. The deer are . . . nice, but I'm sure Tony Baxter had more ambitious ideas that weren't realized.

Then we have the BTMRR refurbs . . . they patterned a character on Tony's likeness, but I have to say that I am shocked that Tony wasn't given major input on possible upgrades to this attraction. Right now Big Thunder is under the knife and Baxter is heading out the door!

Tony seems to have been happy plussing attractions, he doesn't seem to be the type who needs a big E-Ticket to be working on all the time, if he was frustrated over relatively cheap upgrades to existing attractions, then I think upkeep/refreshment of attractions at Disneyland will become a major problem over the next half-decade, if not longer.

Tony really saw the remaining possibilities for expanding Disneyland, I kinda doubt the major big projects will go forward now. He was a first class untapped pool of resources, and if they were smart they'd consult him in the future.

Disney's other problem is that Tony Baxter is one of the company's most visible imagineers, has been for a long time. This is something that fans, APers and less than die-hard fans will get upset about.

I would guess that Tony deserves a window on Main Street, hopefully this isn't all we get:

 

[Eddie Sotto]

I think they will call Tony. He'll probably be on the BTM TV Show!

As for plussing, Tony always made the best of any situation. As we've discussed here, he was a master of extracting funds destined to maintain a show and using them to upgrade or reinvent it. If he did not get big projects, he focused on the smaller ones. I did the same. You can sometimes have more fun on a small project with a small team, than a big one. You have more control because less people are there to mess it up so it is closer to what you wanted. Baxter taught all of us that lesson and will no doubt that tradition will continue. Tony is a visionary guy who can critique and see things no one else does. He sees opportunities in things others don't. I hope that his consulting gig is doing lots of that and brainstorming.

 

[Omnispace]

I hope that Tony continues to have a positive influence on Disney, even in his consulting role. The "next gen" of designers at WDI really need to take notice of the great work he has done -- hopefully he has left "one little spark" with many of them. I wish him all the best in his new role.

 

[Californian Elitist]

I think it has been obvious that the upper brass (which I thought Tony Baxter was part of) haven't been giving Tony enough to do, or seeking out his advice.

Tony got the Sleeping Beauty walk-through put back in, and some nice upgrades to some show elements in Snow White in Disneyland . . . after these welcome changes, major refurbishments have strangely come and gone without Baxter plusses, IMHO.

Matterhorn's refurb was bungled, and nothing new was added, (though I think Tony hinted that something new might be coming, if I recall correctly). Obviously, Tony cares about Walt's first park, and this refurb appears to be a disappointment with fans.

Then they "plussed" the river in Disneyland by adding some plastic animals, and some animatronics which broke down. The deer are . . . nice, but I'm sure Tony Baxter had more ambitious ideas that weren't realized.

Then we have the BTMRR refurbs . . . they patterned a character on Tony's likeness, but I have to say that I am shocked that Tony wasn't given major input on possible upgrades to this attraction. Right now Big Thunder is under the knife and Baxter is heading out the door!

Tony seems to have been happy plussing attractions, he doesn't seem to be the type who needs a big E-Ticket to be working on all the time, if he was frustrated over relatively cheap upgrades to existing attractions, then I think upkeep/refreshment of attractions at Disneyland will become a major problem over the next half-decade, if not longer.

Tony really saw the remaining possibilities for expanding Disneyland, I kinda doubt the major big projects will go forward now. He was a first class untapped pool of resources, and if they were smart they'd consult him in the future.

Disney's other problem is that Tony Baxter is one of the company's most visible imagineers, has been for a long time. This is something that fans, APers and less than die-hard fans will get upset about.

I would guess that Tony deserves a window on Main Street, hopefully this isn't all we get:

He's not leaving for good. He'll still be there, his title is just changing.

 

[Eddie Sotto]

Wow, big news. I have always looked up to Tony and loved his projects. I am so happy I got to meet him, and present a concept right to him at ImagiNations. We brought him up on "stage" to help us with part of our presentation, which will always be such an amazing memory. The best part of that experience, however, was looking up into the darkened audience to see a dimly lit Tony Baxter with a giant grin on his face, smiling at our ideas. I never got hired at WDI, even after meeting him again many months after that, AND writing letters to him in Hail Mary attempts, but I will always be so thankful to him for giving me that thrill and for writing "best in show" on our score card.

I wish him the best of luck and I can't wait to see what he does outside of Disney.

Me too. That's why I'm actually kind of excited. Disney has access to him if they have something that is up his alley and so do we. Best of both worlds.

 

[Eddie Sotto]

He's not leaving for good. He'll still be there, his title is just changing.

That's great news! Tell us more about it.

 

[flynnibus]

He's not leaving for good. He'll still be there, his title is just changing.

Meh.. the same was said of Sklar too.. but it was really just the way to spin him down gracefully.