Joe Rohde announces retirement from WDI

[KBLovedDisney]

No, It's Disney cutting high paid employees so that they can "save money" in this time of pandemic. The fact that it's right before the 50th is just a sad happenstance.

Well, that is just wrong.

"Oh, we are having our big party next year! Oh but you long timers are not invited. In fact, just leave."

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

But isn't that a masterstroke? DAK was severely underfunded. So the designers cleverly tried to divert the limits from 5 to 3.5 lands. Quality over quantity. Asia, Dinoland, Camp Mickey Minnie were left blank or got cheap filler, to be filled in in due course.

The 3.5 lands too were financially underfunded, but over-endowed with creative and intellectual prowess.

DCA, WDSP, DAK Three undrrfunded parks that opened within a few years. Two of them a failure, two of them corrected at enormous expense. One of them a gorgeous succes. This feat stands as one of the greatest successes in all of WDI history.

Well I’m gonna have to respectfully disagree here. The late Eisner cheap parks are a well documented disaster. But DAK caused those as much as it was a “victim”

That park was horribly overbudget and opened with next to nothing. Not nearly the park it needed to be. And WDI didn’t “bail it out” - make lemons out of lemonade - as much as they dug a hole and asked for a rope from the top. That actually leads us back to the topic.

So its a mixed bag on that one.

That’s a sugarcoated oversimplification.
Ron Miller and his team made the successes of Eisner/Wells possible because they set up Home Video, the Disney Channel, and Touchstone Pictures. Had the company not been greenmailed, they could have stayed in power and taken credit for their hard work. EPCOT Center was expensive, but thanks to Roy E, who supported breaking up the company, and Saul Steinberg, fighting off the greenmail campaign did considerable harm to WDP’s cash reserves.

Disney was actually very financially stable at the time. Ray Watson was the de facto mover and shaker...

But they were “stale”...they needed new leadership...and it flew into town on a rocket.

Ron Miller’s (who isn’t fairly judged) main qualification didn’t have anything to do with skills or acumen.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

Let me guess, there is only a limited number of approved paint colors?

Of course there is, silly

 

[HarperRose]

Anyone else find it odd that these higher ups have been leaving right before the 50th...?

The timing of the 50th is coincidental. It's more about hoarding money due to the pandemic.

 

[Sirwalterraleigh]

No, It's Disney cutting high paid employees so that they can "save money" in this time of pandemic. The fact that it's right before the 50th is just a sad happenstance.

Blood letting is always good for Wall Street (since it no longer is about actual production and product sales)

 

[tirian]

Between the terrible repaint and the decor that looks like it was dreamed up in 10 minutes, the Castle is set to look worse in its Golden Anniversary than it basically ever has. It stuns me. I'm trying to forgive them given the . . . everything going on in the world . . . but it's hard to believe a brighter mind couldn't have done more with the same money. I suspect the nighttime projections will look nice, but how sad that it's up to them to salvage an icon.

I agree that Spaceship Earth will likely look very nice, but hopefully the lighting is used tastefully. Seems very much like the kind of thing where the difference between genuine beauty and mere shiny headache will fall to its programming.

Though my hope, of course, is that both projects shine and succeed. But what a shame that we have seemingly so little to look forward to.

Worse than Stitch’s Toilet Paper castle?

Well...given how the entire thing is uglified right now...yeah.

 

[DVCakaCarlF]

Worse than Stitch’s Toilet Paper castle?

Well...given how the entire thing is uglified right now...yeah.

That in itself is a disaster.

DVC

 

[tirian]

Between the terrible repaint and the decor that looks like it was dreamed up in 10 minutes, the Castle is set to look worse in its Golden Anniversary than it basically ever has. It stuns me. I'm trying to forgive them given the . . . everything going on in the world . . . but it's hard to believe a brighter mind couldn't have done more with the same money. I suspect the nighttime projections will look nice, but how sad that it's up to them to salvage an icon.

I agree that Spaceship Earth will likely look very nice, but hopefully the lighting is used tastefully. Seems very much like the kind of thing where the difference between genuine beauty and mere shiny headache will fall to its programming.

Though my hope, of course, is that both projects shine and succeed. But what a shame that we have seemingly so little to look forward to.

Whatever happens, some of the online forums will breathlessly defend it, especially Al Lutz’s old place that somehow stumbles on.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Worse than Stitch’s Toilet Paper castle?

Well...given how the entire thing is uglified right now...yeah.

That’s the problem - Stitch’s thing was a beautiful castle covered in Toilet Paper. It’s *about* to become a severely sunburnt castle covered in gold toilet paper, with another awkward medallion placed over the architectural center of the building.

Not to mention the TP only lasted one day (one day too many, for sure).

 

[Smiley/OCD]

Correct. Having to meet with the "committee" regarding violations is like being called to the principal's office in high school.

That's why homeowners association and me are 3 words that will NEVER be in the same sentence...

 

[JoeCamel]

That's why homeowners association and me are 3 words that will NEVER be in the same sentence...

Have been in a 'mind your own business" HOA for 20 years, newcomers want to run things so I'm out. Anyone want to buy a house in the country? 1 hour to the world on I-4

 

[larryz]

That's why homeowners association and me are 3 words that will NEVER be in the same sentence...

Uh, you just put them in one...

 

[Smiley/OCD]

Uh, you just put them in one...

Uh, I had to do it once...lol