Well.. yes, he was defensive. Though I understand he was doing it basically to protect his job. The only problem with that though is the fact that management clearly has/had no respect or care for him, his colleagues, or the attractions in the parks for that matter unless it strictly benefits them in essence, not the brand they’re supposed to be representing, along with if they believe it’ll please shareholders. So doing what Marty did in all honesty it doesn’t benefit really anybody in that situation.. as clearly upper management just doesn’t want Disney to be Disney for whatever bizarre reason.. despite that getting them more popular & providing more profits long term to shareholders. I get why he did it.. but unless there was solid evidence management would change and he could stay in there to eventually push the needed change in continuing Walt’s legacy with everyone else there that wants do the same, what he did with the fans was ultimately useless.. as upper management is most certainly not on his side. The fans are though. I also get the hope/faith that it eventually would and to continue having good relationships with management to they could wait for that moment and be in the position to do what they ultimately wanted to do.. it’s a bit difficult to really explain. The truth is, Upper management just hasn’t given a s**t about Disney as an entity, it’s integrity or it’s legacy, or anybody working there that’s doing all they can to keep it’s legacy, values, & spirit alive. Which is completely detrimental to everybody, including the shareholders they’re supposed to be pleasing. As what made Disney so long lasting & profitable to begin with was it’s creativity, thematic integrity, and attention to detail & quality. So I mainly blame Bob Iger & co. in upper management for that problem. As I understand it, Disney was willing to completely bulldoze Small World in favor of another Film IP attraction in that space. But it was thanks to proposals of shoehorning in film ip characters that saved it, as then the executives could boost sales on more Film IP character merch in that space for their own bizarre agenda.
Ultimately though, both any film IP ride pitches & the shoehorning of the characters inside was useless/pointless. As if you look now, Small World merch on its own.. sells lots & is very popular. If they had simply did that to begin with & simply enhanced the spfx & AAs within the attraction. It would’ve done just as well if not better than what they ended up doing to it .
