LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
I’m struggling to understand what this decades-long campaign would entail exactly, and how it could possibly succeed given that the company’s very name will always keep the association with Walt active.
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The American Adventure closing for refurbishment
- Thread starter DCBaker
- Start date
doctornick
Well-Known Member
Yeah, I can get the idea of trying to distance from Walt in order to being held to his quality standard, but I don’t see how it can be done without essentially blowing up the entire company including changing the name. And that’s basically throwing out a lot of the nostalgia and brand loyalty of the company where a lot of the value is (the proverbial “throwing out the baby with the bath water”).
The Bob Company doesn’t have the same ring to it does it.
Ayla
Well-Known Member
Thank you for showing what critical thinking can do to destroy a ridiculous premise.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
Not even close. Impressively wrong i'd say.
I never stated that I noticed any attempts to cancel Walt. He's getting a new statue in Epcot, and they didn't remove him from the ending montage in AA. Until I see further evidence, I will assume there's another explanation for the absence of the quote, someone else presented a possible reason. If it remains missing and we start seeing other similar small removals, then i'd take note.
What I did say is that there are a number of executives at the highest levels who don't like Walt and have a desire to remove his presence at the company. To the point where all that is left is the last name. That shouldn't be a surprise to anyone, and their motives are not political correctness. It's driven by ego, disliking his business practices, finding him and his fans bothersome etc. It should be noted that I don't believe this to be a remotely rational thing to actually attempt. That said, these execs have found some "allies" in the group of consultants who have been recommending PC changes to park attractions. So that's where the "woke" angle comes into play, it would be the narrative they lean on if they ever do attempt to purge Walt from the company.
Plans were being concocted to gradually reduce and remove references to Walt a few years ago. It would be done very slowly and quietly over the course of a decade or more. That said, this was pre-Covid, a LOT has happened since then. They've painted a target on their heads from a number of different groups on all sides of the spectrum. They also have other far more important things on their plate to deal with right now. So hopefully this never actually happens, perhaps the presence of new statues are also positive signs. Also turns out that (unsurprisingly) very few people either IRL or online think that Walt is bad and should be canceled. Not counting the resident troll Phil.
And again for the record, I don't consider this "plan" to be sane at all. It's a recipe for disaster if they were to ever attempt it. But then again I consider quite a lot of what the company does these days to be incredibly asinine.
In the meantime, I suggest you put a lid on the aggression and rudeness.
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MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
I dunno, is "Bob the Builder" still a thing? Maybe they can buy that out and use it to rebrand.
Seriously though. Regardless of whether they pare back Walt's presence at the company, they're not getting rid of the name "Disney". There are tons of companies that use the surname of the founder without many people knowing it's a person's name or anything about them. Hell, i've come across multiple adults (young but still early 20s) who didn't know Disney was a person's name...
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MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
A little bit of civility would help you go a long way.
I dunno, is "Bob the Builder" still a thing? Maybe they can buy that out and use it to rebrand.
Seriously though. Regardless of whether they pare back Walt's presence at the company, they're not getting rid of the name "Disney". There are tons of companies that use the surname of the founder without many people knowing it's a person's name or anything about them. Hell, i've come across multiple adults (young but still early 20s) who didn't know Disney was a person's name...
TPTB just need the people who know about Walt to die off, then they can do whatever they want.
Similarly, anyone who remembers EPCOT Center needs to die off so they can completely ruin what's left without fearing reprisal from those who remember what the park once stood for and accomplished.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
My mom is now 70 and was lucky to have visited Disneyland in 1964 while Walt was still alive. One thing she told me about the experience that I always remember is "the place was so clean you could probably eat off the pavement".TPTB just need the people who know about Walt to die off, then they can do whatever they want.
I'll be 34 tomorrow, only just barely made it to EPCOT a few years before they started ruining it. Few years in my early childhood, got really lucky. Thankfully it'll take a lot longer for everyone who got to experience that park in its prime to croak. Seems like there's a lot of Gen X and millennials who love and remember it.
On topic, i'm glad to hear that American Adventure DID apparently get some love. Nice to see some actual maintenance being done on an attraction.
Indeed. It needed a round of TLC, and I'm extremely happy it finally happened. Even if it meant I missed out on seeing it this past September.
ppete1975
Well-Known Member
your post reminded me of always hearing disneyland at night after the guests left the workers would touch up all the railings so they didnt have chips and looked new.
I was watching justin scarred the other day and he showed a railing that looked like it was in a playground that hadnt been cared for in decades, there was more metal showing than paint. And it showed me how far the parks have fallen, because that would have been unacceptable not that long ago.
MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
They still adhered to those standards for a surprisingly long time after Walt died. Probably because there were still close associates of his running the show. I gather park upkeep only started to show any noticeable decline at some point after Eisner took over. While I wouldn't say WDW was "clean enough to eat off the pavement" by the time I first visited in the early 90s, it still appeared as if they did paint touch ups in guest-frequented areas that got a lot of wear. Still quite clean and well kept up.
Even in that era, they adhered to an "80%" policy regarding lightbulbs. Once a lightbulb reached 80% of its life expectancy, workers would swap it out for a new one to help prevent burnouts. And they'd check for any premature outages as well of course. So the only broken bulbs you'd generally see were defects.
I did start to notice a lapse in general upkeep starting around the 1996-1997 timeframe. Nowhere near as bad as it is now, but enough to spot. I'd see more chipped/scuffed paint, more burned out lightbulbs, trash or bathrooms being ignored for longer periods. Though rides still seemed well taken care of at least. After 1997, we didn't visit the parks again for over a decade. We moved to Florida in 2010 and I finally returned, it was a real shock how run-down the place had become.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
“Waltie” is not used as a term of endearment.
My thoughts? Your post is completely off-topic for this thread.
my thoughts? never mind....you prob know my answer
Wrong thread. This one is called the American Adventure and so is obviously about a corporation and it’s founder.
You want the Avatar thread.
I thought it was Strange World?
It's a surprise to me. I've seen no signs of it. It has all the hallmarks of a conspiracy theory.
This is exactly the rumor of a few months ago (removing 'Walt') but for a different (and opposite) reason. Especially since "Walt" and "Disney" reference the same person, so, keeping "Disney" defeats their purposes.
It strains credulity that upper level execs could be this dumb... even considering corporate culture.
And what you're describing is exactly a "cancellation" of a person.