A Spirited 15 Rounds ...

Princess Leia

Princess Leia

Well-Known Member
the.dreamfinder said:
On Disney’s “restorations” of classic animated films.





https://twitter.com/stephen_duignan/status/988470255029768192
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Animaniac93-98 said:
I debated posting about this here yesterday, but made a separate thread:

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/disneys-botched-restoration-of-cinderella-1950.940091/

I don't hate the way Disney does their restorations, but they need to at least get the colours right and retain the line art and FX animation.
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I remember reading about this a couple years ago, and can’t find the image now, but they botched the coloring job on Lady Tremaine. Her head scarf ended up blending into her hair.
 
the.dreamfinder

the.dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
Mike S said:
It’s one person saying that she’s been hearing it a bit this week but not from her best sources.
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Wouldn’t something of that magnitude be a fundamentally different arrangement than a couple of IP lands? Would Nintendo make the same mistake Disney did with TDL and not own any equity in such a potentially lucrative venture?
 
the.dreamfinder

the.dreamfinder

Well-Known Member
015B57C9-3CBD-492D-BD4C-4F42FBE9D9BA.jpeg

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Princess Leia

Princess Leia

Well-Known Member
For those who might be reading this who haven’t seen Infinity War yet- stay away from spoilers. Sure, we all have joked around that Characters X, Y, and Z are probably dying for real in this one, but nothing prepares you for when it’s X.... then B & C instead. The viewing experience will be so much stronger by keeping away from spoilers.
 
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Sir_Cliff

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
Animaniac93-98 said:
Fantastic write up on all the original Adventureland/Caribbean Plaza shops and the unsuccessful attempts to make Tortuga Tavern a suitable dining location:

http://passport2dreams.blogspot.ca/2018/04/the-forgotten-shops-of-adventureland.html

Beyond being a useful document of WDW's past, the article really demonstrates how much of MK's original charm has been lost to time.
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Thanks for posting that! It was a very interesting and somewhat depressing read. One thing I remember very clearly from my first visit to a Disney park (Disneyland) in 1992 when I was but a young boy was all the interesting little shops on Main Street USA, in NOS, etc that, I guess, were already on their way out by then. My first visit to WDW was in 1994 and I remember it didn't seem that they put as much thought into their retail locations, outside of perhaps World Showcase.

The obvious thing that strikes me upon reading that article is how watered down the theming has becoming in the parks. All the talk of retail and dining being designed to tell a story has more or less been thrown out the window beyond a few holdouts such as WS and AK.

Another thing is that I can't imagine people buying stuff like inlaid pearl brassware and eastern silks in a theme park. I'd be interested to know if these shops ever really moved much merchandise or whether the purchasing habits of visitors changed significantly from 1971 to the 1990s. I suspect, more than anything, the change to mass-market branded merchandise reflects the need for corporations to ring more and ever greater profits out of everything beginning sometime around the 1980s that goes far beyond Disney. It is possible Disney was happy with the shops bringing in modest profits with the notion that they were part of a larger whole. I can't imagine any middle-manager today being able to justify low profit margins at stores on the basis they reinforced the show.

Either way, it is sad to see all those images as the shops and their merchandise really do evoke different places very effectively. Nowdays, themed retail in MK means Moana plush alongside the Frozen dresses in Adventureland.
 
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lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Sir_Cliff said:
Thanks for posting that! It was a very interesting and somewhat depressing read. One thing I remember very clearly from my first visit to a Disney park (Disneyland) in 1992 when I was but a young boy was all the interesting little shops on Main Street USA, in NOS, etc that, I guess, were already on their way out by then. My first visit to WDW was in 1994 and I remember it didn't seem that they put as much thought into their retail locations, outside of perhaps World Showcase.

The obvious thing that strikes me upon reading that article is how watered down the theming has becoming in the parks. All the talk of retail and dining being designed to tell a story has more or less been thrown out the window beyond a few holdouts such as WS and AK.

Another thing is that I can't imagine people buying stuff like inlaid pearl brassware and eastern silks in a theme park. I'd be interested to know if these shops ever really moved much merchandise or whether the purchasing habits of visitors changed significantly from 1971 to the 1990s. I suspect, more than anything, the change to mass-market branded merchandise reflects the need for corporations to ring more and ever greater profits out of everything beginning sometime around the 1980s that goes far beyond Disney. It is possible Disney was happy with the shops bringing in modest profits with the notion that they were part of a larger whole. I can't imagine any middle-manager today being able to justify low profit margins at stores on the basis they reinforced the show.

Either way, it is sad to see all those images as the shops and their merchandise really do evoke different places very effectively. Nowdays, themed retail in MK means Moana plush alongside the Frozen dresses in Adventureland.
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If you or anyone else has not read them, the “How it Was Done” posts are a great read. They aren’t original content, but a longer article from 1972 explaining Disney’s business philosophy.
https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/how-it-was-done.852805/#post-5169512

The change in retail is one of the biggest examples of how Paul Pressler changed Disney’s Parks and continues to influence them. Disney knew that the quirky theme shops did not generate profit but were part of the show. The expectation was that the whole operation was profitable. In one of his threads, @Eddie Sotto talks about how even in the late 1980s they had different categories of retail based on the type of merchandise and sales, a program intended to provide a mix from your mass merchandise high volume Emporium down to an actual antique car dealership that nobody every expected to sell but boy was it cool.

Pressler, coming from Consumer Products, instituted a model based around malls where the metric of success is the square foot. With everything broken down it wasn’t just that quirky shops were being looked at as unprofitable but they were now actually in competition with other shops in the park. The highest selling merchandise was brought in to every location to boost sales, but all that did was spread around the buying. People aren’t going to buy more Pooh plush because it’s in every store. Walt Disney World went from being a single enterprise to a geographic collection of competing businesses that happen to have common ownership.
 

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