Because Walt Disney said “Disneyland will never be completed,” everything else he said, believed, and did are irrelevant and dated.
I find that press point infuriating. Only extremists argue a complete freeze in time. Most want quite the opposite of stagnation. They want innovation! I know I do.
Do I want respect for what was there before? Yes. But is there a lot of leeway? Absolutely.
A great example would be the beloved Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road. It has aspects very similar to the Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland at Disneyland. It still celebrates the wildness of nature and the west. It also is still frontier. It is the perfect harmony between old and new.
The potential for harmony can be found in the wide tapestries of Adventure, Frontier, Fantasy, and Tomorrow.
Isn’t this the perfect time to be looking at the challenges (even risks) of the future, and the potential benefits? Imagine what we could learn from the things we did right and wrong on the American frontier.
Disneyland (and thus Magic Kingdom) was built on flexible settings that allow for countless stories to be told.
I’d love to see a Tomorrowland confronting the possibilities and risks of A.I., alternative energy sources, or robotics! Or what about a dark ride telling Native American stories in Frontierland (it’s not like exploring what happens when two cultures collide is relevant)?
Chapek is just too daft to see any potential beyond Woody awkwardly standing around in Frontierland.
Oh and apparently Space Mountain didn’t get the memo on the museum thing...
