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News Bruce Vaughn Returns to Disney as Co-Lead of Walt Disney Imagineering
- Thread starter DCBaker
- Start date
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
Bingo
And he destroyed budgets and timelines as part of a WDI culture that has resulted in LESS attractions in parks…underequipped parks…
UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
I'm honestly not sure if I should be excited. Having money to spend initially seems great, but if they're going to be spending on it stuff like changing Dinosaur into Zootopia or replacing Impressions de France with the Beauty and the Beast Sing-A-Long, I'd rather they have no money and leave things as is.
If they're actually going to build expansions, then great! If they're going to spend the money on replacements, their recent track record suggests they could easily be spending money to make the parks worse than they are right now.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
Not only should you not be excited…it makes no sense for this flyer to be true at all.
Contextually…and that’s more important than ever…look for what motives could be in play here?
UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
More attractions isn't inherently better, though. The overall quality matters. I'd rather have Expedition Everest, Kiliminjaro Safaris, and nothing else than a park that consisted of ten attractions on the level of Little Mermaid and Primeval Whirl.
Of course the ideal is to have many attractions that are all very good (relative to their tier level), but given the choice, having a small number of great attractions is better than a bunch of mediocre to bad ones. It's easier to go back in later to add smaller filler than to go back in and add several high quality E tickets.
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Inspired Figment
Well-Known Member
Budget’s all fine and dandy, but that doesn’t make up for otherwise shallow/bland ideas that make little to no impact on guests that they need to (see EPCOT’s “Harmonious”)
HMF
Well-Known Member
That's the future I am preparing for where I would rather things stay stagnant because every new thing will just make me angry. with all it's flaws I would take Epcot as it existed ten years ago over the stuff they are doing to it today. I am probably never going back to WDW in person. The only reason I still come here is the insiders who remember better days and some very faint hope that things will improve some day.
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Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
That’s until you had a numbers problem due to natural increase in travel you can’t handle and then you’re overrun.
So you throw “lightning” at it at double the cost.
That IS what happened…and bad management and investment decisions are ultimately responsible
UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
I don't think any of that is Joe Rohde's fault, though. Animal Kingdom, e.g., would be a much worse park if it had 10 mediocre to bad attractions and average theming replacing the top tier headliners/theming that currently exists there. It's not helpful to have more attractions when no one wants to ride most of them -- that's the current EPCOT problem.
It's also not like he was the one spending $500 million on Cosmic Rewind.
Of course there's a middle ground, but that doesn't seem to exist for Disney. I have more faith we'd get some truly great attractions worth of the money being spent with Joe Rohde in charge than with anyone else out there except for Tony Baxter.
That said, Rohde turns 68 this year. He's not that much younger than Tony Baxter. Neither of them would be a long-term answer.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
He’s a big part of that culture…not the only one…but a big one
Do you remember what happened with DAK?
And no…he didn’t spend half a bil on guardians of rise of the dull dark ride…
But you can follow the trail of breadcrumbs back pretty well.
Rosso11
Well-Known Member
The parks are the money maker right now and Wall Street is all in on the parks division at the moment. I’m hearing very similar rumblings that Disney is gearing up for some big moves. Yes Disney is nervous about Universal’s third park. But it’s much larger than that. Universal is finding new ways to grow their parks business such as the newly announced regional park in Texas and even the permanent Horror nights location in Vegas. Then if the rumors are true Universal is getting ready to re-enter the European market as well. Disney does have a lot to be nervous about but thankfully it looks like they are getting back on the offense. There seems to be a strong desire to move to a period of growth for the parks division now and not just let it be a simple cash cow.
Sirwalterraleigh
Premium Member
The universal threat is a big deal…maybe for the first time ever…
But Disney - specifically wdw - is in a different spot that Comcast. Disney hit a “revenue saturation point” long ago and uni hasn’t gotten there yet.
It’s not as simple as the optimist WDI cheerleaders hanging out on this thread are making it.
How do you make more money in Orlando? They recently tried and they’re 0-1…
So then once you see the difficulty in that…then motives are called out.
Stay tuned
the.dreamfinder
Well-Known Member
She retired before the pandemic.
Tom P.
Well-Known Member
My gut feeling is still that Rohde is incredibly overrated. I've never understood this near-worship of him from some corners of the fan community. He's done some good things, but some very bad ones, and as @Sirwalterraleigh points out -- crap, I'm agreeing with him again! -- Rohde's management, or lack thereof, actually contributed to making the situation in the parks worse in the long run.
Tony Baxter I could get more excited about, but as you point out, he's 76. Not saying that an imagineer in their 70's isn't possible, but he's not a long-term solution to the problems either. Still, I'd definitely be more excited about him than Rohde.
FerretAfros
Well-Known Member
Should we count the timer to see how long it takes them to un-photoshop his face in the infamous Avatar groundbreaking photo on the wall in Satuli Canteen? My bet is longer than it took to remove Chapek's name from Castaway Cay, but less time than Stitch's Supersonic Celebration.
I can't help but notice he's one of the few somewhat-recognizable WDI names who is still young enough to presumably stick around for a while. If they wanted to have a leader who has been in the public spotlight previously, there really aren't many names to choose from in 2023.
It's also interesting that, although folks know his name, not many people can point to what actual influence he's had on any project, or what particular style sensibilities he brings to the table. Perhaps he'll be a good internal force to rally the troops, but as a consumer of the final product, it's tough to be too excited for someone whose resume is so (intentionally?) vague.
I can't help but notice he's one of the few somewhat-recognizable WDI names who is still young enough to presumably stick around for a while. If they wanted to have a leader who has been in the public spotlight previously, there really aren't many names to choose from in 2023.
It's also interesting that, although folks know his name, not many people can point to what actual influence he's had on any project, or what particular style sensibilities he brings to the table. Perhaps he'll be a good internal force to rally the troops, but as a consumer of the final product, it's tough to be too excited for someone whose resume is so (intentionally?) vague.
Fixed that for you
Sir_Cliff
Well-Known Member
Yes, that's kind of the silver lining to Disneyland Paris' past financial troubles and the dire need to fix the Studios park: the original Disneyland park has been left more or less intact. It could do with a few more attractions, but perhaps it's for the best if they just leave it alone.
Yes, don't get the Rhode hate. It seems every project in recent memory has had insane budgets, but at least Rhode's were good. Animal Kingdom is WDW's saving grace at the moment largely due to his guidance, and now that he's gone I would probably repeat what I said above regarding Disneyland Paris.
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Bob and Bob was a lesser of two evils situation.
Coaster Lover
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- No
Wake me up when construction starts on these so called "new" projects...