I've been trying to find the right words. Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Experiences are maddening. But let's back it up...
A theme park is not a random collection of rides. It's a story told through physical environments. The entire park has a story or message. And the parts of the park, whether rides or environments, tell the story of the park. That means that each ride, restaurant, and show matter.
To tell a story, you need to intentionally plan and execute the scenes. It takes intentionality. It takes planning. It takes discipline. Consider the universally lauded Toy Story 2. The scenes feel organic, but they actually took lots of hard work to put together. The film had to be refined through writing, rewrites, and the elimination of gratuitous content. Toy Story 2 has a message. Themes in that film include the importance of being emotionally open, accepting loss and mortality, seeing the best in one's friends, and living life to the fullest.
The Magic Kingdom has a message too. Just like the best films, books, and plays. It is speaking to you. What is it saying? Roy O. Disney told us. He said of Walt Disney World (and more particularly the Magic Kingdom):
"Walt Disney World is a tribute to the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney... and to the talents, the dedication, and the loyalty of the entire Disney organization that made Walt Disney's dream come true."
The Magic Kingdom is a celebration of the philosophy and life of Walt Disney. Thus, everything in the park must teach us about who he was and what he believed. Not through an animatronic talking Walt giving us a lecture. No. That's too obvious and unrefined. Instead, the Magic Kingdom would do it through the stories and experiences that guests encountered.
Go through the list of opening day attractions and those that opened in the 1970s. You'll learn something about Walt Disney. On Main Street USA we learn about where he came from. It preserves his childhood and youth. The optimism and hope for the future that he had. Go down Main Street USA to Cinderella Castle. It represents his journey from humble origins to master storyteller. He invites you into the fantasy worlds he created in Fantasyland. But Walt Disney had other passions too. He loved America and its founding story. He loved nature and adventure. And he believed in an optimistic view of the future. One where difficult problems could be solved and human ingenuity could triumph.
We learn about Walt Disney. But that's not all that we do at the Magic Kingdom. Walt's story becomes our story. We walk the same path of obscurity to our castle and our own Fantasyland. We get to be witness to the founding of America, explore the possibility of tomorrow, and journey into adventure. This is the genius of the Magic Kingdom. Walt Disney's beliefs and passions are not blandly communicated. We get to see, taste, smell, hear, and touch. The Magic Kingdom makes them real.
What a beautiful place.
But much like Toy Story 2, this takes discipline and careful planning. The Magic Kingdom can only communicate the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney if his philosophy and life are inculcated into every aspect of its design. When elements are added to the park that are not in harmony with the rest of The Magic Kingdom, it's like a sour note being played in an otherwise beautiful piece of music. It feels like there have been more and more sour notes. Too many sour notes.
As I watched the D23 presentation, I was furious.
While I have been sad to see Hollywood Studios decay into bleak meaninglessness, it is not nearly as meaningful to me. Epcot's decay is painful, but I never saw it in heyday. It's been eroded for 30 years. Animal Kingdom has been fighting for its life since its inception. It appears that its own individuality and message are being snuffed out. I've seen which way the wind is blowing since Pandora. While it made the best of a bad situation, it signaled an irreversible decline. We are seeing the fruit of that now. It will only get worse.
The Magic Kingdom's decline is perhaps most painful to me personally. The injustice of it. This is the number one park in the world. This is the park that a brother and devoted team created to honor someone they loved. Not someone perfect, but someone that is worthy of celebration. It told a story that deserved to be told. The story of Walt Disney.
This brings us to the present. My frustration with the poor design has been growing. The Walt Disney story is becoming more obscured. A new generation of Imagineers is emerging that don't seem to understand what the Magic Kingdom is. I worry that these Imagineers might not know that the Magic Kingdom is a celebration of the philosophy and life of Walt Disney. I worry that they think the Magic Kingdom is an amusement park with a castle in the middle and random lands surrounding it. That's about as complete a description as the following description of Toy Story 2, "Toy Story 2 is a film with talking toys that do stuff." And obviously this failure to understand extends to the executives.
This D23 presentation represents a turning point. One of my favorite areas is going to be destroyed. Starting at Columbia Harbor House, there is a story that stretches all the way to Big Thunder. Starting in the east (of the Magic Kingdom) is a New England town in the time of the Revolution. As you journey west in the park, you journey in time and in geography to the American west in the 1800s. If you journey southward from Big Thunder you find yourself by Southwestern Spanish architecture. And if you walk further south you eventually end up in a Spanish fort in the Caribbean.
Do the Cars team realize they're destroying this progression? Do they care?
I don't know anymore. It feels like Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Experiences are impulsive. They have no grand vision for the Magic Kingdom. They have no editorial direction. According to the wise professor (credit to
@Advisable Joseph for sharing this) who helped consult on this project:
"Cars makes ridiculous financial and demographic sense. It sells merchandise like no other franchise..."
If that's how decisions are being made, it's no wonder that the Magic Kingdom is in decline. It had nothing to do with what made sense to the story of the park. Unfortunately, that's not how Disney theme parks are developed anymore. And that means every addition will be a subtraction to the story of the park. And Walt Disney will become less and less present in the park dedicated to his philosophy and life. But who needs Walt Disney when you have Bob Iger? As he triumphantly explained:
“The IP that we’re mining, including all the sequels that we’re doing, is second to none.”
The Imagineers have got to get mining!
