Disney California Adventure: ‘I liked it better as a parking lot’ - OCR/SCNG

[The Empress Lilly]

When I first heard of the imagineering series, I thought it was going to be part infomercial part propaganda. It’s great they are showing more reality and facts.

Kick the predecessors in the groin, pat yourself on the shoulder for correcting them.

 

[RobWDW1971]

I was in the aerospace business. Spent a lot of time at the AF Rocket Propulsion Lab in the hills overlooking Edwards AFB--Condor Flats. Have met some of the folks on the walls in Soarin'. My dad had met some others. I worked on some of the projects on the walls. The plain concrete and fake explosion-proof covers on the lights gave a nice hint of Edwards. I'm probably on my own, but I liked the queue.

But what does any of that have to do with hang gliding? Every time I go on it, it makes me wonder if the team who did the queue/pre-show had any idea of the concept and story of the ride.

 

[THE 1HAPPY HAUNT]

“You can’t fool people,” Imagineering art director Kim Irvine says in the docuseries. “They can tell when things are being short-changed or you’re not paying attention to the details and putting the quality into something. Walt used to say, ‘If you do a good job, they’ll pay for it.’ And I think they started seeing that we weren’t doing that good of a job anymore.”

Where was this insight when it came to the Falcon Ramp, Kim??!!! And centering GALAXY'S EDGE around a new story leaving out all of the original characters you paid $4billion for and the X-WING coaster?????!!!!

 

[RobWDW1971]

Where was this insight when it came to the Falcon Ramp, Kim??!!! And centering GALAXY'S EDGE around a new story leaving out all of the original characters you paid $4billion for and the X-WING coaster?????!!!!

Kim is a local project manager - she handles thing like castle refurb, not major projects. She’s in the doc because of her interesting lineage.

 

[THE 1HAPPY HAUNT]

Kim is a local project manager - she handles thing like castle refurb, not major projects. She’s in the doc because of her interesting lineage.

As a art director after that statement she should have made it loud and clear we need to go up the falcon ramp. no excuses for her.

 

[RobWDW1971]

As a art director after that statement she should have made it loud and clear we need to go up the falcon ramp. no excuses for her.

Ha! Can’t dispute that!

 

[No Name]

If I had one day at the resort I’d choose to spend it at DCA.

Will watch the Imagineering series sometime soon.

 

[RobWDW1971]

If I had one day at the resort I’d choose to spend it at DCA.

Will watch the Imagineering series sometime soon.

Blasphemy!

 

[Stevek]

As a art director after that statement she should have made it loud and clear we need to go up the falcon ramp. no excuses for her.

Do we know that she didn't make that loud and clear internally? Pretty hard to judge some of these folks when we aren't in the room when decisions are being made.

 

[Disstevefan1]

If I had one day at the resort I’d choose to spend it at DCA.

Will watch the Imagineering series sometime soon.

Wow! Now here is a DCA fan! In all the Disneyparks in the world including Tokyo Disneyland, your favorite is DCA. To each their own.

 

[No Name]

In all the Disneyparks in the world including Tokyo Disneyland, your favorite is DCA.

Lol that’s explicitly not what I said. I said “if I had one day at the resort...” meaning obviously the Disneyland resort. Part of the reason being that there are castle parks at other resorts and DCA is more unique.

But nonetheless, yes, I would agree I am a DCA fan.

 

[Ismael Flores]

Including John Lassiter PP land?

How about GRR, especially since Calico River Rapids got the Garner Holt Treatment?

Calico river is no GRR even with the moving maniquins GRR natural setting and rockwork is way above calico river rapids.

 

[The Grand Inquisitor]

Soaring 1.0

Totally forgot about Soarin!

 

[TP2000]

But I was saying how the show really let out WDI's feelings. And yes, I had discussions, or better described as Rants from many of them. What is in the show is a toned down version, but matches what happened. It took a change in Senior Management to finally decide that DCA 1.0, along with the minor adjustments in the early years was a total failure to get to version 3.X and alas, looks like version 4 will be an overall drop in quality with Avenges Campus opening. Looks like the forgot what happened 20 years ago already...

Which is a shame.

You know what else is a shame? That all those DCA 1.0 defenders and cheerleaders we interacted with from the early 2000's are no longer around. (For the young'uns, Darkbeer and I and a couple others go way, way back over 20 years online in various forums. @FerretAfros, you know too, old pal!)

From LaughingPlace and Mouseinfo, which 18 years ago were both busy beehives of message board chatter, the old names that defended DCA endlessly (and suspiciously) all ended up melting away.

"jonvn" also known as Jon Nadelberg from up in the Bay Area was the best example on LaughingPlace.

And I'll never forget "Marcie" on Mouse Info. I swear, if Marcie wasn't actually Cynthia Harriss in disguise or some weird TDA cubicle farm sycophant with a serious Cynthia fetish, then I don't know who it could have been. Or what person could have kept up the years-long show that everything with DCA 1.0 was wonderful and exactly how they planned it to be. Marcie made Mitt Romney's "Pierre Delecto" Twitter persona look like child's play.

It's a shame those folks all got flushed out of TDA by Matt Ouimet's cleansing era, or drifted away in embarrassment by '07 and '08. I can only imagine how they would try to spin the blunt statements made in this WDI documentary on the failures of DCA 1.0.

And why oh why could they not get Paul Pressler and Cynthia Harriss on camera for at least a brief moment?! It would have been great if they had just sat in the parking lot of the Laguna Beach Whole Foods and waited for Cynthia to come out with her weekly shopping and then ambushed her for a statement.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

And I found DCA 1.0 100x better than Walt Disney Studios Paris. It's amazing Tom Fitzgerald is still with the company after that mess.

 

[RobWDW1971]

And I found DCA 1.0 100x better than Walt Disney Studios Paris. It's amazing Tom Fitzgerald is still with the company after that mess.

And having the cahones to lecture anybody about quality and storytelling.

 

[TROR]

This show has been so fun to watch with my family. My Dad who is a Disney fan didn't even now much about DCA and was in awe how terrible it once was. His exact quote was " why the f@$% would you build a park about California in California"!

I'm guessing your father also thinks Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags over Texas were stupid ideas?

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

If I had one day at the resort I’d choose to spend it at DCA.

Will watch the Imagineering series sometime soon.

I’ll give you that... world of color and cars land are both totally unique and some of the most impressive things Disney has done. The frozen show is super close to broadway level. I also love riding / watching the red car trolleys when they are running.

My first visits to the west coast were on business and I only had 1 or 1.5 days at Disneyland. I’m so glad on my second 1.5 day visit i went into DCA so I can say “I saw it when” - I don’t think I rode anything? I’m prettt sure I went to the alladin show. Maybe I rode the coaster.

 

[lazyboy97o]

What frustrates me the most after viewing the last episode of the Imagineering Story (besides Westcot getting scrapped) is that behind the scenes footage of them in teams giving out their ideas. In one shot we could clearly see an idea for a park that’s themed to America- elements of Chicago, California, the East Coast, stuff like that were all posted on the board, yet they still went for a California themed theme park in California.

The Aspen retreat occurred in August 1995, so just under a year after Disney’s America was cancelled in mid-September 1994. While it was one of the ideas pitched, it seems doubtful it had much of a shot so recently after being killed due to public perception and rising costs. The idea of a park about its location is not inherently a bad idea. Disney’s America was a park about the USA in the USA, and even Disneyland is very much about the US. The problem was the execution and intention as a cheap substitute versus being a unique celebration.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Did oriental land company have exclusive use of the designs for Disney Sea? It seems like they could have at least done a cheap version of Disney Sea instead of DCA.