Disney+ show recalls the chilling reception for Disney California Adventure: ‘I liked it better as a parking lot’
The fourth episode of ‘The Imagineering Story’ debuting Friday, Nov. 29 on Disney+ takes a critical retrospective look at the development and creation of Disney California Adventure whi…
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>>Walt Disney all but rolls over in his grave and criticizes the mid-1990s decision to move forward with the Disney California Adventure theme park in the latest episode of “The Imagineering Story” on the Disney+ streaming service.
“You can tell when it’s wrong, you know,” Walt Disney says in a voiceover in the new Disney+ docuseries. “Lots of things I’ve started. If I just felt it wasn’t natural, if I got too deep, I abandoned it and started something else.”
The fourth episode of “The Imagineering Story,” debuting Friday, Nov. 29 on Disney+, takes a critical retrospective look at the development and creation of Disney California Adventure which opened to withering criticism in 2001.
“The Imagineering Story” describes the area of Anaheim surrounding Disneyland in the 1990s as a place full of politics with decaying infrastructure and difficult housing developments.
A Westcot version of Florida’s Epcot theme park was announced and ultimately canceled as a “second gate” next to Disneyland. Disney’s California Adventure was pitched as a new alternative for the 70-acre Disneyland parking lot.
Unlike Disneyland, Disney California Adventure would have no hub-and-spoke layout, no berm surrounding the park and no Disney characters. The goal of DCA: Bring a developer’s mentality and fiscal discipline to theme park planning.<<
Gee, when folks, including myself, said those things in a very public way, well, let's just say we didn't get the best of acceptance....
>>As conceived, the new theme park would offer a picture-postcard version of the California dream glorifying beach culture, Hollywood glamour and the state’s natural beauty. C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A was spelled out in nearly 12-foot-tall letters at the entrance. Visitors entered the park under a foreshortened Golden Gate Bridge. A pointy metal sun above a breaking wave served as California Adventure’s centerpiece.
“Much to our chagrin, it didn’t adhere to our fundamental design principles of theme park design,” Walt Disney Imagineering creative executive Kevin Rafferty says in the docuseries. “The first statement that you saw when you walked into the gate was the sharp sun. Frankly you could have seen that at a shopping mall in Newport Beach. It’s like, ‘Why is it here?’”
DCA was a business decision rather than a creative endeavor that cheapened Imagineering’s reputation, according to the fourth episode of “The Imagineering Story.”
“We were disappointing our guests,” Imagineering creative executive Tom Morris says in the docuseries. “We were kind of watering down the formula.”
California Adventure opened with a collection of off-the-shelf rides like the Maliboomer drop tower, Orange Stinger wave swings and Mulholland Madness wild mouse coaster.
“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.”
The sharpest critique of the ill-conceived park comes from the late Disney Imagineer John Hench: “I liked it better as a parking lot.”<<
>>Walt Disney gets the final word in “The Imagineering Story” segment on Disney California Adventure.
“If it doesn’t come out the way I feel it ought to come out I’m sick, I’m disappointed,” Walt Disney says in a voiceover in the docuseries. “Then I say, ‘Why the heck didn’t this come off? What was wrong? Where were we wrong to start with?’”<<
