Disney Charm. Where have you gone?

[Rich T]

I wish Disney would admit their mistake and bite the bullet and spend the time and money to bring the people mover back to Disneyland

A better Peoplemover, though. The original had deteriorated into a clunky rattletrap in its final years. Heck, even do Rocket Rods right this time—as a gentle launched coaster.

Nearly ANY MAJOR NON-DISNEY PARK IN THE WORLD could have produced and installed a great People Mover replacement TEN TIMES by now. But not Iger Era Disney, oh, no. They were far too busy mishandling Star Wars and milking Marvel.

 

[networkpro]

Where has the charm gone? It left as the urban sprawl encompassed it.

 

[PostScott]

I have to agree with the difference between nostalgia and charm. As Disney grows, they try to cater to the majority amount of people. Under the Iger era, he really pushed for the "IP". So of course for the past 15 or so years there has been a shift in the ways the parks are. I think the company has seen how much money they can make off of IPs, so I believe that their mindset is mainly towards trying to implement as many IPs into the parks so people will go. I grew up with Disneyland right before the beginning of the Iger era and I remember that specific "charm" ya'll are referring to. I believe that it is still there, but the new park additions have something missing. What I think is that these new IP attractions and lands are built because someone went to imagineering and told them to create an idea revolving around a certain IP. Back during the "charm" era, I feel like imagineering built things that they really wanted to build. They had ideas that they were truly passionate about. While yes, anyone working on GE would be passionate about making a star wars land, the land was built because Disney wanted to make more money. Like I said earlier, the bigger Disney grows, the more money they want to make and the bigger they want to become. Will they ever go back to that "charm" era? Who knows? I still believe though that Disney is at the top of their game when it comes to building immersive lands/attractions and creating new ride technologies. They are still pushing the limits of what is possible with entertainment, but I have seen a decline in pushing the limits of a great original theme park attraction.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Sorry, anybody who built the terrible and charmless Kali River Rapids is forever banned from an opinion on this subject.

Based on his own original concept art, I’m sure he’s disappointed in the end result as well. I haven’t ridden it in years and years... I always thought the fog and fire effects were pretty cool.... are they still working?

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

I like the log truck.

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

They were cut to save money to buy more WDI “research trips” and crap for the queue.

Oh cmon... that research trip to Norway for the frozen meet and greet was worth every penny! (Said no one ever...)

 

[smooch]

Ooh, that's right! The redone Rivers of America from 2017 turned out really nice.

I still maintain that after that upgrade, Disneyland has the absolute best looking and most entertaining Rivers of America complex of all the Castle parks around the world. And yes, the most charming.

WDW's River is a sad shell of its former self, and basically looks like an overgrown flood control channel now. Paris' River was Imagineered beautifully, but fell to the wayside and the only thing they have there now is a single riverboat. Tokyo's River is very good, and they have a great Island and the Canoes and the maintenance is absolutely top notch; but it's still only a close second to Disneyland's reinvigorated River complex.

So Disneyland wins for most charming Rivers of America with the most rides still operating on it! (Mark Twain, Rafts, Canoes, Columbia)

When I visited WDW last year I noticed how much better the RoA was in DLR than at WDW. I couldn't put my finger on it but you're right, it looks overgrown and unkempt, not like a river created to fill with attractions and beauty to add atmosphere to a park, but like a waterway that was already there and would be too expensive to fill in so it's just a big, empty, messy river that shouldn't be there.

Authentic charm isn't something that can be created on demand. The strict corporate structure of modern Disney is not about creating art, it is about find ways to maximize profits. While Disney has always been a business, it used to be a business that balanced artistic achievements with financial success. Now, it has become a soulless corporate entity that cares only about maximizing profit for the current quarter above anything else. That kind of stifling corporate environment is not conductive to creating experiences that have authentic charm.

I genuinely believe that is a problem of most modern companies. They are all set on maximizing profits. Obviously a company needs to make money, but that is all they care about. Game companies will release new iterations of the same game every year because it sells and makes them easy money, they make small changes usually for the worse and get a huge return on profit. They don't care about making an experience to entrance people out of passion, they do it out of corporate greed and the never ending need to please shareholders. Disney is guilty of this very much. And the problem is now deep rooted in the culture of today, if a CEO tries to create experiences out of passion and does something for artistic value that might not be as profitable as a cheap and easy project that lacks charm then the shareholders will get angry for not giving them a bigger return on their investment and will just replace them with one of the countless people who are interested in just making money and not things they're passionate about / care about.

I’d be happy if Disney would simply get back to being hyper-creative and origjnal and stop designing attractions based on franchises they purchased. The name Disney is rapidly being rendered meaningless.

Unless they really want the world to associate “Disney” with “Overpriced and Creatively Bankrupt.”

Even Joe Public has noticed the repetition, the vapidness and overall decline in quality in Disney’s recent output.

That's what stands out to me now is how Disney is losing its meaning. I'm only 21 so I haven't been around for a long time, but even when I was younger and visited the parks it felt like Disney for the most part really cared about what they made. Now they just put any IP they own into the parks as an advertisement for that IP to drive profit from selling merchandise themed to their IPs. The name Disney used to really mean something was held to a higher standard, that you were going to (most of the time) have an amazing experience and see something worthwhile. Now Disney just owns Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars and only puts things in the park with those themes. While that isn't necessarily terrible on its own, it feels like they are all just for corporate greed to push their acquired IPs so more people go buy movie tickets for the new movies or buy the merchandise for those IPs. If Disney bought Star Wars because they valued the universe George Lucas had created and were passionate about creating an experience because they wanted to give guests the opportunity to experience stories from the universe they loved then I don't think they would have gone the direction they did. They could have included aspects from all the movies that already existed because it was relevant to what was meaningful to people. Instead they bought the IP and made movies that were clearly a cash grab (they didn't have a set story at the beginning of the trilogy, you don't start a trilogy out of passion if you have to make it up as you go) and people could tell they were soulless and just for money. Then Disney took the less popular trilogy from the whole saga because it was the one they created and have created all their experiences around it. The land is only sequel stuff, they just want to promote their IP that they bought because it would make them money, not because they respected it for what it was.

 

[Phroobar]

I wish Disney would admit their mistake and bite the bullet and spend the time and money to bring the people mover back to Disneyland

Then no one would ride it except teenagers to make out in.

 

[Stevek]

So would this meet everyone's expectation of "charm" for Disneyland?



The Beast transformation scene is done quite well but overall...feels a bit thin to me. A lot of movie crammed in to 4 (I think) show scenes and an preshow. Roughly 1:30 spent in the final scene watching them dance while your ride vehicle moves along (around and up & down) to the music. The AA's look great but really feels like it needed one more scene.

 

[George Lucas on a Bench]

Terribly boring and awkward ride. Looks like it was designed by exactly the same people who designed the mermaid ride. It's for little girls and their parents to point at the characters saying "Look, Sophia, it's Belle! Yay!" *clap clap clap*

 

[Mac Tonight]

Current Disney has no concept of the word "charm" outside of maybe a "charm bracelet" (available on Main St for $39.95!)
All they know is profits and promoting their numerous brands.

In their minds, the "parks" are nothing more than interactive Disney Stores.
It's one thing for a family to "have a good time", but if they're not leaving with a U-Haul's worth of $200 lightsabers and Mickey-shaped plastic sipper cups, then why did they even bother coming?

 

[Phroobar]

Mrs. Potts looks like Ms. Piggy.

 

[brb1006]

At least the transformation scene is impressive.

 

[Phroobar]

Charm is relative. Like this was charming.

 

[Phroobar]

Even more 80's charm.

 

[DavidDL]

... They literally de-Disneyfied TOT and turned it into a Universal ride. ...

There's a lot they've done (even recently) that I've very much enjoyed. But I know pretty much everyone 'round here would jump on me for sharing those thoughts so instead I popped in to say that; I think calling Mission: BREAKOUT! a Universal ride, is an insult to Universal rides.

 

[LaughingGravy]

We purposely went in May of 2019 before SW:Hinds end opened. Star Wars will never equate to Disney for me. Even the one ride in Tomorrowland was just weird. It was fun, but to me, it just doesn't belong.
With all that, at this point, I would still rather spend the money to fly out from NJ to go to DL for a few days than WDW in FL.

 

[mickEblu]

There's a lot they've done (even recently) that I've very much enjoyed. But I know pretty much everyone 'round here would jump on me for sharing those thoughts so instead I popped in to say that; I think calling Mission: BREAKOUT! a Universal ride, is an insult to Universal rides.

So it’s an insult to Jimmy Fallon?

 

[SplashGhost]

I genuinely believe that is a problem of most modern companies. They are all set on maximizing profits. Obviously a company needs to make money, but that is all they care about. Game companies will release new iterations of the same game every year because it sells and makes them easy money, they make small changes usually for the worse and get a huge return on profit. They don't care about making an experience to entrance people out of passion, they do it out of corporate greed and the never ending need to please shareholders. Disney is guilty of this very much. And the problem is now deep rooted in the culture of today, if a CEO tries to create experiences out of passion and does something for artistic value that might not be as profitable as a cheap and easy project that lacks charm then the shareholders will get angry for not giving them a bigger return on their investment and will just replace them with one of the countless people who are interested in just making money and not things they're passionate about / care about.

I agree, the modern theme park industry is starting to resemble the worst aspects of the modern video game industry. Galaxy's Edge is basically the theme park equivalent of a video game filled with DLC and micro-transactions. Video game companies know people will fork over a ton of money just for cosmetics with very little substance, and the upcharges in Galaxy's Edge are very similar to cosmetic DLCs in video games. What makes this so bad is that Galaxy's Edge is based around these upcharges, and they are core experiences in the land. No other land in Disneyland makes you pay extra to get the core experiences of the land.

That Beauty and the Beast ride looks offensively bad, and it might be even worse than the Mermaid ride. At least the Mermaid ride has the one good scene with Ursula. BATB looks soulless, dull, devoid of energy, and completely lacking in any significant threat. If this is the best that WDI can do with OLC money, they should just retire from making theme park attractions.

 

[DavidDL]

So it’s an insult to Jimmy Fallon?

You know, I had pushed that attraction so far out of my mind I forgot it was even a thing. Touche' ..and thanks a lot for a shining a light in the dark corner of my mind.

For the record, I was of course referring to other attractions like the Potter ones. Both companies are capable of creating great things (-and do) but there's no doubt a handful of stinkers in there. Guardians is especially saddening for me to think about considering they essentially took a winner and turned it into a stinker (in my book).

As much as it pains me, I just do my best to ignore it and focus on the other parts of the parks that I enjoy and feel justify my admission fee. If a park ever reaches a point where enough bad has invaded the good, I'll simply stop going. But it would take an awful lot of mistakes like Fallon in order to justify me NOT wanting to ride Forbidden Journey (so long as it's there).