JustinTheClaw said:
Part of the problem in that respect is that the Imagineers are have not been getting the money they need to do the best job possible. Take Expedition Everest, for example. Joe Rhode really made this project his baby. He put a lot of thought and research and planning into it. The problem was he was only alotted $100 million for R&D, pre-planning, and execution.That may seem like a lot, but it really isn't.
The Tower of Terror in Florida cost $140 million (and that was in 1994 dollars).
The Tokyo version is running close to $200 million (and looks amazing).
Before some of you start telling me it is completed, take a trip to Animal Kingdom and pay attention to the Forbidden Mountain as you come across on Osceola Parkway, or even from the parking lot. Because of budget restraints, the Imagineers and construction crews were forced to leave half of the mountain unbuilt. (In fact, while working behind Rafiki's Planet Watch yesterday I saw some of the unused pieced of the mountain strewn about in a field backstage.)
We're not going to see quality work from the Imagineers until the number crunchers realize what Walt and Roy learned decades ago: you have to spend money in order to make money. I blame Eisner for this. Hopefully with John Lasseter as head of animation and Imagineering and Steve Jobs as prime shareholder we will see some great things come out of the Imagineers, because they'll finally have the cooperation they need from upper management.
1st... A piece of history:
Walt assembled the imagineering group after he'd already built a successful movie studio and begun to establish himself in television.
The simple motivation: He was unhappy with the entertainment options available to his young daughters.
From the start, Walt asked the Imagineers to do the impossible, whether it was creating believably spooky apparitions for the Haunted Mansion or getting a mechanical Abe Lincoln to rise from his chair and deliver the Gettysburg Address.
The group held/holds more than 300 patents, for things like precision-timed fireworks, 3-D movie cameras, motion simulators, talking water fountains, fog machines, and a means for creating artificial rain.
From the start, Walt treated Imagineering as his private playground, doling out ideas for different attractions, prowling the hallways late at night to review work that had been done that day, even acting out the roles of the animatronic figures.
While Walt was still alive, Imagineering was insulated from much financial scrutiny. Roy Disney, the company's CFO and Walt's older brother, is said to have set foot in Imagineering exactly once. Two of Walt's favorite mantras were "You can't put a price tag on creativity" and "If we lose our customers, it'll cost us twice as much to get them back.
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It wasn't that the Imagineers operated without budgetary constraints, Walt often suggested ways to work more frugally. [/FONT]
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But after his death, WDI became just another part of the company, one with a reputation for missing deadlines and exceeding cost estimates. [/FONT]
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The Epcot park, based on an idea of Walt's and opened in 1982, cost an estimated $1.2 billion — an overrun of several hundred million dollars.[/FONT]
By the end of the Disney Decade, WDI's staff had grown from a low of 300 after Epcot opened to 3000.
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The Imagineers seem to know that the tricks in their bag are getting stale, that they've got to keep groping for the next new thing. [/FONT]
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It takes kids a whole lot more to wow them, t[/FONT][FONT=verdana, helvetica, arial, sans-serif]
he sophistication of the audience, and their expectations, increases every year.[/FONT]
2nd... Disney also finds itself competing with hundreds of entertainment options that didn't exist in the Eisenhower era, from Imax movies to massively multiplayer games.
A placid boat ride past sets of harmonizing, doe-eyed dolls just doesn't cut it for kids raised on
Quake and MTV.
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Turmoil within the group hasn't helped matters much. [/FONT]
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A lot of Disney fellows left, frustrated that the company wasn't taking their advice seriously.[/FONT]
For the Imagineers, building a ride like Expedition Everest is a reminder of the good old days, a visible indicator that everything is actually OK.
If there's a perception that the business guys have taken over, I would point out that the projects they are doing now have the same or higher budgets as they've had before.
3rd... You
can not compare WDW with Tokyo Disney, Glendale is under budget, Tokyo isn't..
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Tokyo DisneySea exceeded first-year attendance goals. [/FONT]
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With DisneySea, the Imagineers were told to spare no expense, since the park's construction was being paid for by a partner, the Oriental Land Company. and still is...[/FONT]
Tokyo DisneySea, is lavishly funded entirely by the Japanese partner, has blown past all projections.
4th... Joe Laseter, again, only is head of feature Animation, and certainly not of Walt Disney Imagineering...
5th... Expedition Everest IS completed, the building visible from the "parking lot" was meant to stay that way... (and I don't need to yell...)
and BTW If it's not finished as you say, Mr Iger and Mr Laseter could have finished it as Michael Eisner was long gone when Everest opened...
So if they are the saviours of the parks they had time (4 months) to do so...
Don't forget that the Disney Company, is not only about WDW, only a small piece of the cake is Parks...
6th The last part of the quote consists only an opinion from someone who obviously doesn't know what upper managemnt means... (I mean no harm)
