It gets personal and really depressing. In my mind I can visualize these projects finished. I'm riding the thing in my head. When it dies, so do those visuals. It's hard. Especially when you have to break it to the team you just killed to build a presentation that went sour.
I can't imagine how difficult it must be, and you take it far better than I ever would, I think. I've never even set eyes on WDI and I'm still heartbroken about dozens of projects that never came to pass; some before I was born. The sheer capricious nature of fate throwing monkey wrenches into plans that are "sure things" - I still ache that the 1973 Oil Embargo killed so many great plans for WDW. I still grieve for WRE, or WESTCOT, or Port Disney, or Disney's America. Not cancelled because they were bad ideas, but because events of the day interfered. I can't imagine if the project that was cancelled was my own baby.
I had to recast a team for Indy at DL and that was hard as the Ride was still a "go" but management did not want the concept the team had done. I was brought in to start over with a new group. Tough audience. They actually had a day for that team to discuss and "mourn" the loss of the concept!
Really? How far along had that first team gone, and how was it different from what we got? And who would make the call to axe a project?
Having to spend 5 years building the wrong Main Street in France would be one, yes (1920's one was approved then killed). I had to make it something I could get behind so we slowly tweaked it into something more than the carbon copy of WDW they told us to build. It could have been so much more.
Yeesh. I can only imagine. While the Main Street you built looks lovely (I haven't had the opportunity to go there yet), I would have loved to have seen the original vision. It seems right for that park, somehow. Something of how we're viewed by the French through early cinema... Anyway, I've seen renderings so I know the aesthetic and the idea for the elevated railroad, but what were some of the other key features you'd like to have seen realized?
The other project was a ride system for TDL (which I was the design SVP for) that they wanted to lift from DL and I didn't think it was a good enough ride to be an E. I lost the vocal battle. I was forced to develop it on their turf and re-theme it at their cost and did so "under protest" which was made known.
This was REALLY interesting because I had no idea they had considered this. Where did they want to put it? Then again, JTTCOE is essentially a descendant of that ride system but with an actual ride built around the ride system. I'll bet that OLC was glad development took a while to get started so the Disneyland version could warn them off in time.
Sure. It was fun and did wonders for the kinetics of the land. But was it an E? or a D? That was the issue. Especially if it's not on an elevated beamway.
Did they not even want it on the beamway? Yeesh. I certainly wouldn't call it an E-ticket, but to me that designation depends entirely on having something to look at while you're riding - not just going fast.
Right or wrong, it felt like it was gonna be as thrilling as a normal car doing donuts in a parking lot. (I wanted to do this rocket powered motorcycle ride instead.)
This is exactly how I feel about Test Track. The only worthwhile part of the ride is the outside loop, and I can recreate that by driving on the interstate with my windows down (actually, I-40 moves faster than TT). The rest of the ride is driving over potholes and stuff, and I don't want to do that in real life, much less in a ride.
Cost and the right application. I was trying to make it the "next level" dark rides, but the Kuka robotic arm technology is hotter right now.. We even proposed a HM with that system! It looks like HKDL will do it according to the press release.
I think Kuka has a lot of potential. I long to design a Rocketeer attraction based on the Kuka. I'm a nerd. What was your HM proposal for?
They would have been better to keep the PeopleMover open.
Of course, I also still detest Test Track and consider it the most overrated attraction in WDW history (yeah, I subjected myself to it again last week)
Agree, and agree.
I honestly don't understand how that got greenlit. You'd think the engineers would've spoken up a bit more and convinced the imagineers and execs that it wouldn't work because of the speed and weak tracks.
The saga of Rocket Rods still baffles me to no end. I think it was really the convergence of all that was wrong with the Pressler era (well, DCA too...). Just how that could have gotten all the way to opening day while being so fundamentally flawed is still shocking.
It does indeed look promising, however I'm a little worried about the "mischievous monkey" plot line which looks a little cheesy. Still, it does look promising.
I find that aspect so incredibly bizarre that it has become part of the appeal to me. Maybe they can market it as Disney's most monkey-centric attraction to date..
That would be very cool, and I'm sure the more fan-heavy DL would eat it up. It would be great if WDW could have a MS Cinema at all.
YES. Please. And a Penny Arcade. And a Magic Shop. Grrrrrrrrrr....
I think it would be pretty easy to showcase him, and even do new things with him. I've heard people say that they can't have Mickey do new things because he's already defined and has his place in Disney history. ( I think that's a little bit silly...Why not have him do new things?)
But, if that is the case...why not have Oswald take that role?
This is something I've thought as well. If they insist on keeping Mickey as vanilla as possible - which I think is unnecessary and a mistake - I've often thought that they could bring Oswald back as the more mischievious prankster and swashbuckler. My esteem for Iger went through the roof when they announced the Oswald deal - seriously, how was that on anyone's radar who wasn't a nut like us? I think there's a lot of untapped potential with Oswald. I'd love to see him at DHS, maybe a little dark ride taking us through some of his black-and-white adventures in the 1920s. Something in the old Hollywood section...
