I feel that as the world changes, so will institutions. Especially in the domestic parks, corporate demagoguery and fiscal norms will force change. I think it is a feckless argument to expect the younger generations to care about the insane level of theming that imagineers perfected in the past. In the 60s through the 90s, there wasn’t a lot to occupy yourself when standing in a queue. As a result, imagineers could take the “eye spy with my little eye” approach to design. Guests should be entertained and intrigued, so what better way to establish design guidelines than to create as immersive of experience as possible. The payoff was worth it because the people were engaged.
This is becoming less and less of the case as social media and internet can distract anyone at any moment. Instead of taking in detail in the queue for Expedition Everest, I now see people - especially younger people - staring at their phones. The kids are being trained through their early years to act this way. Kids have AirPods in all day long, so their own private distractions are both visual and auditory now. Disney can spend a zillion dollars on theming but if half of the audience is like “meh…what’s happening on TikTok or YouTube?”, and walk past all of the incredible theming, why should they spend that kind of money? To appease the zealot-type fans in chat rooms and rumors threads?
Disney can choose what type of corporation they want to be. If they are more financially driven than creatively driven, then that’s how it will be I suppose. Anyway, if the parks and experiences are raking in money, why would upper management be fretting over theming details and if parks should have more original content as opposed to brand-based attractions. Until thus strategy fails, expect no changes. Also, there are no rules with theming, only approaches. Imagineers don’t get thrown in jail beneath Main Street for not theming enough.
