In your opinion, does any inclusion of IP whatsoever count as “shoehorning?”
No. Disneyland (and by extension Magic Kingdom I guess] was built with the intention of bringing the classic Disney favourites to life, to allow families to walk in and explore these worlds and live out the movie. That is the home of the IP, the Disney characters. It's the realm of magic, fantasy and adventure. Bring all those Disney princesses to Magic Kingdom. Any Disney movie inclusion is welcome there.
That was before Disney started buying up other studios. Hollywood Studios originally had the focus on the making of and behind the scenes of movies and TV production, but that concept soon fell out of favour, not only with Disney, but other theme park chains have pulled out of that concept too. Now, Hollywood Studios is/should be the natural home for the movies that are not "native" Disney. The Hollywood that never was and always will be.
Animal Kingdom and EPCOT were built with different concepts. I do consider that any IP, whether native Disney or a bought-in franchise, are shoehorned there. They were built to tell specific stories, so attempting to tell stories that are not native to those parks and come from elsewhere, is an unwelcome intrusion and dilution of those parks. Sorry to be so radical in thought!
I don't know, maybe I'd consider a "fitting" introduction of IP is if characters that they want to bring in were used as hosts to attractions that do tell stories that are relevant. Maybe Journey of Water
is a good thing in EPCOT as it doesn't tell Moana's story, but it is using Moana to take us through the water cycle, but I think where I'm conflicted is in the migration from Future World to World Nature. That's sort of shaping the hole to fit the peg. Thinking about the original theme of Future World, it's about technology, innovation, ways of living, industry and enterprise. The water lifecycle isn't really working for me under that remit and its landscaping doesn't sit well with the aesthetic of that area. The three new neighbourhoods are a bit of an awkward shift I think. They want to shift it away from the original concept but they're trying to make the existing stuff work with what they want to change it to and it's a mismatch. Retro-fitting.
If Encanto was used in Animal Kingdom to let Antonio tell us the stories of the animals he is able to communicate with, maybe using him as a conduit for the animals to take us through their world, maybe that would be fitting. But an attraction
about Encanto, the house and its inhabitants and their adventures, just no. And maybe, just maybe, Tough to be a Bug was actually the most appropriate IP to bring into Animal Kingdom, as it
does tell the story of bugs.
EPCOT does/did have native IP characters. You know who I'm referring to! They were hosts for taking us through the story of imagination and creativity. They didn't come from a movie that already existed in order to cross-market that movie.
Not sure I see how IP in the parks is necessarily related to the nickel-and-diming (which I really resent), but if you take it from Disney’s perspective, it’s ALL IP, isn’t it? Whether park attractions, films, series, or even marketing efforts, the process is pretty much the same.
Yes, I think I made that point in another thread somewhere! Anything that Disney owns is its IP, but in the context of what we're discussing here I think the distinction is that IP is something that's been brought/parachuted in from another arm of the company into a place where it's not "native".
I think the point I was trying to make with the nickel-and-diming is that Disney's relentless pursuit of buying up franchises and additoinal IP to bring in everywhere for cross-marketing, and also jumping on the streaming bandwagon, is costing a lot of money and that's reflected in the costs going up in the cash-cow that helps soften the blow. Yes, they've always nickled-and-dime but it's currently going through an aggressive phase like never seen before. Difficult to say though how much of that is due to the covid closures.
I think the original left such an impression on an entire generation of fans..
Yep, that's another point we agree on! There's always the complaint that we shouldn't look back, it's evolving just accept change, it's not a museum...but those of us in the know do know that the original
was indeed something really really special and change isn't always for the better. Horizons, World of Motion etc, OMG they made a massive impression on me in 1989 and, along with Spaseship Earth and Imagination, probably responsible for my obsession with this type of thing. Just who are these people who through they were too long and boring LOL!
