Interview with Bob Iger about the Parks

Kman101

Kman101

Well-Known Member
RSoxNo1 said:
The banshees were successful for the first summer, but they've also appeared at the outlets as well.

Merchandise is a component of this, but the IP push is primarily about year 1 marketing. It's incredibly short sighted when the attraction(s) don't otherwise make sense for the area that they're going into. Building a ride for the year 1 marketing as opposed to it's 20+ year lifespan is downright dumb.
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And there's no longer a queue for the banshees, I believe, you can just walk up and get one. I guess the "experience" of it is gone, but I haven't been in there to verify. (And also to be fair, most of the merchandise is ungodly expensive, shirts are going for 35 dollars ... I think that has a lot to do with lack of merch sales for a lot of things ... but people have shown they'll buy in droves the latest wacky colored bedazzled thing)

It's absolutely about marketing and many of us have said they only think short-term, not long-term, and it shows.
 
ChrisFL

ChrisFL

Premium Member
tigerlight said:
Nostalgia for the past is a wonderful thing, and commonly associated with older people. Yes, the ride was state-of-the-art in 1989 but 25 years later none of those things represented any sort of brilliance. Disney parks are not museums. What replaced it is the same ride system (so you still get your backwards waterfall) married to state-of-the-art technology and a story literally billions of people now know....

I liked Maelstrom but mostly for the reasons you site: memories of that first time on it. The replacement is vastly more entertaining for the vast majority of people, myself included.
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Oh I'm not saying it had staying power, but for the time it was nice.
 
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doctornick

Well-Known Member
WDW Guru said:
If you want to argue that, you could say the the RnRC is based on an existing IP in Aerosmith. And don't worry guys, if Iger cant change them into an attraction based on an IP, he will surely turn the name of the attraction into a movie franchise.
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Of course RNR is an IP ride. If Disney didn't want an IP, they could have created a fictional band and done the same concept. But they used Aerosmith in order to have something familiar and popular with folks.
 
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RandySavage

Well-Known Member
tigerlight said:
Nostalgia for the past is a wonderful thing, and commonly associated with older people. Yes, the ride was state-of-the-art in 1989 but 25 years later none of those things represented any sort of brilliance. Disney parks are not museums. What replaced it is the same ride system (so you still get your backwards waterfall) married to state-of-the-art technology and a story literally billions of people now know....

I liked Maelstrom but mostly for the reasons you site: memories of that first time on it. The replacement is vastly more entertaining for the vast majority of people, myself included.
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No one can tell me that that nails-on-chalkboard opening jabber by "Frozen Oaken" is better than the ominous and awesome former introduction, "You are not the first to pass this way... nor shall you be the last!" We all know why FEA is a major success, popularity-wise. FEA's superiority as an attraction over Maelstrom is much more debatable, especially in its context.
 
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RandySavage

Well-Known Member
tigerlight said:
Again, if you poll an audience under the age of 45 who have ridden both rides, I'm confident 95% of them would strongly prefer FEA. I find the snowman more than charming, and really enjoy the beginning sequence... It's a question of futurists vs. traditionalists... liking/accepting change vs. hating change.
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I, like everyone else on Earth, welcome good change and loathe bad change. If by "futurist" you mean being onboard with Iger's current and future plans to convert World Showcase into Disney-Pixar-Fantasies-from-around-the-Globe and convert Future World from being about actual Futurism to a hodgepodge of Marvel and Pixar IP fantasy without any overall meaning, and by "traditionalist" you refer to people that don't like Iger's plan and prefer the traditional approach - creating something affecting and with substance in light of the real world - as envisioned by the luminaries who created EPCOT Center (remembering Fantasy was only 1/3 of Walt Disney's trifecta - Yesterday & Tomorrow ought not to go missing), then I'm the latter, in this case. I know that's the losing side, but so it goes. I know institutional investors may feel that Administrator Iger is doing the prudent thing business-wise (in the "pave paradise and put up a parking lot" kind of way), though he has lost my family's dollars.

I also don't think FEA is regarded as the massive improvement you think it is by 95% of the public (set up a poll to test). I'll acknowledge that there are some improvements over Maelstrom, such as the queue and extending the track to take over the theater space. But even if you prefer saccharine, Disney Princess book report rides with punishingly-painful voice-work (IMO) by Oaken and Josh Gad, FEA, objectively, has some design drawbacks over Maelstrom. Lighting design being one as in some scenes it directs your sightline straight at ceiling lighting rigs (major WDI weakness of recent years). There's the lack of waterfall opening to the Square - maybe necessary for the ride, but it was a charming, unique feature. It has a couple sections that are completely unthemed and look like backstage (eg, just at the top of the lift). Above all, FEA has a much more tenuous, even insulting and embarrassing, connection to Norway. I don't think FEA is bad at all. I think it would be a good and welcome addition... to Fantasyland (see paragraph one).

People want rides in World Showcase (I have since the beginning). Parents want rides the whole family will love. That doesn't mean Iger had to sell the park's soul - you could have had original, country-based rides that appeal to kids/tweens the way FEA does.
 
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RandySavage

Well-Known Member
Tom P. said:
I started a thread on the news board about this, but thought I should point it out here too. I found an interview with Iger talking about the history of Disney vs. innovation and change.

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/bob-iger-discusses-disney-history-vs-innovation.952490/
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Not fun for a traditionalist like me to read that. At least Iger is forthcoming in essentially saying, "When I took over I had to fire the Walties and kill that remaining reverance for the old ways within the Company. That way I could make much, much, much more money for myself (and the stockholders)."
 
SirLink

SirLink

Well-Known Member
trojanjustin said:
First of all, he's the CEO - they could ask and he could say no thanks. Second, it's likely he wasn't even the one doing the tweeting to begin with - rather someone in Communications or PR.
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Nope they told him to delete it, it is generally his PA that was tweeting from this account, still don't know if the Iger told them to tweet what they wanted or he thought he could handle it. But still Disney PR told him to delete it.
 
Kman101

Kman101

Well-Known Member
doctornick said:
Of course RNR is an IP ride. If Disney didn't want an IP, they could have created a fictional band and done the same concept. But they used Aerosmith in order to have something familiar and popular with folks.
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But *now* is it really an IP, under their current management? You just know they've had to be eyeing that coaster. Merch doesn't exactly fly off the shelves.
 

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