Interesting points. I have to defend Eric Jacobsen. He is a nice guy and a talented Imagineer. He has worked on many wonderful projects, including being lead designer of Blizzard Beach to the recent amazing rehab of the Mansion at MK.
Most times, it isn't WDI at fault when you see disasters at the parks. And, sometimes (though not all) it isn't even a question of them not being given enough money.
Today, so many things that made Disney what it is simply don't matter in the final equation. Why did the hat get built?
Because TDO wanted to sell more merchandise and had determined to center the 100 Years of Walt marketing event on Disney-MGM. EPCOT had just had the very successful Milennium Celebration, which pushed numbers higher with simply a new version of Illuminations, an artsy (but repetitive) parade and ... yeah, a giant Mickey hand over SSE. They weren't going back there, they saw no reason to hold it at MK (people will show up there no matter what to bask in the pixie dust), and DAK wouldn't have made any sense.
So WDI (and Eric) were tasked with coming up with something that was cheap, would tie the marketing event together and could help sell more merchandise. The placement of the hat was not an accident and was designed to make you forget there was a highly themed, expensive, AA-filled attraction behind it since -- at the time -- the plan was to kill the GMR and replace it with a Disney-character thrill ride that would have made no sense with the Chinese Theater facade.
So the BAH/pinshack got dropped down almost like a tornado placed it in the center of the park.
WDI and Eric can't be blamed for it. Wanna blame someone? You could blame Michael Eisner (he signed off on it). You could blame Paul Pressler. You could blame Al Weiss.
The sad thing is the BAH has become a symbol (more so than the wand, perhaps) of the WalMarting and dumbing down of the Disney theme park product into something much less than what it should be ... what it used to be. The defending (which again thankfully seems much less than what it was a few years ago) of decisions like that are simply because of the way Disney has conditioned a new generation of guests to this lower quality product.
I usually let my own words speak for themselves, but a Micechat poster 'Another Voice' recently posted what I am going to quote below in a thread about why and how you get a DCA vs. a DisneySea. What that basic mentality is that allows that ... a fascinating discussion and one I think summed up by the fact something like that hat could exist in the place and state it does.
"A company will attract customers that want the product that it offers.
For more than a decade Disney in the United States has offered nothing but "lifestyle branding" - trying to convince people that simply buying "Disney" goods will make their life "magical". It's the same idea behind Nike (you'll be a better athlete in our shoes), Apple (you're a cooler person when you listen to an iPod), Porsche (your, …er, anatomy is bigger in our cars).
People simply wanting a good vacation or people looking for the traditional Disney “your fantasies come to life” have been left out. And so they’ve simply stopped going. They have been replaced by people who have “fallen” for the new Disney.
People who think that surrounding themselves with “Mickey Mouse” will make them happy don’t have any interest in a place like DisneySea. The Tokyo parks (at least for the time being) continue to focus on universal wants and desires – the desire for great adventure, the desire to enter imaginary worlds and experience them for one’s own self, the desire to see other places and other times.
The new Disney is second hand. It’s self esteem by association. ‘High School Musical’ is cool, I like ‘High School Musical’, therefore I am cool. I feel magical at WDW, so if I buy a Disney Vacation Club membership I can escape my real live more often to feel magical. I’m a better person than you because I joined D23 and bought an eight hundred dollar pen to show how much of Disney fan I am.
This affirmation by credit card has ruined the U.S. parks. I pray to the gods that Tokyo stops this trend and remains true."
