New modern day costumes coming to American Adventure?

[captainkidd]

Wouldn't surprise me in the least. I swear, Disney has been on a mission to destroy the integrity and uniqueness of Epcot for years.

 

[ToTBellHop]

That's all well and good, I've enjoyed a lot of the new offerings, BUT......



Bingo! Add some attractions to get people excited again about exploring the pavilions. Now it's just an excercise in getting to an ADR in time.

My issue isn't that they're changing costumes, I probably wouldn't have noticed. My issue is that costumes are the main reason the place is dated. If that's from guest feedback than that's an indictment on the guests.

Well they are the kings of leading questions in their surveys. If they wanted to be able to show an Excel chart on their PowerPoint of "How to Cheaply Increase Profits," I'm sure they knew exactly how to word the survey questions to get that result. "Do you think the current World Showcase costumes make World Showcase feel dated? Yes/No." "How would you feel toward updated World Showcase costumes? Elated/Excited/Happy."

 

[asianway]

Well they are the kings of leading questions in their surveys. If they wanted to be able to show an Excel chart on their PowerPoint of "How to Cheaply Increase Profits," I'm sure they knew exactly how to word the survey questions to get that result. "Do you think the current World Showcase costumes make World Showcase feel dated? Yes/No." "How would you feel toward updated World Showcase costumes? Elated/Excited/Happy."

From the people who brought you Kilmanjaro Safari costumes on the Jungle Cruise...

 

[MickeyPeace]

Well they are the kings of leading questions in their surveys. If they wanted to be able to show an Excel chart on their PowerPoint of "How to Cheaply Increase Profits," I'm sure they knew exactly how to word the survey questions to get that result. "Do you think the current World Showcase costumes make World Showcase feel dated? Yes/No." "How would you feel toward updated World Showcase costumes? Elated/Excited/Happy."

I'm sure it went something like that. I can't imagine the guest was given the opportunity to fill in a blank about what made the World Showcase dated and most said, "COSTUMES!".
At least add a new attraction somewhere. Germany I'm looking at you. A toy train set. Really?

 

[Prototype82]

The entire American Adventure Pavilion at Epcot needs to be redone. It is a total lie from beginning to end. First of all, America includes the entire continents of both north and south America. The story told at Epcot revolves around the founding of the United States of America not America. Please remember that Brazilians are Americans too as are Canadians!

But the pavilion is about the United States, Mr. McLiteral.

 

[TalkingHead]

You won't get an argument from me that WS is dated, but how someone managed to tie that to the costumes is beyond me. Reeks of an on the cheap way to address the complaints without doing anything substantial.

This is what I thought when I read the explanation about the costume changes.

If WS is outdated and you want to correct that, you add a couple of attractions to boost the area.

If you want a cheap solution, you update the costumes, tell your bosses that you've addressed the guest concern, and call it a day after making flight reservations to Hawai'i with the bonus money you made from your last cheap decision.

 

[HMButler79]

WDI getting guests to be theme park designers again? What is WDIs obsession with guest feedback from hick tourists who have NO clue? The last time guests got to "redesign" something and WDI took it as gospel was Future World from 1996-2006. And look how well THAT went...........................

 

[WDWFigment]

I don't see how colonial costumes are any more "dated" in 2012 than they were in 1982. It's not like they were the current style back then, so changing from the current costumes doesn't really address the issue of World Showcase being dated. World Showcase is dated, where it is dated, not because of costumes, but because Disney hasn't updated technology from the 1980s. It's dated not back to thematic periods portrayed in the costumes, it's dated to the 1980s. Addressing costumes doesn't fix that in the least.

If anything, modernizing the costumes only creates more problems, because "modern" is a moving target, where as colonial is pretty well fixed in time. Unless Disney constantly updates the modern costumes (want to take bets on that happening?), the new costumes will be dated in a few years.

The "Disney isn't a museum" argument is treated as some sort of panacea by some on here to justify any change. Well, with regard to World Showcase, in some ways, it SHOULD be a museum. This is reflected everywhere in World Showcase from the architecture, to the cuisine, to the costumes. This is for good reason--the most culturally interesting aspects of these countries are, to some degree, time capsules of earlier times. I certainly wouldn't want to walk into Japan and see a giant Sony animated billboard and a McDonald's restaurant...

I don't need to "see the costumes before passing judgment" in that regard. The new costumes could look awesome, but no matter how awesome they are, the fact remains that they are not a legitimate fix to any complaints that World Showcase is dated.

Beyond all of that, I really hope Lonnie doesn't lose his job because of all this. He's an awesome Cast Member.

 

[wdwmagic]

The "Disney isn't a museum" argument is treated as some sort of panacea by some on here to justify any change. Well, with regard to World Showcase, in some ways, it SHOULD be a museum. This is reflected everywhere in World Showcase from the architecture, to the cuisine, to the costumes. This is for good reason--the most culturally interesting aspects of these countries are, to some degree, time capsules of earlier times. I certainly wouldn't want to walk into Japan and see a giant Sony animated billboard and a McDonald's restaurant...

There can be a balance though. I can walk into a London street today and see historic buildings as far as the eye can see. However, the people walking the streets are not dressed in outfits from several hundred years ago. The two can mix. I see nothing wrong at all with having all the beautiful historic architecture, traditional foods, and mixing it up with some modern looking cast members. It is a far more relevant reflection of a world showcase.

 

[wm49rs]

WDI getting guests to be theme park designers again? What is WDIs obsession with guest feedback from hick tourists who have NO clue? The last time guests got to "redesign" something and WDI took it as gospel was Future World from 1996-2006. And look how well THAT went...........................

Yes, they based this decision on nothing but the input from hick tourists.....

 

[WDWFigment]

There can be a balance though. I can walk into a London street today and see historic buildings as far as the eye can see. However, the people walking the streets are not dressed in outfits from several hundred years ago. The two can mix. I see nothing wrong at all with having all the beautiful historic architecture, traditional foods, and mixing it up with some modern looking cast members. It is a far more relevant reflection of a world showcase.

Absolutely. In general, I don't see an issue with that. However, if that is the route Disney chooses to go, my overriding concern would be that the costumes won't be updated enough to qualify as current. As evidenced by...pretty much everything...we know that Disney has a tendency to let this happen. When you choose a specific period for your costuming that is relatively "classic," you don't run into this issue.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Absolutely. In general, I don't see an issue with that. However, if that is the route Disney chooses to go, my overriding concern would be that the costumes won't be updated enough to qualify as current. As evidenced by...pretty much everything...we know that Disney has a tendency to let this happen. When you choose a specific period for your costuming that is relatively "classic," you don't run into this issue.

Exactly, if Disney were committed to modernizing the costumes every 5 years, that would be nice, but I don't see that happening. And no amount of costume changes will alter the fact that no new ride has been added since 1988 and the France film is still in 1982, digital or no digital.

It's ironic that Disney's answer to fix WS is to go "modern", when DCA's fix was all about "period".

 

[njDizFan]

I have always had a love/hate relationship with the WS costumes. They are as sterotypical as iconic. They are a period depiction of a certain demographic. Not unlike a cowboy outift or zoot suit. Sure they represent a specific time in history but lumberjacks and colonial garb seem sort of mishmash. Some countries still wear tradition attire on specific holiday...How often has your uncle come to Christmas dinner in a triangle hat(please dont answer..lol)

 

[Clever Name]

Actually I think most on here will love the new costumes coming to Mexico and the UK.

I agree. Even if they don't like the changes there is nothing they can do. Disliking change is a tradition here among some members. In a few days they'll get over their angst and move on to complain about some other Disney changes. As for me, I like the changes.

I may get attacked for this one but if they would gut the AA attraction and make a Headless Horseman ride I would be so thrilled. Of course that's a pretty isolated bit of Americana there - but c'mon, that would be sweet

And we can’t forget Pecos Bill! Now, Pecos Bill didn't live forever. Nope, not even Bill could figure out how to do that. Here's how he died.

When Bill was gettin' on in years, a Boston man came down to New Mexico for a visit. He fancied himself a bit of a cowboy. Got himself one of them mail-order suits, don't ya know. The ones with the lizard skin boots, a shiny brass belt buckle, a new pair of blue jeans and a huge ten gallon hat with not a speck of dust on it. Well, when Pecos Bill saw him trying to swagger into a bar, he jest lay down on the sidewalk and laughed himself to death!

 

[MissM]

If anything, modernizing the costumes only creates more problems, because "modern" is a moving target, where as colonial is pretty well fixed in time. Unless Disney constantly updates the modern costumes (want to take bets on that happening?), the new costumes will be dated in a few years.

Much like the last scene of Carousel of Progress is dated. It's not "classic" enough to be representative of a past time nor is it anywhere near "modern" enough to be current/futuristic. And we all know how often CoP has been updated to overcome this exact issue.

I agree that it would be ok if they continually readdressed what "current" means but, I too am doubtful that would happen.

 

[dreamfinder]

The reference Italy updates (can't say I recall what they looked like before) but they still look a bit like something that could be considered tied to a particular country. Some bit of ethnicity to them. If the comments on changing to suiting are true, is that really what we think of as being ethnic US? True, there is no real hard and fast US ethnicity, but at least the colonial ones made some iota of sense. Now if we were to update the American Adventure to focus on the collapse of finance staring Enron and the Lehman brothers, then yes, suiting would make sense.

I have always had a love/hate relationship with the WS costumes. They are as sterotypical as iconic. They are a period depiction of a certain demographic. Not unlike a cowboy outift or zoot suit. Sure they represent a specific time in history but lumberjacks and colonial garb seem sort of mishmash. Some countries still wear tradition attire on specific holiday...How often has your uncle come to Christmas dinner in a triangle hat(please dont answer..lol)

They can come to dinner anytime.

 

[COProgressFan]

You won't get an argument from me that WS is dated, but how someone managed to tie that to the costumes is beyond me. Reeks of an on the cheap way to address the complaints without doing anything substantial.

I HIGHLY doubt the guest surveys indicated that the costumes were the biggest problem with World Showcase....

 

[Tom]

The reference Italy updates (can't say I recall what they looked like before) but they still look a bit like something that could be considered tied to a particular country. Some bit of ethnicity to them. If the comments on changing to suiting are true, is that really what we think of as being ethnic US? True, there is no real hard and fast US ethnicity, but at least the colonial ones made some iota of sense. Now if we were to update the American Adventure to focus on the collapse of finance staring Enron and the Lehman brothers, then yes, suiting would make sense.



They can come to dinner anytime.

And they can dress like that if they'd like!

 

[flynnibus]

I have always had a love/hate relationship with the WS costumes. They are as sterotypical as iconic. They are a period depiction of a certain demographic. Not unlike a cowboy outift or zoot suit. Sure they represent a specific time in history but lumberjacks and colonial garb seem sort of mishmash

Some pavilions celebrate culture.. AA celebrates the history and perseverance of America. The colonial period is an essential part of our American history as it represents the birth of the nation.

Colonial is not about 'culture' but about history. That is why it's different than the other pavilions - which are largely culture focused.

 

[kashmir]

Did anyone notice that Italy Costumes already changed?

Could you please post pictures detailing the change?

FYI: Just saw that had happened...forgot to keep reading!