News PHOTOS - Cinderella Castle at the Magic Kingdom to receive enhancements this summer

Rescue Ranger

Rescue Ranger

Well-Known Member
I love the new castle. LOVE it!

Really looks great from afar(from pics) at Polynesian and Grand Floridian. Nice pop it didn't have before.

Hopefully when they reopen, the moats are refilled.
 
LittleBuford

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
999th Happy Haunt said:
found on instagram, looks much better here than previous photos we’ve seen of it inside the park
Click to expand...


Agreed, though I still think the two colours don’t quite work together. Unlike most people in this thread, I have more of an issue with the blue than with the pink.

ETA: The blues of the tiled roofs look different from, and better than, the blue of the spires.
 
hpyhnt 1000

hpyhnt 1000

Well-Known Member
999th Happy Haunt said:
found on instagram, looks much better here than previous photos we’ve seen of it inside the park
Click to expand...


Instagram vs. rendering:
Capture.PNG


Still not great in my view, and not really close to the rendering either. The blue is still way off, the gold accents are barely noticeable, and the pink still looks too much like a dingy brown.

And as @wdwmagic notes, any picture is going to come down to the camera settings and ambient light, and you can see how cool in color temperature the Instagram photo is compared to the warm tone of the rendering. There's still time to finish and correct things I suppose, but so far reality is not really matching the concept.
 
SpectroMan93

SpectroMan93

Well-Known Member
TabulaRasa said:
I think my number one problem with the new paint scheme is the shade of blue. Had they gone with a more navy colour, it wouldn't look like a cheap plastic toy.
Click to expand...

Agreed, this electric blue color is throwing me off the more I compare it to the rendering. It’s very shocking to me how off the final product is compared to the concept art.
 
MerlinTheGoat

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
yensidtlaw1969 said:
It makes you wonder what it'll take for things to turn the corner. The answer in the 80's seemed to be New Management. I can't imagine the New Management we've just come into is going to usher in an era like The Disney Renaissance in any facet of the company, especially Imagineering.

Let's hope I'm wrong?
Click to expand...
It's unlikely IMHO that a Renaissance-like upheaval will occur ever again. Even during the 70s and 80s "dark age", there were still executives and board members who recognized and appreciated Walt Disney and the creative works that came out of that era. This includes Card Walker and (briefly) Ron Miller, but there were also a lot of members of the Disney family (including Roy Jr) still actively involved in the company at the time. There was an internal realization that the films that were being made at that time were a step back from the Walt era. And they had a desire to change that and usher in a return to form, even outdo it if possible. This respect and affection for the Walt era along with an acknowledgement of problems and attempting to fix them was what allowed the Renaissance to occur in the first place.

Can it be said of any current executives or board members that they respect and liked the Walt era and desire to return the company back to that standard of creativity and quality? The answer to me is clearly no. The executives running Disney today are detached suits who only view Disney as a cash cow to be milked dry, gutted and thrown into the trash when it's no longer of any financial worth to them. They've actively demonstrated a complete lack of reverence for the Walt era. If Disney executives today were forced to choose between 1- Walt era standards (heck even 70s or 80s standards), or 2- Allow the company to fail like Sears, Kmart, Toys R Us etc etc, they would likely go for option 2.

Another major problem is an apparent and severe absence of basic competence and artistic talent compared to previous generations of imagineers. While Disney's movie offerings had a lot of flops during the 70s and 80s, the theme parks generally still pumped out a lot of amazing quality. Big Thunder, Fantasyland 1983, EPCOT Center etc etc. EPCOT Center alone helped keep the company afloat and compensated for the film flops of that era before the studio Renaissance.

I would imagine this former competence stemmed from the fact that there were still a lot of Walt era imagineers still at the company in this era. Even Marc Davis, Ward Kimball and possibly others who remained among "Disney's 9 Old Men" were actively involved EPCOT's creation. They were also training the younger generation, so a direct lineage of the Walt era creativity and quality was being preserved. In 2020 however, most if not all of the original Walt era imagineers are either dead or retired. And most of the younger generation they trained are no longer at Disney, having resigned or outright fired during the Eisner and Iger eras.

So even with a massive upheaval of the corporate structure (which will never happen as long as there is no respect for the Walt era and a desire to get back to that standard of quality), it won't be a magic bullet for fixing the problems with the studios or parks. They'll have to gut and rebuild imagineering and many other creative departments from the ground up as well. And so much damage has done to the parks over the past 20-30 years (with no end in sight) that much is likely irreversible even IF amazing executives and creatives were brought in to try and fix it.
 
Last edited:
LittleBuford

LittleBuford

Well-Known Member
MerlinTheGoat said:
It's unlikely IMHO that a Renaissance-like upheaval will occur ever again. Even during the 70s and 80s "dark age", there were still executives and board members who recognized and appreciated Walt Disney and the creative works that came out of that era. This includes Card Walker and (briefly) Ron Miller, but also more members of the Disney family (including Roy Jr). Could anyone make the same claim about any of the current executives or board members?

Another major problem is that it's apparent that there is a severe lack of basic competence and artistic talent compared to previous generations of imagineers. While Disney's movie offerings had a lot of flops during the 70s and 80s, the theme parks generally still pumped out a lot of amazing quality. Big Thunder, Fantasyland 1983, EPCOT Center etc etc. EPCOT Center alone helped keep the company afloat and compensated for the film flops of that era before the studio Renaissance.

I would imagine this former competence stemmed from the fact that there were still a lot of Walt era imagineers still at the company in this era. Both directly involved in projects and also training younger gens. These Walt era creatives have either all died or have long since retired. And most of the people they trained aren't there anymore either. Many left the company or were fired during the Eisner and Iger eras.
Click to expand...

Don’t the Japanese parks show that the issue in the US is a lack of investment rather than a lack of talent?
 
MerlinTheGoat

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
LittleBuford said:
Don’t the Japanese parks show that the issue in the US is a lack of investment rather than a lack of talent?
Click to expand...
To an extent. Though I think it has been a while since Tokyo opened what I would consider a "major" new ride. Recent new rides include a clone of Soarin (which is okay but not amazing) and Toy Story Mania (which I actively dislike). The recent redo of their Peter Pan's Flight is a mixed bag and clumsily done. Though I will say whoever is responsible for the updates Dreamlights receives every few years is fantastic.

B&TB shows promise, but it's not open yet. Safe to assume Tokyo's Frozen will be a lot better than Epcot's, though that's not a difficult achievement. Neverland is rumored to be a Soarin-like simulator, which doesn't excite me. Don't know anything about the Tangled boat ride. The scenery of the land looks gorgeous based on the art. Though it will depend on whether they assign imagineers who aren't prone to the poor forced perspective effects from WDW's New Fantasyland (which also looked quite pretty in the concept art, the final product far less so). I'm also concerned about Fantasy Springs clashing with the existing DisneySea park. It should have been an extension of Tokyo Disneyland instead. The same land is bordering an area they're expanding Tokyo's Fantasyland on, a portal could likely have been worked into that area.

I didn't mean there was literally no one of any sort of talent left at imagineering. I've enjoyed a handful of newer rides including RSR, Mystic Manor and even Navi River (yes I like its dense physical scenery, I'm aware of its other shortcomings). The single interior 7DMT scene is also excellent.

But even then, I still vastly prefer the original POTC, Splash Mtn, the old (long gone) Future World E tickets, Great Movie Ride, Sinbad at Tokyo etc. They were all lengthy, with great detailed physical scenery and tons of animatronics. I have my doubts that modern imagineers could create a new ride with all of these elements anymore. Even if they were allowed to and given a decent budget. They don't even make clones of these caliber of rides anymore.
 
Last edited:

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom