>>>Disney actually paid for a lot of DLP/WDSP contrary to what pheneix said I believe.<<<
Everything was upfront to spin off the actual company that runs the Euro Disney Resort, Euro Disney SCA, if I remember right. Either way, Disney did not spend a dime on Disney Studios Paris, it was a Euro Disney SCA. They pretty much poured everything they had into the park, which unfortunately was not much. To their credit, they have been aggressively adding theming to the park as they get the funding for it, but I fear that it will take years to actually bring the park up to par with Disney's other parks (even DCA). Then of course there is also the little problem with the park abysmal performing on an epic scale. Attendance at the park is supposedly a 1/3 of that of DCA's, which as we all know is terrible.
>>>Are you mad at the Imagineers or the accountants?<<<
Well, in this case I think they both have equal blame. The first concept, Tomorrowland 2055, was like a deluxe version of our New Tomorrowland at WDW (because at the time we were getting a version of DLP's Discoveryland), but the accountants pronounced that DOA and told the Imagineers to make up something cheaper. And then Tony Baxter comes in with this new concept for turning Disneyland's Tomorrowland into Discoveryland (because by then our version of Tomorrowland had won out). It was actually very good, and because it was cheaper, they gave the greenlight for the project. What happened between then and May of 1998 is a long and convulted story, but basically their budget grew smaller and smaller as Pressler became President of Disneyland and hacked away at virtually everything that made the park successful (to give you an idea of how bad he was his first major business decision was going to be canning the Indiana Jones Adventure mid-way through construction. Thank God that never made it past the blue sky room). So we got Tomorrowland 98, and it bombed miserably.
But why do I blame the Imagineers? Because even though they were given a horribly small budget ($100 million dollars for what was originally planned is absolutely NOTHING), what they did build should have been much better. I mean, all they did was bring in a cloned movie from Florida, rehab the old COP and drop in Innoventions, overhauled the PeopleMover into Rocket Rods, and put a new coat of paint on everything. But for over $100 million? It is just ridiculous, you can do MUCH more for that kind of money. And now, four years later, what do we have to show for it? A pointless trade show, an E-ticket that permanently closed not even a year after opening, a stale film that does nothing for the main audience of Disneyland (locals), and peeling paint.
Because of Imagineering's and the accounting team's errors, it will take HUNDREDS of millions to fix Tomorrowland.
