What would Walt Disney think of the present day Magic Kingdom?

[JIMINYCR]

Channelling Walt... Walt are you there?

Walt says... What were all the profits spent on??? Why dont we have all the empty land filled with more parks and attractions? Why arent the guests happy? Eisner and Iger...who the heck was in control of my dream!!!!

 

[Bugz]

Good job men! onto the next project!

 

[lazyboy97o]

He would be appalled by seeing $0.03 worth of popcorn being sold for $6, that very little has changed since 1971. no innovation in the park. MK is still the best park there. He ouwld be upset with the cattle herding and overcrowding of the parks. He would also hate how commercial the park is as well. Coke in your face everywhere. Now a Sunglass Hut.

How would he know that little has changed since 1971? Last he knew they had a copy of Disneyland plopped down because he wasn't all that concerned with the theme park.

 

[Sage of Time]

I would assume that he would be pleased that his ideals and visions live on in the grand scheme of things.

...but I would also assume that he would want to change a TON and whip the place back into shape.

And I would be REALLY interested to see his reaction to EPCOT Center/Epcot/EPCOT. Heh.

 

[EnergyKing]

I would assume he'd be supremely outraged over his beloved Main Street USA being turned into a homogenized strip mall.

 

[rjtomlinson1977]

Overall I think he would be happy with the end result of WDW. He would be slightly disappointed that his city of tomorrow was never built but I think he would quickly get over it. I think the creation of Celebration, FL would've interested him. With Walt, plans constantly evolved. He looked into creating attractions in St. Louis, New York City and Niagara Falls before he focused his total attention to Florida.
I'm pretty sure he would be upset about how slow new attractions (within the park) take to develop. I saw a YouTube video of Walt on a game show where he was very excited about talking about what rides were being built for the next year. Now it takes 5+ years to develop just one ride... let alone the whole list Walt was excited about.

 

[Merida DunBroch]

I don't really know what Walt would think of the present day Magic Kingdom. Who are we to say what he would or wouldn't surmise about the current state of things?

Though I'm sure he'd be happy that the company is raking in the dough, so to speak...

 

[joeytomatoes]

He's walking down Main Street, USA. Everything's merchandise. He visits the other lands. What happens? What's running through his head? Discuss...

Just two quick thoughts. I read a few times how Walt fashioned Main St. after his boyhood hometown. I have been lucky enough to have been at Disney World from its early opening in the early 70s to the present day and the biggest disappointment in the Magic Kingdom is the ruination and downfall of the quaint and charm of Main St. If those of you fortunate enough to have been there in the early 70s remember it used to have a movie theater that actually showed Disney shorts. There was an old fashioned ice cream parlor and an arcade that was actually an arcade that had machines and games from the turn of the century. Each store was individual and gave you the feeling of being in an old town main street. That has been replace by two large souvenir shops on either side of the street that sells merchandise that you can buy anywhere else in the park. What was once a separate "Land" that you could spend 2+ hours exploring and enjoying now has become nothing more that a sport to buy that last second gift as you are leaving the park or just a conduit to get to someplace else in the park. Secondly, what was once cutting edge technology and made Disney sooo magical is now 40 years old and not soo magical .. having said that it is still a heck of a place!!!

 

[BuddyThomas]

It's a deceptive exercise to imagine pulling someone from another time, inserting them into a new century, and then wondering how they might answer the question, "What do you think?"

Of course that "deceptive practice" has gotten us some very good fish out of water movies over the years, such as Time After Time, which imagined H.G. Wells chasing Jack the Ripper all over modern day San Francisco.

 

[SnarkyMonkey]

"No time to look around. Gotta make my FastPass for the Mine Train!"

 

[lazyboy97o]

Just two quick thoughts. I read a few times how Walt fashioned Main St. after his boyhood hometown. I have been lucky enough to have been at Disney World from its early opening in the early 70s to the present day and the biggest disappointment in the Magic Kingdom is the ruination and downfall of the quaint and charm of Main St. If those of you fortunate enough to have been there in the early 70s remember it used to have a movie theater that actually showed Disney shorts. There was an old fashioned ice cream parlor and an arcade that was actually an arcade that had machines and games from the turn of the century. Each store was individual and gave you the feeling of being in an old town main street. That has been replace by two large souvenir shops on either side of the street that sells merchandise that you can buy anywhere else in the park. What was once a separate "Land" that you could spend 2+ hours exploring and enjoying now has become nothing more that a sport to buy that last second gift as you are leaving the park or just a conduit to get to someplace else in the park. Secondly, what was once cutting edge technology and made Disney sooo magical is now 40 years old and not soo magical .. having said that it is still a heck of a place!!!

Main Street, USA was inspired by fond memories of Marceline, but not specifically patterned after the town. Main Street, USA is a smaller town like Marceline, but at the Magic Kingdom it is more of a small city with larger, more ornate buildings.

 

[epcotWSC]

He would probably would like some of it and hate other parts. He'd probably be happiest about the fact that the place is always mobbed with people. I doubt he'd feel all that happy about Epcot though.

 

[EnergyKing]

Just two quick thoughts. I read a few times how Walt fashioned Main St. after his boyhood hometown. I have been lucky enough to have been at Disney World from its early opening in the early 70s to the present day and the biggest disappointment in the Magic Kingdom is the ruination and downfall of the quaint and charm of Main St. If those of you fortunate enough to have been there in the early 70s remember it used to have a movie theater that actually showed Disney shorts. There was an old fashioned ice cream parlor and an arcade that was actually an arcade that had machines and games from the turn of the century. Each store was individual and gave you the feeling of being in an old town main street. That has been replace by two large souvenir shops on either side of the street that sells merchandise that you can buy anywhere else in the park. What was once a separate "Land" that you could spend 2+ hours exploring and enjoying now has become nothing more that a sport to buy that last second gift as you are leaving the park or just a conduit to get to someplace else in the park. Secondly, what was once cutting edge technology and made Disney sooo magical is now 40 years old and not soo magical .. having said that it is still a heck of a place!!!

Amen. Exactly.

 

[Seabasealpha1]

...a lot of karma would come to call on the current execs...

 

[Chef Mickey]

"Not good enough."

 

[TP2000]

He would also hate how commercial the park is as well. Coke in your face everywhere. Now a Sunglass Hut.

I don't think you understand how Walt actually ran his theme park.

There was only one theme park he ever ran; Disneyland, from 1955 to 1966. He had been dead for five years by the time Magic Kingdom opened, and when he died in '66 the Magic Kingdom was just a cut-and-paste map of Disneyland circa 1965 in his Florida Project map room in Glendale.

But when Walt was alive and running Disneyland in the 1950's and 60's, he had corporate sponsors anywhere it made artistic and financial sense. And even a few places where it barely made artistic sense, but at least it made financial sense.

Coca-Cola didn't just have their logo in the park when Walt was alive, it competed with Pepsi-Cola within the same park.

Tomorrowland Terrace was sponsored by Coca-Cola, and had Coke logos plastered all over.

Even on the submersible bandstand that rose up from underground. Have a Coke! And yeah, that's a giant General Electric logo looming overhead at the Carousel of Progress next door.

Meanwhile, in Frontierland, Pepsi-Cola was the sponsor of the Golden Horseshoe and its famous stage show. And this wasn't a minor corner of the park, this was Walt's favorite show where he had a private box on Stage Left. For those who think young!

It wasn't just on the sign out front. Pepsi made sure their logo and name appeared all over the place inside the saloon. Even on the curtains you stared at until the show started. Thirsty yet? (Walt's private box is on the left, under the mounted steer horns.)

The Cola Wars weren't the only thing getting attention in the 1950's and 60's under Walt Disney's direct guidance. There were literally dozens of corporate sponsors in his day, from almost every shop on Main Street, to snack bars and restaurants, to shows and rides and major attractions.

Even minor park amenities like the rental lockers had a sponsor in Walt's day; Global Van Lines.

And Walt made sure his Imagineers worked the sponsor's logo or product into the show however possible. Sometimes a sponsor's commercial jingle played via speaker in the sponsored ride itself, like the catchy "Go, Go, Goodyear!" jingle playing on the PeopleMover boarding platform.

The Enchanted Tiki Room was sponsored by United Air Lines in the 1960's, touting their new DC-8 Jet Service from the West Coast to Hawaii. There were United travel posters up throughout the attraction, and the hostesses wore muu-muus made with United Air Lines woven into the fabric.

The list of Disneyland sponsor's from Walt's day is a mile long, and was a who's who of American commerce and industry. Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, Welches, SunKist, Monsanto, General Electric, Richfield Oil, General Dynamics, TWA, Goodyear, Bank of America, Santa Fe Railroad, American Motors, AT&T, Aunt Jemima, Hallmark, Timex, Kodak, etc., etc., etc.

If anything, were Walt to show up in the Magic Kingdom Park in 2015 he would think "What happened to all the sponsors?!?"

 

[rct247]

I completely agree with those who have pointed out that it is hard to say what Walt would really think of it all, especially plopped down in an unfamiliar time period with LOTS of changes in technology, society, culture, etc.

I think if he took a quick walk through of the Magic Kingdom and experienced a handful of attractions, restaurants, and gift shops, he'd overall be quite fascinated and happy with it all. After all, all of this success has last so long after since he envisioned it all and technology, creativity, and money has really allowed for some pretty amazing changes over the years. The themeing of 1965 Disneyland is VERY different than the themeing of 2015 even with aspects today us fanboys might cringe at.

Now if you gave Walt a week or two to visit these parks and resorts, you would probably find him to enjoy many aspects but also find many things he wouldn't like, would change, or would question. There would probably also be a bit of frustration in how some things have changes with safety, liability, and even how his guests have changed. Some technologies would be completely lost with Walt. I think Fastpass would take a while to really explain to him. Price especially with inflation, lack of ticket books, and high markups would really throw him for a loop at first.

When it comes to attraction, I think Walt would enjoy many of the new additions and improvements to the attractions he would have known including Stitch's Great Escape. You have to remember Walt's Tomorrowland was filled with the Hall of Chemistry and other corporate sponsor filler exhibit space. I think he would also feel a little bit of sadness when he finds his original attractions and how many are not popular anymore such as the TIki Room, Carousel of Progress, Swiss Family Treehouse, etc.

Walt would definitely be impressed by the infrastructure for Walt Disney World including the famous Utilidors. I also think he would be disappointed that his dream for the City of Tomorrow never really materialized after all of the models and plans were right there for us to tweak and go off of. That said, he's probably still enjoy Epcot for the theme park that it is as well as Animal Kingdom. I do think he would find the Studios to the weakest but still find many things about it that would make him happy.

Give Walt a month or more, and he would sit down and start getting dirty with facts and figures, plans and details. He would demand a lot of perfection and lots things to be fixed/refurbished, but I don't think you would see too much change. He would probably be quite happy with how things have evolved given the time and changes the world has endured.

 

[SnarkyMonkey]

TP2000, I really appreciate your post! I thought it was so interesting. I think those who didn't visit Disneyland in those early days have a false sense of what it was like. I also think people have an idealized vision of Walt as some sort of saint who wasn't interested in money.

 

[rsoxguy]

Zombie Walt would probably drag his feet across Main Street groaning "Brains.....BRAINS!!!"

Now that's just crazy talk. Walt has never been zombified. He just liked to hang around with ghouls, you false rumor starter.

 

[EnergyKing]

My issue isn't with sponsors. After all, Epcot has always had "Sponsored By..." on its attraction signs. The main problem that I see is the gutting of Main Street landmarks like the Cinema and Arcade. Sure, Walt had sponsors, but I don't think he would have advocated merchandising over creative integrity.