Well, it’s clear by all the e-mail that I got yesterday that most Disneyana fans just don’t care for the idea of the Mouse getting into the site-based entertainment business. Here’s a sampling of your comments:
- This is just Disney Corporate’s way of dealing with the poor reception that DCA, Walt Disney Studios and Hong Kong Disneyland have received. The suits will never ever admit that these three were just poorly planned, underfunded theme parks. No, the problem now has to be that the public wants something new, something different. Which is why Disney’s now going to abandon a 50-plus-year tradition of quality and get into the theme-park-in-a-box business. It’s just pathetic.
- 15 rides, shows and attractions all interwining inside of a single building? God, that sounds awfully noisy. Which is why I think that it’s good that Disney wants to build this place in the Far East. That way, I won’t have to visit the thing.
- What’s wrong with just building theme parks the way Disney used to build theme parks? Where the attention to detail was obvious? Where it was easy to see all of the thought and care that had gone into the creation of the place?
- How are they ever going to be able to tell Disney-quality stories inside of a skyscraper in the center of Singapore? Most people go to Disney resorts to get away from the hustle & bustle of a huge city. But if Disney goes into the site-based entertainment business, all of the usual urban craziness will be located right outside the building’s entrance. So where then is that sense of getting away from it all, of going to someplace magical?
*sigh*
It just amazes me to see how quick people can be to condemn a concept that they don’t actually understand. Again, we’re not talking about a beefed up version of DisneyQuest. Nor is Disney’s SBE going to be another “World of Sid & Marty Krofft,” that indoor theme park that operated in Atlanta for less than a year in the mid-1970s.
Plus you shouldn’t automatically assume that the Imagineers really are going to design & build a theme-park-in-
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a-box. Where there will be “lands” and all of the rides, shows and attractions that are located in that particular part of the theme park will fit (at least loosely) into the overall theming of that area. So that the guests can then get a full day’s entertainment out of exploring each of these “lands” and experiencing all of the attractions that are found there.
Instead … Wouldn’t it be exciting if you could just spend a day exploring a single magical spot? Where each ride, show or attraction that you experienced — even the characters that you interacted with as you wandered through this site-based entertainment — would then helped push a particular story forward?
And what if I were to tell you that Disney wants to base at least its first SBE on a best-selling series of books? No, not C.S. Lewis’ “Chronicles of Narnia.” But — rather — a more recent set of novels. Ones have already inspired a hugely popular string of motion pictures.
“But … But …,” you sputter. “You don’t mean … You can’t mean …”
Yep. Let me share one last piece of e-mail with you folks:
Jim,
I would appreciate it if you kept this anonymous. But I have a friend who works for the Warner Brother legal department, who actually sees the contracts. And they just sent me the following e-mail:
“You didn’t hear it from me. But there may be a certain wizard visiting the mouse kingdom in the future.”
Yes. After several years of protracted negotiations with author J. K. Rowling as well as Warner Bros. (During which the Walt Disney Company had to pay out an estimated $140 million in order to land the network broadcasting rights for both “Sorcerer’s Stone” and “Chamber of Secrets”), it appears that the Mouse is just inches away from finally acquiring the rights to use the characters and settings from all seven of the “Harry Potter” books in a theme park setting.
And — provided that Mickey can actually close that deal — Well … Picture a Disney-built site-based entertainment where — by touching a portkey — you’re then magically whisked to Hogwarts. Which (not-so-co-incidentally) is holding an open house for muggles on that very same day.
Picture then being taken on an escorted tour of the school. Where you really do have to mind your step on the moving staircases. Where you’d better know the password or you won’t be able to get past the fat lady. Where you can dine in the great hall or sit in on a potions class with Professor Snape.
Mind you … If this “Harry Potter” acquisition deal does fall apart, I’m told that the Imagineers have another SBE concept that also might fly. One where each floor of this city-block-sized building would then celebrate a different Pixar film.
So what do you folks think? Would the public actually go for something like this? A brand-new Disney theme-park-in-a-box that doesn’t actually feature any Disney characters. One that’s either built around Harry Potter and pals and/or celebrates all of the characters that the geniuses at Pixar Animation Studio have created over the past 20 years. Do you think that the world’s really ready for a “site-based entertainment” like that?
Your thoughts?