The Creative Bankruptcy of Disney Leadership: Why the Mediocrity of New Disney Rides Doesn't Deliver

this is a video i've wanted to make for a long time but the new announcement of the disneyland expansion recently really acted as a catalyst for anyone who doesn't know this announcement isn't about any concrete expansion ideas for the resort instead it's meant to pressure the city of anaheim into allowing major future expansion it's essentially disney providing a job creation program for the local southern california economy after being hit with the consequences of well you know but if you go onto the website for the disneyland forward project and see what disney is suggesting could come to the resort i feel that it should come across as concerning none of the projects here are original in any way they are all copy and pasted attractions from the overseas parks which i don't really believe there's anything wrong with cloning attractions but what this hastily thrown together mess of ip throw up really shows is that disney leadership itself is creatively bankrupt we've seen so many aggressively mediocre attractions being brought to the parks relying far too heavily on brand name rather than the quality and ingenuity that disney was once known for am i going to get a lot of pushback on this sure there are a lot of people out there who i've seen defend this new era of disney attractions and while i don't think that any of these attractions are bad per se the parks are being cheapened and moving away from the exceptional experiences that they once were and i don't really know why people would get defensive about this i don't really know why you wouldn't expect this company to deliver better so today i'm going to be breaking down the many issues with the recent disney expansions and why this once creative industry leader is now well creatively bankrupt [Music] [Music] uh there was a point in time where the disney parks were known for their creativity disneyland itself pushed forward the world of entertainment when it opened never had such a highly themed and innovative entertainment project ever been seen before [Music] fast forward a bit and let's take a look at the birds that came out of what enterprises as audio animatronics for the enchanted tiki room they showed the disney imagineers existed to push what was possible in the world of entertainment the idea of mechanical figures being used to simulate characters is something that not only blew audiences away in the 1960s but is something still very much sought after today beyond the tiki room though disney imagineers have continued to innovate you have many classic attractions that really set out to wow audiences with the level of theming and detail applied you of course have existing classics today and the company is full of closed attractions that are often regarded as some of the best the world has ever seen even coming into the era of michael eisner with a larger emphasis on thrills the company saw a number of groundbreaking attractions that really pushed technology and theming to all new heights attractions got larger and more ambitious with their use of animatronics we saw unique disney takes on other experiences such as the twilight zone tower of terror turning a drop tower into a narrative experience using unique and groundbreaking rye technology we also witnessed not only the theming masterpiece that is disney's animal kingdom emerge from this era but also tokyo disneysea still often considered to be the most exceptionally themed park in the world were there missteps during this era yeah absolutely i've defended how well the theming of chester hester's donald rama fits into dinoland usa but i can't deny that it was a cheap attempt at adding new attractions no offender though was worse than disney's california adventure a park that opened with exceptionally tacky theming and contained far more shopping and dining than attractions even a large portion of the attractions there were just lightly themed generic flat rides but for all the issues of the eisner era we also ended up getting a lot of incredible experiences since bob iger and bob chapeck have taken up the reins of the company though we've seen a dramatic decline in creativity are there exceptions to this well sure i think mystic manor is pretty great and pandora the world of avatar is exceptionally impressive even shanghai disney for the most part seems to be creatively inspired but these are the rare exceptions disney for the most part is going down a path that i think will ultimately hurt it in the end [Music] let's start with the biggest defender which is toy story land almost every disney resort has one in their parks and it's a really cheap way of bringing in new attractions what baffles me about this is that people won't hesitate to criticize the abundance of generic flat rides that opens with california adventure yet still give these lands a pass now if you visited the version in hollywood studios you might disagree with me and i understand that it's definitely the best version that exists because slinky dog dash is a decently themed family coaster and this land incorporates toy story mania which i think is also a pretty decent attraction but if we go to the international parks we see a different story let's first start with walt disney studios park which opens in 2002 very much a symptom of the cheap cost cutting of the late eisner era this part was built adjacent to disneyland paris just out of contractual obligation because disney didn't actually want to build this park it is by far the smallest one constructed by the company and was a collection of cloned attractions with some of the poorest theming you'll ever see not even six flags would put something like this in one of their parks the park would receive some half-baked band-aid fixes and a new land called tomb studio like crush's coaster it looks like a fine little indoor coaster but the theming is minimal and just looks like it was lifted from the kids area of the seas pavilion you also have a cars themed flat ride called cars race rally which is a model called demolition derby manufactured by zamperla the park would also later get a clone of the california adventure version of the tower of terror which is fine but the original version in hollywood studios does a lot more than its clones in 2010 though the park opened up toy story playland and like toon studio was a poor excuse for a disney project made on the cheap it's just a handful of lightly themed rides accompanied by oversized prop toys throughout the land for the most part like the other toy story lands it's really just landscaping with cheap theming the rides included are the toy soldier parachute drop which is pretty self-explanatory there's slinky dog zig zag spin which again is pretty self-explanatory just from watching it last you have rc racer which is technically a shuttle coaster manufactured by intimate but honestly i just consider it another flat ride because it's essentially the same idea behind a disco none of this is very exciting right i mean it's not technically bad but it's something that should only really exist in a regional amusement park if you can't tell i'm also not really a fan of flat rides at disney parks in some rare cases it's fine like dumbo and fantasyland because it's iconic and something that even toddlers can do but flat rides in disney parks are generally a sign of wanting to add something cheap just for the sake of adding an attraction there's no reason for the magic kingdom to have both the astro orbiter and magic carpets with animal kingdom also having triceratops spin when you already have dumbo in the resort recently tokyo disneyland opened the happy ride with baymax which is one of those zam parallel demolition derbies a bit of a strange move for tokyo considering the often exceptional quality of the parks but toy story land for all of its walls is apparently a popular choice with disney leadership the next version of the land would open with the same copy and pasted props and rides at hong kong disneyland in 2011. another band-aid fix done on the cheap from another troubled eisner-era park this land is essentially the same as the previous one but in 2018 shanghai disneyland would get its version of toy story land and oh look at that pretty much the same except instead of the parachute drop this land gets woody's roundup [Music] another demolition derby the only toy story land that breaks the mold is as i touched on earlier the version at hollywood studios i have a feeling that american audiences are a bit more picky with what they expect from disney but i guess they thought that they could also sneak in another zampurla demolition derby as well known as alien swirling saucers or apps for its shorter abbreviation disney apparently has no shame in trying to duke guests into thinking that they're getting high quality entertainment with this land and ride again you have slinky dog dash which is a lightly themed family coaster which is fine for kids and toy story mania is fun every once in a while but the point still stands that this is just another cheaply built land that consists of mostly static props and landscaping even toy story mania just kind of luckily happened to be here and i'm sure that if it wasn't we probably would have gotten another rc racer or something instead the thing that's laughably ridiculous about all this is that the land was part of disney's answer to universal for anyone who follows the competition you probably know that universal took a good portion of disney's orlando market share when they opened up hogsmeade and harry potter in the forbidden journey in 2010. in 2014 diagon alley opened with harry potter and the escape from gringotts and disney has been desperately trying to chase that market ever since they tried pandora which again as a land is fantastic but avatar as a franchise had almost no cultural impact beyond its initial release window sure the film has its fans but it's not potter bob iger trying to emulate the success of the wizarding world through this franchise was an outright stupid idea the only reason the land works is because of the leadership of joe roadie and how it was molded to fit into the overall themes of animal kingdom following the premiere of pandora though disney thought that they could just stick in this cheap copy and paste land in the studios and that it would be quote immersive unquote because they asked the cast members to address the guests as toys that's a lot of audacity again it's not that toy story land is bad but let's not pretend that it meets the disney standard of old it's the mediocrity of spending just enough money and effort to do something passable and hoping that the strength of the brand will draw people in don't get me wrong the toy story films are pretty great having a lot of interesting and existential themes about what it means to have worth but this isn't that [Music] so remember how i spoke earlier about how the original california adventure was criticized for having more shopping and dining than actual attractions what does that remind me of hmm the lesson we learned with toy story land is that you can build mediocrity and expect people to come as long as you slap an ip on it again as with toy story land galaxy's edge isn't bad by any means it's just mediocre it feels like a shopping mall and for all that expense and effort to go into selling merchandise it doesn't really deliver i've already done a video on this about why galaxy's edge should be re-themed to the original trilogy because they've definitely made a mistake by basing it on the sequel films and the merch doesn't sell as well so go check that out if you want more info on that but the star wars sequel films sharing a lot of similarities with disney's newer attractions all they care about is stuffing the ip in your face and not actually giving you anything creative or substantial the films very much feel like a checklist of things meant to bait people with nostalgia and they therefore feel rather fake in their world building take for a counterpart example millennium falcon smugglers run the attraction is fine i'm sure that plenty of people have had fun on it but wouldn't you expect piloting the millennium falcon to be a bit more exciting this attraction absolutely has the same goal as the films which is debate people with nostalgia and the actual creativity behind the experience takes a back seat in this case pushing buttons that light up green in the back of the cockpit because only the people who sit at the front are allowed to do anything fun sure this attraction does a good job of making you feel like you're in the millennium falcon which is great for the age of instagram but once it starts you're met with oh there's that word again mediocrity as for the shopping and dining aspect of the land none of it is bad it's kind of cool that you see animatronics inside the shops and dining establishments so i'll give it points for that the food itself is pretty decent and so is the merchandise even the experience of building a droid or a lightsaber has a show element to it and yet the land still feels like it's missing something the idea for building a lightsaber and presenting it as a show is directly lifted yet again from the immersion of the wizarding world in this case it's the equivalent of the wand choosing its owner in the olivander shows but once you get your wand you can then use it to interact with the elements around your environment and perform magic spells once you get your lightsaber at disney however you can put it away into your backpack because you're not allowed to have it out that remote droid that you built save it until you get home so that your dog can chase it but that doesn't mean that galaxy's edge isn't interactive remember how disney promised that your interaction with the millennium falcon would earn you a status within the land and that walk around characters would recognize you well how about instead of that you download an app that drains the battery on your phone and lets you scan boxes to play pointless mini games something about this seems to make me think that disney missed a good chunk of the reason that people like the wizarding world so much also let's take a look at super nintendo world which just opened in universal studios japan there's so much kineticism here because everywhere you look has something moving and there's always something to interact with the purchasable power-up band literally turns the land into an interactive game where you can receive prizes and unlock a fight with bowser jr this will be a problem for disney when it opens up in hollywood and orlando and galaxy's edge can't keep up the land feels absolutely static and lifeless in comparison and having a few characters roving around isn't going to make it feel any more immersive disney could have made the land interactive but super nintendo world is going to be stealing all those tourist dollars instead you might ask but what about ryze the resistance well i won't deny it's a pretty good attraction i am however really not that impressed with it because it doesn't really do anything new i've also done a video on this where i broke it down how the trackless dark ride technology is quite underused so you can go check that out if you want more context but to me the attraction is based around a series of novelties which we've already seen before the multiple pre-shows including one with a motion base has already been done at gringotts [Music] while rise of the resistance takes it a step further by tricking you into stepping back out the door you came in from that's really where the ride peaks creatively the trackless dark ride vehicles moving onto a separate elevator piece is surprising but it's not particularly innovative because the tower of terror has been doing it since 1994. the last sequence on the escape pod is just the same thing but on a motion base which while unique still doesn't impress me that much i hate to bring it back to potter again but with the opening of hagrid's over at islands of adventure a few months before i feel it's easily the superior attraction without getting into the technical aspects of the coaster i think it's far more interesting innovative and fun than what ryze the resistance managed to deliver again i think that rise of the resistance is a good attraction but the competition is just mopping the floor with it galaxy's edge without some serious improvement isn't the universal killer that disney thought it would be bob iger and jpeg in their arrogance once again thought that they could shove an ip into people's faces and completely misunderstood the strength of their competition and that's why today we're excited to build upon the news that i teased out at destination d now some of you may have been there when i said that the teams are thinking big when it comes to epcot today we'll give you a peek at some of what we are doing so you can imagine just how big we're thinking now our work on the park is centered around a few guiding principles we want to keep it true to the original vision while we're making it while making it more timeless more relevant more family and more disney we're also ensuring that these plans incorporate what we've been hearing from our guests especially from our families with young children they love epcot but they wanted to have a little bit more of that disney wow factory let's interpret that what shape is essentially saying is that disney is going to dangle the characters that your five-year-old loves in front of them so that they'll beg you to go to epcot it's like how junky cereals put characters on the boxes so the kids will beg their parents to buy them again this is a sign of the creative bankruptcy of disney leadership and in my opinion will cause a lot of damage to the parks in disney brand down the line am i saying that the incorporation of ip into the parks is a bad thing well no because while i personally do prefer attractions that are original to the parks the disney characters and franchises are often pretty great and have always been in the parks from the very beginning my issue is not the prevalence of ip so much as it is the over reliance on it instead of crafting unique and creative experiences take for example spaceship earth it's a personal favorite attraction of mine because while it's not particularly flashy or even thrilling the idea behind it is unique not every guest is going to find this exciting but that's fine because disney parks have always stood as a cultural institution concerned with artistic expression in the case of many epcot attractions education i think it's a mistake to cater to lower audiences by having moana's grandmother flying around to this planned refurbishment in fact i think that it's both insulting and tacky disney is essentially treating its guests like idiots disney is a juggernaut in florida and yet they still have to keep playing catch up be very discussed how toy story land and now galaxy's edge don't match up to the appeal of the wizarding world and disney's plans for epcot also follow this trend if you follow the buzz around this new coaster coming to epcot called guardians of the galaxy cosmic rewind i believe that i recall it being touted as a new and innovative type of coaster here it is look familiar [Music] they're just building gringotts copying another idea from universal again nothing about epcot's new attractions excite me remy's ratatouille adventure looks fine i suppose but frozen ever after i'd say it's actually a good attraction but to think that you can represent the culture and people of norway with an animated film that has almost nothing to do with the story it's based on i think it's an insult to the norway pavilion and the people that it's supposed to represent epcot comes from a time when imagineers were challenged to think creatively and wanted to inspire their guests whether it be with the possibilities of the future or with the camaraderie of other nations sure the countries around world showcase have never really been that authentic but at least they tried to educate the guests frozen doesn't belong here and it's an insult to the creative minds that once created this incredible place and this building i'm quite sure that it's cancelled anyways but why would anyone be excited about this it was quite literally conceptualized to sell you an upcharge for dessert parties on the roof for fireworks viewing and the moana themed water garden and play pavilion again the attitude is guests are idiots and they'll come for minimal experiences if we just slap an ip on it [Music] let's take a quick look at disney's boardwalk resort constructed in the eisner era it's a little weird but as well themed to represent the turn of the century boardwalk amusements and the strangeness that came with them one aspect of this theming was the roller coaster and clown themed slide at one of the main pool areas which is bizarre and people were often hyperbolic about how creepy it was was it strange sure but something like this could only exist at a disney resort and is a memorable experience in and of itself just for the theming alone so what did disney do they said hey we know you like mickey mouse so here he is and just like that an essential component of the theming that made this resort unique was replaced because again this company is creatively bankrupt at one point in time what made something disney to me was the level of quality detail and creativity that went into a project sure there have absolutely been missteps but when chapeck wants to make things more disney it's all about dangling characters in front of kids so that they'll beg their parents to take an expensive vacation with these additions the overall theme of epcot is ruined becoming a hodgepodge of cartoons and compromising what made it so special to start with no place though suffers from thematic destruction worse than california adventure sure we all knew that the park and its theme was a bad idea from the start but what's the theme now [Music] pixar the original paradise pier drew a lot of criticism for what was perceived as tacky and cheap theming but is this really any better i'd argue it's worse cars land while superbly themed in and of itself has nothing to do with california i know that it sprung out of the original idea for an attraction themed around california car culture but the land and film setting are very much inspired by monument valley located in eastern arizona and look at that another demolition derby why is marvel coming to this park if you're going to theme the park as california either change the theme or don't stuff in random ip i hate to keep going back to universal but just looking at the art for this upcoming spider-man attraction i'm skeptical that's going to be very exciting the spider-man attraction at islands of adventure has already set such a high bar that i just don't think that disney can deliver by doing this weird adaptation of toy story mania this new spider-man attraction will probably follow many other disney attractions in being aggressively mediocre but that's okay because disney will expect you to come anyways if any of the other marvel attractions are an indicator then not much effort will be put into this land the relatively new ant-man and wasp attraction that opened in 2019 at hong kong disneyland is downright terrible there was absolutely no effort put into this in a way that makes toy story land look like a theming masterpiece it's an insult to call the theming of disney's riviera resort theming wow disney movie posters in french an enticing reason to stay there for sure [Music] these new moana themed rooms at the polynesian it's a resort with so much fantastic potential for its theming but bob chapek decided that disney parks should embrace the tackiness of sex flags instead a premium product worth hundreds of dollars each night for sure and what is being done with walt disney studios park ah they're cloning marvel frozen ever after and the worst part of galaxy's edge do you see how all this is problematic how these oversights of short-term gain by shoving characters in your face hurts the longevity of the parks because it compromises the creative integrity that made them so appealing from the start i don't think that runaway railway for example will ever achieve the status of classic attraction like the great movie ride dizzy promoted it as this new and innovative concept of being two and a half d and it's really just mickey and minnie projected onto flat walls and surfaces the people who for so long criticized universal screen based attractions are silent here again it's not a bad attraction but it's just mediocre in every way with disney hoping that you'll come because mickey isn't the name [Music] let me state that i don't think bob iger or bob chapek are bad people by any means but their job is to please shareholders and that doesn't benefit the disney guest as disney continues to get more expensive as perks and amenities are cut from hotels and as the parks continue to do the bare minimum to keep up with their ever stronger competition i think that the cracks in the empire of disney parks will quickly become more visible for the most part this has been quite the negative video but i'm making it because i miss the creativity and quality that wants to find these parks as guests we should demand to better experiences and attractions from what was once the industry leader that is now starting to slowly fall from the top let's quickly circle back to the disneyland forward project i'm sure that fantasy springs will be incredible when it opens at disney c but that's because it's the efforts of the oriental land company for disney to just copy and paste this idea it feels scummy because they didn't put in the work even if they owned the ip why is toy story land on this list well you know why it's difficult for me to not match disney's cynicism with my own they treat their guests like idiots and from the shareholder perspective it's working bob iger is often credited as being an industry genius because of his maneuvers to acquire pixar marvel lucasfilm and fox and while i do approve of these moves for the entertainment division i really hate the treatment that the parks have been getting when bob chapek who comes from the eisner era of the disney store stepped into the role of chairman of parks and resorts and now ceo things have only continued to get worse disney over the last few years has continued to see record attendance at its parks and likely would have continued to do so if the world hadn't changed so dramatically people of course come to see the new and shiny additions but will they return for them i don't think so star wars as a brand might bring people in for the name but if rise of the resistance wasn't there would the rest of the land satisfy the expectations of those guests the disney parks still maintain a lot of artistry and creative endeavors that the company once took pride in staples that continued to draw the most dedicated of disney fans back again and again the hardcore disney fans the people who recognize the incredible aspects and artistry of these parks are what allowed disney to flourish as an industry leader without them disease might never have become the giant it is today and when you isolate your most dedicated fans with mind-numbing mediocrity and i think it's easy to conclude what comes next disney leadership is creatively bankrupt and if it doesn't step up then its competition will [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Poseidon Entertainment

Views: 39,519

Rating: 4.85782 out of 5

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Id: KvWA5_G8It0

Length: 31min 4sec (1864 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 09 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/seriously_kids]

31 minutes? I need a summary first.

[u/KeimApode]

I like this. I like the conversation this brings up. I know people hat DCA at Disneyland, and places like Dino Land at the animal kingdom. But is it better to make an original park or just cash in on the IP's that you bought out? I prefer the Epcot's, the DCA's, and the Animal Kingdoms to the Pixar Piers, Galaxy's edge, and avengers campus.

[u/TheFett]

Every single video I see about Disney (minus this one) always exclaims: "Wow, [Rise of the Resistance/Flight of Passage/Mickey's Runaway Railway/etc] is so innovative and amazing, it's got technology we've never seen before." And I'm like "Flight of Passage is Soarin' with different seats. Mickey's Runaway Railway is the ride system from Pooh's Hunny Hunt and Mystic Manor with the facial projections of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train."

The author (not without reason, IMO) points out that ROTR is an amalgamation of similar previously existing tech tricks and gimmicks without substantially new creative elements.