The Disastrous History of Disney’s California Adventure - Part 1

when it comes to disney parks with troubled history california adventure is at the very top of the list i mean sure today it's a well-themed cohesive and dare i say charming theme park but when disney's california adventure first opened 20 years ago it was a whole other story and the tale of how this fundamentally broken disney park came to be is filled with struggle drama and unrealized potential so sit back relax and let's take a deep dive into the truly disastrous history of disney's california adventure [Music] the story begins with the construction of disney's mgm studios in 1987 which was soon to become the third east coast disney theme park however back over on the west coast in the city of anaheim disney still had just a single theme park of course the single theme park was the original disneyland but the park's lack of expansion was growing to be a major source of frustration within the company you see mgm studios would solidify walt disney world as the ultimate vacation destination taking multiple days or even a whole week to experience all it had to offer disneyland on the other hand was seen as a one to two day maximum experience visited primarily by locals and those traveling from nearby states true under the leadership of newly appointed disney executives michael eisner and frank wells the park had seen a dramatic revitalization in the mid-80s but despite the surgeon park admission disneyland was still far from the status of walt disney world so his work began on florida's third disney theme park so too began the mission of adding more disney experiences to southern california it's very important in the way uh that we relate to this you'll find as we get further and further into this that we get into i suppose you have to admit crazier and crazier ideas the first attempt was actually a few years before mgm studios opened with a proposed second disney theme park and entertainment center not in the city of anaheim but the city of burbank essentially this would have been a west coast version of disney's mgm studios but with a larger emphasis on themed shopping dining nightlife activities and quote a new generation of disney attractions however despite getting pretty far in the planning stages and receiving approval from city officials disney pulled the plug when development costs more than doubled offsetting any potential profit so plans for a second disney theme park or disneyland resort were put on hold but not for long eisner announced at a packed news conference that disneyland will get beefed up during the next 10 years and is even going to get a brand new sister theme park nearby and as far as the brand new theme park here in california heisner says it hasn't been decided what kind of park it will be in 1990 as part of the so-called disney decade the company announced a slew of new expansions to the original disney park there was to be a complete transformation of tomorrowland with a stunning new aesthetic and a host of incredible attractions the magic kingdom's mickey starland which began as mickey's birthday land was also to come to the anaheim park as if that wasn't enticing enough the upcoming mgm studios sunset boulevard expansion and parts of roger rabbits hollywood aka toontown was also part of the plan these would have been combined into a new land called hollywoodland and would have also featured the great movie ride however in addition to the expansions within the original park was to be a brand new theme park right next to disneyland maybe you see in 1990 disney had two simultaneous proposals for a second theme park in california one of them was disneysea in the city of long beach and would have featured attractions and lands based on the myths mysteries and wonders of the ocean but disneysea was to be part of a much larger resort by the name of port disney with an estimated budget of a whopping three billion dollars a few billion at the same time disney was also proposing another 3 billion resort but this one right across from disneyland with an alternate second theme park wescott as the name implies westcott was to be a west coast version of florida's epcot center however unlike epcot which outside of the world showcase was increasingly criticized for having the appearance of a dated concrete wasteland westcott was to be full of life and bustling with energy as initially envisioned westcott would have had three main pavilions the wonders of earth the wonders of living and the wonders of space the world showcase would have also been dramatically expanded focusing on the four corners of the earth asia europe the americas and africa epcot's iconic spaceship earth was also to be nearly twice the size with a far more futuristic appearance and a ton of reflective lighting now for both of these resorts disney would have required either the city of long beach or anaheim to provide a significant portion of the funding in the case of anaheim it was to unify the surrounding streets and businesses presenting a much more appealing aesthetic for a true resort destination however when i say a significant portion of funding i mean somewhere between a staggering 800 million to one billion dollars some have even speculated that the only reason disneysea was even conceived was to put pressure on anaheim city officials for the disneyland resort after all disneyland was the primary source of anaheim's tens of millions of dollars worth of tax revenues creating thousands of jobs and driving the tourism which supported hundreds of local businesses by 1991 the decision was made with disney port being cancelled and the official plans for the disneyland resort in westcott being made public but then a new set of troubles began what's the technical you see the nightly fireworks traffic congestion and swarm of tourists was already a frequent complaint of those living near the disneyland park so the idea of an even bigger theme park brightening up the skies and attracting tourists from all over the world didn't go over too well with the community disney even wound up redesigning westcott which promised a far less bombastic and disruptive tourist attraction but that was only part of the issue you see while the disney world property was made up of a whopping 30 000 acres the disneyland property was only about 400. this consisted of the park itself the 100 acre parking lot and the recently acquired disneyland hotel and vacation land property from the rather corporation and just for comparison imagine the blue square is disneyland yeah it's pretty drastic so part of disney's expansion plans contained at least 100 acres of additional property which was to be acquired by the city the master plan released to the public did include this but someone on the disney team neglected to inform those who already own the property one case was a man by the name of joe slutsky who was shocked to see his business right where disney was planning to build a new parking garage while disney ultimately decided to alter the plans the damage was already done disney was seen as a villain of the community to make matters worse funding from the city became a major problem and forced disney to repeatedly downscale the scope of the entire project however one of the final nails in the coffin for this version of the disneyland resort which included westcott was euro disneyland hey matanov should declare euro disney official mall uber now the abysmal performance of the paris theme park is often the butt of many jokes and is often used to explain countless abandoned disney attractions and expansions but it's also the case here it shattered disney's confidence in building yet another massive multi-billion dollar resort and shifted the company's priorities into financial recovery and stability but there's a final aspect that forever doomed the second california theme park one that would have a ripple effect lasting well over a decade the death of frank wells one month after frank well's 62nd birthday he was involved in a helicopter crash on a ski trip in nevada's ruby mountains his passing had a devastating impact on michael eisner who up until then could focus solely on the creative aspects of the parks with frank wells on the business side to keep his ideas in check but now eisner was left to deal with the financial disaster of euro disney all on his own three months later eisner underwent bypass heart surgery and it seems that between these two life-changing events he lost the creative drive that began the original park's renaissance all those years earlier the combination of all these factors led to the cancellation of this version for the disneyland resort and with it the dreams of westcott you know after walt learned about all the negative reaction to the opening day at disneyland he was bound and determined to personally fix the problems now two disney insiders here at the park everybody knows mickey and minnie they tell me that walt was gonna do whatever it takes to make his dream come true despite the cancellation of westcott it didn't change the problem that inspired this massive undertaking in the first place disneyland needed to expand and become a true theme park resort destination and though a far cry from the initially requested funds anaheim was still willing to invest into improving the surrounding disneyland property so as the story goes in august of 1995 michael eisner and his team of imagineers and executives held a three-day retreat in aspen colorado the goal of this impromptu trip was finding a new solution at a fraction of the cost and scale of the original plans and it seems they broke down the disneyland problem as follows the people visiting disneyland consisted primarily of california residents locals or those who lived in nearby states the ones that were from another part of the us or even another country likely had disneyland as just one of the many vacation destinations within california so evidently michael eisner came up with a brilliant idea a disney park themed and inspired by all the experiences you can have in california that way visitors wouldn't feel need to even leave the resort plus and this was a big factor for disney both the park and resort can be done at nearly a third of the cost of the original expansion at just over 1 billion dollars the downscaling of the resort also meant less expensive hotels a single parking garage and very little additional property acquisition with most of it residing on the disneyland parking lot and while on paper this might have seemed like a good idea you'll soon see otherwise george lucas returns to disneyland with alien encounter further ahead baby herman's runaway buggy ride through a whole new area in the park hollywoodland where park guests will appear in classic films of yesterday and television of tomorrow now before going further it's important to mention the expansions within the original park i mentioned earlier as this was also a victim of the new budget reduction the new tomorrowland or tomorrowland 2055 was altogether scrapped and the land would instead see a far cheaper version inspired by disneyland paris's discovery land the mickey's starland clone and roger rabbit land concepts were also abandoned at least as stand-alone locations instead putting the two together into mickey's toontown featuring roger rabbit the sunset boulevard inspired hollywood land was also scrapped at least for disneyland instead it was chosen to reside within this california adventure theme park however it seems it was no longer to feature the great movie ride that being said let's explore the initial vision for disney's california adventure because the initial plans were quite different from what became a reality first and foremost california adventure was to feature the golden spire from the abandoned westcott this was intended to be seen from miles away spiking the curiosity of those unfamiliar with the disney parks upon entering disney's california adventure you would have an even better view of this monolithic structure you might also notice a representation of california's iconic missions which was to be a much larger part of the entire resort as a whole but for those unaware the california missions are historical landmarks but they're also associated with the not so disney topic of slavery so possibly to avoid another song of the south situation in which disney was criticized for having a complacent view of slavery little of this would survive into the final version of the park our next stop is the original vision for the hollywood backlot now as i said plans for the great movie ride were abandoned more than likely due to the legal battle between the non-disney mgm studios over licensing rights and its place was initially going to be a high-speed dark ride in which you would have been chased by the paparazzi on your way to meet michael eisner at the grommen's chinese theater to sign a huge movie deal with disney yeah seriously the exterior would have been based off the actual los angeles airport but unfortunately visuals of the ride's initial concept are few and far between another attraction of hollywood was to be the animator's desk this was to be a very elaborate theater presentation slash walkthrough hybrid on the presentation side it would have educated audiences on the various processes involved in making animated feature films the walkthrough portions would have taken visitors through the history and evolution of walt disney animation with elaborate and interactive set pieces based on their feature films and animated shorts next was golden california featuring a mesmerizing waterfall flowing from the mouth of grizzly peak foreshadowing one of the park's signature attractions grizzly riverrun now in addition to a handful of wildlife animatronics the attraction would have also featured a unique but complicated special effect somewhere along the journey a flash flood would have occurred eventually jumping over guests and chasing them on the other side of the river before splitting into two waterfalls as they escape its path the subland of golden state would have also had a yosemite inspired water playground it seems this actually got pretty far in development as it appears in quite a few conceptual renderings there was also apparently an alternate version in the form of a playground called the eureka steamworks next up is surf beach sometimes referred to as surf city now in addition to a massive lighthouse this area of the park would have also featured wave pools to allow visitors to try their hand at surfing this brings to mind the abandoned surf machine of the magic kingdom so it seems disney wanted to give it another go but this time in a controlled environment though abandoned fairly early in development it's also worth mentioning muscle beach a playground recreation area inspired by california's venice beach another part of the original california adventure was the original golden dreams supposedly this was to be an incredible big budget animatronic-filled spectacular on the same level or surpassing epcot's american adventure only showing the disney fight highlights of california's evolution last but not least was the magnificent thrilling and astounding tractor yard here visitors could find attractions and walk through celebrating california farming which was sure to be a highlight for kids visiting a disney theme park from the dream makers at disney [Music] an exciting new theme park is coming to southern california located right next door to disneyland park celebrating all the fun and adventure of california introducing disney's california adventure construction on disney's california adventure commenced in january of 1998 which said goodbye to the original disneyland parking lot however from concept to construction the already low budget theme park was scaled back even further resulting in the loss and alterations to a number of experiences the culprit was by and large the recently appointed president of disneyland operations and the one chosen to oversee the new disney park paul pressler you see paul pressler came from the world of merchandising and cost-cutting retail practices and he was hired specifically to focus on driving up revenue from the parks by whatever means necessary in fact paul pressler was behind the closure of the submarine voyage the massively unimpressive new tomorrowland and even the tiki room roof collapsing due to a lack of upkeep heck he even shut down the main street electrical parade in favor of the far less expensive light magic parade but keep in mind he was literally hired to put profits before presentation in a celebration of walt disney's imagination of his dreams and of his love for this very special place we call disneyland i dedicate the final night of the main street electrical parade to all of you many of the changes to the original vision for california adventure reflected these same cost-cutting decisions by management to the original park but let's be clear on something california adventure even if built has envisioned post-westcott was fundamentally flawed it simply strayed way too far from the tried and true disney theme park formula lacking the magic and sense of immersion of the others now the concept of offering all the experiences of california within a single theme park could work if you built something like the fictional 15 billion dollar man-made city in the truman show then you could experience all that california has to offer in a controlled environment but as it was minus a few experiences disney was building a disney theme park without any of the magic charm or innovation of a disney theme park another issue was disney's overconfidence and the ability to draw in older crowds with far too few experiences designed for families with young children but the true irony is that the jaw-dropping 3 billion disneysea concept for long beach or at least a variation of it was literally being built at the same time in tokyo what's really super to the disney company is that it didn't have to invest one cent in the 600 million extravaganza japan's oriental land company backed by railway and real estate interests put up the money and will pay disney royalties you see the entire project was being 100 funded by the oriental land company and much like tokyo disneyland they had a spare no expense mentality the olc encouraged imagineers to really shoot for the stars experiment with new technologies and most of all create a truly immersive and unique experience for visitors however this was not the case for california adventure in which imagineers were all but encouraged to cut corners and throw true immersive experiences out the window one example was the writer's desk walkthrough which was drastically reduced in scope to the art of animation but the redesigned exterior would see yet another reduction in presentation quality the high speed superstar limo dark ride probably saw the most drastic alteration but this had more to do with the tragic death of princess diana midway through development the idea of a comical high speed chase by the paparazzi was obviously now in bad taste so between that and severe budget constraints they opted to downgrade it to a slow moving dark ride but we'll dive further into this atrocity a bit later surf beach became paradise pier focusing more on cheap rides cheap food stands and cheap carnival games golden dreams went from the animatronic stage show spectacular to little more than a film presentation the yosemite inspired water park as well as the cascading waterfall from grizzly peak was also scrapped heck even the park's glorious icon of a giant golden spire was downgraded to as one imagineer later described something like you'd find in a shopping mall arguably the most offensive removal of course was the tractor yard but don't take my word for it as in part 2 we'll explore in detail the california adventure that opened in 2001 the disastrous reception the early efforts to fix this fundamentally broken disney park and its ultimate in ongoing [Music] redemption

Channel: Yesterworld Entertainment

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Keywords: yesterworld, Yesterworld: The Disastrous History of Disney’s California Adventure - Part 1, disney's california adventure theme park, disney california adventure, Westcot history, the history of Disneys California Adventure, The History of the Disneyland Resort, disney california adventure theme park, Disney theme park history, california adventure history, yesterworld theme park history, disney history, disneyland california adventure

Id: ROviWgdp42M

Length: 18min 56sec (1136 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 22 2021