We are three episodes into The Imagineering Story on Disney+, and an interesting pattern has become apparent on the Leslie Iwerks documentary series. As much as it’s about honoring the artists and craftspeople who actually designed and implemented Disney theme park attractions, it’s also about the way that work was informed by whoever was sitting at the top of the company at the time.
Chapter 1 focused on the era when Walt Disney himself oversaw Disneyland. Chapter 2 is centered on the period when everyone tried to understand their mission in the aftermath of Walt’s death. Chapter 3’s “The Midas Touch” addresses the decade from 1984-1994 when new CEO Michael Eisner and COO Frank Wells took the reins.
The latest episode spends much of its time on the key developments of the Eisner-Wells dynasty in the Disney Parks—like the opening of Star Tours and Splash Mountain in Disneyland, and the launch of Disney/MGM Studios and Euro Disneyland—but also provides context for how much uncertainty there was in the early 1980s about the future of Imagineering, and the welcome champions that those creators found in Eisner and particularly Wells.
Most parks enthusiasts are watching the Imagineering Story not so much for details they already know about their favorite attractions, but to get a glimpse of rarely-seen or never-before-seen footage. “The Midas Touch” continues providing a rich delivery system for such material, whether it’s home-movie images of a young Tony Baxter riding on Disneyland’s short-lived Flying Saucers, or testing the simulator ride system that would become Star Tours.
It’s also noteworthy that there are some controversial components that Iwerks just isn’t interested in devoting much time to. The use of Song of the South as the theme for Splash Mountain gets a quick note from narrator Angela Bassett that it’s a “problematic film,” while the Michael Jackson-led Captain EO from this time period gets nothing more than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mention.
Yet this chapter does prove willing to get its hands at least a little bit dirty as more than a rah-rah promotional package for Walt Disney Imagineering. That’s most evident in the material covering the launch of Euro Disneyland and its early financial struggles, and the realization that many of the initial business decisions were bad ones. Michael Eisner openly acknowledges that the admission cost was not reasonable, and other voices note the lessons that had to be learned – for example, not providing wine for a French culture that wasn’t about to put up with an alcohol-free park. The Imagineering Story certainly cheerleads for Imagineers, but it’s also willing to acknowledge when some of the choices surrounding their work went awry.
Mostly, in this episode, you get a strong case for Frank Wells as a primary architect of a fertile period for Imagineering creativity, and how much his death in a helicopter crash in 1994 impacted the future of Disney Parks.
It was an open checkbook for blue-sky thinking in the development lab that generated the ride system that would become the Indiana Jones Adventure, and while the episode ends with only ominous hints at the era that would follow, it’s clear that tightened purse strings would have an impact on what would be possible going forward. Although the people who created our beloved Disney parks attractions are the real heroes of The Imagineering Story, it’s also clear that, like at every other point in history, artists need patrons who are willing to give them the opportunity to do what they do best.
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Let’s Hear From You
Have you been following the Imagineering Story on Disney+? Do you like what you’ve seen so far? Do you feel you are learning things you didn’t know before?