Last week’s exceptional Chapter 4 of The Imagineering Story allowed for recognizing that, especially during the Paul Pressler era, Disney was making mistakes with how it was thinking about and planning its theme parks. The Imagineering Story Chapter 5, “A Carousel of Progress,” takes a look at how the beginning of the Bob Iger era focused on fixing those mistakes. Here’s how the episode approaches Imagineering’s emphasis on making improvements to what already existed—for better or for worse.
Disney California Adventure was a mess
Nearly half of the episode’s one-hour running time is spent on the 2007-2012 project to revitalize DCA that included Toy Story Midway Mania, World of Color, Buena Vista Street and Cars Land. As usual for the series, the behind-the-scenes footage is exceptional, showing the process of building models and planning show scenes. It’s a particularly nice touch to give some screen time to Zsolt Hormay, the rockwork specialist who oversaw the majestic Radiator Springs Racers backdrop, acknowledging how much that design adds to the land’s environment. At the same time, it’s kind of noteworthy—especially since the episode begins with a comment from Imagineer Kevin Rafferty about the goal to “never do the ‘what didn’t work’ things ever again”—that there’s not one reference to the misfire of Luigi’s Flying Tires, which failed to improve on the short-lived Flying Saucers attraction that inspired it, Tomorrowland’s ill-fated Flying Saucers. Apparently, that wouldn’t fit the episode’s theme of “Look how everything we did between 2007 and 2015 was a hit!”
“Plussing” existing rides means dealing with fan backlash
The episode’s middle section includes at least a little complexity in the idea that everything was a hit. It deals with several projects that changed beloved attractions: the technological upgrades to dark rides like Peter Pan; adding Capt. Jack Sparrow to Pirates of the Caribbean; the Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion overlay; the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage; and the addition of animated characters to It’s a Small World. The last of these allows for Kim Irvine to vent somewhat over the unhappy response by park fans. Whatever your personal feelings about those changes, it’s smart of The Imagineering Story to take note of how social media and online fan communities—maybe even like this one!—have become a factor in the conversation about changes at Disney Parks.
The on-the-cheap international parks were even more of a mess than DCA
Following up on Chapter 4’s observations about Hong Kong Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios Park Paris, Chapter 4 notes the steps taken to improve those parks: Mystic Manor in Hong Kong, and the Ratatouille attraction at Studios Paris. Again, the behind-the-scenes material is great, explaining how certain effects are achieved. But it’s also hard not to scratch your head at seeing Imagineers get so enthusiastic about creating a new story from scratch for Mystic Manor, and realize how rare such an attraction is when the parks mostly focus on optimizing the use of an intellectual property.
In that way, it’s interesting to see Chapter 5 contend with the tug-of-war that Disney parks fans face in the 21st century: What changes, technological or otherwise, actually make the parks better, rather than simply more profitable? It will be interesting to see, as Chapter 6 wraps up the series next week, whether it will continue to wrestle honestly with how these beloved places are moving into the future.
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What are your thoughts on The Imagineering Story Chapter 5?
Have you been following The Imagineering Story? What do you think about Disney’s sudden transparency about its past missteps? Have you learned anything new from this docu-series? As a MiceChat reader, do you feel vindicated that much of what we’ve complained about over the years has now been confirmed by Disney? Let us know in the comments below.
Don’t miss our reviews of the other episodes of The Imagineering Story and be sure to check out our reviews and information of other Disney+ content.
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