Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 <<Apparently Lasseter visits the park often. I want a job like that!!>> I'd like to see him at WDW once in a while ... the place is stale, pale shadow of its former self with recycled magic, marketing and a giant timeshare devlopment taking the place of substance. I have met John a few times and would love to take him on a private tour of WDW pointing out all the ways WDW's 'leadership' team is sucking the magic and the quality from the place, but somehow I am not convinced that will happen ... but if I am in the right place at the right time , you never know.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney I know, I know, I keep harping on the Pixar part. But check out this youtube video about Pixar: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHPZMIAhpqs" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...ZMIAhpqs</a> There are links to part II and part III on this page also. It's a fun place.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney Spirit -- are you not afraid of Pixar taking over WDW as far as attractions? Seems like a lot of people think Disneyland is becomming "Pixar-land" and aren't too happy about it.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 Pixar is Disney. I make no differentiation especially since the quality of their product is so uniformly high (unlike Disney). A better question would be if I am concerned by the tooning of Disney parks ... the dumbing down of them. The answer to that would be yes. Nemo was a great film with wonderful characters, but what is he doing in Tomorrowland? Hell, what is Buzz Lightyear (or Stitch and the Monsters in FLA)? Themed areas don't work in the Disney sense when there are characters thrown in everywhere and anywhere. It's simple. They are going for the LCD option too often. It's not a Pixar problem. It's a management one ... since they force the characters in to pump up merchandise sales ... and it's a WDI one because they aren't creating enough compelling attractions that are not built around toons.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "and it's a WDI one because they aren't creating enough compelling attractions that are not built around toons." I certainly hope MouseketeerCole works at WDI someday and dreams up the next great original ride in the spirit of Pirates of the Caribbean or Horizons and plops it right into Disneyland. How's that for positivity, then?
Originally Posted By 2001DLFan <<Spirit of 74: But he was aware of the politics of WDI ... indeed it is pretty common knowledge that, for lack of a better term, he was thrown under the bus by Tony Baxter yet they remained friends to the end.>> Gordon was thrown under the bus by Sklar and Fitzgerald, NOT Baxter. Baxter actually saved Gordon’s bacon a couple of times earlier when S & F tried to get rid of him.
Originally Posted By MouseketeerCole "I certainly hope MouseketeerCole works at WDI someday and dreams up the next great original ride in the spirit of Pirates of the Caribbean or Horizons and plops it right into Disneyland." I really appreciate that SpokkerJones. It's number one on my to-do list - I'll knock your socks off! =P
Originally Posted By avromark Well WDI could be designing wonderful rides, (think about how much they pump out), but if the budget doesn't get approved, if a suit above doesn't like it... There are many factors in the decision making process. Just sayin' is all. Wait until you meet Maynard
Originally Posted By MouseketeerCole Okay, I'm not sure how to post images here, but here's a link to the two pics I got; <a href="http://www.theneverlandfiles.com/tonyjohn1.JPG" target="_blank">http://www.theneverlandfiles.c...ohn1.JPG</a> and <a href="http://www.theneverlandfiles.com/tonyjohn2.JPG" target="_blank">http://www.theneverlandfiles.c...ohn2.JPG</a> I can't believe I'm standing next to those guys!!!
Originally Posted By avromark Ok I recognize the two people on either end, but who's that guy in the middle?
Originally Posted By oc_dean That's so cool. I hope it not only made your day ... but got your year off on a very "spirited" note!
Originally Posted By Dr G Awesome! Congrats on wonderful pictures. Glad to hear they were so nice. By the way, it looks like you may have another Imagineer in the background of your picture. The lady in pink with the Mickey umbrella in the background looks to be Kim Irvine, WDI Art Director. Someone who knows for sure can hopefully confirm that for you. Again, Congrats!
Originally Posted By Tinkerbell819 The photos are great! Thanks for sharing your experience with us! What a wonderful thing to have happened, I would have been too nervous to speak!
Originally Posted By Skellington88 you should have asked them why everything has to be a cartoon tie-in now
Originally Posted By Skellington88 "Nothing I have ever read about WDI or the Disney Company has affected me more, or at all really, than reading about what happened to Bruce Gordon. It made me lose faith in the Walt Disney Company and it made me lose faith in my own dreams." Aren't you better off starting your own company, becoming sucessful and down the road buy the disney company like Steve Jobs/Lasseter did? That way is more rewarding and a true experince of the american dream. Plus then you call the shots not the overpaid retards who run these companies into the ground.
Originally Posted By Britain True. Not everyone who is good enough to get in to WDI will get in (let alone the hordes of people who aren't quite up to snuff). But that doesn't mean they are doomed to a cubicle prison. The world is full of fulfilling creative jobs and opportunities. What, by the way, was the great advice Tony shared with you?
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<Gordon was thrown under the bus by Sklar and Fitzgerald, NOT Baxter. Baxter actually saved Gordon’s bacon a couple of times earlier when S & F tried to get rid of him.>> This is only partially correct. Sklar and Fitzgerald wanted to reduce head count, and placed Baxter in a "Sophie's Choice" kind of predicament. He had to choose amongst several Imagineers on his team who would receive the pink slip(s). For reasons that only Tony can fully comprehend, he chose Bruce. FWIW, the explanation given to me from someone who was closer to the situation than I was, about why Bruce was chosen for the pink slip, had mostly to do with Bruce's multifaceted skills and talents combined with his 25 years at Imagineering, as compared to other Imagineers on the short list. Apparently Bruce was considered the most capable of surviving termination outside Disney, regarding future employment. Given his strong writing/editing skills, evident in numerous publications such as DL Nickel Tour, Walt's Time, and Brush with Disney, this would seem logical. And as Spirit pointed out, Bruce and Tony remained friends afterwards. There is obviously more to this story than Tony throwing Bruce under the bus just to save Tony. I don't know if the above explanation is indeed factual, but it seems plausible. And yes, we lost Bruce way too soon. His death was very tragic, especially since it was most likely preventable. WDI has been steadily hemorrhaging "old school" Imagineers since Bruce's termination in August 2005, which is the main source of my own personal frustration and anger with Imagineering. Bruce's termination is but a symptom of a greater ill. Walt's legacy is being thrown under the bus by the current executive leadership, recently highlighted by the buy out packages being offered to those nearing retirement age in Glendale. Seems to me that these buy out offers are yet another way to speed up the removal process of the last vestiges of the old school. WDI is a shadow of its former self. I fear the golden age of Imagineering and its subsequent era of theme park design excellence has been derailed by the new kids, hoping to carve their own little niche in Disney history on the backs of the giants who preceded them. Unfortunately, there seems to be little interest in keeping the remaining giants at WDI in order to learn from them. The new kids would rather gut the company by tossing the elders onto the retirement ice float, setting them adrift, in order to call all the shots themselves. The old school Imagineers have little value to the new kids who seem to only care about pleasing P&R execs and the Disney Marketing Gestapo in an effort to justify and keep their overcompensated arses on the Disney payroll. And anyone who cares about first about quality and maintaining Walt's legacy and dares to vocalize those concerns to the new kids runs the risk of career stagnation if not outright termination a la Bruce Gordon and John Horney and Rick Rothschild and Nina Ray Vaughn on and on and on. I'll also toss in my two cents to the original poster about wanting to work at Imagineering. If you haven't done so already, please check out Professor Randy Pausch's final publication, "The Last Lecture." Both the book and DVD of the actual lecture at CMU are excellent. Dr. Pausch was a HUGE Disney fan, particularly of Imagineering. He wanted to work at WDI since childhood, and actually realized his lifelong dream in the early nineties during a sabbatical from Univ of Virginia's computer science dept. He had applied and been rejected by Imagineering previously, long before gaining notoriety at Carnegie Mellon as co-founder of the Entertainment Technology Center. While Dr. Pausch relished his virtual reality work at WDI, he recognized the value of working elsewhere, particularly in academia, and rejected Imagineering's offer for full-time employment at the end of his sabbatical. He got the opportunity to realize his childhood dream of working at Imagineering, but learned from actually working there, that it wasn't the magical professional destination he previously envisioned. You would do well to consider this with regard to your own professional dreams.
