Originally Posted By Boardwalkbum Ok....Let's say that Walt actually WAS put into cryogenic suspension and has now been thawed and cured. After the therapy/being bought up to date with everything montage, he is again at the helm of The Walt Disney Company. What are some of his first actions? In what direction does he start to take the company? What if anything does he immediately undo? I'm sure we all have some of the same ideas as well as ones "Worlds" apart. Feel free to share them! Serious and or Funny.....
Originally Posted By Rsey103 >>What are some of his first actions?<< Finding people. Assembling a team.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt Some things he'd probably say: "Universal Studios is a theme park now? LOL" "Who is Michael Eisner?" "Who is Hannah Montana?" "What do you mean that's EPCOT? Huh?" "Why on Earth is THAT thing still here?" (pointing at CoP) "Where did the parking lot go?" (standing at the entrance to DCA). "Where the hell did all these princesses come from?" "Bring me the person(s) responsible for destroying the Main Street shops this instant!" "What is a C3PO and why is he in my office?" "We own the Disneyland Hotel now? Cool."
Originally Posted By oc_dean I'd think, once he would have his crew assembled .. first on the list: 1. How well are the front line CMs handling guests? If he sees troubles - He would revamp CM Training. 2. Park cleanliness and upkeep would be next. Broken bulbs, Ride elements such as AAs that aren't working correctly. Filthy buildings, cracks. Trash not being picked up ... He'd address all those things. The bigger items, like whole attractions, lands, parks where rides have been shuttered (Wonders of Life Pavilion) would take much longer to figure out solutions. I wonder what Walt would say about the infiltration of cartoon characters into Tomorrowland.
Originally Posted By oc_dean ^^^ Classic Trippy! Ohhh .. if only society knew the dangers of smoking then, as we do today .. Walt could have lived another 10 years. C'est la vie
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Wow, Hans, you really got the big ones, from every angle imaginable! I would guess that he would be more surprised at the general state of culture than anything specific to TWDC. He would probably be surprised to see that 'creativity' now all relies on existing brands and ideas, rather than coming up with truly fresh and unique ideas. I think he would be disappointed to see the lack of real development from TWDC in the last ~10-15, but would have the gumption to put smoe plans in action and get them moving immediately (slow modern building practices be darned!)
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt "He would probably be surprised to see that 'creativity' now all relies on existing brands and ideas, rather than coming up with truly fresh and unique ideas." This all the way. Still, given the company's dominance in the entertainment industry and the stupendous rise of the its stock value since 1967, he'd probably have a huge grin on his face.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<"He would probably be surprised to see that 'creativity' now all relies on existing brands and ideas, rather than coming up with truly fresh and unique ideas.">> Not sure how you can say that when close to 50% of the Disneyland opening day attractions were based on Disney films. Most of the major non-movie related attractions... Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain etc, came at least 10 years later.
Originally Posted By oc_dean >>>> <<"He would probably be surprised to see that 'creativity' now all relies on existing brands and ideas, rather than coming up with truly fresh and unique ideas.">> Not sure how you can say that when close to 50% of the Disneyland opening day attractions <<<< I'm not sure what the Opening Day DL 1955 attraction line-up has to do with anything. Say Walt did come back to life. His reference point would be where he left off (1966) ... not 1955.
Originally Posted By oc_dean And the reason for 50% of attractions from Opening Day being film-based ... is due to a land that was more complete, and bigger list of attractions to other lands: Fantasyland. Where most of the Disney-Film based attractions were kept to, while the other lands were nearly all original ideas.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Not to mention that most of the film-based attractions were A-C tickets, while the original ones were more likely to be D's and E's. I don't think that he would have considered the teacups to be on equal footing with the Jungle Cruise in that scenario
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost I know that this is kind of a light hearted thread, but, seriously when did Walt not base attractions, movies or entertainment on something that didn't already exist in one form or the other. Be it fairy tails, books or other outside influence. Live action animal depictions being the exception and maybe even Mickey, but that is debatable since Oswald and Mickey looked pretty much alike (ears excluded). They still do that today with brands that WE all recognize, just like those used in the past were reconcilable to a different generation. How they were imagined and presented by him were absolutely original. For Example, Mr. Cameron would never have had controlling interest in how Disney presented them. He might have had input, but, if it got bad enough Walt would have told him to take a walk or pulled a Mary Poppins on him.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORWEN: I don't think Uncle Walt would have ever said, "What are all these princesses doing here" either because he was the first to create characters and promote them. He might have promoted them DIFFERENTLY than the current management. But would still have been glad to have them in the park--along with all the other characters.
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt My quote was "Where did they come from?", which was meant to imply that he would be surprised to see how homogeneous and ubiquitous they become in the parks since his death.
Originally Posted By phruby Considering Walt would be 112 years old, he probably get mad and want to know why they brought him back when he was in a much better place. Everyone that he knew and loved is long dead and now he is separated from them. He would be lonely and depressed. He wouldn't understand any of the new technology that has come in the last fifty years. He would wonder were his cigarettes were. He would be completely unprepared to run a business in the 21st century. Disney stock would tumble and be bought out by Comcast who decides to replace Fantasyland with Harry Potter.
Originally Posted By 9oldmen >>Everyone that he knew and loved is long dead and now he is separated from them.<< Uh..did you not see "Saving Mr. Banks"? You do know that composer Richard M. Sherman is still alive, don't you? Also, although the Nine Old Men are all gone, you've still got people like Floyd Norman, Don Bluth and Burny Mattinson. Those are just the ones I can think of. Oh, and Marty Sklar? Maybe 1966 was NOT that long ago.
Originally Posted By phruby How many 80 year olds want to hang around a 112 year old reanimated corpse?
