Originally Posted By WorldDisney <<It's not like I don't think DL is special. Heck, I shed a tear when I stepped into Tokyo DisneySea on opening day in 2001.>> That's not fair dude, I mean c'mon, who hasn't? ;D I shed a tear the first time I entered DCA that year as well, but once again, different reasons.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones When I watched a video of Roy Disney giving a speech at DisneySea and talked about how much his uncle would have loved that park, I almost teared up.
Originally Posted By Hans Reinhardt There was a time when I had a strong emotional attachment to Disney's parks. That has waned dramatically over time. I cannot pinpoint any one thing that triggered it, but I would say that the corporatization of Disney's parks and resorts combined with the redundant character and movie tie-ins over the past decade have taken their toll on my patience. My last trip to DL was the longest gap between visits to a Disney theme park in my adult life - almost three years. I have absolutely no interest in visiting WDW or any of the foreign parks and I probably will not visit DL again before WOC debuts next summer.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones Hans, I don't see any contact info for you in your profile so let me ask you here. Have you ever seen any of the advertising for DisneySea? There's a general trailer type thing about an older couple remembering their youth and falling in love again at the park. Then there are five longer short films, about 20 minutes long each, about various groups of people. There's one about a group of teenagers having a day of fun before finals. There's one about an office worker finding her way or something. Are they corny? Very. But they are still better than any US parks advertising I've ever seen. It might show you how a Disney theme park can be elevated beyond just being portrayed as a kiddy park. This person has them all translated here: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=zeekslider&view=videos" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/profile...w=videos</a> I would start with this one: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAMuxJ-0AIw&feature=channel_page" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...nel_page</a>
Originally Posted By TMICHAEL Sorry to back this up for no apparent reason but people moved to tears on Small World?!! Hardly. In the 8 years I worked that attraction, I never once saw anyone moved to that much emotion because of the ride. Being passionate about the character addition is one thing but this tangent was just laughable.
Originally Posted By 2001DLFan <<danyoung : “Disneyland, obviously, was never meant to be an "amusement park." I think statements like this one are pure promotion. Of course DL and WDW are not like other amusement parks, but they ARE amusement parks by definition. They are also theme parks, which didn't exist before 1955. But to say that they're not places where people come and ride rides and eat food and play games - you know, an amusement park - is just playing with semantics.>> Back when Walt was designing Disneyland, the park he envisioned was TOTALLY UNIQUE and NOTHING like ANY amusement park. So, while technically, it could be considered an amusement park at the very basic level, it wasn’t one and was specifically designed to not be anything like one from the outset. So, while paying with semantics may well be used to generally equate Disneyland to amusement parks, Disney’s success in the theme park business was based on Disneyland NOT being JUST ANOTHER amusement park.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<while technically, it could be considered an amusement park at the very basic level, it wasn’t one>> Sorry, but that statement is laughable.
Originally Posted By 2001DLFan <<Hans Reinhardt: There was a time when I had a strong emotional attachment to Disney's parks. That has waned dramatically over time. I cannot pinpoint any one thing that triggered it, but I would say that the corporatization of Disney's parks and resorts combined with the redundant character and movie tie-ins over the past decade have taken their toll on my patience. My last trip to DL was the longest gap between visits to a Disney theme park in my adult life - almost three years. I have absolutely no interest in visiting WDW or any of the foreign parks and I probably will not visit DL again before WOC debuts next summer.>> This is an example that I some people don’t seem to understand. You USED to have an emotional attachment to Disney’s parks. There are currently MANY who STILL have emotional attachments. Those attachments can range from all things Disney down to specific films or attractions. So those who either have lost their emotional attachment, or may have never developed one, shouldn’t question the sincerity of those who still retain theirs. You say that you cannot pinpoint what triggered your loss. Well, this current IASW situation may well be the point that makes a new generation of Disney fans lose their emotional attachment.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "So those who either have lost their emotional attachment, or may have never developed one, shouldn’t question the sincerity of those who still retain theirs." He didn't.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<this current IASW situation may well be the point that makes a new generation of Disney fans lose their emotional attachment.>> You know, it's not really that terrible to lose emotional attachment over something; one can still enjoy a place, product, activity...whatever, and not be a "fan." You can lose it and get it back too.
Originally Posted By oc_dean >>349 NEW! trekkeruss Thu 2/19/2009 10:33p <<while technically, it could be considered an amusement park at the very basic level, it wasn’t one>> Sorry, but that statement is laughable. << Okay, I'm confused. Walt created something no else attempted before - A sophisticated type of enjoyment with a level of artistic integrity no one ever thought to create. It was a first. Now ... in the most BASIC of terms ... one could use 'amusement park'. What other term is used in the English language? It's a term well-stuck in our vocabulary for over 100 years!
Originally Posted By oc_dean >>> <<this current IASW situation may well be the point that makes a new generation of Disney fans lose their emotional attachment.>> You know, it's not really that terrible to lose emotional attachment over something; one can still enjoy a place, product, activity...whatever, and not be a "fan." You can lose it and get it back too. <<< The way I read that comment is .... (and this is the crux of my 'small world' argument.)...... When you have a park that is so overly glossy "on the surface" with Disney characters, Disney characters, Disney Characters .. and MORE Disney characters ...... the less the park becomes the "multi-emotional" park it use to be. It's getting to be one emotion - 'The Disney characters' emotion. And the newer generations are going to feel less .. because that's the only "emotion" Disney knows anymore!
Originally Posted By WorldDisney <<Back when Walt was designing Disneyland, the park he envisioned was TOTALLY UNIQUE and NOTHING like ANY amusement park. So, while technically, it could be considered an amusement park at the very basic level, it wasn’t one and was specifically designed to not be anything like one from the outset.>> I think I get what you're saying here but at the end of the day, it IS an amusement park, nothing more! Original, yes, innovative, definitely, ambitious, without question, but you strip it down and we are still talking about a theme park, just one of the best ones out there. I mean, I LOVE TDS, the park just feels like something out of a renasiassance painting lol, the grand scale and scope of it is amazing. I try not to use hyperbole too much, but it really is and you are talking to someone whose been to the pyramids, Machu Picchu, Mt. Fuji and the great wall of China among other places and none of these compare lol. Just kidding...sort of . My point is no matter how amazing and utterly immersive that park is that goes beyound any level of theme park I been to before, at the end of the day it STILL is just a theme park, nothing more. Basically you ride rides and watch shows all day, thats it in a nutshell. Does the experience provide more than that, obviously, but thats its BASIC function, to do just that. For every thread that talks about how magical these parks are, there are three others asking when the next 'E-ticket' will be installed or when Aladdin will be replaced, best place to watch the fireworks and etc, just like any other theme park out there. Okay rant over, I guess the conversation loses me when we put this park on sort of pedestal that it has helped transformed western society or something. In terms of other theme parks and the pure enjoyment I get out if yes, it is put on a pedestal, but on that level alone. Now, I WILL agree that if anything was going beyound the theme park scope, it was the ORIGINAL Epcot Center design. Walt Disney was clearly trying to do something that took elements of a theme park and transformed them into a functioning, living society. That was bold and definitely unlike anything that would be around, even 30+ years later.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss <<What other term is used in the English language?>> The other term is theme park, which at the time the park was built, was unique to DL. <<Walt created something no else attempted before - A sophisticated type of enjoyment with a level of artistic integrity no one ever thought to create.>> The park is not a sophisticated type of enjoyment. It uses sophisticated techniques to tell a story, but the enjoyment is popular in nature.
Originally Posted By oc_dean It would be as if Baloo, Simba, and other Disney animals were added to the Jungle Cruise (in the same vein as this Disney Cartoon blitz on 'small world') - What would have use to be a safari in a realistic setting, giving it a more tangeable, HUMAN resonance ..... turns into ........ "OH LOOK HONEY, OH .. IT'S BALOO .. OH HOW EXCITING .. ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE DISNEY CHARACTERS .. OH, ISN'T THAT JUST SO CUTE?????!!" Disneyland ... the "Oh-so cute adventure" to tickle those superficial levels within your human psyche. Want something that resonates on some to some other, more deeper parts of your human conscience? GO GET A DVD of Disneyland pre 1995!
Originally Posted By oc_dean >>The park is not a sophisticated type of enjoyment.<< OH, YOU CAN SAY THAT AGAIN! It was before.
Originally Posted By oc_dean >>The park is not a sophisticated type of enjoyment. It uses sophisticated techniques to tell a story, but the enjoyment is popular in nature.<< I don't think you understood what I meant. What I meant to say ... is ... Overall ... Disneyland was/is the most sophisticated design for a place with rides - hence, the term "theme park".
Originally Posted By Anatole69 I just read the news items about the shakeup in DisCo's management team. To all those who were ok with Pirates Lair, Johhny Depp in Pirates, Tarzan's Treehouse, Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, cloning of film based attractions etc... and characters in IASW, congradulations. This was your day to celebrate. - Anatole
