Walt Disney knew that the secret to creating the best entertainment was to hire the best artists for any particular genre or style. When he moved his animation studio to Hyperion, he hired 8 of the world's top animators. These men, under the tutelage and guiding hand of his old friend and technical animation guru Ub Iwerks, would go on to create the first series of
Mickey Mouse shorts as well as the revolutionary
Silly Symphonies.
When Walt decided it was time for a new revolution and he set his eye to
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt eventually ended up hiring his famed nine old men of animation. Les Clark, Ollie Johnston, Frank Thomas, Eric Larson, John Lounsberry, Ward Kimball, Milt Kahl, Wolfgang Reitherman and Marc Davis would have their hands (though not all of them for every project) in most of the major releases from 1937 until
The Rescuers in 1977.
Finally, in December 1953, Walt Disney had decided that his dreams had outgrown the two-dimensional plateau of the motion picture screen, and it was time to create another brand new genre of entertainment. This time, he would have full control. There would be no one to cede control from him as Charles Mintz and George Winkler had with Oswald. There would be no Pat Powers, no executives in New York trying to purchase not only his chief characters but his entire studio. Walt Disney had been thinking in three dimensions.
The story goes that on sunday afternoons, Walt would take his two daughters (Sharon and Diane Disney) to Griffith Park- a sleepy, sprawling public grounds located on the far side of Mt. Lee in Los Angeles. Minutes from the studio and close to the family's home, the park was convienent and provided relaxation to a stress-ridden, snappy Walt Disney.
On these afternoons, Walt would sit on the bench as the girls rode the carousel (which is still there today). As the legend goes, he began to consider making a place where he could have fun with his daughters. A place where the parents wouldn't have to just sit on the bench and eat peanuts- a place where families could really spend time together that was fun and clean and provided a new kind of entertainment.
At first, Walt's new dream occupied the site where the Walt Disney Feature Animation Building now stands- across the street from the studios in Burbank, on a site called Riverside Park. Today, the famous and iconic hat building stands where Walt once envisioned his "Mickey Mouse Park". Even in those early drawings and ideas, the park was to be surrounded by a train.
Soon enough, Walt's overactive imagination needed a bigger place than Riverside Park to hold it, and Walt sent agents scouring the area for a site large enough to hold what he was now calling
Disneyland. The term had originated with Disneylandia, a series of scale models that Walt had created, and he intended to tour his pint size view of turn-of-the-century America across the country. Disneyland, before it was a theme park or a television show, was a traveling exhibition featuring trains and tiny moving models. Disneyland was growing.
Walt's scouts came back with an answer: Anaheim, a bustling little town off Interstate 5, forty minutes south of Los Angeles. In what was previously an orange grove, Walt Disney announced two milestones in the history of entertainment: He formed a new division of the company, WED Enterprises, and announced his plans to build Disneyland, a new concept in entertainment altogether.
"I want it to be like nothing else in the world, Herbie, and it should be surrounded by a train," he quipped to Herbert Ryman in a moment of intense reflection. Herbie would create the first view of the park from the air over a single weekend in September 1953. Walt phoned Ryman on friday evening and explained that he had a new idea, and would Ryman please come down to the studio for a meeting.
"I'd very much like to see the plans, Walt. Where are they?" Walt laughed. "You're going to draw them."
Ryman had left the studio in a dispute sometime before, and his answer proved his bullheaded nature: "No, I'm not."
Walt walked to the corner of the room where the two had been talking. He stood for a moment with both hands on his hips, before turning slightly back to Ryman. "Like a little kid," he turned and asked "Will you draw them if I stay here with you?"
Walt was in the throes of his new idea. He was a man who had constantly to reinvent himself and his product. Disneyland was just the latest in a string of ideas that had been changing the entertainment industry since the mid 1920s- but Disneyland was going to be the first enterprise, the first idea, that belonged entirely to Walt.
WED Enterprises, which in December 1952 consisted of a handful of artists and art directors hand picked from the studio staff, holding up in a locked room on the lot at Burbank, was the company formed personally by Walt to build his dream. Also concerned- mostly at Roy's urging- to the rights of the name Walt Disney and who they belonged to, and for the first time recognizing his own name as a brand, Walt gave the rights to WED. The name of this new company were, after all, the initials of the man responsible for that brand: Walter Elias Disney.
In February 1965, the rights to Walt's name and two attractions at Disneyland that he owned personally were transferred to Retlaw, Inc, an entirely separate entity from The Walt Disney Company and from WED Enterprises. Until 1982, Retlaw controlled the Disneyland-Santa Fe Railroad and the Disneyland Monorail, and Retlaw was a separate company with separate staff and leadership from Disneyland or WED. In 1982, The Disney family sold Retlaw's remaining divisions to the company, as well as the rights to Walt's name.
All of this is important to our lesson today primarily because these lessons in history make it clear that Walt was extremely concerned about his legacy. He wanted the rights to his name to be in the control of people he trusted- no one better than Retlaw, which was a private company with no stockholders. Walt had to strike a balance between what he did to preserve that legacy and what he had to do to achieve the creation of his dreams.
The Walt Disney Studios, Disneyland (The TV Show), and the entire image of "Uncle Walt"- the homespun, kindly old uncle that appeared in a trillion living rooms in the fifties and sixties, were all very much bargaining chips that helped Walt secure the resources needed to create Disneyland and continue to add to it as the years passed.
Walt hired the very best people to turn his imagineerings into reality, and one of the very best people was an artist named Mary Blair. Mary came to the studio as a conceptual artist in 1940. She and her husband Lee Blair, an animator who had worked for both Ub Iwerks Studios and Harman-Ising Studios before migrating to Disney, spent time in 1942 traveling with Walt and Lillian in South America as part of a Presidential Goodwill Tour, and created concept art for
Saludos Amigos and
The Three Caballeros.
Mary went on to earn credits on
Cinderella,
Alice in Wonderland and
Peter Pan for "color styling". She is also credited for work as Art Supervisor, Background and Color on such classics as
Song of the South,
Make Mine Music and
So Dear to My Heart.
Mary resigned from the studio in 1953, after the completion of her work on Peter Pan, to work as a freelance graphic designer for numerous major corporations and destinations worldwide. Walt, however, had grown fond of her, and her sense of color was second perhaps only to John Hench. Walt invited Mary back to lead the design of the UNICEF pavilion for the 1964/65 World's Fair in New York.
Mary's sense of color was inherent, and it came very naturally to her. Walt recognized this talent, and knew that Mary's sense of placing odd colors together would work perfectly with the new show, where the children of the world would unite to remind us of the idea that the commonalities we share are far greater than the differences.
Mary Blair led the design on what would become "it's a small world". Her color palette was so odd perhaps because she was color blind, which had a lot to do with her unique sense of style. Mary brought her geometric sensibility to the new attraction, and combined odd colors to create a very unique feeling for the show.
She went on to work as an Imagineer many more times over the years, returning to WED to create the entrance murals for the new Tomorrowland in 1967, and murals for Disney's Contemporary Resort near Florida's Magic Kingdom in 1971. Mary passed away suddenly of a cerebral hemorrhage 26 July, 1978. Her sense of design and color was responsible not just for "it's a small world", but also for the look and feel of Disney's animated features from
Saludos Amigos through
Peter Pan, a time when most of the Disney classics were created.
Fast forward to the 35th anniversary of Florida's Magic Kingdom Park. Imagineering Ambassador to the World Martin A. Sklar hosts a question & answer session in the remnants of the Walt Disney Story Theatre in Orlando. Here, he reveals plans WDI had yet to confirm to the media that "it's a small world" would soon take up residence at the new park in Hong Kong. In order to make the story relevant to chinese audiences, Sklar tells those in attendance, Hong Kong's version will feature dolls (still in Mary Blair's distinctive style) modeled after important Disney characters.
Hong Kong's official numbers are 220 dolls and "over 200" toys. Of these, 38 will be Disney characters. They will be placed in their countries of origin.
Now, WDI has a publicity nightmare of Toad-like proportions on their hands, as rumors swirled all around the internet that not only would the "refurbishment" of small world turn into a "re-imagineering" of the famous world's fair attraction, but that in addition to the Disney characters, Imagineers would also be removing the rainforest section of the ride, adding Mickey & Minnie Mouse, and replacing the rainforest with an "Up with America" tribute scene.
Perturbed fans have been posting in their blogs for weeks what a travesty of commercialization it would be for the Imagineers to "desecrate" Blair's artistic masterpiece. Re-Imagineering - perhaps the best and most informed Disney-related web log on the internet, even provided quotes on the situation from a large number of animation professionals.
While I hate to disagree with the views published in the online journals I revere as being some of the finest in terms of current writings about this industry and it's leaders, I think a clear examination of the facts of our current situation is order, before we can jump to any conclusions about whether or not the proposed changes to the classic attraction are warranted.
At the conclusion of the 1964/65 World's Fair in New York, as was always the plan, Walt Disney set a plan in motion to relocate three of the four attractions he had developed to his family fun park in Anaheim, California. Technically, some piece of all four attractions made the trip: the "Primeval World" sequence from Ford's Magic Skyway pavilion opened on the Disneyland Railroad track in 1966.
The Carousel of Progress found a new home adjacent to the diorama in Disneyland's Tomorrowland, Great Moments with Mister Lincoln took up residence (somewhat ironically) in the Opera House, and "it's a small world" took up residence in a newly constructed show building at the back of the park, in the far corner of Fantasyland.
Walt Disney never took a step backward. He was enamored and humbled at the same time by the lessons he and his staff learned at the World's Fair. Many have viewed the fair, perhaps accurately, as a "field test" for Disney styled entertainment on the east coast. As soon as the fair became successful, many of Walt's most talented Imagineers began work on "Project X', later "The Florida Project". Housed in a locked room at the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, planning for Project X included a theme park element that was initially referred to as "Disneyland East". The main thrust of the Florida Project of course, was EPCOT. The last media footage Walt Disney ever appeared in was a film was a sequence scripted by Marty Sklar for The Wonderful World of Color television program, in which Disney described his Florida-based plans for a futuristic city.
The land purchased by the company in Florida amounted to an area twice the size of Manhattan Island. When Disney passed away on December 15, 1966, the dream of his futuristic city was already crumbling. Faced with serious implications of an already announced project, the company began a period of intense grieving. For several months, there was uncertainty as to whether the company- particularly WED Enterprises (known today as Walt Disney Imagineering) could or would continue to exist.
As fate would have it, WED decided to move ahead with the Florida Project, though in somewhat abated form. Now, the main attraction for opening day would be a grander, larger, more exquisite version of Walt's original Disneyland. For many years, in a term that can be traced back to Walt Disney himself, the park was called "Magic Kingdom". From 1971 until 1979, Walt Disney World was the official name of the property, but it was also typically referred to as "EPCOT", and plans weren't fully abandoned for the city of tomorrow until planning began on EPCOT Center, the theme park that would be a permanent World's Fair, to be constructed at the center of WDW property.
Among the attractions in the Magic Kingdom available to guests on October 1, 1971 was a nearly full version of "it's a small world". This was to be a rarity in the Magic Kingdom: due to budgetary constraints, lack of firm leadership (atleast not as firm as Walt's leadership) and most importantly the serious creative strain that the Imagineers were placed under. Most of the attractions in the park were sliced down versions of the shows to be found at Disneyland. There were no Pirates at all, and none of the major mountains guests the world over associate with Disney today had yet been created*.
*From 1958 until the 1975 grand opening of Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom Park, the Disney Mountain range consisted of one solitary peak: The Matterhorn at Disneyland.With the opening of the Magic Kingdom, the Imagineers finally proved to themselves that they could design a relatively successful themed environment without Walt at the helm; however the park is even today the most problematic version of Disneyland ever created. To begin with, in order to accommodate more guests, the scale and size of the pathways had to be enlarged. One of the reasons Disneyland was (and continues to be) so successful had to do with finding the perfect scale. Disneyland surrounds you, and provides an idealized version of small town America*, where as Magic Kingdom Park's scale is almost the same size as that of the outside world. This results in almost no dramatic tension, no suspension of disbelief- you've essentially passed beneath the berm and come out in a world much the same as the one you just left!
*While many scholars as well as official company history will point to Marceline, Missouri as the inspiration for Main Street, USA at Disneyland. While Marceline did have profound effects on the young Walt Disney, who spent four of his earliest years there, Main Street is actually based on it's primary designer's experience. Harper Goff was an artist and designer at Walt Disney Imagineering and is perhaps known best for his design of the Nautilus submarine for Disney's live action production, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.So, the version of Small World placed at Florida's Magic Kingdom does lack slightly compared to the Disneyland (World's Fair) original.
As our brief case history has proved, the Walt Disney Company- Not, mind you, Walt Disney Imagineering, but the company itself- has a tendency to gloss over the truth and facts of a situation for an idealized, alls-well-that-ends-well viewpoint. It was this viewpoint that concealed the real reason for the removal of Mister Toad's Wild Ride in Florida (Money) and the real reason behind the Haunted Mansion's recent refurbishment (Not story or creative purposes).
This seems to be a culture issue: after all, it is an entertainment company. The idea that Mary Blair's artwork is being relished and treasured makes a wonderfully happy ending, which is what any entertainment company wants- but to the legions of forum writers and bloggers and hostile "fanatics", adding anything to "it's a small world" is ignoring the real problem of its continued upkeep and refresh rate. Assuredly, they would like you to believe that The Walt Disney Company is trying to create another happy ending.
Beginning with last year's considerable re-imagineering of Spaceship Earth, Walt Disney Imagineering has begun its long awaited turnaround into a real themed design firm. What we are seeing here is the same renaissance climate that occurred in the late 1970's with EPCOT Center, where young Imagineers meet with the legends and create something beautiful. Now, though, park management and corporate interference hasn't subsided. It simply didn't exist the way it does today- this being a product largely of the Eisner/Pressler era that never went away- and therefore the Imagineers of yesteryear had it a bit on the easy side politically speaking, compared to the current crop of young hopefuls.
We are seeing things that we've never seen: the biggest sign of an imminent Renaissance is California Adventure's recent approval for 1.3 BILLION dollars in funding to recreate the experience across the esplanade and make it flow and fit. 1.3 Billion dollars is a sum that even Bill Gates might find hefty, and for Bob Iger to approve such an astounding budget presents a first in Disney history: they've now admitted that they have made a mistake. A very, very big mistake.
The idea that a time of extreme change at Walt Disney Imagineering really began to be publicly visible last year, starting with the promotion of Bruce Vaughn and Craig Russell. Vaughn was previously the executive in charge of research and development at WDI. That says a lot about where the company plans to take its themed experiences over the coming years.
The next major announcement triggered euphoria for Disney fans and all aspiring Imagineers- the genius designer behind Islands of Adventures’ Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man attraction was coming to Imagineering. Not only would Scott Trowbridge be coming to Flower Street, he'd also be taking Vaughn's old job, as the Vice President of Research and Development. Next, WDI did something it should have done a trillion years ago- it put Spaceship Earth on the re-imagineering list and set some very talented show producers to work on the project.
Meanwhile, Toy Story Mania designers Kevin Rafferty and Chrissie Alley- the former a show writer and the latter a show producer- were digging in their heels on the most interactive, high technology experience yet to be imagined in any theme park-- and the project would open at roughly the same time on both coasts.
For all of these good moves, Walt Disney Imagineering did take a few steps backwards in the first months of this year. First of all, they still seem to find difficulty into controlling the accountaneers at Walt Disney World. Perhaps of all eleven Disney theme parks, the three that are in the worst amount of trouble are at Walt Disney World. Disney's Hollywood Studios (though similar placemaking plans to California Advernture in scope seem to be floating around, for which Toy Story Mania is a proving ground) continues its identity crisis, Magic Kingdom continues to languish and be less about fantasy as a theme and more about t-shirts as a marketing tool, and Epcot...well, they just haven't got the faintest idea about what to do with Epcot.
At DHS, plans have been announced for an American Idol attraction. Talks swirled among the Imagineering-faithful that plans had once more been dusted off for a themed attraction based on Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas, which would have occupied the space now buttonholed for American Idol. For a show whose popularity ratings continue to fall, and for what most journalists and reviewers deemed would pass as a fad, why would WDI want to place such a show into an already confused theme park?
They wouldn't. They didn't. Simply put, with the new financial structure, WDI-Florida is still very much in contractor mode. In California, due to their physical closeness, they have always had a much more easy control factor. In Florida, the parks are owned by the park management and the moneymen. Because of that fact alone, Imagineering has a very difficult time proposing its new ideas. Executive Management seems to have taken the stance of "We'll call you if we need anything..." but what they fail to understand that Imagineers have a clear grasp on is that the Studios, like any Disney Theme Park, isn't a "family park". It isn't a venue for their wild merchandising schemes. It isn't a giant store, and it most certainly is not a place with the time or energy for fads like American Idol. The Hollywood Studios is a story environment. Every detail, every place and thing within the space, is designed and placed specifically to tell a story. Disney-MGM Studios' original story was "The Hollywood that never was, and always will be..."
The Hollywood Studios story is broader in scope*, but has filmmaking as a major component of that story. Now, the park is about entertainment as a whole: as an industry that built the city, but its also about television (The Twilight Zone), music (Rock N' Roller Coaster) and theatre (Little Mermaid, Playhouse Disney). American Idol is about television. Studios is about entertainment. But American Idol is also about to take up the prime real estate of the park, and its about to make things even more confused in an already unclear environment. This will be the subject of a later post, but here, I'd just like to use it to make a point.
*It is nonetheless a wonderful sign that the logo itself didn't try to go for "hip & edgy". Perhaps we can look to California Adventure's Hollywood Boulevard for a lesson in why to avoid that design aesthetic. At the Magic Kingdom, characters and meet and greets run rampant. They are attractions within themselves. Increasingly, they are the only attractions. Characters have themed costumes for every single special event, most of which are very expensive and time consuming to maintain. In addition, instead of paying the power bills of a new attraction, we now must pay talent fees.
I point to just one pointed example of the burdgeoning issues at Disneyland East, wherein for the past two consecutive Holiday seasons, Magic Kingdom president Phil Holmes has axed the budget for the Country Bear Christmas seasonal overlay. The resulting saved funds were instead appointed to host Mickey's Pirate and Princess Party- which will most likely not see a fourth run because the event has failed to so much as return its investment.
Within the company, California is a long, long way from Florida. Florida has isolated itself, and Jay Rasulo has installed his heads of state and given them power in ways that would seriously frighten most of America. The year of a Million Dreams runs rampant- as evidenced by the apparently bargain basement last ditch attempt at marketing the "event" that involves ruining beautiful sightlines like the one down Sunset Boulevard towards the Tower of Terror with awful blue dreams lightpost decorations. One cannot traverse a street or plaza inside or outside any guest area in Walt Disney World without being confronted by hundreds upon hundreds of these terrifying banners.
The Oasis area outside the main entrance of Animal Kingdom, the plaza, monorail station and kennel at Epcot, and every inch of ground on the approach to Magic Kingdom and DHS are covered with the horrendous blue diamond banners that portray a set of "dream-blue" mickey ears and the YOMD logo and typeface. I've never seen an advertising campaign run quite so mortifyingly rampant as this one has, and its not a pleasant thing to see.
The most vexing problem with the banners? The guests don't care. To open a new attraction like Everest, one may just as well host a movie premiere. In effect, we need to take our cues from the guests. Hard selling didn't work at Carnivals. The guests are already here. If we really want to make them feel special, use seasonal entertainment based around the YOMD theme. The Dream Squad is a wonderful idea, one of those treasured highlights of a Disney vacation much like the Golden Horseshoe at Disneyland. We're ignoring the fact, though, that the guests are already there. They have already been convinced by the marketing campaign to pay their hard earned dollars to enter the parks in the first place. The payoff has to be unique, immersive experiences (Toy Story Mania and Spaceship Earth are wonderful examples at WDW, as the Nemo Submarine Voyage is at Disneyland)-- not blue banners. Not people giving away prizes. Certainly, the latter should be something thats done all the time- a piece of extra magic that plusses the experience and doesn't require advertising to bring people in.
Saying my peace on the Year of a Million Dreams, we don't go to the movies for the popcorn. We go for the film. We don't go to the theme park so that people will be nice to us and offer us special prizes. We go for the attractions. If you're like me, you go, too, for the previews...which, in effect brings us to "it's a small world."
*Overall, the idea of seasonal or live entertainment in the parks is an undeniably important part of the experience, and so is the "general atmosphere" (see John Hench's "Disneyland is Good for You"), but these things are not the main show, and should not be looked at as such. They help to achieve a balance in the designs that could not otherwise exist. Imagineering Ambassador to the World Martin A. Sklar issued a letter to the public stating his beliefs and the reasoning that Tony Baxter, Kim Irvine and himself have used as they have imagined a new, updated "it's a small world." There are no points in Marty's letter that I disagree with. I'd like to point out just a few of the more pertinent ones now.
1. Walt Disney was the greatest "change agent" ever to walk down Main Street, USA.
2. Let us not forget that the entire team at Imagineering was responsible for the success the attraction enjoyed at the World's Fair. Rolly Crump, Marc Davis, Blaine Gibson, the Sherman Brothers and Harriet Burns all combined their talents with Mary Blair's and without each one's contribution, we'd have no "it's a small world".
3. This wasn't an overnight situation. Tony Baxter has been working with Marty Sklar for the past eight years on this project. Just because the public has only now been informed of whats happening doesn't mean that considerable thought hasn't been put into the project already.
4. Rumors of the addition of Mickey & Minnie, the removal of the rainforest, the additions of dolls that break with Mary Blair's artistic style and the addition of a tribute to America are all hereby refuted as being false.
Thank you for your patience. I know it has been a long time again since the last post. This one has taken quite some time to put together, but I hope you have found it enlightening and informative.
Next time, we will delve even deeper into the "it's a small world" debate, and hopefully shed some light from that one golden sun on the situation by exploring WDI's reasons for wanting to plus this prototype themed show.
