"Fun For All, And All for Fun!"

It was a surreal experience to stand at the bar in the former Fireworks Factory this evening and watch an eclectic mixture of absurdly uninformed tourists and tearful locals and cast members perform the Cha Cha Cha Slide one last time on the dance floor.

Tonight marks the beginning of the final push for Pleasure Island. The final night of operation for this piece of Disney history will be this coming Saturday, September 27, 2008.



More than the executives taking away free nighttime, adult entertainment for thousands of cast members, and more than the pain felt by many WDW passholders and repeat visitors that have enjoyed the island for many years, its what is coming to replace Merriweather Pleasure's paradise that hurts the most.

It's the fact that we're losing another piece- perhaps one of the final pieces- of Walt Disney World that made the property so unique for so many years. If they no longer have the edge, its because The Walt Disney Company makes constant decisions to provide more of the same for the guest.

Downtown Disney Vice President Kevin Lansberry during the press conference to announce the closure and "Re-Imagineering" of Pleasure Island. 


It is into this graveyard pit of despair called Jay Rasulo's "Global Initiative" that Pleasure Island's fate has fallen. The only words that can describe this latest in a long chain of despairing decisions are the following:

"If the guests don't understand the story, then it is not their fault. It is our fault because we have not told the story clearly."

And perhaps the only other thought that still counts comes from Pleasure Island's original Show Concept:

"Along the streets of this reawakened Island you can sometimes catch a glimpse of a portly, but strangely ethereal man, dressed in a yachting cap and natty plus-fours. Or perhaps you'll be sitting in a restaurant booth or a cozy corner of a nightclub when you hear a voice murmur quietly, 'Fun for all—and all for fun!' "



So Fun For All, And All For Fun, Merriweather! You'll be deeply missed.

Enhancing Reality

In fifty five years since its inception, the idea of themed entertainment has grown to become the single biggest and most encompassing business in the world. The Walt Disney Company is the second largest in existence, second only to Lockheed Martin.

Certainly, as we are all aware, there have been missteps. There have been poor decisions and bad promotions. There have been people put in charge that have no roots in story. There have been people let go that were true geniuses of their times, their achievements forgotten and sucked into the vacuum of "Global Identity", as executives with MBAs and closed minds continue to strip our most compelling places of their individuality.

You have to like the guest. "Liking the guest is the key to everything we do." It is still true today, and its still true today that they like the guest. It's just that they got a little too specific, and now they like the guests' dollar.



In order to sort through what is a truly poor addition/removal and what was actually conceived to enhance the stories of the parks, we must remember that times change. There are still, and will always be, a company-wide enthusiasm for creating wonderful entertainment that no amount of Mendenhall styled branding can possibly destroy.

Look, for example, at the Sorcerer's Hat. The hat was added for a number of reasons, but the official publicly acknowledged reason was to honor the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney's birth. When one observes the prototype model of the modern theme park that is Disneyland, we begin to understand the hat with a bit more compassion.

Both the Sorcerer's Hat and Grauman's Chinese Theatre, which one provided the beautiful end piece to Hollywood Boulevard, share the same purpose. Hench, and subsequently Imagineering theory, calls this purpose "Enhancing Reality."

As we approach the toll plaza of the Hollywood Studios park, the architecture and color scheme begs some sort of vague familiarity in our collective consciousness. It is the gates of the Pan Pacific Auditorium in Los Angeles, which burned to the ground on May 24, 1989. Just three weeks prior, on May 1, the Disney-MGM Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Florida had opened to the public with the architecture of the famed entrance to the auditorium also providing the entrance to the park.



It is strange and bittersweet that it happened the way it did. The Pan Pacific was designed by Wurdeman & Becket- a southern California architecture firm whose other notable (and Disney-related) achievements include the towering "Theme Building" at LAX. Because our experience at the Studios park is based on a Hollywood that "Never was...and always will be", immediately the architecture of the Pan Pacific entrance sets up our experience: we are no longer in a world that exists, but one that can now only exist in our memories, and one that (for the most part) never existed at all.

Hollywood as we collectively "remember" it, and as it is portrayed at the Studios, never actually existed. It is the result of clever advertising campaigns and fantasy worlds created by Hollywood set designers and filmmakers- and Disney Imagineers.

As we enter the park, we encounter a highly stylized version of Hollywood Boulevard that never actually existed, either. Here, we find a classic portrayal of many famous Los Angeles landmarks, all condensed onto one street.



Now, imagine entering the park in May 1989, and at the far end of Hollywood Boulevard towers a glimmering replica of Grauman's famous Chinese Theatre. As designers, we may ask ourselves many questions to start:

Q: What end-of-this-experience icon would we expect to see at the end of an idealized Hollywood Boulevard?
A: A "movie palace" .

Q: What movie palaces have a famous enough architectural statement to communicate immediately with all of our guests?
A: The Chinese Theatre.

Now, we must address an issue that postdates the Magic Kingdoms in favor of EPCOT- the thesis attraction.

Q: What central experience can we provide that will allow our guests an overview of the ideas found in the rest of the park/story?
A: Movies!

This is where Hench's enhanced reality starts to come into play.

Q: In the normal, everyday world, our guests might expect to see a movie palace at the end of a street. What makes this one different? What enhances the reality and takes the experience from a normal one to a Disney one?
A: Inside this movie palace, we aren't going to watch movies. We are going to journey into them.

--------------------------

Now, flash forward to 2001, as we begin to gear up to celebrate what would have been Walt Disney's 100th birthday. If there was ever an endearing symbol for The Walt Disney Company as a whole, the sorcerer's hat would have to take the top honor. Fantasia was a film that was very close to Walt's own heart, and though it failed considerably at the box office and wasn't well recieved by the audience or the critics either, the film did provide a very early form of Imagineering in that Walt developed new technologies and set new precedents with what could be done in many different types of entertainment.



More than it was a film, Fantasia was an experience: the first time Disney had ever truly attempted to bring the picture off the screen. He created a system called FantaSound, which was in essence the very first version of surround sound. Walt even wanted a form of "Smell-O-Vision" to be installed in all the theaters that were to play Fantasia, but couldn't secure the financing to create something that elaborate at the time.

The Sorcerer has always been the symbol of Walt Disney Imagineering, post WED Enterprises. The idea of Mickey as the apprentice to the must older and wiser Yensid pertains to everything WDI does. It makes Imagineers constant apprentices: to the art form, to themselves and to one another. Instead of being the experts, they are a team, always learning and trying new things and moving in the only direction their heirs have ever known how to move in: forward.

It was also fitting that at the beginning of the 21st century, the entire concept behind the Studios park was evolving: it was no longer just a place about Hollywood and filmmaking, it was now a place about the entire world of entertainment: "Where Showbiz Is".

It was under these conditions that Imagineers decided to place the Sorcerer Hat in front of the Chinese Theatre.

What this did to the vantage from the far, Pan-Pacific end of the Studios entrance plaza (more on this space in a later post) was created a juxtaposed image. Previously, we enhanced our reality and used the thesis attraction to set the stage for the show to follow by taking the idea of a movie palace one step farther and allowing guests a level of interaction that they simply cannot attain while watching a film.

Now, "The Hat" moves the story closer in line with what Disneyland's model projects with Sleeping Beauty Castle. We do not expect to find a fairy-tale castle at the end of a turn of the century Main Street, USA- but there it is. Our reality, by simply viewing an image placed carefully before us and detailed to a high level of realism, has therefore become enhanced.

The Sorcerer Hat does the same. It provides a large central icon that can be seen from all areas of the park, and it provides a juxtaposed image. We do not expect to see a gigantic Sorcerer's Hat at the far end of an idealized 1940s Hollywood Boulevard- but there it is.

--------------------------

Now, the problem. The Payoff. The entire idea of an "Icon", as defined in our first Icon-O-Class, comes from that old carnival term, "wienie". The guests are instinctively drawn to a Disney icon the way a dog is drawn to a hot dog. When they get there, there needs to be a payoff. In Henchian terms, the long shot needs to match with the close-up.


When it does not, we experience the conundrum of contradiction. Contradictions destroy a story environment and bring us back into the real world. On the two dimensional motion picture screen, we are given various cues and patterns to help us "suspension of disbelief". As designers, our goal is to get the guest to accept instead an "Enhanced Reality." We cannot do this if the previous reality has not been suspended. This is the purpose of the separation of the Magic Kingdom by the Seven Seas Lagoon, of the straight and simple lines EPCOT's entrance plaza, and of the Pan Pacific facade at the Studios.

Here, our reality has been suspended, but since we have yet to reach any thesis attraction to show us what this show is going to be all about in specific detail, there is still the chance that our suspension of disbelief will be broken.

Unfortunately, a beautiful and aesthetically pleasing icon such as the Sorcerer's Hat cannot fulfill its obligations to the rest of the image of Hollywood Boulevard because the long shot does not match with the close up. When guests reach the hat, the payoff, the suspension of disbelief, is a cart and cashier selling generic Disney pins and High School Musical merchandise.



The beautiful replica courtyard of the Chinese Theatre lies some distance behind, and certainly guests still find their way there and experience the aging Great Movie Ride, but as a guest you expect there to be something incredible either just beneath or inside that central icon- and unfortunately in an effort to make a fast dollar, the money men provide us not with any sort of enhanced reality but instead with another opportunity to purchase more Mickey-related Schlock.

"Icon-O-Class"......Our Spaceship Earth

Perhaps The Walt Disney Company is the finest example of a truly American major corporation that continues to exist and prosper today.

After Walt Disney passed away in late 1966, the heirs to his throne were left saddened and confused, and weren't even sure things could continue. It was in a sketch recovered from a trash can in Walt's office that a new dream was born, but it wasn't long before it was determined impossible. If Walt Disney hadn't been there to guide Walt Disney's dreams, rest assured the men of lesser conviction that surrounded the entertainment industry during the first half of the twentieth century would have been eager to shut them down. There would be no animated feature film, no theme parks, no television as we know it today.

Often referenced in the literature as "Walt's Last Dream", the city called EPCOT would have transformed central Florida and the entire world. It went far beyond "forward". It was to be a new example and a way for Walt to transform his audience into the community of tomorrow. In short, what was being attempted was to transform society itself. Walt clearly thought he had the right ideas about the future, and certainly he had the track record to prove it.

In the end, EPCOT would never happen. The logistics overwhelmed those left behind to achieve the dream, in every respect of the word. That isn't meant as a negative comment: they had overwhelmed Walt Disney himself, as his numerous nervous breakdowns and physical ailments and constant stress treatments (provided by the Studio nurse, Hazel George, at the end of each day) can attest.

Yet, something had to be done. The ring leaders of the next great dream, more so than any of the other equally talented Imagineers, were John Hench and Marty Sklar. They understood what Walt had wanted to do with EPCOT, but they also knew that without him the entire company was failing and faltering in ways that had never been expected. They didn't have the creative ability, the logistical ability, or the finances to go about creating a massive city in the heart of Central Florida.

What they did have was the ability to translate the ideas and concepts into a new concept in themed entertainment.

Or was it so new?

Here enters our story the strange and wonderful personages of two visionaries of the early-mid twentieth century that helped shape the project that was to revolutionize Disney as a brand, and themed entertainment as an art form.

First, we have Ray Bradbury. This science fiction writer, responsible for the creation of Farenheit 451, came onto the EPCOT project even before some of the in-house designers were placed. He created what was to become a prototype script for Spaceship Earth.

Spaceship Earth is EPCOT Center's "Thesis" attraction. This was the first time a single attraction in a themed environment had been used to set the stage for every other piece of the story the guests would experience once they moved into the park itself.

While Bradbury created the metaphors and concepts that played out inside Spaceship Earth, the name itself and the exterior came primarily from the works of architect and visionary Richard Buckminster Fuller. Fuller was a man of broad and engaging concepts. In his lifetime, he created such far reaching concepts as Fuel Efficient cars, the energy independent house, and most importantly to our story today, the Geodesic Dome.

Fuller also wrote two heavily influential works on the future of humanity and the planet, and our overuse of resources. The first was entitled The World Game, and was released in 1961. Fuller's definition was:

"make the world work for 100% of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone."

The second work was titled An Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, and described the Earth as a vessel in motion in outerspace. The vessel has a finite collection of resources that cannot be restocked. The book also makes the point that a spaceship is a mechanical entity, and if we fail to provide it maintenance it will break down and suffer.

Both of these concepts played into the creation of Spaceship Earth, though not before they influenced the place that was a prototype of EPCOT Center: The 1939 New York World's Fair in Flushing Meadows, New York.

EPCOT Center, the original theme park incarnation of what has become Epcot, was a park founded on big ideas. Here, guests were going to immerse themselves not in the world of fantasy, but in a world of science and reality. Epcot of today is the saddest example we have of Walt Disney World's growing management issues. Imagineers seem to be far away creatures, and their wonderful creative leadership seems to have less control over what happens in and around Walt Disney World than ever before.

So, as Fuller was responsible for the exterior and Bradbury planted the seed for the show inside, it was legendary Imagineer and color expert John Hench that solved the pavilion's biggest problem. Up until 1979, no one had ever attempted to construct a building as a full sphere. The engineers told Hench and his team that doing such a thing would be impossible. Hench solved the problem by treating the sphere as two separate but unequal halves.

The upper 3/4 of Spaceship Earth itself thereby sits on a table, the legs of which extend down and out of the sphere as the iconic structural supports. The lower quarter of the pavilion is actually suspended from the bottom of this table. This creates an equal distribution of weight.

With the pavilion's design problems solved, it was only a matter of time before the entire EPCOT Center project would push themed entertainment forward into a new era.

The major difference between EPCOT and the parks that came before it is essentially the "Spokes of the Wheel" model. EPCOT was the first theme park to be designed as an open, free-flowing experience. Much like an American World's Fair, the park spans out from a central object but it does not follow a pattern.

For that matter, it also does not follow any sort of thematic map. We are introduced instead to a prototype model of the world, where we experience different varieties of science, imagination, industry and nature in a free flow format that takes us through gardens and across visually simple yet stunning structures to the next experience. The story being told is that of the world, so Epcot was originally allowed to occupy space in the real world, and the separation Walt and his team so sought with Disneyland and, later, his predecessors sought with Magic Kingdom Park, here that separation was given a rest.



Spaceship Earth still stands sentinel over an optimistic vision of the future of our world. Today, we also continue our journey aboard (and inside) Spaceship Earth, albeit in a somewhat altered form from its original incarnation.