Does Disney know something we don't?

[ColbertWatcher]

From the Los Angeles Times
Disney unveils a 1920s theme for California Adventure
The $1-billion effort to revive the park will try to re-create the era when Walt Disney arrived in Hollywood.
By Dawn C. Chmielewski and Paloma Esquivel
Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
October 16, 2008

...The sweeping overhaul will transport visitors to the California of the 1920s, when Walt Disney first arrived in Hollywood. In the same way that Disneyland's Main Street evokes Disney's hometown of Marceline, Mo., a refocused California Adventure will follow the young animator's journey to Los Angeles.

Disney's sizable investment, to be spent through 2012, comes atop the initial $1 billion the entertainment giant spent to build the park, which opened in 2001, and $300 million more put into new attractions such as the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Toy Story Midway Mania.

(...)

"Its too hot. There's no trees," he said. "Disneyland seems like a big park, and California Adventure is just like a big industrial area."

(...)

Visitors to California Adventure will get their first glimpse of this new vision for the park Monday, when the Disney Imagineers put dozens of working models, sketches and color illustrations on display in the Golden Vine Winery.

(more)
--Los Angeles Times

[XemaSab]

1. I don't think anyone's in the dark about the suxx0rness of California Adventure

:shrug:

[Bicoastal]

2. I agree.

It makes no sense from the perspective of a resident OR a tourist (and right now, I'm technically both.)

Why go to the fake California theme park when you can get on the freeway and drive to the REAL one?

[ColbertWatcher]

3. I'm talking about how they want to use a 1920's theme just in these economic situation. n/t

[timtom]

17. The 1930's would be the wrong time

considering these economic conditions.

The 1920's were like the 1960's (without the war). Fast living, loose morals, drugs. People partied like there was no tomorrow (which, as 1929, there wasn't).

[ColbertWatcher]

23. Which is why I'm asking if they're foreshadowing a coming collapse with ...

... their theme park based on the era of fast and loose excesses that preceded the Great Depression.

Who came up with this idea? Why would anyone think it would be a good idea to emulate or celebrate the oblivious period immediately before the worst economic disintegrations this country has ever seen?

They had Prohibition for Pete's sake! Okay, it is Disney, but that's no reason to keep the adults from drinking!

It just doesn't seem right to me.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

30. That's kind of like arguing...

that the Pirates of the Caribbean is poorly thoughtout because it fore-shadows the War of Spanish Succession and the catastrophic earthquake at Port Royale.

[ColbertWatcher]

39. Is there something similar to that happeneing right now?

Or can you predict earthquakes now?

Listen, your distractions have been interesting, but now they seem desperate.

Perhaps you can find someone else to talk to?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

44. Sure.

Just look at all the pirate stories in the news.

[timtom]

54. Disney being Disney

They always scrape off the obvious and superficial aspects of everything they touch, ignoring the essence.

This means lots of charleston, raccoon coats, and restaurants that are in the image of speakeasies.

And ignoring the sinkhole to come.

'Twill be riotous celebration, celebration most apollinian*.


*See: http://dailynietzsche.blogspot.com/2008/07/apollinian-and-dionysian.html

[AlCzervik]

10. worst theme park ever.

[ColbertWatcher]

11. And they chose the absolute WRONG era to emulate regardless of their justification. n/t

[spinbaby]

33. Oh, it sucks big time

California Adventure was done on the cheap and now Disney is having to spend way more money than if they'd done it right in the first place. Eisner, of course, made big bucks to oversee the fiasco.

[Mind_your_head]

4. Oh, I thought they would only accept gold coins for admission

;-)

[ColbertWatcher]

5. Yes, and everyone can take the Okie ride to go pick strawberries or oranges. n/t

[XemaSab]

6. I want my Okies pickin' GRAPES, dammit!

:o

[ColbertWatcher]

8. But, at Disney's new California Adventure YOU can be that Okie! n/t

[Indenturedebtor]

14. Lol is there a breastfeeding woman at the end of the ride?

If not I'm staying home.

[ColbertWatcher]

15. ???

[Indenturedebtor]

16. I wonder if we'll be seeing any great american novels this time around n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

18. I hope so, we need more. n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

20. That would be the thirties.

Try again.

[2Design]

7. they have lots of money and have increased their prices

almost three fold in the last three years with magic your way (disguised as buy each piece separate for almost double the old price)

I liked california adventure - it was simple and not so much vendor crap and overpriced shops and a little less crowded

[ColbertWatcher]

9. I've actually never been, but I think their 1920's-theme timing is odd. n/t

[Beregond2]

12. You guys do know the Depression was in the thirties, right?

[ColbertWatcher]

13. Yes, and the period that preceded it was the 1920's! n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

19. Yeah, the roaring twenties.

Jazz, and flappers, and art deco, and rum runners.

I'm missing your point.

[ColbertWatcher]

24. It seems like Disney is hinting at a coming Depression. n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

25. It seems like you're really, really reaching.

[ColbertWatcher]

27. LOL! I didn't realize there were so many literalists on DU! n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

31. You're saying we're over-analyzing things?

That's ironic.

[ColbertWatcher]

35. No, I said, "I didn't realize there were so many literalists on DU!" n/t

[AlCzervik]

28. i think Disney is trying to bring in some business and nothing more.

[ColbertWatcher]

29. They should have picked a better "theme." n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

32. F'rinstance?

[ColbertWatcher]

36. I don't know, I've actually never been to Ca Adventure, maybe ...

... a beach theme? Isn't that what California is known for? The beach?

They might already have that, so since that's so obvious, what about a environmental or green theme?

Or what about a movie or movie-making theme?

I really don't know if I can come up with something without knowing what they already have.

But, off the top of my head that's my suggestions.

Who knows, the 1920's thing may just take off? It's still weird that they chose to base the park on the era before the depression, right before we might actually see one ourselves!

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

37. Apparently not.

"It's still weird that they chose to base the park on the era before the depression, right before we might actually see one ourselves!"

I think it's a little weird you're going to through so much effort to cover up your mistake in thinking the great depression was during the 20's.

[ColbertWatcher]

38. What an odd world you must live in.

Let me ask you: which era preceded the Great Depression? Which era is Disney basing their park on?

Now, which of those two are we currently going through right now a Great Depression or a period right before one?

I'll be picking fruit while you figure out how to go through some effort to make up your answer or perhaps find a way to dismiss this thread.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

42. So you're saying they should base their theme park on the 30's?

Because that precedes the post-war boom?

[Sequoia]

48. Gay 90's.

The Guilded Age would be fun.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

50. That preceded the Bush administration.

Terrible idea.

Oh, you mean the 1890's! Well, yes. But that preceded the McKinley assasinatin.

[ColbertWatcher]

51. You just wanted to post "gay"! LOL! j/k, n/t

[Sequoia]

53. Heh, heh...I sure did !

Did you ever see that Simpson episode when Homer was moaning about how "they stole our word!"

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

22. Apparently Disney does know something they don't know.

:rofl:

[Greyhound]

21. More lipstick on another pig. I went w/a friend that works for Disney

just before they first opened and even though it was free, we felt ripped off.

[ColbertWatcher]

26. LOL! Poor Disney! n/t

[Lorien]

40. That park has always been a disaster. I worked on elements of some of the

attractions, and everyone in Imagineering KNEW they were creating crap, but the brass wouldn't listen to anyone. They took great ideas and cheapened them into something that results in little more than a glorified, distraction filled mall.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

43. I thought something like that happened.

It struck me as a place with untapped potential.

[ColbertWatcher]

45. What I never understood was, why build a "new" park next to Disneyland?

Why not just expand Disneyland?

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

49. Because the original park is already laid out on an existing plan.

It'd be like building an extension on the Notre Dame. Better just to build a new park in the old parking lot.

[KamaAina]

34. Does it have an Animatronic middle-aged John McCain?

'cause ain't no way that sucker's getting in the Hall of Presidents!

[ColbertWatcher]

46. Well, he was middle-aged during the 1920's. n/t

[CJCRANE]

41. I see what you mean now but

if they're investing this much it must mean they have confidence there won't be a Depression..

[ColbertWatcher]

47. LOL! Or, they know one is coming and they're going to get everything they can! n/t

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

52. By investing a huge sum of money that won't return for many years?

this just keeps getting more and more interesting.