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The first two steps are the hardest

Image: Disney

Like any wise person, Uncle Walt tried to learn from those storytelling mistakes, eventually settling on a couple of overriding premises he felt were critical to the viability of a project. Whether his projects had failed in the concept phase, the production shoot, or in marketing, he wanted to know exactly what he and his employees could have been done better. Over the years, his company codified these beliefs and the accompanying hard-learned lessons about the strongest and most effective ways to tell a story. These precepts are the enduring legacy of Walt Disney, creator of the entire theme park industry.

Marty Sklar describes the first pair of concepts thusly:

1)      Know Your Audience

2)      Wear Your Guest’s Shoes

These are arguably the most important two factors in telling a story. The underlying premise for each idea sounds straightforward but includes a great deal of nuance. Know Your Audience is a theory that has grown simpler to evaluate for Imagineers over time, but it was the most difficult in the early days of Disneyland. This philosophy asks attraction planners to identify which parties will enjoy the very thing an Imagineer intends to build. They also need to know why someone would or would not enjoy it, which is a topic that falls into both categories, at least somewhat.

Image: Disney

In layman’s terms, Know Your Audience is the premise that drives every advertisement you’ve ever watched in your life. For Imagineers in 1954, it was a speculative mental exercise about how they would entice families to spend all of their vacation days and hard-earned money on a plussed version of an amusement park, one that was yet to exist. Disney also faced an uphill struggle with this aspect since they intended to charge more for their new endeavor than current operators charged for traditional amusement parks.

Imagineers brainstormed constantly as their founder negotiated to purchase the Anaheim orchard groves that would become the Happiest Place on Earth. A litany of concepts that they planned for the opening day of Disneyland wouldn’t come to fruition for many years afterward, and the underlying explanation for each one was that Imagineers couldn’t pin down exactly who they should target. They couldn’t get a handle on the first rule, knowing the audience. During multiple instances, cast members invented sublime concepts for attractions, but then they wound up delayed due to the known audience issue. Debates ensued about who would show up and what they would expect, given the title/theme of an attraction.

Perhaps the most famous example of an attraction caught in the middle was The Haunted Mansion. Disney’s staff suffered a schism as employees debated the target audience. Would park attendees at the Happiest Place on Earth prefer a scary ride or one chock-full of gothic horror?

Image: Disney

Similarly, Pirates of the Caribbean required more time than intended since no one could agree on ride structure. The earliest plans for the attraction called for a museum of pirate history rather than the watery spectacle we all know and love today. Both of these attractions failed to gain traction in the period prior to Disneyland’s opening due to their unsettled premises.

Conversely, Jungle Cruise was ready when the gates of Disneyland opened for the first time in 1995. That’s because it had a story and concept that were easy to sell to anyone. Imagineers knew the audience for this attraction, and it was anyone who wanted to visit Adventureland. The cast members rightly projected that anyone excited by the idea of exploring the far reaches of civilization would love a sardonic boat ride featuring the world’s most talkative captain. And that brings us to the second point, Wear Your Guest’s Shoes.

Image: Disney

Perhaps no attraction in the history of Disney theme parks exemplifies this concept better than Jungle Cruise. The storytelling premise of this precept is that there’s one true way to plot such a ride: to imagine it from the perspective of someone experiencing the journey for the first time. What would that person want to see and do? How would they react? What would disappoint them by its absence? These are but a small part of the set of questions Imagineers must ask themselves while telling a story. It’s also the blueprint for their success.

An Imagineer should think of each question in terms of Jungle Cruise. Then, the cast member should plus it to make it more Disney-worthy. Someone setting sail for adventure a la the crew of The Jungle Queen would want to see all the majesty of nature, and they’d prefer to do so without the distraction of navigating a boat. For this reason, the ride required a driver.

That’s where Imagineers really outdid themselves in the planning phase. They anticipated that Jungle Cruise would have repeat value. Then, they extended that premise to the captain. How would a salty seafarer feel about having to perform the same routine multiple times each hour and each day? The jokes practically write themselves, and that’s why many of those quips from the original script are still recited to this day. Disney employees stood in the imaginary footsteps of future guests and projected an outcome.

No, a wienie isn’t what you think it is.

Image: Disney

The next three aspects of Disney’s storytelling methodology as indicated by Sklar are two thirds storytelling-focused and one third marketing-based. The premises are:

3)      Organize the Flow of People and Ideas

4)      Create a Wienie (Visual Magnet)

5)      Communicate with Visual Literacy

Let’s focus on the storytelling aspects, as that’s the crux of our conversation. Until then, think of creating a wienie as the dessert, even though no nutritionist would recommend that meal. As for the meat and vegetables portion, organizing the flow of people and ideas is something that every corporate project should entail. It’s the strategy of sequencing events in the most easily consumable way.

Let’s use Seven Dwarfs Mine Train as an example. Disney tells the story of this ride beginning with the line queue. Here, you’ll wait outside for a time (since the wait is almost always an hour or more), staring at the rock formation that comprises the exterior of the home and work station of the Dwarfs. Once you approach the interior, thematic games are available. They involve subterranean mining endeavors like harvesting jewels and spinning barrels. Guests waiting to ride this roller coaster aren’t simply standing in line. They’re gradually entering and then inhabiting the world of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. As they move toward the interior, they forget that they’re only 50 feet away from the rest of Magic Kingdom. They’ve unknowingly taken the requisite steps on the invisible bridge Disney builds to transport guests to a faraway land.

Once theme park tourists reach the front of the line, they board theme-appropriate mine carts made of materials fitting for the underground realm. Pickaxes, saws, ropes, and other work-related effects populate the walls. Once the mine cart zooms into action, the rider sees where the Dwarfs happily spend their work days, unearthing rare jewels and taking the occasional catnap alongside a skunk, dubious as that proposition is. The fictional realm comes to life in a believable fashion, eventually ending with an exuberant dance with Snow White as the evil Queen schemes outside.

Disney tells this story with a structure that gently transports the guest into the realm, steadily offering a bit more of the world with each passing step. It’s that gradual transformation that Disney has mastered over the years. A key reason why is strategy number five, the usage of visual literacy. Anyone who has ridden Seven Dwarfs Mine Train understands how gorgeous the interior parts of it are. The gems come to life thanks to the majesty of their colors.

Similarly, Snow White’s resplendent dress sets her apart from everyone else, identifying that while this ride stars the Dwarfs, the movie still lists her name first in the title. Disney employs colors to signify importance. It’s not coincidental that the Queen wears drab clothing that’s otherwise unfit for royalty. She’s not the star of the set piece. The heroes and heroine are.

One of the most important aspects of communicating with visual literacy is a bit of a misnomer of terminology; it doesn’t simply refer to the eyes. To the contrary, it references non-verbal forms of communication. Disney understands that its guests have five senses rather than one. They construct attractions with a multi-faceted approach, trying to stimulate as many of the senses as possible, preferably unbeknownst to the rider. Any awareness of this subtle manipulation would again break the illusion.

From the guest perspective on the ride, the sensory stimulation takes several forms. As the rider admires the visuals of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Imagineers have built the attraction to trigger your other senses as well. The touch and feel of the mine carts as well as the entire interior of the facility simulates that of a more comfortable version of an underground mining facility.

Disney has to walk that fine line between authenticity and guest comfort. In other words, they want you to feel like you’re riding a mine cart without FEELING like you’re riding a mine cart. The sensation shouldn’t seem as bumpy, and the last thing you’d want is to suffer through an accurate recreation of the smell of the place. Any aromas that you notice throughout the ride are comforting rather than distracting. Also, your mine cart is smooth rather than delivering the coarse feeling of dense metal. Otherwise, you wouldn’t enjoy the tactile experience, breaking the illusion.

In fact, we should use a different example for smells. While Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is wonderful for most of the human senses, smell isn’t its forte. This oversight is a running theme among Disney attractions. All of them offer a delightful sensory sensation, but few trigger all five at once. Perhaps the best example of one that does is Soarin’ Around the World along with its predecessor, Soarin’ Over California.

The two versions of the ride experience whoosh guests through the air as if they’re flying. In order to simulate this sensation accurately, the ride system lifts and turns you when appropriate. More importantly in terms of story, it also augments the experience with audio clips that accentuate the applicable region of the state/country where you’re currently “flying.” Finally, the sense that Soarin’ triggers as well as any Disney attraction ever is smell. Disney introduces lush fragrances like the oranges of California via hidden Smellitzers that pump in those scents. It’s an invisible stimulation of one of your senses, one that honors the tenet of communicating with literacy.

As for the wienie aka visual magnet, that’s something diehard Disney fans probably already know. Walt Disney liked to think big, and he fervently believed that the quickest way to garner attention was by a showy declaration. The wienie is the building (or item) in your line of sight that you can’t possibly miss, the thing that demands your scrutiny. When Disneyland opened, the wienie was Sleeping Beauty Castle and remains so to this day…although the monorails were and still are showstoppers, too. At Epcot, the giant golf ball known as Spaceship Earth qualifies as perhaps the most memorable wienie at Walt Disney World, while Magic Kingdom has several visual magnets including the famous manmade mountains: Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, and Cinderella Castle.

While the construction of a wienie sounds massive in scale, it doesn’t have to be. The premise simply dictates that Disney tell a story on several levels. The thought process is that a person needs subtle elements like the ones mentioned for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train to enjoy that subconscious acceptance of an invitation to a faraway, imaginary land.

Image: Disney

In order to entice the guest in the first place, however, an attraction needs something grand to differentiate it. Still, the most famous wienies across the parks tend to be castles and attraction exteriors. In fact, the Enchanted Storybook Castle at Shanghai Disneyland is so attention-grabbing that Hong Kong Disneyland felt the need to “transform” their castle to make it more competitive. They feared that the wienie at the competing Disney park was too good and would negatively impact their business. 

 
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Comments

I think you misinterpret Commandment #8 (Avoid Contradictions – Maintain Identity), and I think this is a big problem overall with the addition of the 'Frozen' ride in Norway. World Showcase at Epcot tells stories of actual places with rich histories and cultures. By putting a fictional princess story in the mix, Disney has effectively contradicted that idea and risks losing the intended identity of this part of the park. I'm not saying there shouldn't be a "Frozen" ride - like most Disney fans, I love the film and totally appreciate the popular demand for an attraction related to that. What I'm saying is that they put it in the exact wrong place (Arendelle is a fantastical version of Norway; not actual Norway). Other attractions on World Showcase don't have this problem. Mexico has the "Three Caballeros" take us through Mexico, not an alternate version of that country. The United States takes us through U.S. history without relying on Pocahontas or Tiana to narrate. I think Disney broke its own rules, and I'm afraid it may lead to the demise of the story that Epcot's World Showcase was meant to tell.

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