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Californian controversy

Image: Disney

As a whole, guests spoke loud and clear: Disney’s attempt at an “edgy” new kind of theme park with “brash Californian attitude” and “MTV” style didn’t resonate. It was an instantly dated product of low-budget ‘90s design, and a perfect encapsulation of everything that went wrong at the end of Michael Eisner’s cost-cutting career with Disney.

Throughout Disney California Adventure’s first decade – up-to and including its $1.2 billion reconstruction – there’s simply no question that the park was better outfitted for long-term survival. Disney’s billion dollar investment primarily went toward fixing the park’s foundational flaw by re-invigorating each of California Adventure’s lands as historic, reverent, thoughtful ones celebrating California’s beauty, heritage, and history rather than making fun of its present.

Along the way, Disneyland’s second gate was also super-charged with E-Ticket attractions, family rides, and entertainment that helped right the ship and build out the park in order to complement Disneyland. It was all part of addressing authentic visitor concerns that California Adventure was "too much California, not enough Disney."

Image: Disney

But pretty quickly, that tide began to turn... 

For example, for as little right as they may have had to be billed as “attractions” to begin with, minor asides like the Bountiful Valley Farm area (a farm-sized exhibit on Californian agriculture) and Golden Dreams (a travelogue-style history film of California’s foundation and prominent figures) were replaced with attractions themed to A Bug’s Life and The Little Mermaid, respectively… both upgrades, to be sure!

Image: Disney / Pixar

And no one would shed a tear when the park’s Declassified Disaster: Superstar Limo hit the road, replacing the Hollywood-themed dark ride with Monsters Inc., ostenisbly carrying us out of California and to Monstropolis.

Losing some A- and B-ticket attractions was an easy price to pay in exchange for Cars Land, right?

Okay, technically, the driving anchor of the park’s rebirth – Cars Land – represents the town of Radiator Springs that’s definitely somewhere in the American Southwest along Route 66, but decidedly not in California... But at least the addition of Buena Vista Street balanced the scales back toward the park’s newly-born, carefully-created Californian story and setting.

Image: Disney

And besides, E-Ticket headliners like The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Soarin’ Over California, and the thrills of Paradise Pier were guaranteed to preserve the park’s reborn California-focused concept strong…. Right...? Let's quickly explore four unusual steps in California Adventure's development since its grand re-opening that appear to be entirely counter to the $1.2 billion Disney just spent! 

1. Soarin'... Around the World (2016)

Image: Disney

Back in 2001, Soarin' Over California was the icon of Disney's California Adventure Park. In fact, many argue that it was the only runaway hit from the underbuilt park. So much so that the ride was duplicated in Epcot's The Land pavilion in 2005, and even though it used the same "Over California" ride film, the varied landscapes of California made the ride's inclusion merely as "Soarin'" unsuspicious! As it had at California Adventure, the ride became a signature of Epcot, earning multi-hour waits.

Rumors had always swirled that eventually, Epcot's version of the ride would recieve a custom-made ride film touring over the natural landscapes of the country (an obvious fit for The Land pavilion).

Image: Disney

On June 16, 2016 the brand new Shanghai Disneyland beat them to it with Soarin' Over the Horizon, featuring a new ride film showcasing the wonders of the world – from the Great Wall of China to the Eiffel Tower; Neuschwanstein in Germany to the Great Pyramids and the Taj Mahal.

The day after the ride made its debut in Shanghai, it replaced the original Soarin' ride film at Epcot. And really, the decision to replace Epcot’s Soarin’ with the global Soarin’ Around the World was a no-brainer – a natural and overdue evolution of the 15-year-old ride, even if the aerial tour of mostly-man-made landmarks technically made it a worse fit in The Land pavilion.

Image: Disney

But that same day, Soarin' Around the World replaced the original ride at California Adventure, too, in the still-fresh Grizzly Peak Airfield. The fan-favorite that launched a generation of “Soarin’” attractions and proved that California Adventure did have a concept worth rallying around would change. It’s not that Soarin’ Around the World isn’t beautiful and moving and well done – it is! It’s that the original ride film was custom-made for a park dedicated to celebrating California’s stories. Flying over the Great Wall of China and the Eiffel Tower doesn’t fit.

So while Disney had spent immense time, energy, and money re-theming Condor Flats to the beautifully forested, more overtly-Californian, historic and idealized Grizzly Peak Airfield, its sole attraction – one of the anchor attractions of the Californian park – would now lose its Californian ride film... Weird. But not the weirdest move since...

2. Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! (2017)

In early 2016, a very strange rumor began to circulate among fans. Sources reported that an attraction based on Guardians of the Galaxy, the surprise hit Marvel superhero movie from 2014, would replace the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney California Adventure.

Image: Disney

To be clear, the rumor was instantly derided by many as insanity, and most fans wrote it off as a prank. So outrageously stupid did it sound that a futuristic sci-fi superhero movie would take over a 1920s art-deco hotel reigning over a newly-redesigned Golden-Age-of-California park, many in the Disney Parks fan community literally, sincerely imagined that the rumor was cooked up just to see how much fury and chaos such an obviously fake rumor could provoke.

"A decade ago, maybe!" They proclaimed. But c’mon. California Adventure was fixed! It was saved! No more irreverent jokes, no more modern music… It had a new lease on life with a refreshed, reverent, historic California story. Guardians of the Galaxy taking over the E-Ticket Twilight Zone Tower of Terror? Decimating the careful continuity and storytelling Disney just spent over a billion dollars to craft? A sci-fi superhero ride looming over a 1920s Los Angeles? A 1950s High Sierras national park?

Image: Disney

At the 2016 San Diego Comic Con, Imagineer Joe Rohde was on hand to announce that a new Guardians of the Galaxy ride would indeed replace the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney California Adventure in 2017. Yes, just four years after Disney spent $1 billion to get rid of irreverence, crass humor, and modern references from the park, the "outrageous and irreverent" comic book characters would arrive.

The detailed lobby, library, and boiler room would be gutted and redesigned as a "warehouse prison power plant" based on "the beauty of an oil rig" (those are Disney's words, not ours) owned by the enigmatic Collector from the 2014 film. Of course, the drop ride within would be retained and reprogrammed, but everything around it would be completely redesigned and not an ounce of Tower of Terror would remain in the brand new attraction...

Image: Disney / Marvel

...Unless you count the exterior clearly being a 1920s art deco hotel affixed with pipes and satellite dishes. Our fabled Lost Legends collection gained its biggest ride yet with Lost Legends: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, exploring the making-of and closure of the would-be Californian classic.

Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! opened May 27, 2017. The laugh-out-loud thrill ride is a blast from beginning to end, perfectly capturing the spirit and style of the hit Marvel film. Loud, brash, and fun, much of the public and even some Disney Parks fans have embraced the wild and unexpected overlay, excited for its randomized drop sequences, its '60s and '70s inspired pop / rock soundtrack, its interchangable screens that allow for holiday overlays, and its attitude.

Image: Disney / Marvel

(Don't be surprised when the "gantry lift" doors open to reveal the same bird's eye view of the resort with Bradley Cooper's Rocket raccoon now narrating by saying, "Disneyland?! But that's thematically inconsistant!" It's obviously a nod to – or perhaps an "irreverent, MTV-attitude" jab at – fans and how very silly they are for caring about old-fashioned things like continuity. To each his own!) 

Is Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! a fun ride? Of course. An E-Ticket? Absolutely. No one – even those who detested the concept – would ride cross-armed and pouting. But is it the right choice for Disney California Adventure? For the long-term? Will it still be relevant in 20 years? Do designers even plan for it to be around in 20 years? That's all unknown for now... But it's not the last surprising piece of the de-California'ing of California Adventure.

On the last page, we'll finish up with California Adventure's most recent announcements and figure out if Disney is making its biggest mistake all over again... Read on...

 
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Comments

Disneyland is no longer the Disneyland Walt envisioned. Not one Disney family member is involved with the company any longer. Disney is run by bean counters who have no creativity or vision. They are turning Disneyland into a Universal Studios. Star Wars Land and Marvel land are cash grabs in order to recoup the money they lost on California Adventure early on.

I loved this article! I was a big early champion for California Adventure. The opening of Tower resonated so greatly with me, and showed a ton of promise for what a park themed around California in California could do. When DCA 2.0 was announced, I watched in fevered anticipation as a new story grew from the shell of DCA's admittedly cheap base. I was even so privileged to work on Buena Vista Street in it's first year of operation.

I was immensely devastated when Tower was announced to be closing. Your other article, Lost Legends, covered so much of my feelings about its closure, and this one also retouched on it. Tower's disrespectful slow removal while in operation and what replaced it so removed the anchor to California Adventure, the attraction that I saw as the prime inspiration for the 2.0 remake.

When Pixar Pier was announced, the punny names of stores and the irreverence completely turned me off from DCA. I refused to renew my annual pass when Tower closed, and the sharp reversal to DCA 1.0's mentality with a slightly higher budget just soured my love for the park. I can't find myself going back to California Adventure anymore because of the blatant face slapping of hip and modern IPs with short shelf lives. I find myself missing the original DCA 1.0, if not for the promise of the DCA to come years later.

The disappointment of the continued changes though, seems as if Disney has lost the true zeal of what makes their parks great. The art of it feels lost in the push for more crowds in an already crowded resort all with the promise of making good on what Universal Studios already does. I miss the Disney experiences, and I find myself dreading more theme park meta jokes. Rocket's Disneyland call out and the tongue in cheek tease of Incredicoaster just breaks the immersive quality of Disney Parks. I keep wondering when the irreverence will catch up with Disney, and I see glimpses of it (such as in the abrupt rehiring of James Gunn for Guardians right as a Twilight Zone reboot is about to be released) speaks to the shakiness and uncertainty of the push for now and in the moment when those now moments will be gone tomorrow.

California Adventure seems to be more like the West Coast version of Hollywood Studios in Florida or Disney Studios park in Paris... maybe it could use a change of name to reflect that.

In the 5th page, you said D23 Japan was held in November 2017. But it was held in February 2018. It might be a little difference though.

This makes me think of the entire "Chester and Hestor" debacle at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Yes, it has an immersive and creative story.
Yes, the story itself is well executed.
But at the days end the story embraces and is a running riff on EXACTLY the type of roadside distractions Walt wanted to avoid by moving to Florida where he could have the "blessings of size."

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