Do you want to know what's next for Disney California Adventure? With the D23 convention coming up in August, and Disneyland's 70th anniversary on the horizon, it will take more than relative quiet about the DisneyForward project to keep us fans speculating on the future of Walt's park and its now legal age sibling.
Concept art or otherwise, it's been awhile since I've written anything about Disney California Adventure. The constant Marvel character infusion into Avengers Campus is of little interest to me nor is the newest attraction, Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure. Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout is old news, and I don't see anything on the immediate horizon of interest. However...
Way back in 2008, I rote a very, very long post about the park and its quite unfortunate Bargain Basement Imagineering. Readers loved it as it showed in visual form the stories behind the park and pieces of art for each attraction. But I'd never seen the piece above. From the beautiful Grizzly Peak and Soarin' Over California - the park's two success stories- to the dismal Bountiful Valley Farm (Tractors as an attraction?) and the shopping mall entry, it's all there to see. Certainly, it was an insult to us fans sitting next to Disneyland. Yet, months later, Japan would get Tokyo Disneysea. That was an even bigger insult.
Thankfully, new CEO Robert Iger admitted Michael Eisner made a huge mistake by greenlighting the park as designed and announced a sure to be fabulous makeover of Anaheim's laughing stock theme park. Soon after another article came out by me: Imagineering A New Dream, a collection of new art and new stories.
After a great beginning with Cars Land and Buena Vista Street, the park began to slide into its opening years plan as many additions to it were actual subtractions. Pixar Pier is the worst of the offenders.
Will there ever be a third collection highlighting a fresh infusion of creativity, focus, and cash for the park that sits next door to Walt's Kingdom? Or will DisneyForward kill that dream?
(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company)
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