Leslie Iwerk's incredible The Imagineering Story is one captivating read! Perhaps my favorite Disney related book ever. Much like her Disney+ series of the same name, she digs deep into the history of Imagineering and all its successes and failures.
We Stateside fans have seen firsthand the failure of laughingstock California Adventure 1.0, the cheaply made mini park Hong Kong Disneyland, and for those who have traveled to France, the absolute disaster of Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris. All these parks built under Michael Eisner's second decade were a stark and very disappointing contrast to Tokyo Disney Resort's amazing Tokyo Disneysea park built and opened around the same time.
Iwerks covers these disasters with breathtaking honesty and evaluation of its shortfalls. She talks about projects that never made it off the drawing boards as well, such as smaller projects like the unbuilt Burbank located Disney Backlot (above). Think Downtown Disney with actual attractions thrown in among the shops and restaurants.
In an utter journalistic fail, Iwerks dedicated a whole four paragraphs to the creation of Harry Potter lands at Universal Orlando Resort, mentioning how Warner Brothers fumbled their attempt to get Disney interested. Really? As we all know and is well documented, that is not how the story actually played out. (The real story is here.)
Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey set in Hogsmeade became the theme park news of the decade and beyond, turning the often very innovative Islands of Adventure and the whole resort into a must-see destination for theme parks fans. Diagon Alley at Universal Studios next door only added to the resort's popularity, now costing Disney two full days of lost visitors. Like me, once they discovered the "new" Universal, these parks would now become a permanent piece of any Florida vacation. Things will only get worse once Epic Universe opens with yet another Potter themed land as well as one based on Super Mario World from Nintendo. Disney better get going.
How will the next chapter of an Imagineering history book read? That remains to be told.
(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)
No comments:
Post a Comment