Kenversations™
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1989 - Disney on a Roll
In 1989 - five years down the road - now known as The Walt Disney Company, the corporation was growing rapidly. It was treading on new ground literally and creatively.

Walt Disney World had undertaken a massive expansion. The biggest aspect was a third major theme park - Disney/MGM Studios, a fantasy version of the “Hollywood that never was and will always be,” a fitting park to be the first opened under Michael Eisner, a veteran Hollywood insider. Typhoon Lagoon, a major themed water park, was upping the ante in the industry. New Resort hotels were opening up. EPCOT Center got a new Future World pavilion, Wonders of Life, and had added Norway to the World Showcase the year before.

Disneyland Park had followed up the incredibly popular Star Tours attraction by finally bringing a log flume to the original Magic Kingdom with the heavily anticipated Splash Mountain. Billed as an attraction in the tradition of Pirates of the Caribbean, It’s a Small World, and the other Disneyland mountains, it was an elaborate, lengthy ride featuring well-known Disney music and audio-animatronics characters. It was even fun just to watch logs full of screaming people plunging down the steep final drop. A yearlong celebration of the park’s 35th anniversary was just around the corner, complete with a big new parade and street show, and prizes. Next on the schedule was an extensive overhaul of the aging Tomorrowland, and soon after that, a thrilling attraction (maybe more than one) centered on the very popular Indiana Jones mythology. Disney had acquired the Queen Mary / Spruce Goose complex in nearby Long Beach as well as the Disneyland Hotel, and announced intentions to build another theme park in southern California.

Construction of a new Disney resort near Paris was underway. The fourth version of the Magic Kingdom promised to make the most of the experience Disney had accumulated as well as the craftsmanship of the Europeans. It would be accompanied by an entertainment area and five hotels, including one right at the entrance of the park.

Disney was on the brink of announcing the “Disney Decade”.

Growing Pains
The new moves weren’t without their controversy. Disney was a corporation with a famous and distinct legacy and brand, and many fans and collectors who it to stay that way. Walt Disney World's Pleasure Island, somewhat a response to nearby Church Street Station and forerunner to City Walk at Universal Studios Hollywood, was targeted to adults, especially drinkers. Eisner’s penchant for hip architecture resulted in the Swan the Dolphin, perhaps Walt Disney World’s most unique hotels. Instead of being owned and operated by Disney, they were to be owned and operated by other companies. Instead of being themed to a specific time and place, they were designed by Michael Graves in postmodernist fashion and placed within clear view of guests enjoying World Showcase, dwarfing the France pavilion's Eiffel Tower replica.

Perhaps the biggest potential change was the announced acquisition of the Jim Henson properties and a ten-year contract with Mr. Henson. It was a controversial move among Disney fans that meant two very different pop culture elements were going to meld, changing both forever. It had the potential for incredible synergy, but also artistic dissonance. While Jim Henson and his associates were extremely talented and creative, the Henson universe was very different from that of Disney. The tones and styles were completely different, but the synergy push marched on. There was a live stage show at the Disney/MGM Studios featuring the Muppets, work was started on a 3-D theme park attraction, theatrical films, television shows and specials. Plans were considered to welcome the Muppets to Disneyland Park with a stage show, parade, and (strange but true) replacing the Mickey Floral with a Kermit Floral, and repainting the Matterhorn and Fantasyland in the colors of Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog.