Kenversations™
Page 4 of 6

The State of Imagineering
An apparently modest Magic Kingdom park is being developed for Hong Kong but there are no announced plans for any other new Disney theme parks. Most additions to existing parks at Disney’s sites in France, Floridian, and California are simple and modest compared to such past Imagineering-intensive offerings of show-heavy attractions such as Carousel of Progress, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, The American Adventure, the original World of Motion, Journey Into Imagination, and Spaceship Earth, Horizons, the Great Movie Ride, Splash Mountain, MuppetVision 4-D, and the Indiana Jones Adventure from Disneyland Park. Even the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, an exceptional attraction that debuted at Disney-MGM Studios in the mid-90s, will see a less ambitious version open ten years later in California Adventure. In the past, that decade between versions might have been used to come up with ways to push the envelope further.

Tower of Terror Construction at Disney's California Adventure

As a solid example, Disneyland Park hasn’t seen a major new original E-Ticket show-attraction since Temple of the Forbidden Eye opened in 1995, and nothing has been announced for the future, despite the numerous concepts and full-blown designs gathering dust in the corners of WDI. Presumably, the new park next door makes up for that, but do Disney’s guests see it that way?

Particularly odd is that Imagineering hasn’t been given many projects to build in Disney-owned parks based on the Eisner-era Disney animated features. "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" eventually yielded Mickey’s Toontown, which hasn’t been added to for eight years. "Beauty and the Beast", "Aladdin", "The Lion King", "Pocahontas", "Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Hercules", "Mulan", and "Tarzan" all had elements that would be great for elaborate ride-through attractions, regardless of whether or not they broke box office records, but none have been built at Disney parks.

Alternative Opportunities in Theme Park Design
WDI has consisted of 500, 1000, 2000, up to maybe 3000 employees in the last couple decades, and as I understand it, is down to 1500 or so, maybe less. So where do Imagineers go if they are no longer with Disney?

Ironically, the theme park design industry has been gaining more attention and developing more institutions just as some of the largest firms and most strident innovators find themselves in tough going, so although there have been lots of smaller firms and opportunities to go from project to project for different companies over the years, things aren’t exactly jumping these days.

New York, New York in Las Vegas

A maxing-out of the existing market and recent blows to the travel industry have put a damper on things. Paramount entered the game a while back and has done some wonderful things. Las Vegas underwent an explosion of themed design projects over the course of just a few years, and has since slowed down significantly, as did much of Asia. Universal opened an ambitious second park in Florida a new park in Japan, and has announced a park for China, but the company is having problems. Landmark Entertainment Group was once the largest independent design firm around, trading staff with WDI, but now it will need a resurrection to be a major player again.

The theme park design industry isn’t quite expanding like it has in the past. Entertainment corporations can make a faster return on their money with theatrical films, interactive games, and other ventures and so that’s where they put their resources.

Maybe theme parks -theme parks like I grew up on- parks like Disneyland Park and EPCOT Center with sections like New Orleans Square and attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean and Horizons - maybe they are dead. Maybe they were a passing fad of the twentieth century that played out the same themes over and over again until they were tired. Maybe older parks like Disneyland Park and EPCOT Center have reached their profit potential and aren’t worth the investment major new projects require. Maybe Imagineers are a dying order, to be "killed off" (through loss of suitable projects) like my childhood heroes the Jedi or James Tyndale Kirk.

Maybe not.