The West Side of the Kingdom
Page 1 of 2

What Came First, The Chicken or the Lawsuit?

$240 million is a lot of cash. It’s more than I will ever see in my lifetime. Heck, to be honest, it’s probably more than all of us on LaughingPlace.com combined will see in our lives! That’s exactly the amount that The Walt Disney Company has been slapped with by a Florida jury for apparently “borrowing” ideas from two men in 1987 to create the sprawling Disney sports complex at Walt Disney World.

The knee-jerk reaction to this by both die-hard Disney fans and regular Joes on the street has been, “How in the world can someone claim to hold the idea to a sports complex? Everyone has them and they are all pretty much alike! There’s only so many variations of a football or baseball field, you know?” And it’s a good argument. I wondered the same thing, personally. According to several reports I read from Florida news services, the jury found 88 distinct similarities between the plans and model the men presented to Disney over a decade ago and the successful sports complex now in operation near Orlando. So, not knowing all of the gory facts, I would venture to say that the jury knows stuff we don’t. If in fact, Disney management knowingly used the ideas these men presented them with without permission, the award is just - and maybe should be more, considering $240 million is not a completely devastating figure to a company the size of Disney.

And so, the comments on LaughingPlace.com have rightfully turned to Disney and other theme parks borrowing ideas from each other. Some say that Disney would never do such a thing, since they are the leaders and always will be. Others say that Disney is not at all above using someone else’s ideas. I posted a short message that stated the way I feel, which I thought would make for a good installment of West Side of the Kingdom. Of course, I will expand on that a bit here.

Theme parks date all the way back to the 1700s and 1800s in Europe and elsewhere around the world. Most attractions that exist today at any theme park have been done before elsewhere. Dark rides are not new - at the turn of the 20th Century, Coney Island’s parks - Coney, Steeplechase and Luna - all played host to very elaborate black light productions and attractions. Roller coasters and flume rides have similar origins. Big Thunder Mountain is nothing but a modern “scenic railway,” which was a common crowd-pleaser way back when, before Walt Disney or any living Imagineer was around. The concepts were simple - a mountain or mining facade for a track layout similar to the one being used for Mulholland Madness at Disney’s California Adventure and a “mine car” that was controlled with a hand brake winding its way down the “mountain” thrilling passengers all the way.

True, new concepts such as the motion vehicles used in Indiana Jones and the 3-D elements used in Honey, I Shrunk the Audience are advances - but the origins are not new. 3-D movies and technologies have been around for ages. Disney - and other theme park companies - simply expand on these existing technologies and ideas for their own uses.

I read one post that someone was sick and tired of everyone stealing ideas from Disney and that other theme parks had even started using AudioAnimatronic figures in their rides and shows. That really struck me that there are many people that don’t honestly know how much Disney “uses” outside companies for their own parks and attractions. While Disney pioneered many AudioAnimatronic technologies, the company that leads the pack of robotics for theme parks is Sarcos. Their Web site is at www.sarcos.com. I encourage you to stop by and take a look. You’ll find it most interesting that there is a very familiar Auctioneer in their video portfolio. Disney has worked with Sarcos for years and years. The funny thing to me is that while it’s a widely-known fact in the themed entertainment industry, the company hates its fans knowing this. In fact, when I was drafting Theme Park Adventure’s Pirates of the Caribbean issue, I got a directive from top management at Walt Disney Imagineering not to use the term “Sarcos” in the magazine, but rather, call the newer figures “S-100” and so on. What do you think the “S” stands for, folks? Honestly, I don’t know if I left the term in the final product or not; it was a non-issue to me, since like the X-Files says, the truth is out there.

When planning Grizzly Peak for California Adventure, a handful of Imagineers actually went to Knott’s Berry Farm to completely examine and use as inspiration their white water rafting attraction, Bigfoot Rapids. For months, a single raft sat out behind the Indy show building as the Imagineers worked its “look” out to their liking. Most probably, the information was used for the design of the River Rapids attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom as well in Florida.

The Timber Mountain Log Ride at Knott’s was the first flume attraction to have a camera installed to snap riders’ pictures as they dropped to a splashdown at the end of the ride. Splash Mountain followed suit after several people physically saw Disneyland managers “studying” this new idea at the Farm for several weeks. Before the camera was installed at Knott’s on their Log Ride, it made its debut in Southern California on Viper at Magic Mountain. The rest is history - and a complete cash cow for all theme parks. I am guilty of buying the images myself at their ridiculous prices. What else can we do? They’re fun to have!