The West Side of the Kingdom
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Disney’s California Adventure: Mother Lode or Fool’s Gold?
There’s one thing I have learned over the past few years that has been confirmed over the past several weeks: if you raise any red flags or don’t pull out your pom-poms every time Disney unveils a new product or theme park, you’re in danger on the Internet of being slammed as a Disney hater and clumped in with every other critic of the Mouse known to man. That’s a sad reality, but if that’s the way it is, I suppose that’s the way it is.
That being said, I would like to also state that I feel there are some very strong elements at Disney’s California Adventure and some glaringly bad ones. I won’t touch on everything here, as that would take much too long; I simply want to try and pass along some thoughts. And remember, they’re just thoughts; nothing more, nothing less. If my column gets your blood boiling because you can’t stand to hear honest opinions of something Disney’s done, then I recommend you change the channel right about now.
While I have been quoted in various newspapers around the country over the past few weeks regarding California Adventure, I have been following its development for a decade. Once upon a time, in the bustling city of Anaheim, a proactive group of Disney supporters emerged, known as WESTCOT 2000. It was a group of enthusiasts, business owners and community members that stood behind Disney’s initial expansion proposal for the Disneyland Resort. Our mission was to combat the evil opponents of the project (a handful of lawyers, agitated homeowners that more than likely spent their lives boasting to their friends and relatives that they lived right next to Disneyland and some stubborn business owners) and to ensure the future of WESTCOT Center in Anaheim. It was one $3 billion project that many of us clung to with all we had. It wasn’t free, either; members of WESTCOT 2000 paid a fee to be involved. It wasn’t horrendously expensive, but money’s money, right?
Finances aside (because that really isn’t important to me), I truly believed in the project and wanted it to happen with all my heart. Understand this was before my magazine, Theme Park Adventure was even an idea and Web sites simply didn’t exist (let alone something the magnitude of LaughingPlace.com). So, we’re not talking professional gains here or interests; we’re talking about some guy that had grown up with Disneyland in his back yard, had worked at Disneyland and had been banned for ever working at Disneyland ever again because of personal conflicts with certain supervisors. If anything, you would have thought that someone with a “No Rehire” stamped on every page of his personnel folder would love to see Disney fail. That’s never been me; it never will be me.
The loss of the dream called WESTCOT was a big defeat for all of us involved, from company executives to fans that actually devoted a lot of time and personal interest to this cause. What made matters worse was the loss of the Long Beach project as well, which was kind of the first generation of what has become Tokyo DisneySea in Japan.
So, when Disney announced plans for the Disneyland Resort, thousands of us were all ears. And then it came - “Disney’s California Adventure” was the new name and the theming would be California history.
I’ve written about this some on the Theme Park Adventure Web site, so I won’t get too involved here; let’s just say that we all stood around partially excited and partially confused as to why, with the Southern California coastline just minutes away and world-famous icons such as the Golden Gate Bridge and Yosemite just hours away, Disney felt that re-creating the California experience in Anaheim was a good idea.
The possibilities were great - a Hollywood section of the park would allow for the Tower of Terror, also known as the “Hollywood Tower Hotel,” a boardwalk section would allow for a fantastic dark ride or two along with crazy contraptions not seen since the early 1900s and other areas of the park offered up similar possibilities.