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 | Expedition: Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Orlando, FL July 23, 2006 |
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« Comment Spam Is Back | Main | "Date Of Birth" On KUOW! » February 13, 2006Five Years Of California AdventureDisney's California Adventure turned five on February 8th (last Wednesday). Today, MousePlanet has an update on the non-event birthday celebration, and a long-form thread about what's changed in the park since its launch. Five years. Wow. In 2001, we took all of Media Access down to Disneyland as a celebration for the company's over-the-top performance in 2000. California Adventure had been open just two weeks; we put everybody up at the Grand Californian and basically ran around the parks like drunk five-year-olds. It was fabulous. Even then (especially then), I think everyone was struck by the feeling that something wasn't quite "there" with the new park. The place seemed odd ... empty ... hard to figure out. Yes, it was novel and shiny and new, but the place was light on attractions, long on overpriced restaurants and stores, and featured a demo of tortilla-making as something to do. Since our first trip, it's become obvious to everybody that DCA is a broken park. Yes, it's got some great attractions ("Soarin' Over California", anyone?), but DCA never evolved into a cohesive whole in the way that Disneyland did. Clearly built on the cheap (and with the cynical expectation that anything with the Disney brand on it turns to gold), DCA has staggered as it's tried to find its footing. Cheap fixes ("Who Wants To Be A Millionaire") didn't work, and neither did expensive ones ("Tower Of Terror"). The park needs to be rebooted. It's salvageable. I'm greatly encouraged by John Lasseter's appointment as the senior creative guy ("Principal Creative Advisor") in charge of the theme parks - John's a former skipper on the Jungle Cruise, and loves Disneyland as much as the hard-core fans. If anyone will fix DCA - with imagination, spectacle, and vision - it's John. My hunch is that DCA will be a radically different (and radically better) park by the time it turns 10. Posted by Gavin Shearer at February 13, 2006 8:23 AM. Posted to Disney. CommentsPost a commentThanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out) (If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.) |