Progress City, U.S.A.

That ol’ Rumor Mill is a funny thing. Long, long droughts can occur and it seems like nothing new will ever come over the transom. Then, all of a sudden, there’s a flash flood of new speculation to sift through. Such is the case now, as the rumors concerning Walt Disney World’s impending 40th anniversary celebration have reached the boiling point. There are a whole slew of possibilities being discussed at this point, but precious few details of any of the planned changes.

What is intriguing about this celebration is the fact that, unlike recent anniversaries or resort-wide marketing events, the focus is not entirely on new park additions but also includes several legacy attractions. This is similar to Disneyland’s 50th anniversary, which focused a great deal on the restoration and revitalization of several classic Disney attractions that had fallen into disrepair under the shameful mismanagement of Paul Pressler. It seems at this point that the Magic Kingdom will receive a bit of much-needed TLC to revive it from its own current state of decay; the not-so-benign neglect of current management has left Florida’s park a poor shadow of the refurbished Anaheim original.

Thankfully, we’ve already seen some improvements come to the Magic Kingdom. The Pirates of the Caribbean rehab which added Jack Sparrow actually improved the attraction, something which couldn’t be said for the Disneyland iteration. Last year the Haunted Mansion received a massive overhaul which not only fixed its rickety audio system but actually plussed the attraction beyond all expectation. We’ve also reported on the Country Bear Jamboree, which goes down for a critically needed rehab this fall. After that, though, things start to get speculative.

One thing we do know is that the Hall of Presidents will be closing on the first of November for an incredibly long rehab. Disney’s public refurbishment calendar is only available up to February, but reputable message board sources report that the rehab will actually extend until early next July. With the presidential election looming in November of 2008, it was expected that the attraction would eventually go dark in order to mercifully remove the animatronic of the current child-king from his speaking role and to add the animatronic of our new commander-in-chief. What is unexpected is the apparent length of the upcoming rehab and the scope of the changes it indicates.

Ulytheth Eth. Grant

There has been a lot of speculation recently that the new president, no matter who wins, would not receive a speaking role like the current inhabitant or Bill Clinton before him. This would reduce the risk of polarization in the current political climate, as well as avoiding uncomfortable undertones due to things like marital infidelities or being a war criminal with a 20% approval rating. The predominant rumor is that the focus of the show will return to Abraham Lincoln himself, and while no one yet knows what the tone of this new presentation will be, one hopes that it will resemble the scope of the original 1971 show rather than the slavery-centric storyline that was tacked on in 1993 to appease historians critical of Disney’s efforts to build a theme park in Virginia. I could elaborate on what else needs to be done to restore this impressive attraction to its original status, but thankfully Foxx at Passport to Dreams has already done it for me. Hopefully we’ll find out more about this long and hopefully significant rehab soon.

This brings us to the final attraction currently rumored to be destined for rehab - the Enchanted Tiki Room. Unlike the two previously mentioned show upgrades, this refurbishment currently resides only in the realm of rumor and hearsay. Yet multiple sources continue to say that, at some point before 2011, something will happen to the Tiki Room. This stands to reason; after all, aside from Journey into YOUR Imagination, The Enchanted Tiki Room: Under New Management! has to be the most reviled attraction overhaul in Walt Disney World history. Disney fans have bemoaned the attraction since it opened in 1998, and mostly tend to stay away these days. Meanwhile, in California, the original Tropical Serenade show was fully restored for Disneyland’s 50th anniversary and plays daily to happy and entertained guests. So what’s to happen in Orlando after Iago and Zazu get the boot?

LOUD = FUNNY

Here opinions differ; so far there seem to be two versions of the story. The first says that for Walt Disney World’s 40th anniversary the show will be returned to its original program for a short time while preparations are made for the installation of an entirely new show. The other version omits this return of the Tropical Serenade and says that WDI will just skip to the new attraction. Both versions agree on what this new show will be - after all, it’s already playing in Tokyo.

Earlier this year WDI debuted the third show to play in Japan’s Tiki Room, The Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents “Aloha e Komo Mai”. The new show, which is completely different from the original, adds Stitch to the mix and incorporates music from his film Lilo and Stitch. Rather than have me tell you about it, take a look below:

As a fan of the original Tiki Room, I have several thoughts about this. First, it’s not all that bad. It’s definitely a darn sight better than the current Under New Management show. The addition of Stitch makes far more sense thematically than Zazu and Iago, and the music from the film is a nice match as well. Hopefully the English script would be punched up a bit; in the version above there’s a bit too much “saying what’s happening” going on. The dialogue is a tad redundant as well, and needs a bit of that original Tiki Room charm. I’d also dial down the confusion and loudness factor, and let things play out a little bit more. The current version of the show is way too in-your-face; after all, isn’t the tiki lifestyle all about relaxation? Most importantly, though, is the cardinal importance of returning the original theme song. People going to the Tiki Room expect to hear The Tiki Tiki Tiki Room and should be able to get it without Gilbert Gottfried screaming or Stitch blowing an airhorn. Throw in the Hawaiian War Chant from the original show as well, and I’ll be a happy camper.

Note to management: Build time machine ASAP!

Again, this is all hearsay at the moment but hopefully some change is on the way to Adventureland. Sources say that the addition of the Stitch show depends on its success in Tokyo, but that seems assured. Less certain is the supply of money or willpower from management, but we can always hope. Hopefully the Tiki Gods will smile on us and come 2011 the birds will sing words and the flowers will croon once more.

The recent flurry of discussion about future expansion of the new Pixar Place at Disney’s Hollywood Studios has borne some fruit. Message threads on prominent discussion boards have resulted in some very reliable sources confirming that WDI is, in fact, working on a new indoor coaster attraction themed to Monsters, Inc. Work seems to have progressed beyond the mere “Blue Sky” phase, with some saying that Disney has already started to contact contractors.

The above image, produced by Disney documentarian extraordinaire Martin Smith, shows the expansion area available to WDI for Pixar Place’s Phase 2. At the top of the image, in white, is the track layout for the recently opened Toy Story Mania! The area outlined in yellow is the current Pixar Place, and the area outlined in red is the former Soundstage One building which has been earmarked for the new attraction. To the left of the buildings is a backstage area which contains, among other things, the wardrobe department. The purple outline shows how far Soundstage One can be expanded without impacting the function of these buildings, while the blue outline shows a possible ride footprint which would affect the backstage areas. More accessible backstage areas are outlined in cyan, and this is where it is rumored that the attraction’s queue area would be set up.

This image, also from Martin Smith, compares the footprint of Disney Studios Paris’s Crush’s Coaster to that of Hollywood Studios’ Soundstage One. The Paris coaster is often mentioned as an example of what Orlando’s new attraction will resemble. While the plot size of the two attractions are roughly similar, Smith says that the Crush’s Coaster building is far taller that the available building in Florida.

In any case, it seems that help is on the way for the beleaguered Hollywood Studios. With the confirmation that this coaster will arrive around 2011 and the increasingly solid rumors of the Little Mermaid attraction for the Magic Kingdom, we now have two of the four speculated E-ticket attractions for the resort’s 40th anniversary. More nebulous rumors say that EPCOT Center might at last receive a worthy restoration of Journey Into Imagination by that time, and it’s anyone’s guess as to what’s coming to Animal Kingdom. At the very least, it seems that we east-coasters are finally feeling the love from Unca John.

UPDATE: Mention of the coaster seems to have crept into the somewhat-official media. The MTV Movies blog spoke to Monsters, Inc. director Pete Docter and asked him about the possibility of a sequel to that film. While Docter mentions that they’ve “thought about it” and have “got a couple of ideas”, he won’t confirm or deny any rumors. The article goes on to state that “in the moment, those ideas are being filtered into a “Monsters, Inc” roller-coaster at the Walt Disney Resorts, which should open in a couple of years.” Now I don’t know what MTV’s source on this was, but it seems like a pretty definitive statement on the issue. I’d say this project is a go.

The new gateway to Pixar Place. Photo nabbed from EpcotServo.

These are odd times for Disney theme park fans. After a decade of escalating affronts to the legacy of quality and good taste they had long taken for granted, relief came in the form of new CEO Bob Iger and the John Lasseter-led Pixar braintrust. While some would see Lasseter as the White Knight by whose hands all positive change would be affected, his efforts will hopefully result instead in a wide variety of Imagineers who could be equally trusted with large-scale, E-ticket projects. As the most highly-placed creative staffer in the company, Lasseter has the ear of individuals that the average Imagineer or animator could only dream of calling for a lunch meeting. After so many years in the wilderness, Disney fans thought that they finally had an advocate at the highest levels of the corporate ladder.

The problem, however, with surviving the reign of a tyrant is that any small kindness is viewed as loving and magnanimous. Things in the parks were so bad for so long, that just getting a fresh coat of paint on anything seemed like the theming achievement of the century. After having been so grateful to see the bleeding staunched, it would seem ungrateful to criticize the new wave of attractions emerging from WDI.

For many of us, though, the last decade of Eisner’s rule left us uneasy and suspicious of change. After decades of gladly giving WDI the benefit of the doubt, trusting fans would now be burned time and time again with each new attraction. The first few years of the new leadership have indeed been far from critic-proof; concerns about the “toonification” of areas formerly themed to exciting “real-world” adventures have combined with worries over the fairly obvious Pixar-centric drift of new development.

It’s not that Pixar has no place in the parks; as the most uniformly popular output of Walt Disney Pictures in the last decade they’re obviously meant for inclusion. While fans might hope that WDI would some day give heed to the huge back-catalog of Disney films and shows without attractions - or even build some completely new attractions without licensing tie-ins, it’s fairly reasonable to expect that the average Disney guest would look to find Buzz, Remy and WALL-E on their Disney vacations.

So while neither unexpected nor unwarranted, the arrival of Pixar in the parks has been a bit overwhelming, and at times redundant and out-of-place. From a Walt Disney World standpoint, it’s definitely been noticeable. In recent years we’ve had Finding Nemo attractions open in two separate parks - one of which placed a cute and pleasant Nemo dark ride into a location that unfortunately stripped EPCOT’s Seas pavilion of its informative nature and overshadowed the real-life thrill of undersea exploration. Tomorrowland now plays host to a Monsters, Inc. attraction which, aside from being absolutely tragic, is woefully out of place thematically (Tokyo Disneyland will soon be getting an out-of-place Monsters, Inc. attraction in their Tomorrowland, but that is at least guaranteed to be a budget-busting E-ticket affair). Last but not least, Walt Disney World is now home to two attractions themed to Toy Story that differ in technological complexity but feature the exact same game mechanic.

This is not to say that the new management has failed, but rather underlines that work remains to be done. While both WDI and Feature Animation are home to an array of great talent, there still needs to be a “scouring of the Shire” at the upper levels of management to clear out those who forced through so many embarrassments in the past. Prime amongst these offenders is Disney Parks head Jay Rasulo, whose disastrous global branding initiative is designed to make Disney’s parks as unique from each other as five slices of stale white bread. It was Rasulo’s visionary leadership that led to the cloning of Toy Story Mania - an attraction designed for Anaheim’s California Adventure - to Florida’s Hollywood Studios. While this fine attraction was a much needed and well-themed addition to the California park, it is completely out of place in Florida’s Studios park.

Pixar Place, home of Toy Story Mania! Photo from WDWMagic.com.

This brings us, at last, to Disney’s Hollywood Studios and the new Pixar Place. The recently opened area, formerly known as Mickey Avenue, has been completely and elaborately rethemed to resemble Pixar’s Emeryville studios. While the area is ostensibly intended to house a variety of Pixar’s creations, at the moment its only inhabitant is the new Toy Story Mania. With the former Disney-MGM Studios rumored to be the site of several new attractions and re-themings over the next decade, it’s certain that Pixar Place will see a great deal of welcome new development. But what’s on the way?

The site in question, circa 1989. At this point, Mickey Avenue was off-limits to guests as it was still part of the working Backlot. Guests were only allowed in this area via the Backlot Tour, which then departed from the current Magic of Disney Animation queue.

One persistent rumor over the last year is that Pixar Place will be the site of a new roller coaster, which would be the park’s marketable new attraction for Walt Disney World’s big 40th anniversary celebration in 2011. This speculation derives from last year’s Pixar-based “Toon Studios” expansion at Disney Studios Paris, which contained Crush’s Coaster, an indoor spinning coaster based on Finding Nemo. While many expected the attraction to be cloned in Florida’s Pixar Place, other rumors held that the coaster would instead be based on 2007’s Ratatouille. The latest speculation stems from a recent Jim Hill article, which claims that the new coaster will be themed to Monsters, Inc.

The pre-millennial Mickey Avenue. The area was by now open to the public, as production had ceased in most of the facilities and the space was now used to preview upcoming Disney films. The entrance to the now-shortened Backlot Tour was now housed at the end of Mickey Avenue.

Since its release in 2001, Disney fans have anticipated the creation of a Monster’s, Inc. coaster themed to the film’s Door Hangar sequence. Hill claims that just such an attraction is being designed for installation into the former Soundstage One building on Pixar Place. The building would be rethemed to resemble the Monsters, Inc. facility from the film, with the conceit that guests are attending an open house to see how the titular monsters collect laughter to fuel Monstropolis. As they careen through the building in their coaster vehicles, guests’ screams and laughter will be collected in canisters which will fill to explosive levels.

A behatted Disney-MGM Studios. Mickey Avenue gained the Walt Disney tribute One Man’s Dream (yay) as well as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire - Play It! (boo) in 2001.

How plausible is this rumor? While the pricey and well-themed attraction would no doubt be a hit, there’s been no hint of it from Disney. Or has there?

This won’t be the end of the additions to Pixar Place. Hill continues to say that the former Honey, I Shrunk the Kids playground will be rethemed to Pixar’s a bug’s life, and floats the possibility of Lights, Motors, Action receiving its own Pixar overlay when Cars 2 debuts in 2012. He also mentions the rumor, reported elsewhere, that a great deal of the remaining backlot area will be leveled to make way for a clone of the Carsland area that’s coming to California Adventure. This depends, of course, on how popular that new attraction proves to be when it opens around 2012. Hopefully, though, Disney’s cloning trend will by then be wholly purged from the company and we Florida-goers will have unique new E-tickets to call our own.

Pixar Place today. If rumors hold true, this area will expand to the left and top of the map in upcoming years.

Maybe, just maybe, Disney’s Hollywood Studios will get something new and unique that suits and enhances the park’s own themes. It would just go to show you, anything can happen in the movies…

From around the web come rumors and portents of upcoming attractions for Walt Disney World in Florida. We remind you that these are only rumors; nothing is certain until opening day. Think about that the next time you’re visiting the Equatorial Africa pavilion at EPCOT…

Magic Kingdom

The big rumor lately is the rumbling about a potential E-ticket for WDW’s 40th anniversary in 2011. No one knows yet what this is (quixotic fans palpatate about Fire Mountain and Bald Mountain), or where it might fit in the park.

More specific, though, are rumors about a Little Mermaid ride coming to the park. No one knows if this is the E-ticket in question, but both Blue Sky Disney and Jim Hill Media report that WDI is eager to revisit this film for a major dark ride in Fantasyland

Disney obsessives might recall that a Mermaid dark ride was originally designed by Tony Baxter’s team for a second wave of Disneyland Paris attractions in the early 1990’s. Following that park’s desperate and hungry early years, those plans (along with a Beauty and the Beast show) were shelved. The attraction was also promised for Disneyland and Walt Disney World for 1993 as part of the “Disney Decade” (thanks Eisner). The ride most recently resurfaced on Mermaid’s DVD release as a CGI ride-through recreation with commentary by Baxter.

More recently, the Mermaid ride was announced as part of Disney California Adventure’s billion-dollar revival. If it’s brought to Florida, odds are that it will in some way differ from the California version. New management at WDI isn’t quite as keen to do the cookie-cutter clone thing like the previous regime, and so we probably won’t see this attraction in Florida for 5-6 more years.

Jim Hill also repeats the recent rumors concerning a new merchandise location at the exit of the Haunted Mansion. According to him, the exit for the attraction will be routed through the current Yankee Trader shop. This location will be tripled in size to allow for the new traffic, but this will most likely not occur for 4-5 more years as the recent $30 Million rehab budget was needed entirely for updating the attraction itself.

In Adventureland, Screamscape has been reporting on a series of rumors concerning a pirate-themed restaurant called “Tortuga” to be built in the former location of the Adventureland Veranda (closed since 1994! Thirteen years!). The most recent buzz has the retheming put on hold as the park’s funds have been diverted to updating the kitchens of a number of the park’s existing restaurants. I’m just amazed that this prime location can sit completely empty for more than a decade. Where have you gone, Kikkoman?

Screamscape also has heard rumors that the TTA will go down for rehab along with Space Mountain next year, and will have some minor updates.

EPCOT Center

Things are quiet at EPCOT now, although rumors are floating around about 2011. The current gossip is that each of the four parks will receive an E-Ticket for WDW’s 40th anniversary, although we don’t know what EPCOT would get. Suggestions have included the enlarged Canadian Rockies that WDI allegedly wants to build with a raft ride in World Showcase; this addition to the Canadian showcase would serve to block the large Soarin’ barn from intruding into Showcase sightlines. Obviously WDI is going to have to come up with something to fill the now-empty Wonders of Life pavilion, and rumors have circulated since John Lasseter came to Imagineering that a complete re-do of the Imagination pavilion was in the cards. But these are all the stuff of complete rumor, and nothing is remotely solid on this yet.

The only thing we do know is that Spaceship Earth’s re-opening has been pushed back until February 18th. Details on the scope of the ride’s overhaul remain sketchy.

Disney-MGM Studios

Yeah Disney, I ain’t calling it “Disney’s Hollywood Studios” until you make me.

Having not received any updates of note in recent years, D-MGM is coming due for an overhaul. As I wrote about previously, and reported by the Orlando Sentinel the park is being renamed “Disney’s Hollywood Studios” in January and WDI is allegedly working on a slate of improvements to the park to unify its theme and ‘plus’ the park a la their announced rebuilding of California Adventure. While no details of these rumored improvements have surfaced, the park’s new wave of attraction begins when Toy Story Mania! opens next year (along with other much less interesting things). Blue Sky Disney reports that if these changes do go through, 2008 will be a transition year for the park while 2009 will be a “kicker” with improvements to both decor and attractions.

From the land of less exciting things, Screamscape has been reporting on plans to fill the empty ABC Theater (formerly SuperStar Television) with a new interactive show based on American Idol. As building permits have been filed showing that work is in fact being done on the facility itself, Screamscape and LaughingPlace have reported that Disney is in talks to actually license the American Idol name for the show. We’ll have news on this eventually, I’m sure, which will be heralded by the audible gnashing of my teeth.

Animal Kingdom

Much like EPCOT, Animal Kingdom is coming off of a building spree (Everest, Nemo) and it’s “Phase II” is now complete. While there’s obviously a lot to do to make this a legitimate and complete theme park, it looks like Disney is going to try and capitalize on the newfound popularity of the park due to Expedition Everest and parlay that into longer operating hours. DAK has traditionally operated very short days, usually closing at or before nightfall. Every hour that the park stays open later means lots of cash for Disney, so now that they actually have rides (well, a few) and a restaurant (Yak and Yeti - now open!) at DAK they’re going to try and keep it open later.

Jim Hill Media has reported that an after-dark parade called “Rivers of Light” is in development. Contrary to its aquatic name, the parade is a traditional land-based affair with character-laden boat floats (not flote boats) circling around the Tree of Life and Discovery Island (not *that* Discovery Island).

As to any real new attractions for the park, if the cycle of attendance and later hours and filthy lucre continue, then we might see Phase III coming down the pike sometime soon - maybe they’ll realize if they finally build “Beastly Kingdom” then we’ll shut up and leave them alone…

A few weeks ago the folks at Disney HQ announced something that the net nabobs had been expecting for a long time - a name change for the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park in Orlando. These rumors go way, way back - litigation over the name began even before the park opened and extended well into the 1990’s. MGM management at the time realized that their predecessors had been totally chumped by Disney when they brokered the sweetheart deal over licensing rights, and have been trying to increase their take ever since.

So, for years we’ve been treated to a constant stream of rumors. “This is the year the contract is over… look for the name to change.” “Next year the contract with MGM is running out - it’s going to be Disney Studios then.” The park has been referred to as “Disney Studios” on WDW promotional videos for years, and the name change was always rumored to be right around the corner.

Things heated up again with the Disney - Pixar merger. The rumor mill started cranking with tales of the impending announcement of “Disney-Pixar Studios Theme Park”. Counter-rumors circulated that a thawing relationship with George Lucas after the departure of Michael Eisner would lead to an increased Lucasfilm presence in the park, and out of respect for that “Pixar” would be dropped from the name or “Lucas” added in some way. People photoshopped park logos with Mickey and their favorite Pixar character; various rumor sites contradicted each other but they mostly all agreed that the jury was still out at WDI on what to do with the park.

So, finally we get the announcement that WDW fans have been waiting for for at least a decade, and it’s something that no one had expected: in January 2008, the park will become “Disney’s Hollywood Studios”. No one really expected this name, and the web immediately began circulating with stories that it wasn’t necessarily a permanent name, and that it would change sometime in the near future once certain improvements were made to the park. But for now “Hollywood Studios” it is.

What does this all mean, really? Well, in the words of Walt Disney World president Meg Crofton, “as a park all about entertainment, Disney’s Hollywood Studios will deliver like never before. Now we can say that Hollywood is literally our middle name.” Now aside from the fact that someone in PR actually got paid to write that press release, this big name change is worth just about as much as the handful of crumpled paper in the dustbin beside my desk. Namely, very little. The Studios theme park is a mess; a disaster of both theme and execution, and is in more desperate need of immediate and massive overhaul than I think WDC realizes. Slapping a new name on the marquee won’t change that; if this park is really going to catch up to its Florida siblings, the folks in Burbank are going to have to get serious about commiting to change.

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