On July 17, 1955, the world looked on in wonder as Walt Disney addressed the nation live from the opening of Disneyland. Walt’s keen understanding of media had seen him leverage the still-new art of television to provide glimpses into the park throughout its construction, but on that day, everything changed. With one opportunity to make a first impression – and to introduce the entire country to his finished park – Walt stood before the cameras and recited his dedication for Disneyland: “To all who come to this happy place: welcome…”
In that tradition, every Disney Park since has been opened with a dedication – a ceremonial speech that poetically captures everything from the park’s identity to its ideals; what it is and what it aspires to be and mean. It’s appropriate that each park’s dedication is typically engraved in bronze at or near the park’s entrance, because they really are time capsules – plans delivered for each park at the moment of its opening. And as we know, sometimes a park’s identity changes. Today, we’ll compare each U.S. Disney Park’s current state to the dedication presented at its opening and “grade” how well each is doing at living up to its Opening Day hopes… Do you agree with our grades? Let us know in the comments below!
Disneyland Park (1955)
DEDICATION: To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated to the ideals, the dreams, and the hard facts that have created America, with the hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.
OUR THOUGHTS: The first line of Disneyland’s dedication is among the most well-known quotes from Walt Disney’s lifetime: a simple and succinct invitation for visitors to his little “magic kingdom” where “parents and their children could have fun together.” That lovely ease and simplicity is Disneyland’s backbone. But is it still a place where “age relives fond memories of the past” and where youth “may savor the challenge and promise of the future”?
When Disneyland was dedicated in 1955, its Main Street represented a world fifty years gone, but one fondly remembered and idealized by members of Walt’s generation. Today, no one is alive who would remember Main Street’s turn-of-the-century setting. (If a Main Street were built today with the same “throwback” time gap, it would be set in the 1970s.) Likewise, few would argue that Tomorrowland offers any chance for young people to “savor the challenge and promise of the future” unless Space Rangers, Finding Nemo, and a galaxy “long, long ago” offer a glimpse into tomorrow. Even Walt’s quasi-educational Adventureland and Frontierland with their “hard facts that have created America” just really aren’t for that anymore.
But if Disneyland’s purpose is to be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world, it succeeds. The park is a charming little time capsule of mid-century optimism, which has gradually gained pop culture embellishments and enhancements and redesigns over 65+ years, but its many parts all feel like one cohesive whole. The spirit of Walt’s dedication is still alive and well even if the finer points have evolved.
GRADE: A–
Magic Kingdom (1971)
DEDICATION: Walt Disney World is a tribute to the philosophy and life of Walter Elias Disney… and to the talents, the dedication, and the loyalty of the entire Disney organization that made Walt Disney’s dream come true. May Walt Disney World bring Joy and Inspiration and New Knowledge to all who come to this happy place … a Magic Kingdom where the young at heart of all ages can laugh and play and learn together.
OUR THOUGHTS: The dedication delivered at Magic Kingdom’s opening really represents the debut of the much larger Walt Disney World project, but it’s worth looking at Roy Disney’s words to see how they hold up fifty years later anyway.
Though he’d passed away nearly five years before it debuted, the “Florida Project” really was a tribute to Walt’s life and legacy – hence Roy’s insistance that the property would be called Walt Disney World, forever cementing his brother’s name. It’s hard to judge the Walt Disney World of 2021 on how well it stands as a tribute to “the philosophy and life” of Walt, because frankly, it’s pretty hard to imagine what Walt would be excited about in 2021. (Before his death, he’d largely “graduated” from theme parks to bigger ideas about urban design, corporate partnership, and progress.)
Does Walt Disney World bring Joy, Inspiration, and New Knowledge to visitors? We’d say, yes, yes, and… kinda. But as to the specific dedication for Magic Kingdom – that it be a “happy place” where “the young at heart of all ages can laugh and play and learn together”? Tick. As an excellent “operationalization” of the Disneyland model, Magic Kingdom adds efficiency and capacity to the “Castle Park” formula while maintaining that intergenerational delight that’s made it a global destination for half a century.
GRADE: A
EPCOT (1982)
DEDICATION: To all who come to this place of joy, hope and friendship, welcome. Epcot is inspired by Walt Disney’s creative vision. Here, human achievements are celebrated through imagination, wonders of enterprise and concepts of a future that promises new and exciting benefits for all. May EPCOT Center entertain, inform and inspire and above all, may it instill a new sense of belief and pride in man’s ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere.
OUR THOUGHTS: As most Disney Parks fans are well aware, E.P.C.O.T. was Walt’s dream project: a legitimate, from-scratch, city-of-the-future whose corporate sponsorship, prototype transportation systems, and master-planned efficiency were meant to be a blueprint for global cities to emulate; literally, a completely new model for urban design that would change American life forever. To that end, it’s a bit of a stretch to say that EPCOT Center – much less the Epcot we know today – was “inspired by Walt Disney’s creative vision.”
But by mixing Walt’s optimistic futurism with an operable theme park model the company had never tried before – a “permanent World’s Fair” with embedded corporate sponsorships – EPCOT Center did offer a glimpse into the “wonders of enterprise and concepts of a future that promise new and exciting benefits for all.” Its World Showcase and Future World realms were two halves of the story of humanity: who we are, and what we can be. Lofty, ambitious, intellectual, and expensive, the park got so much right. Disney Legend Tony Baxter concisely said that if Magic Kingdom makes magic real, then EPCOT made reality magical. Just ask its first guests, who still remember it as not just informative, but transformative. As a dozen EPCOT Center Lost Legends will tell you, that was a long, long time ago.
Glimmers of the park’s ability to convince you that humans can “shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere” can still be spotted if you know where to look, but requisite character invasions, piecemeal design solutions, and patchwork identities keep today’s Epcot mired in a murkey mess. A much-needed, all-at-once stylistic upgrade to the park’s northern half if meant to at least reunite the pavilions aesthetically. (As to whether that’ll suddenly make Finding Nemo, Guardians of the Galaxy, Mission: SPACE, Test Track, Soarin’, and mirror dimension Figment “gel” into a cohesive whole… Well…) Our guess is that when that multi-year, multi-step redesign is complete, it’ll come with a “Grand Reopening” and – more than likely – a new dedication.
GRADE: C–
Now on to Disney’s more recent parks… Read on…
Disney’s Hollywood Studios (1989)
DEDICATION: The World you have entered was created by The Walt Disney Company and is dedicated to Hollywood—not a place on a map, but a state of mind that exists wherever people dream and wonder and imagine, a place where illusion and reality are fused by technological magic. We welcome you to a Hollywood that never was—and always will be.
OUR THOUGHTS: Like EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is pretty famously embroiled in a bit of an identity crisis. When it opened, the park was really split into two distinct halves: a real, working movie studio “where illusion and reality are fused by technological magic,” and Hollywood Blvd., bringing to life an idealized, dreamy, forever-young vision of “a Hollywood that never was,” but remains forever cemented in pop culture. The problem is, the former failed pretty quickly when movie production never came to Orlando.
Disney’s piecemeal solution was to pack the park with three decades of one-off E-Tickets and patchwork expansions, culminating in two blockbuster lands built in 2018 and 2019. The result is a park with two “immersive IP lands” (Toy Story Land and Galaxy’s Edge), two “idealized, historic Hollywood” lands (Hollywood and Sunset Blvd.), weird, mix-and-match IP vestiges of “studio” backlots (Animation Courtyard, Pixar Place, and Echo Lake), and the completely awkward Grand Ave., that’s half modern-Los-Angeles and half Muppets-take-Manhattan.
Obviously, Galaxy’s Edge is meant to point the way forward for the park (which, to be honest, probably should just retroactively cobble together an Islands-of-Adventure style layout made of Hollywood Blvd., Sunset Blvd., Cars Land, Toy Story Land, Galaxy’s Edge, Muppet Studios, and an Indiana Jones-themed Lost River Delta). Whether that evolution continues or not is anyone’s guess, but we do know that the park described in that dedication is long, long gone. That said, Disney survey-tested a number of potential new names for the park in the 2010s, and none stuck – after all, we can all agree that it’s not a “studio” anymore… but then, what is it? Until Disney decides, the Studios name and its out-of-sync dedication are likely to remain.
GRADE: D+
Disney’s Animal Kingdom (1998)
DEDICATION: Welcome to a kingdom of animals… real, ancient, and imagined: a kingdom ruled by lions, dinosaurs, and dragons; a kingdom of balance, harmony, and survival; a kingdom we enter to share in the wonder, gaze at the beauty, thrill at the drama, and learn.
OUR THOUGHTS: Outside of Disneyland’s, Animal Kingdom’s dedication may be the most-quoted of all Disney Parks’. That’s because of the curious inclusion of animals that couldn’t be found in the park when it opened: namely, “imagined” animals, like “dragons.” Of course, they were reportedly remnants of a never-built Possibilityland: Beastly Kingdom that once was planned for the park. In any case, “imagined” animals finally joined the park’s lineup with the Modern Marvel: Expedition Everest, and “dragons” even arose on the former Beastly Kingdom plot if you count Pandora’s flying Banshees.
More to the point, it’s easy to look across Animal Kingdom’s relatively brief dedication and see a park that’s remained strongly committed to its opening day promise. The park’s lead designer – former Imagineer Joe Rohde – often discussed the park’s themes, like “the value of nature as supreme and untradeable,” and the intentionality behind every square foot of the park. That incredibly strong foundation of design still serves the park, and still empowers guests to explore concepts like balance, harmony, and survival.
Like its sister parks, Animal Kingdom’s dedication also calls on it to be a place where people “learn,” and almost certainly it’s the most successful in that endeavor for many guests. While the quantity and quality of learning at Disney’s Animal Kingdom depends entirely on a guest’s choices, there’s an inherent awe and respect for the natural world that can often be nurtured only by being within it. And in that, Animal Kingdom succeeds.
That sincerity, commitment, and depth is also why many Imagineering fans (and many Imagineers, too) bristle at the idea of, say, a Zootopia land that stands so outside of the park’s themes and its dedication…
GRADE: A+
Disney California Adventure (2001)
Disney California Adventure is notable among Disney Parks in that it’s the first (and to date, only) to have two official Dedications (and likewise, two opening dates.) Originally opened in February 2001 as the first of then-CEO Michael Eisner’s infamous trifecta of underbuilt, underfunded, and creatively divergent parks, Disney’s comical ode to the modern Golden State was dedicated:
2001 DEDICATION: To all who believe in the power of dreams, welcome. Disney’s California Adventure opens its golden gates to you. Here we pay tribute to the dreamers of the past: the native people, explorers, immigrants, aviators, entrepreneurs, and entertainers who built the Golden State. And we salute a new generation of dreamers who are creating the wonders of tomorrow, from the silver screen to the computer screen, from the fertile farmlands to the far reaches of space. Disney’s California Adventure celebrates the richness and the diversity of California… its land, its people, its spirit, and, above all, the dreams that it continues to inspire.
The park meant to propel Disneyland into a multi-day, international destination turned out to be “too much California, not enough Disney.” While the park’s designers boasted of its “irreverent” style and its “MTV attitude,” visitors just plain old disliked the park’s lack of Disney-style romanticism. The park surely did “pay tribute” to the history and industry of California in its cuisine, walkthroughs, miniature farm, and the Golden Dreams educational film. But outside a few reverent corners, much of the park read as a “spoof” of California, playing up its surfer culture tropes, celebrity infatuation, and its modern music… and without the kind of dark rides, characters, and environments people expect from Disney.
In fact, we told the in-depth story of Disney’s Californian “Misadventure” in a two-part, in-depth epic – one of the most-read stories on Theme Park Tourist. Suffice it to say that in 2007, new-CEO Bob Iger launched a five year, $1.2 billion redesign that not only added new rides and lands to the park, but rewrote its flawed, foundational “spoof” spirit.
After a single, symbolic day of complete closure, Disney California Adventure held a Grand Reopening on June 15, 2012, with a whole new dedication.
2012 DEDICATION: To all who come to this place of dreams, welcome. Disney California Adventure celebrates the spirit of optimism and the promise of endless opportunities, ignited by the imagination of daring dreamers such as Walt Disney and those like him who forever changed – and were forever changed by – The Golden State. This unique place embraces the richness and diversity of California… Its land, its people, its stories, and, above all, the dreamers it continues to inspire.
The 2012 Reopening and its poetic dedication certainly signaled the park’s new direction, which really did beautifully highlight “the spirit of optimism and the promise of endless opportunity” in the park’s lands: a buzzing 1920s Buena Vista Street; a historic Hollywoodland; the newly-timeless Grizzly Peak; a turn-of-the-century Paradise Pier filled with “immigrant-run” food stands and Victorian entertainment… all populated by Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, World of Color, the Red Car Trolley, Toy Story Midway Mania, and of course, Cars Land. The park that had been “too much California, not enough Disney” had arguably found a pretty nice balance between Californian environments and Disney / Pixar stories.
Ten more years of development have maybe seen that pendulum swing too far, leading to a park that’s unexpectedly become “too much Disney, not enough California”! Don’t misunderstand – Cars Land, Avengers Campus, and even the embarassingly anachronistic Pixar Pier help contribute to California Adventure being a very good park, with far more rides than any of Walt Disney World’s “non-Castle” parks, and themed environments that would feel right at home at Tokyo DisneySea. But does the park really embrace “the richness and diversity” of California’s “people, stories, and dreamers”? Unless those people are Mike & Sully, Elsa & Anna, Woody & Buzz, Spider-Man, Ariel, and Lightning McQueen dreaming of a vacation to the Golden State… not really.
GRADE: C
