The views and opinions expressed in this editorial are mine alone, and are in no way representative of those of Theme Park Tourist or its entire staff. As a frequent contributor here, I hope you’ve taken a look at the Legend Library I’m contributing to. In each entry, we look back at the in-depth stories behind famous (and infamous) attractions. We dissect them to discover what makes an attraction a classic, what role Imagineers play in shaping the parks, and what tough decisions go into keeping a ride relevant. I hope you’ve come to respect my stories, efforts, and opinions through those features, and I hope today we can use the expertise we’ve gained together. Do me a favor: give me the benefit now of listening to what I have to say.
I think I’m done with Disneyland.
Before you go telling me “Good! Shorter lines for me!,” give me a chance to explain.
And before you begin thinking this is a gut reaction – shocked by the announcement Disney just made – that I’ll regret, let me be clear: I’m not acting emotionally.
I’m not blindsided. I don’t feel irrational. I’m not in grief. I’m not just reeling from yet another blow. I’m not directed by the preception that those damnedable executives have yet again chosen the ‘wrong’ path in my enthusiast-centric mind.
Image: Disney
Every time Disney closes a ride, makes a seemingly out-of-touch decision, ruins a classic, or raises prices, fans leap to their feet with vitriol and rage, followed closely by fuming promises that Disney will never get another penny of their money, and that they’ll never visit Disney Parks again! I’ve criticized my peers for blind, angry, passionate assertions like that – righteous (but weightless) anger that quickly cools. So this isn’t that.
While all of the above emotions would be justified, they’re not the case. I’m not angry. I’m just… deflated.
Let me be clear: it has always occurred to me that the Disneyland I love – the park I grew up with and celebrated and adored – is detested by some. As hard as it has been for me to imagine, I realize that this version of Disneyland – my Disneyland – is an affront to those who grew up there in the 1970s. Many of them were shocked and dismayed at the inclusion of Star Wars or Indiana Jones, and they no doubt weep for the lost classics of that era – rides that I never knew (Adventure Thru Inner Space, Mine Train Thru Nature’s Wonderland, and more) and thus never missed. I know that for some of those fans, the changes simply overtook the Disneyland they knew – their Disneyland.
Image: Disney
But what those 1970s fans didn’t realize is that an entire generation of Disney Parks fans had already moved on. There were no doubt those who cherished Disneyland in its earliest days – the ’50s and ’60s – and politely moved on when the elements of the early years (the things that made their Disneyland different) gave way to the Big Thunder Mountains and Space Mountains of the ’70s.
Put simply: everyone adores the Disneyland they grew up with – their Disneyland – draped and drenched in nostalgia and viewed through the rose-colored, idealized lens of childhood wonder heaped on top of the romance that’s already baked-in. Each generation cements their Disneyland carefully, detail-by-detail, ride-by-ride, in their minds. It’s natural. They imagine that the way they experienced things is the right way to experience them.
Image: Disney
But Disneyland doesn’t stay the same, and as the Disney Parks Blog frequently and frustratingly remind us in their most apologetic announcements, it was never supposed to! It changes, and at each and every stage of Disneyland’s growth, fans have dropped away; personally hurt by the way the park has progressed. Any two snapshots a decade apart will show that Disneyland changes drastically, and as quickly as people grow, so does the park. Before long, Disneyland isn’t their park anymore.
And in my back of my mind remained the creeping thought: someday, the things I love and cherish in Disneyland will be gone, too. I’ll have to watch as my favorite attractions age and fall to the whims of time and progress and finances and synergy and leadership changes and tastes and technologies. I consciously and regrettably realized that eventually and unavoidably, there would come a day that Disneyland wouldn’t look the way I knew and loved it… a day when Disneyland wouldn’t be my park anymore.
Today, the essence of that becomes real to me.
And yes, the permanent closure of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney California Adventure is the reason. But don’t roll your eyes quite yet.
My Disneyland
It didn’t start today. I mean, I grew up in the 1990s, so the Disneyland I see today isn’t too far off from what I grew up with (with respect to those who cherished the park in earlier eras, for whom it must look absolutely unrecognizable today). While my time with Disneyland is short, I’ve seen some of the creeping, crawling changes here and there. I saw the Country Bears evicted for Pooh and the Submarine Voyage drained for Nemo. I watched as New Tomorrowland swept in, decimating Walt’s Tomorrowland and the beloved Peoplemover. I saw the devastating opening of the creatively starved Disney’s California Adventure and the does-it-matter-or-doesn’t-it out-of-touch changes to New Orleans Square that lit fans ablaze.
Image: Disney / Lucasfilm
Just this January, I was forced to reschedule a trip from across the country when it was announced that this would be my last chance to see the Rivers of America, the Disneyland Railroad, Tom Sawyer Island, Fantasmic!, and more before a sweeping 14-acre expansion created a Star Wars land, inexplicably set against the otherwise literary themed lands of Walt Disney’s park. And I admit that a Star Wars land inside Disneyland Park rubs me the wrong way despite my logical understanding that most guests simply don’t mind. But c’mon. Save it for a third park, right?
But see, that’s not all!
The same trip would also have to serve as a final farewell to the beloved fan-favorite Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular, closing a decade-long run at Disney California Adventure for (you guessed it) Frozen, despite tremendous outcry. It didn’t matter. It didn’t make a difference that overwhelmingly, the Disney Parks Blog was overrun with comments repulsed at the change and that fans reared back in disgust. What would Walt do? What would Walt do? No matter. Business is business. And one thing I’ve never ever faulted the Walt Disney Company for is being a business. I haven’t let my personal appreciation for the founder or the company’s would-be image of a mom-and-pop-shop enterprise mislead me. I get it.
Sometimes when you care deeply about something, impersonal things can hit personally. But this is the last straw… Read on…
Creativity
While you and I have probably rolled our eyes at at least some of Disney’s decisions, we can also go on and on about their brilliance and creativity and they’ve built stunning attractions, inconcievable themed lands, and ambitious, groundbreaking parks in the same time span.
Image: Disney
We all watched in awe as Disney did something unprecedented: admitted defeat and committed $1.5 billion toward Disney’s California Adventure, which had been foundationally flawed in its execution. We chronicled the in-depth story of Disney’s California Adventure in its own feature, but you know the refrain: a creatively starved park that set out to spoof modern California and played Top 40 hits made very few fans. Disney’s unimaginable effort righted a sinking ship by tearing each of California Adventure’s modern-themed lands to the rivets, rebuilding them in the style of Disneyland Park’s: storied, reverent, idealized, historic lands. Rather than taking an irrevent and joking tone toward modern California, the new California Adventure transported guests to romantic periods of California’s great and celebrated history.
Paradise Pier, originally a modern seaside carnival of circus-freak posters, neon lights, and stucco walls was reimagined as a turn-of-the-century Victorian boardwalk of strung popcorn lights, calliope music, a beautiful seaside aquarium, pie-eyed Disney characters, and all the architectural charm you’d expect – a gorgeous Californian dream that’s part history, part storybook.
Grizzly Peak went from a rundown wilderness logging operation overtaken by an extreme sports company to a storied 1950s National Park ripe with opportunities for exploration, with the ole’ Packard parked outside and wonderful adventures waiting within a thriving, historic park that perfectly encapsulated the romantic era of Northern Californian wilderness.
The Red Car Trolley route, connecting two themed lands in two eras with one overarching story. Image: Disney
Buena Vista Street was built from scratch as the park’s new entry land, recreating an idealized version of the Los Angeles Walt must’ve encountered when he arrived in the 1920s – newsies, jazz, elegant department stores, and the towering, iconic Carthay Circle Theater created in California Adventure one of the strongest and most beautiul opening acts of any Disney Park! Guests today can board the electric Red Car Trolley as it glides down the 1920s boulevard, where it passes before the Carthay and down the street into another themed land.
Hollywood Land would born from the ashes of the tired, modern Hollywood Pictures Backlot, downplaying the former’s “behind the scenes” look at flat facades and instead working to craft a picture of 1930s and ’40s Hollywood – “a bustling young town at the height of its Golden Age.” Indeed, there’s some integral element of design at play here that guests can take the Red Car Trolley from Carthay Circle to the Hollywood Tower Hotel, the reigning pueblo-deco tower looming over Hollywood Land.
Image: Disney
“Back” in the 1920s Buena Vista Street’s Fiddler, Fifer, and Practical Cafe, you’ll see posters hanging on the walls advertising jazz shows occuring at the Hotel’s Tip Top Club. But board the Red Car Trolley and get off at the Hollywood Tower Hotel stop and you’ll notice that in the 20 years between Buena Vista Street and Hollywood Land, things have changed. The Hollywood Tower Hotel is overgrown and crumbling – a faded star, and a dimmed beacon of Hollywood. How? Well c’mon now, you know that the only way to find out what tarnished this golden hotel’s history is to step inside and board The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.
But that’s neither here nor there, really. In uniting Buena Vista Street and Hollywood Land (and indeed, all of California Adventure) in this new, storied, compelling, cohesive frame of telling California’s celebrated stories, Disney finally got it right. It took a billion dollars, but California Adventure was finally free from the irreverent humor, modern references, 20th century soundtrack, and cheesy visuals that had made the park appear so two-dimensional compared to Disneyland Park.
Shattered
That’s what made it sound so absolutely outrageous when, a few months ago, fan sites started circulating a rumor that the Guardians of the Galaxy – Marvel’s 2014 hit film – would take up residence in the Hollywood Tower Hotel. A futuristic sci-fi superhero movie in a 1920s art-deco hotel standing prominently in a 1940s Hollywood? Unimaginable, right? And I counted myself among those who insisted that this rumor must have been invented by a wayward fan just to see how feverishly the absolutely-preposterous story would spread… That it would be a learning moment for us all to realize just how gullible we could be to imagine that this might actually be considered.
Sure, the original, directionless, rudderless California Adventure might’ve attempted this; throw everything at the wall until something sticks. And it wouldn’t have burnt fans, because that park had nothing to lose. It could’ve become a Hollywood Studios catch-all where any intellectual property could simply take up residence in a tan showbuilding, explained away. But that’s NOT what happened. California Adventure was fixed! Its foundational problem was solved! It was saved! Disney would never just toss a Marvel ride into the park, much less one that would force the closure of a guest favorite!
But it’s official.
Less than a year from today, the fabulous, breathtaking, gorgeous hotel visible from the Esplanade, reigning over a park so tailor-made for it, the Hollywood Tower Hotel will be no more. In its place will stand a futuristic-industrial sci-fi tower of metal rivets and spires and glowing emblems, ostensibly themed to The Collector from Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. You don’t have to squint hard to notice that this is, indeed, simply the Hollywood Tower Hotel, its gorgeous art-deco towers, angular port cochere, and even those stunning doned towers, now painted silver and affixed with pipes.
This will now be the icon looming over Hollywood Land and Disney California Adventure. From Main Street Station at Disneyland, you’ll see this – the vague shape of a historic hotel now covered in pipes and satellites. Even Joe Rohde could do little more than describe it as “a kind of warehouse / fortress / power plant.” This new sci-fi warehouse tower will be visible from each of the park’s themed lands, looming in the distance behind Pacific Wharf, Paradise Pier, Grizzly Peak…
Image: Disney / Marvel
If the concept sounded like a bad April Fools Day joke, the artwork seemed equally implausible, like something cooked up for a fan site’s April 1st “update” just to earn chuckles from fans at how Disney’s almost out-of-touch enough to actually consider it! And if the concept and artwork seem like the stuff of late night Disney Twitter ramblings, wait until you hear the name…
Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! will star the “outrageous and irreverent gang” of anti-heroes assembled in the hit Marvel film on a “comically high-energy adventure.” This new laugh-out-loud superhero thrill ride will indeed be a sight to behold, and since Joe Rohde (creative lead of Disney’s Animal Kingdom) has been singularly handed the keys to Disney’s integration of Marvel into the parks, we can be sure that it’ll be a really delightful attraction with some surprising effects and great details.
And don’t misunderstand. Despite the massive push fans have leveled against this change (a bigger and more vocal uprising that usual, actually), the ride will have multi-hour waits and play to delighted audiences when it opens. No doubt. The guests who enjoy it won’t at all be wrong or stupid for doing so. My taste isn’t “better” than theirs at all, and I have no doubt Mission: BREAKOUT! will be a great ride.
I just won’t know firsthand.
I think that for a while, I’m done with Disneyland.
And it’s not because I don’t like Marvel (I’m a huge Marvel fan!) or that I don’t like Guardians of the Galaxy (I loved it!) or that I don’t trust Joe Rhode and Disney’s Imagineers to create an absolutely wonderful ride experience (I really do!). It’s just that, looking across the skyline of Disney California Adventure and seeing this 160-foot tall spaceship that’s vaguely-hotel shaped with obvious relics of that beautiful hotel attached, I’ll sigh. That’s not my Disneyland.
A Different Disney
Let’s call Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! a last straw for me. I know that the ride will be a blast and a fan favorite (though the five month window in which Disney hopes to make this transition frightens me, especially given that the equally-despised-but-far-less-consequential changeover from Epcot’s Maelstrom to Frozen Ever After took four times as long).
But the ride doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It fundamentally uproots the delicate California story that $1 billion was just spent weaving while simultaneously forcing the closure of one of California Adventure’s starring rides, an integral piece of the new park’s story, and – quite simply – a very good attraction.
But it’s all part of the new modus operandi at Disney. I think it started when Disney saw that Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter was going to change things. Most fans agree that Disney made a mistake when – in a mad rush to emulate Universal’s success – they quickly gobbled up the biggest franchise they could find. At the time, that was James Cameron’s Avatar. And ever since, it seems that Disney has been chasing Universal and resorting to Universal’s tactics: cannibalizing classics to shove short-sighted flavor-of-the-week intellectual properties into the parks.
That’s a shame, because Marvel could and should be a tremendous positive influence on the parks, and now its legacy – and the Guardians’ – will be tied to this.
Image: Disney / Marvel
To be clear, this is NOT out of the blue. Aside from the rumors and rumblings that so many considered a red herring, it has been clear in fan circles for a while now that Marvel would come to Disneyland in a big way. It’s true that, if you ask insiders, the space behind Tower of Terror – the park’s most logical expansion site – has been earmarked for a Marvel land for a long time. Rumors always suggested that this new Marvel land would be anchored by a Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster reboot angled around the Avengers or the Guardians of the Galaxy, with another D-ticket or C-ticket to create a respectable standalone Marvel presence in the parks.
Sounds great! And maybe that’s why when these rumors started to emerge about Tower of Terror, it seems plausible (though still silly) that the Guardians would take up residence there as a quick seasonal overlay – a taste of what Marvel would be like, sort of like Hyperspace Mountain whetting our appetites for Star Wars Land in an inconsequential, temporary way.
But this is different. Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is closing forever. Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! is taking its place. Sure it’ll use the same ride system, but this is an entirely new ride. As if the Pirates of the Caribbean were kicked out, with Frozen animatronics and scenes set along the waterways. It’s a new attraction. And like Tower of Terror, it’s timeless and will still be a hit fifty years from now, right? Err…?
Why It Matters
Image: Disney
The unfortunate and troubling refrain from those who support this change is that Disneyland’s Tower of Terror has never been a hit anyway. Their arguments are first that the California Tower is technologically inferior to Florida’s original (infamously built with a more budget-friendly ride system compared to Florida’s, which ran tens of millions of dollars overbudget) and second, that California’s Tower never has lines as long as Florida’s (though this is due in large part to crowd dispersion, since California Adventure has a dozen E-Tickets and Hollywood Studios has three.)
Neither argument works. Why? Because frankly, despite what and how enthusiasts like you and I think, most guests to Disneyland will never go to Walt Disney World. Many probably don’t even know (and certainly don’t care) that other Towers of Terror exist in Florida, France, and Japan.
It’s of no consequence at all to most Disneyland guests that a beloved ride is closing but will still exist in a different – even better – form a thousand miles away. Imagine, for example, if Magic Kingdom announced that its Pirates of the Caribbean would close. Would it soothe Disney World guests’ anger to be told, “Well, don’t be upset. There’ll still be a Pirates of the Caribbean at Disneyland, and it’s better there anyway.” Of course not! The notion is just silly.
Image: Disney
Coming to Terms
Just a few years after bringing Disney California Adventure to life with a storied, distinctly-Californian narrative, this. And I concede. In a million years, I would never have imagined that the ridiculous, unimaginable rumors would be true. Disney would never be so foolish as to spoil what they worked so hard to build in the new California Adventure! They would never physically alter a Californian icon at the California park to resemble a spaceship looming over Hollywood! And yet… Here we are.
And the worst part of it all is that we’ve seen this with Maelstrom, and Frozen: Live at the Hyperion. We’ve begged and pleaded and commented and Tweeted and tried to make someone – anyone! – understand that these decisions are shortsighted and guided by the wrong principles. And it doesn’t matter. Nothing we say or do can change this now. It’s happening. Why fuss? Why fight? Why rally? Why call Disney? Why try? Why care? Less than a year from now, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror will be gone, and Disney California Adventure will have a new headlining attraction in Hollywood Land: Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
But that’s not my Disneyland.
I expected better, and I don’t apologize for feeling that way. Why isn’t California Adventure home to Discovery Bay, the never-built steampunk San Francisco originally planned for Disneyland in 1970s that even today, 50 years later, still feels relevant and right? Why isn’t Marvel getting its own separate land parked elsewhere in California Adventure, or saved for a much-needed third gate where it could be built to its fullest potential? Why isn’t Mystic Manor being built in Grizzly Peak instead?
Or, why isn’t Marvel moving into the tired and desolate Tomorrowland at Disneyland next door, which is creatively starved and rudderless in the same way California Adventure used to be? Tomorrowland needs an identity, and Marvel could be a piece of it. Instead, that land will continue to languish and wither while superheroes move into Hollywood.
It’s unacceptable.
Image: Disney
But it doesn’t matter. We can’t stop it. And that’s why I said I don’t feel angry or surprised or hurt. I just feel defeated. We can’t change it. And that is what hurts the most. The overwhelmingly negative reception to this announcement falls on deaf ears, and we lose again. And this time, Disney isn’t even allowing negative comments on the Disney Parks Blog entry announcing the change, so they’re ready to battle.
Forget being an enthusiast – the rabid fans who decry any change Disney makes as an abomination. Just as a Guest, this is a troubling decision. If we’ve learned anything in our Designing Disaster series, it’s that modern, character-infused overlays to beloved attractions can’t stand the test of time. They instantly date themselves.
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios will still be an emotionally gripping, captivating, eerie, and relevant ride in fifty years. But in 2066, will your grandchildren know who the Guardians of the Galaxy from 2014 are?
Thinking…
Image: Disney
The careful cohesion that Imagineers crafted with the new Disney California Adventure was evidence that Disney designers can still knock it out of the park. The new California Adventure was alive and energetic and thoughtful and brilliant. Like it or not, Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! is coming, and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is disappearing forever from the careful narration of that new park. I intend to follow it.
I know plenty of people here and on Facebook will let me have it and say, “Good, don’t come! Shorter lines for me!” (probably without having read what I’ve written here, to be honest), and that’s fair. The lines will indeed be at least one person shorter. You can count on that.
I know many of my Southern Californian friends want to be mad at Disney and to never return, but they just… can’t. After every tone-deaf attraction closure; every out-of-touch overlay; every time Guests overwhelmingly ask for something only to be met with silence; every time synergy wins; every time prices increase and quality falls, they say “That’s it! Never again!” They say they won’t go back, but they do. Luckily, my decision is much more simple. I live across the country from Disneyland, so a trip doesn’t happen out of habit or accident, and an Annual Pass isn’t an option. I have to choose to go to Disneyland. And for now, I’m done with Disneyland.
Image: Disney
I’ll see Disneyland again.
Long before this mess, I’d calculated with a huff that the earliest I could visit again would be at least a few years after Star Wars opens… Maybe 2022. Maybe if they can solve the overcrowding that stifles the parks. Maybe pending whatever 21st century Fastpass+ solution they come up with. Maybe if I can still afford a ticket. Maybe if any of the rides I cherished are left. Now, I’m just tired and demoralized. The parts of Disneyland I loved – my Disneyland – are disappearing little by little.
To reiterate: I’m not enraged or emotional. I’m not saying this from a heated anger that’ll subside in time. It’s not a gut reaction. I’m thinking rationally and carefully when I say: I’m just defeated. It’s not my Disneyland anymore. I knew eventually it would happen, and it has. A new generation is just discovering the park, and they’ll never know what they’re missing by not having the Hollywood Tower Hotel stand against the resort’s skyline. For them, Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! will be a classic in its own right. And that’s wonderful. I know they’ll embrace it and enjoy it and it will be part of their Disneyland.
To them, I offer these words of warning: Enjoy it while you can. It won’t be your Disneyland forever.
Image: Disney
