It’s not every day that Disney makes a billion dollar mistake.
Yet, that’s what happened when Disney’s California Adventure opened in 2001. Word quickly spread that the new second gate at the expanded Disneyland Resort wasn’t exactly a fitting companion to Walt’s original Magic Kingdom. And unfortunately for Disney executives, it wasn’t just that California Adventure lacked Disney characters and attractions for families; it wasn’t just that the park was underfunded and underbuilt, severely lacking E-Ticket draws; it wasn’t just that the park was creatively starved from the start…
California Adventure’s problems ran deeper, tied to its very core concept. And that’s where our story began in Declassified Disaster: Disney’s California Adventure – Part I – one of Theme Park Tourist’s most-read industry insider stories, walking through the park’s underbuilt original form… a great place to start if you haven’t yet. Because that’s where our tale today begins: five years and nearly a billion-and-a-half dollars later, Disney California Adventure re-emerged in 2012 with a brand new story and heart…
Image: Disney
Yet the on-going saga of Disney’s California “Misadventure” may not be over… Which is why today, we’ll extend that Declassified Disaster entry with a “Part II,” following the park’s tumultuous timeline from its 2012 re-opening to today to explore the idea that the lessons Disney learned just a decade ago may not have stuck. Is Disney re-making mistakes of the past with its recent re-direction for California Adventure? Settle in for another California mis-adventure as we step into the reborn park and examine some curious changes in the less-than-a-decade since.
From the ashes
When Disney’s California Adventure opened in February 2001, executives and designers believed that it would change everything about Disney Parks. After all, California Adventure was the final piece of the puzzle that would turn Walt’s original theme park in Anaheim into just one piece of the new Disneyland Resort – a multi-day destination for visitors the world over, just like the younger Walt Disney World in Florida. Rising on the land that had been Disneyland’s own parking lot for 45 years, California Adventure wouldn’t be a complement to that “tired, boring, old-fashioned” original – it would be the opposite.
Disneyland’s themed lands are cinematic, historic, immersive worlds born of American pop culture and passed through a lens of fantasy. Built by filmmakers, these lands felt real and habitable and historic, and yet impossible – not tied to any one place on a map. Instead, each represents a time and place “that never was, but always will be,” shaped by own our collective consciousness of what adventure, frontier, fantasy, and the future look like. And since its opening in 1955, Disneyland’s guests have been awed by the park’s power to help them “leave today and enter the worlds of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.”
Image: Disney
California Adventure’s concept was… a little different. Intentionally designed to be hip, edgy, cool, and brass, the park’s four “districts” weren’t so concerned with things like nostalgia, history, idealism, or heart. The time? Now. The place? Here! California Adventure was filled with spoofs of modern California played out on a massive scale.
And that’s where our story began. In Part I of the park’s story, we dove into the making of Disney’s California Adventure and the perils and pitfalls of Disney’s biggest mistake ever. We took a walk through this costly theme park failure in Declassified Disaster: Disney’s California Adventure – Part I, so be sure to start there to see why California Adventure was built, what guests found when they stepped inside back in its early years, and why they didn’t come back… But here’s the short version:
Whereas Disneyland’s opening act is the warm, glowing, historic, and nostalgic Main Street, U.S.A., California Adventure is a post-modern park with a postcard entry, leading guests to the stark, saturated, concrete Sunshine Plaza of corrugated steel walls, Beach Boys music, cartoon proportions, and the uninspiring brass Sun Icon that just didn’t quite look or feel like a fitting counterpart to Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Image: Disney
A land dedicated to Hollywood’s Golden Age is a no-brainer in a park themed to California, right? Who but Disney could transport guests to the heyday of Tinseltown, into the glitz and glamour of the movie capitol of the world? And while California Adventure does have a land dedicated to Hollywood, it’s Hollywood Pictures Backlot. So while it might look like you’re stepping down a modern Hollywood Blvd., don’t be fooled! You’re on a Hollywood set… of Hollywood! Get it?
Next, The Golden State is the park’s catch-all district with sub-areas dedicated to California’s “other” regions – the High Sierras, Pacific wharfs, San Franscisco, Napa Valley, the San Fernando Valley, and arid high deserts. That’s saying something considering this district contained only two rides, otherwise populated entirely by restaurants, shops, wineries, walkthrough exhibits, and a sit-in tractor listed as an attraction.
Image: Disney
Finally, Paradise Pier was a problem. Not only because it almost exclusively contained “off-the-shelf” carnival rides, completely lacked Disney characters, and accurately represented a modern boardwalk of stucco, neon signs, and circus freak posters… but also because Walt Disney specifically designed Disneyland as an alternative to the dirty, loud, brash carnival piers he visited with his daughters when they were young…! Oops…
From the dismal opening day of Disney’s California Adventure, it became clear that the new park meant to turn Disneyland into a destination might instead sink the whole resort. Early word of mouth spread, and during California Adventure’s first year – when excitement should’ve been at its highest – only 40% of those who visited Disneyland bothered to check out California Adventure, too.
Image: Disney
At once, Disney began a desperate effort to stock the underbuilt and underfunded park with more to do, adding attractions for families and thrillseekers alike, hosting special events and celebrations, and trying in vain to lure the resort’s loyal and local guests to give California Adventure another try.
Even just a few years after opening, it must’ve been clear to Disney executives (under the new leadership of CEO Bob Iger) that California Adventure was a serious problem… and worse, the park was simply broken at its foundation. The hip, edgy, modern tone meant to be the park’s calling card was instead its fundamental flaw. While those new E-Tickets added to the park might bolster it temporarily, they were Band-Aids on a broken bone. To make California Adventure’s fix stick, it needed a new start. From scratch. Something no one ever imagined.
Rebirth
In 2007, Disney executives did something they’d never done before: they admitted defeat. Waving the white flag, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that Disney California Adventure would soon undergo an unprecedented and unbeleivable transformation. The $600 million park would recieve $1.2 billion in redevelopment. Sure, in effectively tripling the park’s investment, it would recieve new rides and shows and attractions. But more importantly, it would recieve a new foundation.
Bob Iger spoke to The Wall Street Journal in 2010: “Steve Jobs is fond of talking about brand deposits and brand withdrawals. Any time you do something mediocre with your brand, that’s a withdrawal. California Adventure was a brand withdrawal.”
Over the next five years, Disney California Adventure would undergo a metamorphosis, beginning with an identity change – a new logo (above) reflecting a fresh name (via the loss of the possessive “Disney’s” in favor of the simpler “Disney,” preferred by the company in modern times). The new logo was playful, but simple; cartoonish, yet classic… a hint of what was to come.
Image: Disney
A massive reconstruction effort transformed the park between 2007 and 2012, systematically dismantling the park’s themed lands to the figurative (and in places, literal) studs, rebuilding each of the park’s districts into reverent, historic, idealized, romanticized lands – the same conceptual framework as Disneyland Park’s. For five years, California Adventure was a park of construction walls, with narrow paths from ride-to-ride. The short-term struggle was for a long-term gain.
“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.”
Those are the words spoken by Bob Iger upon the celebrated Grand Re-Opening of Disney California Adventure. After a single, symbolic day closed to the public, California Adventure’s rebirth was complete, and when the second gate at Disneyland re-opened to the public on the morning of June 15, 2012, it was quite literally transformed.
Welcome to the new Disney California Adventure – June 15, 2012. Let’s take a walk through the spectacular theme park reborn of the ashes, and let’s see if this new, one-day-old park has become a fitting complement to Disneyland.
Buena Vista Street
Image: HarshLight, Flickr (license)
Our first indication that things have changed is a grand one. The well-known “postcard” style entrance to the old California Adventure has vanished, taking with it each layer that made up that “postcard” view: the 11-foot tall letters spelling out C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A, the encompassing ceramic tile murals of California’s manmade and natural wonders, the stretched-and-skewed Golden Gate Bridge, and even the bronze and brass Sun Icon appearing to rise behind them all.
Now, the park’s entrance is marked by the soaring, streamlined teal towers of the Pan-Pacific Auditorium – the long-lost Los Angeles landmark that also serves as the entrance to Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida. These iconic towers aren’t just a fitting entrance for this Californian park; they’re a classic counterbalance to the historic Main Street Train Station they stand opposite, and evidence that the new park may finally be a complement to Disneyland.
Beyond is another complement to Walt’s park. While Disneyland features Main Street, U.S.A. (a turn-of-the-century Midwest town, idealized and perfected as if from the eyes of a child), California Adventure now features a Californian equivalent: Buena Vista Street.
Click and expand for a larger and more detailed view. Image: Disney
This is Los Angeles in the 1920s and ’30s – a bustling young metropolis of sunset-hued buildings, art deco accents, kinetic energy, elegant department stores, big band music, and the electric optimism of the age. It’s no coincidence that this is the Los Angeles Walt himself would’ve stepped into when he got off the train in 1923… in fact, by walking down Main Street to Buena Vista Street, we’re living Walt Disney’s California Adventure!
The Pacific Electric Red Car Trolley dings its way down the avenue, passing Oswald’s gas station (a celebration of the long-forgotten cartoon Walt invented before Mickey), the Elias and Company Department Store (modeled after the grand, elegant department stores of the era), Julias Katz and Sons artistic supplies shop, and the Fiddler, Fifer, and Practical Cafe (named for Disney’s Three Little Pigs, but overlaid with an in-universe story of a trio of sisters who sing and dance throughout Los Angeles and Hollywood).
Image: Disney
At the end of the street, the Sun Icon is long gone. In its place stands the gorgeous, stunning Carthay Circle Theatre. Of tremendous importance to California history, Walt’s story, and the movie industry, Los Angeles’ iconic Carthay Circle Theatre is where Walt risked it all to premier the world’s first full-length animated feature film: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Not only is the glowing recreation of this old Los Angeles movie palace a stunning piece of architecture… it’s also a worthy counterpart to Sleeping Beauty Castle – a deserving icon of the reborn park.
It’s fitting that while Disneyland features the iconic Partners statue of Walt and Mickey surveying their life’s work, California Adventure instead features a Californian equivalent: a sculpture of a young Walt and an early, pie-eyed Mickey, newly arrived in California with luggage in hand, gazing up at the Carthay Circle Theatre. The statue’s name?
Image: Disney
Storytellers.
And now, the Red Car Trolley glides around Carthay Circle and between two oriental pillars to enter the park’s next reborn land… Ready to hop aboard for a full-circle tour of the new California Adventure? Hold on tight, because while our look at its “new” lands continues on the next page, the lands that Disney Imagineers crafted during the park’s redesign just a few years ago are already on the move once more… some say, toward another derail…
Enjoy it while you can as we tour through the reborn park and then catch up on what’s happened since… Is Disney about to make its costliest mistake all over again? Read on…
Hollywood Land
As the Red Car Trolley dings its way around Carthay Circle, it aligns with a new straightaway set a decade later – welcome to Hollywood Land.
Forget the Hollywood Pictures Backlot. This new incarnation does in spirit what the land should’ve all along: it’s Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s – the Golden Age of Tinseltown, alight with stars, cars, and the glamour of the movie capitol of the world. Admittedly, the transition from a Backlot to an “authentic” Hollywood Blvd. of yesteryear is admittedly the least robust makeover in the park, relegated mostly to placemaking and re-thinking of details.
For example, the Hollywood Blvd. branching off from Carthay Circle thankfully lost the “punny” shop names that had become such reminders of the park’s “hip, edgy” origins. Back then, this Hollywood Blvd. was littered with signs advertising hair salons, plastic surgeons, and more, each a jab at the paparazzi-fueled, reality-TV inspired image of Hollywood prevalent when the park was designed. Since Hollywood Pictures Backlot was supposed to be a facade-lined boulevard of false fronts, the switch to Hollywood Land carefully enclosed and covered the land’s “cheap” origin, recasting those facades as legitimate buildings as much as possible.
Image: Disney
But as the Red Car Trolley glides down this new Hollywood Blvd. to the sounds of old jazz standards, there’s a new feeling in the air. And that air is immediately taken back out of your lungs as the Trolley rounds the corner before the Hyperion Theater and hangs a right on Sunset Blvd., with the pueblo deco, adobe-tinted Hollywood Tower Hotel looming overhead.
Naturally, this is home to California Adventure’s version of The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. While California’s ride is certianly a most cost-conscious version than the blockbuster original at Walt Disney World, it has a substantial part to play in the rebirth of this park.
After all, the ride (added in 2004 as a Band-Aid to draw guests to the still down-and-out park) has become an essential ingredient of the reborn park’s impressive world-building. The looming, crumbling remains of the hotel make more sense from the perspective of a 1940s Hollywood Land than from a Hollywood Pictures Backlot, sure. But the Tower of Terror is integrated deeply into the new, Californian narrative of the park.
That’s why, riding the Red Car Trolley, an overhead advertisement actually features the Hollywood Tower Hotel – albeit, without its main guest tower! Just a small piece of that Disney-style storytelling, that leads us to believe that, back in Buena Vista Street’s 1920s setting, the Hollywood Tower Hotel was up and running, but without the (doomed) main guest tower that must’ve been a later addition!
And how spectacular that, wrapping together the park’s first two themed lands, the Red Car Trolley is advertised as having stops on Buena Vista Street, Carthay Circle, Hollywood Blvd., and the Hollywood Tower Hotel…
Image: Disney
… Again, simply building out the apparent “world” being constructed in this park, uniting so many of its attractions into one overarching narrative.
Meanwhile, the set-back Hollywood Studios portion of the land was cleaned up of its industrial refuse, ugly “modern” placemaking, and the Declassified Disaster: Superstar Limo, and now features Muppet*Vision 3D and the pleasant family dark ride, Monsters Inc.: Mike & Sully to the Rescue. The grand Hyperion Theater (seating 2,000 in a Broadway-equipped theater!) is still playing the long-running hit Aladdin – A Musical Spectacular to full houses – a much-needed celebration of classic Disney animation in this otherwise Pixar-friendly park.
Altogether, Hollywood Land has made a miraculous leap forward, even if it’s the least impacted of all of the park’s reborn lands. So just imagine what’s waiting further on in the park… Read on…
a bug’s land
Image: Disney / Pixar
Added in 2002 – just after the park’s opening – to try to entice families in, A Bug’s Land (based on Pixar’s A Bug’s Life) had two useful goals: the first was to give a home to It’s Tough to be a Bug, the horrifying 3D film that debuted with the park and was nonsensically located in the Golden State land’s Bountiful Valley Farm area.
Second, A Bug’s Land injected a handful of family flat rides into the park: Fliks’ Flyers, Tuck and Roll’s Drive ‘Em Buggies, Francis’ Ladybug Boogie, Dot’s Puddle Park, and the favorite Heimlich’s Chew Chew Train are all attractions that young children could spend the whole afternoon on. And technically speaking, A Bug’s Land has as many rides as the entirety of Disney’s Hollywood Studios featured in 2012…
Image: Disney / Pixar
A Bug’s Land was an obvious, immediate, and appropriate response to the accusation that Disney’s California Adventure had literally nothing for kids to do. It succeeded in fulfilling that need, and put the park into the “maybe” category for many families when previously, it would’ve been an outright “no.”
For what it’s worth, the “miniature” scale of A Bug’s Land feels more successful and interesting here than in either of the Toy Story Lands in Paris, Hong Kong, or Orlando. The Bug’s Life film may not be as beloved as the Toy Story franchise, but there’s no denying that A Bug’s Land is a very fun little place for exploration.
Grizzly Peak
Image: Loren Javier, Flickr (license)
Even back in 2001, Grizzly Peak (then called Grizzly Peak Recreation Area – a sub-land within The Golden State district) was a standout. Dedicated to California’s beloved national parks, Grizzly Peak was modeled after a High Sierra national park of towering evergreens, geothermal geysers, pounding waterfalls, and magnificent natural features. The in-park resort hotel, Disney’s Grand Californian, is even in on the act, modeled after a California craftsman style lodge that any self-respecting national park would feature – a clever backdrop for the forested land.
But like so much of the rest of the “original” California Adventure, designers simply weren’t content celebrating California’s rich natural history with a nostalgic and transportational trip through an ageless national park. Instead, when the park opened in 2001, Grizzly Peak was cast differently. Set in modern day, the “National Park” infrastructure was intentionally aged and rusted. The story? This is an old, boring, dusty national park, and an extreme sports company had arrived to save us from our misery. They’d set up camp around the park, offering white water rafting excursions.
But now, in the new California Adventure, the clock has been turned back. By stepping into the expanded Grizzly Peak land, we’re traveling back in time to the heyday of the family road trip; to 1950s California, with the family station wagon parked alongside the iconic and instantly-recognizable National Parks signage.
Grizzly River Run is not an extreme sports company’s attempt to make an old, boring park fun; it’s a park activity for the family that pulled up in their station wagon ready for adventure together! With pounding waterfalls and gorgeous rockwork, it’s at least a beautiful and stunning use of the mountain, even if it’s still not Disney quality in its storytelling or effects.
Most wonderfully, a “Phase II” of California Adventure’s re-opening also saw another former-Golden-State mini-district – Condor Flats – absorbed into Grizzly Peak, as well. That makes tremendous sense, because the mini-area (containing Soarin Over California) was simply not large enough to get across the “high desert arid landing strip” theme it purportedly was built with. Instead, its desolate, dusty color palate and industrial rocket part graveyard look felt cheap.
Image: Disney
So its vast emptiness and red desert rocks were pulled down and replaced with still more evergreens and mossy boulders; its industrial flight towers and rocket engine props were replaced with a National Park fire watchtower, a classic ’50s biplane, and other period-appropriate elements. Now called Grizzly Peak Airfield, the sensational, latern-lit extension of the dense forests of Grizzly Peak National Park make this once-modern mini-land feel historic and immersive just like the lands of Disneyland Park!
Another reborn land awaits on the next page…
Paradise Pier
Image: Disney
Few fans were inspired by Paradise Pier, which – ostensibly – should’ve been the hallmark of California Adventure’s opening day districts. The problems were plentiful, as the park’s feeble attempt to recreate the state’s modern boardwalks (like the Santa Monica Pier) came across as something more “Six Flags” than Disney. An entrance of metallic modern seashell towers invoked antique California, but with a modern twist. That same comparison to Disneyland’s M.O. remains here – why would you and I pay big money to walk through a modern carnival pier of off-the-shelf rides?
Aspects of Paradise Pier did seem to recall classic California amusement parks, like the California Screamin’ roller coaster acting as the land’s backdrop (disguised as a wooden ride, but actually a state-of-the-art looping steel coaster with a launch), the Golden Zephyr (a classic bayside amusement) or the vintage, ’70s-inspired brass face on the Sun Wheel.
Image: Disney
But other elements made it clear that – you guessed it – the time is now! Just take a look at the air-powered Maliboomer launch tower (nearly identical to a ride just a few miles away at Knott’s Berry Farm), the classic yo-yo swings oddly placed into a neon, post-modern orange peel as if they were a roadside attraction, and the Mulholland Madness “wild mouse” steel coaster, zipping and zooming through its own steel lattice structure behind a giant cartoon map of Mulholland Drive, dutifully playing its assigned “role” of looking like a cheap carnival coaster (because… you know… it is).
Altogether, Paradise Pier was a glowing neon amusement park of today, packed with flat stucco walls and striped circus awnings over games of skill and fast-food walk-ups.
With just a few simple, cosmetic changes, Paradise Pier is now set firmly at the turn of the century – residents of Main Street, U.S.A. might take a train to the coast to visit it! Neon lights were replaced with strung Edison bulbs and gas lamps glowing in the reflection of Paradise Bay. California Screamin’s metallic, modern Mickey loop backdrop became an era-appropriate sunburst, and unfortunately for Beach Boys, the land’s soundtrack swapped overnight to seaside strollin’ ragtime music.
The bland, flat stucco exteriors of the land were replaced with Victorian facades of clapboard siding, including the elimination of a garish “Route 66” inspired area and its replacement with the elegant topiaries and arches of the Paradise Garden Grill area, featuring a pasta restaurant and a Mediterranean quick-service all centered around a bandstand for era-appropriate music.
As evidence of Disney’s commitment to this land-wide re-theme, the troublesome Maliboomer launch tower was removed entirely. The park simply stronger with no ride there than with the Maliboomer. And then came the characters. Though Disney Parks fans tend to detest the oversaturation of Disney characters, one of the primary complaints aganst California Adventure was that it lacked the recognizable cast entirely. Brilliantly, Imagineers found ways to incorporate Disney’s characters in the new Paradise Pier in period-appropriate ways.
Image: Disney
The Orange Stinger yo-yo swings were peeled. The ride was re-wrapped as the Silly Symphony Swings, a delightful homage to the 1935 Mickey short The Band Concert. Now, swirling guests would be caught-up in a wild vortex conducted by a 1930s Mickey Mouse atop the ride’s canopy, all to the tune of the stirring “William Tell Overture” from the short.
The odd Sun Wheel with its modern brass face was similarly transformed into Mickey’s Fun Wheel, adorned not just with the towering and iconic “pie-eyed” face of the classic character, but with an immense LED lighting package to shimmer in thousands of color variations and light shows at night. The Ferris wheel’s cabins were wrapped in Victorian accents and stickered with other classic cartoon versions of Mickey’s pals.
Similarly, the Mulholland Madness wild mouse coaster had its comic book, irreverent style removed. Now it’s themed to the 1940 short Goofy’s Glider and called Goofy’s Sky School, casting us as pilots-in-training with Goofy as our instructor. Though it’s still inherently not a “Disney-quality” ride, at least it’s more attractive to look at, and more thoughtfully presented.
The Games of the Boardwalk lost their eye-roll-inducing California puns and were instead themed after those same ultra-classic (sometimes forgotten) Disney characters – an obvious element of an early-1900s land.
Image: Loren Javier, Flickr (license)
Then came the brilliance of the land’s new anchoring attraction, Toy Story Midway Mania! The interactive ride – cleverly and appropriately set among the boardwalk’s midway games – allows guests to step into interactive classic carnival amusements like “Break-the-Plate” and “Ring-the-Bottle” alongside Toy Story characters… And in fitting with the land’s new time period and style, it’s housed in a gorgeous seaside ballroom, not unlike those that true 1800s boardwalks were often built around.
Across the Bay, an elegant building modeled after a 1910s style aquarium appeared where the Golden Dreams theater originally stood. Entered via a sea foam-colored recreation of the Palace of the Fine Arts, the aquarium building is (of course) home to The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, a classic dark ride based on the beloved film The Little Mermaid. The clever use of a gorgeous aquarium to house the ride is perhaps one of the finer architectural elements of Paradise Pier.
And of course, each night, the waters of Paradise Bay come alive with World of Color, the park’s Fantasmic-sized, character-packed nighttime extravaganza with includes hundreds of fountains, water screens, flamethrowers, misters, and fog. The emotional show is a must-see and on par with Disney’s best nighttime offerings.
Cars Land
The undisputed highlight of the park’s 2012 rebirth is the astounding Cars Land. Following in the “Wizaring World” model debuted just two years earlier in Florida, Cars Land is a to-scale recreation of Radiator Springs, the Route 66 town from the film. Based on the Disney and Pixar film series Cars, the unlikely source material built what must be one of the most impressively immersive themed land in any U.S. Disney Park… an absolute centerpiece of California Adventure’s new identity.
Cars Land perfectly recreates the sleepy desert town of Radiator Springs from the film in surprisingly accurate scale. Every building from the film is there – you can eat at Flo’s V8 Café, step into Luigi’s Tires for the astounding, trackless, spinning Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters family ride, check out Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree, and meet most every vehicle from the film live and in person.
However, the most impressive thing about Cars Land is not just the perfectly recreated town, but the massive, endless Cadillac Range that wraps around it. The towering peaks (as in the film, vaguely shaped like Cadillac tail fins) are perhaps the most stunning and picturesque backdrop in any park, as they soar a hundred feet into the distance.
The best way to see them is on the land’s E-ticket (and, by far, the now-signature ride of California Adventure), the Modern Marvel: Radiator Springs Racers, a high-energy dark ride / thrill ride combo borrowing the technology behind Epcot’s Test Track. The ride – which some say rivals Disneyland’s undisputed Modern Marvel: Indiana Jones Adventure – Temple of the Forbidden Eye or Tokyo’s Journey to the Center of the Earth for Disney’s most impressive modern dark ride – is a must-see and Fastpass typically sells out within an hour or two after park opening.
Putting it all together
Was California Adventure a perfect theme park? Of course not. But after its re-opening, it did represent something magnificent: a total rebirth; a complete transformation. Not just new rides and shows and restaurants, but a new core story; a new identity. California Adventure was flawed at its foundation, and Disney Imagineers tackled the problem head on. They dismantled the park’s stories and settings to their rivets and rebuilt a park that meets and even exceeds Disney’s best. Few could’ve imagined that just a decade earlier.
California Adventure was a testament to what can happen when designers do it right. Compare the park’s opening map in 2001 to its map after its rebirth, just 15 years later. The changes are practically innumerable. You’ll see new rides and shows, but there’s so much the map can’t show: the new alleys and details and design elements that recast the park as a historic, reverent land of habitable stories.
From the Carthay Circle Theater to Radiator Springs; the Hollywood Tower Hotel to World of Color; Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, Grizzly Peak Airfield, Pacific Wharf, Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular, and the Golden Vine Winery… Disney California Adventure was – truly – a new park with a new identity and a new spirit. No longer a spoof of California, the park was now a celebration of its history, legends, landscapes, food, car culture, entertainment, and industries.
But most importantly, it was a perfect companion and complement to Disneyland, crafted from the same concept: both parks depicted reverent, idealized, romanticized places that people yearn to see. Disney California Adventure deserved its spot across from Disneyland. And that is saying something.
So why, just a few years later, would Disney change course yet AGAIN? And why do some say that Disney is actively undoing the $1.2 billion it just spent to fix California Adventure?
Californian controversy
Image: Disney
As a whole, guests spoke loud and clear: Disney’s attempt at an “edgy” new kind of theme park with “brash Californian attitude” and “MTV” style didn’t resonate. It was an instantly dated product of low-budget ‘90s design, and a perfect encapsulation of everything that went wrong at the end of Michael Eisner’s cost-cutting career with Disney.
Throughout Disney California Adventure’s first decade – up-to and including its $1.2 billion reconstruction – there’s simply no question that the park was better outfitted for long-term survival. Disney’s billion dollar investment primarily went toward fixing the park’s foundational flaw by re-invigorating each of California Adventure’s lands as historic, reverent, thoughtful ones celebrating California’s beauty, heritage, and history rather than making fun of its present.
Along the way, Disneyland’s second gate was also super-charged with E-Ticket attractions, family rides, and entertainment that helped right the ship and build out the park in order to complement Disneyland. It was all part of addressing authentic visitor concerns that California Adventure was “too much California, not enough Disney.”
Image: Disney
But pretty quickly, that tide began to turn…
For example, for as little right as they may have had to be billed as “attractions” to begin with, minor asides like the Bountiful Valley Farm area (a farm-sized exhibit on Californian agriculture) and Golden Dreams (a travelogue-style history film of California’s foundation and prominent figures) were replaced with attractions themed to A Bug’s Life and The Little Mermaid, respectively… both upgrades, to be sure!
Image: Disney / Pixar
And no one would shed a tear when the park’s Declassified Disaster: Superstar Limo hit the road, replacing the Hollywood-themed dark ride with Monsters Inc., ostenisbly carrying us out of California and to Monstropolis.
Losing some A- and B-ticket attractions was an easy price to pay in exchange for Cars Land, right?
Okay, technically, the driving anchor of the park’s rebirth – Cars Land – represents the town of Radiator Springs that’s definitely somewhere in the American Southwest along Route 66, but decidedly not in California… But at least the addition of Buena Vista Street balanced the scales back toward the park’s newly-born, carefully-created Californian story and setting.
Image: Disney
And besides, E-Ticket headliners like The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Soarin’ Over California, and the thrills of Paradise Pier were guaranteed to preserve the park’s reborn California-focused concept strong…. Right…? Let’s quickly explore four unusual steps in California Adventure’s development since its grand re-opening that appear to be entirely counter to the $1.2 billion Disney just spent!
1. Soarin’… Around the World (2016)
Image: Disney
Back in 2001, Soarin’ Over California was the icon of Disney’s California Adventure Park. In fact, many argue that it was the only runaway hit from the underbuilt park. So much so that the ride was duplicated in Epcot’s The Land pavilion in 2005, and even though it used the same “Over California” ride film, the varied landscapes of California made the ride’s inclusion merely as “Soarin'” unsuspicious! As it had at California Adventure, the ride became a signature of Epcot, earning multi-hour waits.
Rumors had always swirled that eventually, Epcot’s version of the ride would recieve a custom-made ride film touring over the natural landscapes of the country (an obvious fit for The Land pavilion).
Image: Disney
On June 16, 2016 the brand new Shanghai Disneyland beat them to it with Soarin’ Over the Horizon, featuring a new ride film showcasing the wonders of the world – from the Great Wall of China to the Eiffel Tower; Neuschwanstein in Germany to the Great Pyramids and the Taj Mahal.
The day after the ride made its debut in Shanghai, it replaced the original Soarin’ ride film at Epcot. And really, the decision to replace Epcot’s Soarin’ with the global Soarin’ Around the World was a no-brainer – a natural and overdue evolution of the 15-year-old ride, even if the aerial tour of mostly-man-made landmarks technically made it a worse fit in The Land pavilion.
Image: Disney
But that same day, Soarin’ Around the World replaced the original ride at California Adventure, too, in the still-fresh Grizzly Peak Airfield. The fan-favorite that launched a generation of “Soarin’” attractions and proved that California Adventure did have a concept worth rallying around would change. It’s not that Soarin’ Around the World isn’t beautiful and moving and well done – it is! It’s that the original ride film was custom-made for a park dedicated to celebrating California’s stories. Flying over the Great Wall of China and the Eiffel Tower doesn’t fit.
So while Disney had spent immense time, energy, and money re-theming Condor Flats to the beautifully forested, more overtly-Californian, historic and idealized Grizzly Peak Airfield, its sole attraction – one of the anchor attractions of the Californian park – would now lose its Californian ride film… Weird. But not the weirdest move since…
2. Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! (2017)
In early 2016, a very strange rumor began to circulate among fans. Sources reported that an attraction based on Guardians of the Galaxy, the surprise hit Marvel superhero movie from 2014, would replace the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney California Adventure.
To be clear, the rumor was instantly derided by many as insanity, and most fans wrote it off as a prank. So outrageously stupid did it sound that a futuristic sci-fi superhero movie would take over a 1920s art-deco hotel reigning over a newly-redesigned Golden-Age-of-California park, many in the Disney Parks fan community literally, sincerely imagined that the rumor was cooked up just to see how much fury and chaos such an obviously fake rumor could provoke.
“A decade ago, maybe!” They proclaimed. But c’mon. California Adventure was fixed! It was saved! No more irreverent jokes, no more modern music… It had a new lease on life with a refreshed, reverent, historic California story. Guardians of the Galaxy taking over the E-Ticket Twilight Zone Tower of Terror? Decimating the careful continuity and storytelling Disney just spent over a billion dollars to craft? A sci-fi superhero ride looming over a 1920s Los Angeles? A 1950s High Sierras national park?
Image: Disney
At the 2016 San Diego Comic Con, Imagineer Joe Rohde was on hand to announce that a new Guardians of the Galaxy ride would indeed replace the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney California Adventure in 2017. Yes, just four years after Disney spent $1 billion to get rid of irreverence, crass humor, and modern references from the park, the “outrageous and irreverent” comic book characters would arrive.
The detailed lobby, library, and boiler room would be gutted and redesigned as a “warehouse prison power plant” based on “the beauty of an oil rig” (those are Disney’s words, not ours) owned by the enigmatic Collector from the 2014 film. Of course, the drop ride within would be retained and reprogrammed, but everything around it would be completely redesigned and not an ounce of Tower of Terror would remain in the brand new attraction…
Image: Disney / Marvel
…Unless you count the exterior clearly being a 1920s art deco hotel affixed with pipes and satellite dishes. Our fabled Lost Legends collection gained its biggest ride yet with Lost Legends: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, exploring the making-of and closure of the would-be Californian classic.
Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! opened May 27, 2017. The laugh-out-loud thrill ride is a blast from beginning to end, perfectly capturing the spirit and style of the hit Marvel film. Loud, brash, and fun, much of the public and even some Disney Parks fans have embraced the wild and unexpected overlay, excited for its randomized drop sequences, its ’60s and ’70s inspired pop / rock soundtrack, its interchangable screens that allow for holiday overlays, and its attitude.
Image: Disney / Marvel
(Don’t be surprised when the “gantry lift” doors open to reveal the same bird’s eye view of the resort with Bradley Cooper’s Rocket raccoon now narrating by saying, “Disneyland?! But that’s thematically inconsistant!” It’s obviously a nod to – or perhaps an “irreverent, MTV-attitude” jab at – fans and how very silly they are for caring about old-fashioned things like continuity. To each his own!)
Is Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! a fun ride? Of course. An E-Ticket? Absolutely. No one – even those who detested the concept – would ride cross-armed and pouting. But is it the right choice for Disney California Adventure? For the long-term? Will it still be relevant in 20 years? Do designers even plan for it to be around in 20 years? That’s all unknown for now… But it’s not the last surprising piece of the de-California’ing of California Adventure.
On the last page, we’ll finish up with California Adventure’s most recent announcements and figure out if Disney is making its biggest mistake all over again… Read on…
3. Pixar Pier (2018)
Click and expand for a larger and more detailed view. Image: Disney / Pixar
At the semi-annual D23 Japan in November 2017 (just a few months after the opening of Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!) Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products Chairman (and big intellectual property fan) Bob Chapek made an announcement that Disney rumor blogs hadn’t even imagined: Paradise Pier would be the next to fall. The land would be quickly and conservatively recrafted into Pixar Pier, a celebration of Pixar stories with four “neighborhoods” of attractions along the boardwalk.
Image: Disney / Pixar
The courtyard in front of California Screamin’ would become Incredibles Park, a mid-century-inspired plaza right out of LAX’s Theme Building or Walt’s Tomorrowland, featuring the seaside, seemingly wooden California Screamin’ re-themed as The Incredicoaster.
The Incredicoaster is built around an (admittedly) contrived story of the Incredibles being honored with a seaside roller coaster rebranded in their name. (In the queue video, Violet groans “Sure, slap our names on an old ride.” Edna Mode replies, “Quite normal, darling; corporations call it synergy.” Like Rocket’s comments on the converted Tower of Terror, explaining away inconsistences and overlays as a joke is now par for the course – much easier than crafting a real story.)
Image: Disney
Now, the ride’s neighbor-friendly “scream tubes” have become more completely enclosed, each containing a show scene of static figures as the members of the Incredibles family race to rescue baby Jack-Jack, whose berzerk powers see him teleport, turn “squishy,” phase through walls, catch on fire, and multiply along the ride’s course. Surprisingly devoid of movement and life, the Incredicoaster is one example where projections rather than frozen figures could’ve made a huge difference… Unfortunately, it feels like a net neutral change at best.
Around the existing Toy Story Midway Mania would arrive the Toy Story Boardwalk “neighborhood.” That seems a natural fit given the still-starring role of the shoot-’em-up midway ride, especially with its beautiful seaside exterior swapped from sandy peach and sun-faded maroon to a much more attractive white and teal with cherry red accents.
Image: Disney / Pixar
Strangely, though, this “neighborhood” will also transform King Triton’s Carousel of the Sea into the Toy Story-complementary Jessie’s Critter Carousel that unapologetically ditches the classy, elegant Victorian vibe in favor of cow spots and plastic toy tones. In fact, half of Toy Story Boardwalk doubles down on the newly-freshed turn-of-the-century coastal vibe, while the other half curiously relies on oversized props and figures borrowed straight from Toy Story Land, as if we’ve “shrunk.”
Image: Disney
The boardwalk’s third “neighborhood” is the catch-all Pixar Promenade featuring the rest of Pixar’s films (except Monsters Inc., which is in Hollywood Land, Finding Nemo that resides in Tomorrowland, and Cars, which has its own land) recasting the pier’s Games of the Boardwalk to exclusively Pixar themes and adding a floating boulder interactive in the style of Pixar’s famous bouncing ball.
Most curiously, Mickey’s Fun Wheel continues to feature the pie-eyed not-Pixar mouse on the bay-facing side, but was renamed Pixar Pal-a-Round (which must be one of the worst names in the Disney Parks portfolio, right? Why not Animator’s Wheel? The Color Wheel? Disney’s Wheel of Color?), its gondolas affixed with new vinyl skins featuring famous Pixar pairs.
Image: Disney / Pixar
The final “neighborhood” – Inside Out Headquarters – contains only a single spinning family flat ride. And that, in a nutshell, is the problem. Inside Out was a celebrated, beloved Pixar film exploring the complexities of emotion and growing up, and rather than a tear-jerking dark ride, the Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind is a simple spinning carnival ride.
Paradise Lost & Found
Here’s the thing – while fans instantly revolted against yet another intellectual property being pulsed into the parks (this writer included), the results of Pixar Pier are… well… decidedly mixed. In fact, Pixar Pier could be the subject of a PhD dissertation on the highs and lows of modern Imagineering.
On one hand, the Pixar Pier transformation actually plussed the land with more of the elaborate Victorian details that it should’ve gotten back at the park’s 2012 re-opening… It features a new entrance replacing leftover ’70s metallic turrets with magnificent, whimsical, fantastical, ruby red domes and turrets…
Image: DAPSMagic
…the land’s color scheme is entirely re-cast in exuberant jewel tones, replacing the metallic blue and sandy pink of Paradise Pier with breathtaking reds, vibrant seafoam teal, and crisp white; new interactive elements and surprises await around the land, with the last vestiges of California Adventure “1.0” removed. So while it makes no sense that a 1910s boardwalk would feature the branding and stories of a 21st century movie studio, it’s commendable the way that Disney Imagineers finally snuck in the early-1900s sweep that the land started to recieve back in 2012.
Put another way, the pieces of Pixar Pier that succeed seem to do so in spite of the Pixar brand and not because of it.
After all, the “lows” of modern Imagineering are on display here, too. We already mentioned that, confusingly, Disney doubled down on the classic Victorian styling while also adding intentionally disjointed “neighborhoods” of oversized toys and 1960s architecture. But the worst offenders are still out there like…
Image: Disney / Pixar
Señor Buzz’ Churros. We can’t even imagine how this concept made it past the initial sketch! And then there’s…
Image: Disney / Pixar
… and truly disappointing additions like…
Image: Disney
How can these oddities (seemingly designed just as photo-ops) co-exist with a project that intentionally maintained and expanded the turn-of-the-century Victorian styling?
“It’s all about story”
Disney’s own marketing tells us that it all comes down to story, story, story. Well then, let’s read:
- In 2001, the original Paradise Pier’s story seemed to be that we’d simply ventured to a modern California boardwalk of off-the-shelf carnival thrill rides, neon signs, and Californian puns meant to poke fun at California’s coastal surfer culture. “The time is now, the place is California. Enjoy!”
image: Disney
- In 2012, it was re-opened as a historic, idealized, turn-of-the-century boardwalk populated by Victorian architecture, strung popcorn lights, ragtime music, and classic, pie-eyed Disney characters presented in their most vintage and nostalgic forms. In “Disney” speak, we’d traveled back in time to a romanticized and idealized turn-of-the-century pleasure pier.
- In 2018, the opening of Pixar Pier changes that story yet again. To fans’ best estimate, the new “story” that powers Pixar Pier would be that the Walt Disney Company – an international media conglomerate – and its Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products division (overseen by Chairman Bob Chapek) owns a California amusement pier and has decided to overlay the highest-grossing films from its 21st century Pixar intellectual properties across the rides and attractions there.
Well, at least it doesn’t take much imagination…!
Image: Disney
Altogether, Pixar Pier may seem relatively harmless – especially since so many good changes accompanied the overlay. But it’s yet another strange infringement upon the Californian story that Imagineers just spent five years building. Moreover, it adds to the theory that today’s changes to California Adventure are simply short-sighted moves by management to incorporate Disney brands quickly and cheaply.
Why design the park to veer so closely toward Walt’s California Adventure, only to double back and strip it of its period-appropriate dressing and the attractions that seemed custom-fit for its celebration of Californian stories, history, and legends?
And while Pixar Pier may be the oddest addition yet, it’s not the last to “break” California Adventure’s historic billion-dollar redesign…
4. Marvel Avengers Campus (2020)
Throughout the development of Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!, fans rioted against the concept with some pretty defensable arguments… Like, why would a futuristic sci-fi fortress be looming over the recently-reborn 1940s Hollywood Land? Why would The Collector’s “museum” have the unmistakable architecture of 1920s art deco? Would the Red Car Trolley now have stops at Buena Vista Street, Carthay Circle, Hollywood Blvd. and a “space warehouse prison power plant?”
Image: Disney / Marvel
Disney’s answer was a vague promise that an entire land dedicated to Marvel superheroes would eventually take shape at Disney California Adventure around the seemingly misplaced tower. Insiders say that, originally, those plans centered on Marvel heroes replacing Hollywood Land entirely. Suffice it to say that the political pieces necessary to make that happen in Anaheim failed to fall into place, leaving Disney’s expansion plans for California Adventure’s footprint unlikely.
Plans quickly migrated. It’s Tough to be a Bug and the rest of “a bug’s land” closed forever in 2018 as “Stark Industries” walls appeared around the formerly forested (er, clovered?) space nestled between Cars Land and Hollywood Land.
Image: Disney / Marvel
At Disney’s semi-annual D23 conference in 2019, the details were made official. While the new Avengers Campus land wouldn’t exactly match Galaxy’s Edge for detail, it would have a (bare minimum, thinly veiled) “excuse” for existing within California Adventure. How? The land’s setup describes it as a modern Southern Californian recruitment center established by the Avengers to train the next generation of heroes… us. Sure, fans will groan about the seeming creative cop-out of a land with a “the time is now and the place is here” setting.
But Avengers Campus will offer some substantial experiences. When the new land “begins recruitment” in 2020, its sought-after new attraction will be a family-focused interactive (read: shooting) Web Slingers dark ride. What’s curious, though, is that leaked plans for the ride (which is being duplicated at Disneyland Paris) indicate that it’ll re-use the basic premise and layout of Toy Story Midway Mania… a ride that exists just a few hundred yards away in Pixar Pier!
Aside from Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!, the other new offer from Avengers Campus (in true “Wizarding World-emulating” form) will be a restaurant and microbrewery somehow centered on Ant-Man, a cavalcade of character meet-and-greets, and exceptional “streetmosphere” said to include spontaneous rooftop stunt shows and maybe even the debut of Disney’s “Stuntronics.”
Image: Disney / Marvel
A follow-up phase II will also introduce an anchoring E-Ticket based on The Avengers, set to place guests in Quinjets and fly them out to a battle in the African nation of Wakanda from Black Panther.
If you – like us – are still asking “What does that have to do with California?” you’re in the 1% of people who have energy left to fight for California Adventure. In any case, at least we can be grateful that Disney didn’t construct a Marvel-themed land that outright recreated New York.
Image: Disney
And while the extermination of “a bug’s land” for Avengers Campus did save Hollywood Land, we can’t help but hope that Disney Imagineers plan to return to the land with a big payoff. Now, sans Tower of Terror, Hollywood Land is an anchor-less area of the park that never got the “DCA 2.0” overlay it needed. The concept art above, for example, was released in the lead-up to the park’s reimagining, but never came to be. Perhaps a historic rebirth for Hollywood Land would be a fitting balance to the invasion of heroes?
Unraveling or re-weaving?
At least for now, that’s the whole story of Disney’s California misadventure – there’s perhaps no park on Earth that’s seen more change in the first two decades of its life than Disneyland’s second gate: from incoherent modern thrill park to story-centered Disney jewel… and maybe, back again…
In retrospect, we have to wonder: what was the point of that grand re-opening, and why revitalize Hollywood Land or Paradise Pier if the plan was always to infuse them with intellectual properties? Or was that not always the plan, but a recent re-direction? If so, at whose request? Do the changes Disney’s made to California Adventure add to the park’s success long-term? Or are they “cheap and cheerful” overlays made permanent; the park’s 10, 20, or 50 year health be damned?
And for that matter, is the park still a California adventure?
After all, in the few years since its re-opening with an intentional, whole-park, Californian narrative, Disney California Adventure has become a park of beautifully decorated themed lands that exude the history and magnificence of California’s story, people, and places… but the attractions in those lands are themed exclusively to Cars, The Incredibles, The Little Mermaid, Toy Story, Marvel, Monsters Inc., and Frozen with the towering Guardians of the Galaxy tower looming over it all where once had been an elegant Hollywood hotel… a fitting visual for the park’s current state.
By the way, when all’s said and done in 2020, the park will have eight themed lands: Buena Vista Street, Hollywood Land, Cars Land, Pacific Wharf, Grizzly Peak, Avengers Campus, Pixar Pier, and Paradise Gardens Park (the leftover elements of Paradise Pier stretching from Paradise Gardens Grill through the Golden Zephyr, Goofy’s Sky School, and The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure).
Image: Disney
Disney’s designers were right – Disney California Adventure did change everything about Disney Parks. Its flawed foundation was a lesson taught via the school of hard knocks, and the park’s revered rebirth seemed to signal that Disney executives had gotten the point… Disney can do what no one else can. It can transport guests to magical, idealized, romantic versions of our past; it can weave together seemingly disconnected stories across lands, parks, and even continents.
Image: Disney
When Disney California Adventure re-opened in 2012, it was well on its way to being a cohesive piece of thematic art – a pinnacle of the power of Imagineering. Newly reborn with a thoughtful, careful, creative, and distinctly Californian narrative, the park appeared poised to grow into its harmonious new identity.
Image: Disney
The influx of Marvel and Pixar may be the status quo now at Disney Parks across the globe, and perhaps it’s better that those properties be plopped into California Adventure than be plopped into Walt’s Disneyland… And yet, we still can’t help but worry that executives’ directives may risk unraveling the $1.2 billion effort that was just infused into the park, undoing the careful creative foundation Disney California Adventure was gifted…
All we can do is watch and wonder as Disney California Adventure evolves yet again.
