Great interview with Paul Pressler

[toefungus]

www.laughingplace.com has a really good interview with Paul Pressler. There are a few interesting things he said.....

LP: Recently Al Weiss at, I believe, a town meeting they had for Cast Members mentioned that they’d be adding a new land and a new E-Ticket attraction to Animal Kingdom in 2004. Is there anything you can say about that?
Pressler: Um, I can’t say anything about that other than I’ll confirm what Al said (laughs). We are looking at a new E attraction for the Animal Kingdom.

LP California Adventure is certainly a park with lots of room to grow. How long do we need to wait before - I know Millionaire is coming - how long do we need to wait before we get one or two more big attractions?

Pressler: They are already on the drawing boards. We are pushing a little bit to see how fast we can get some of this done, but in terms of pure attractions you will start to see some things in '03 and '04. And we may even get there as early as '02.

Great!!!

 

[HBK]

So, when they called me to come and consider the job of running the licensing office I was sure it was just to get me off the market, (laughs) because anything I touched up to that point hadn’t worked.

Nice to know somethings can withstand the test of time....

Having said that, going from purely a merchandise background to building rides and attractions was a dramatic learning curve and a whole business dynamic that was completely different from the business I had been in.

Translation: I'm clueless...

LP: In your current job, what are your typical duties? What kinds of decisions are made at your level?

Pressler: Make Michael his coffee, get his lunch, make sure his copy of the Journal has all of the negative Disney News cut out of it....you know, executive stuff!

Pressler: (when asked about building a fifth theme park)...There’s plenty of creative ideas to go do lots of incredible things, so it’s just a matter of time.

Translation: We're looking to reel in some sucker to pay for it. Until then, enjoy Animal Kingdom!

LP: Moving on to California - Disney’s California Adventure. Has it met the company’s expectations?

Pressler: The answer is yes, unequivocally yes.

Oh yeah, I'm sure Michael is getting the warm and fuzzies when he has a new park half filled. Tremendous success!

And I hearken back to 1955 with Walt - he made adjustments in that second month after opening. In fact, I heard he lowered the price of the Carousel from 25 cents to 10 cents because his guests had said, "wait a minute I don’t think that’s a reasonable price."

Pressler continues: And heck, who thinks it's un-reasonable to charge full admission to a half a day park? Not me!

Pressler: Well the big news is that we are looking at is ... actually I’m not sure if we announced this yet ... so let's just say there is a new attraction pllanned for 2003 that I’m sure will be a huge crowd pleaser in terms of the character that we are focusing on. Have you heard about this?

Pressler : Psst...off the record? It's a Atlantis Spinner! Back when we were building the Dino Carnival I got a buy two, get one free deal!!

LP: Moving away from Disneyland, I assume you’ve been to Tokyo DisneySea many times?

Pressler: Yes I have and I’m going again next week.

LP: What do you think?

Pressler: It’s fantastic.

Pressler cont.: Yeah....we used to build em that way!!!!!!

LP: You are the head of the theme park division of the number one theme park company in the world. What is your vision of theme parks looking 10, 15, 25 years into the future?

Pressler: ATMs

 

[toefungus]

LOL HBK!!!

 

[Another Voice]

I have not laughed so hard in months. About every three lines I had to duck because I know one of those spitting camels was coming up. Disney puts spitting camles on all of its new spinners.

And "independent website" is, shall we say, an interesting choice of words.

The big attraction he was talking about for Disneyland in 2003 is 'Winnie the Pooh'. Beyond that he didn't say anything that doesn't translate into "I haven't a clue when you'll see something new".

It's also interesting that he named Tony Baxter and Marty Sklar several times. They're both out of a job now by the way. And the head of the Disney Studios gave a very similar interveiw to the Los Angeles Times a few days before Eisner throw his *** out onto the street.

Here's hoping history repeats itself.

 

[Doobie]

And "independent website" is, shall we say, an interesting choice of words.

Well we get it from both sides. We're too negative when we put up Jim Hill's and Rick West's columns or allow debate on our boards. We're too positive when we go an interview with Disney executives. When you're getting it from both sides, I think you're independent. You're certainly welcome to disagree as I'm sure many others will as well.

Doobie.
LaughingPlace.com Owner

 

[WDWHound]

Originally posted by Another Voice

It's also interesting that he named Tony Baxter and Marty Sklar several times. They're both out of a job now by the way. And the head of the Disney Studios gave a very similar interveiw to the Los Angeles Times a few days before Eisner throw his *** out onto the street.

Here's hoping history repeats itself.

AV: Are you saying that Marty Sklar and Tony Baxter are no longer going to be employed at Disney, or just that they no longer have any influence or power?

 

[JeffJewell]

LP: Moving on to California - Disney’s California Adventure. Has it met the company’s expectations?
Pressler: The answer is yes, unequivocally yes.

...looks like the trouser conflagration is spreading fast.

Jeff

 

[larworth]

I think he may have actually read it.

For us to go back and revisit and re-look at Walt the man. In the process we've gotten a tremendous amount of insight into what made him tick

Than all those quotes. Why he must have stumbled onto it when doing some research. Of course, we can still assume he doesn't really get it, but he sure has memorized some of the passages.

Oh, instead of Paul the budget cutter, we should now be referring to him by his real title "Paul the Nurturer".

I'm just here to nuture their ideas

.

OK, enough sarcasm I think HBK covered that one already.

****

Now I know this wasn't a hardball interview, but I do give him credit for having the PR sense to say the right things.

I actually thought we learned a number of things from the article. It may not all be new, but it should at least move them from the rumor to the confirmed stage.

1. New AK land a go with a real E-ticket for 2004. Now, is this BK or another continent with a soaring attraction?
2. No fifth gate at WDW for at least 5 years. Not enough domestic demand to justify.
3. Fast tracking attractions for DCA (more than one).
4. Pooh ride for DL next in line.
5. Third gate at DL pretty far off if they won't even start the creative process for several years (assume not within 5 years?).
6. Building a MK in South Amercia seems doubtful following the currency comment.
7. Not big on a Discover Cove type investment (unless it fits with the cruise line?)
8. DL will get some token events for Walt's birthday.
9. If it smells of Disney America it might fly (Lincoln remake)

He sure did seem to benefit from a strong corporate mentor (ME). Promoting someone ahead of schedule is a ploy oftened used to ensure strong loyalty to the mentor.

I found the comments about TDS interesting. We've talked about the differences in the Japanese market. He reiterates many of these to justify why such an investment outside of Japan doesn't make economic sense to them. I felt he kind of side-stepped the TDS impact question, and often referred to their attractions as based on existing park technology (just more emmersive). Doesn't make me think he is looking to import any of these into the states anytime soon.

I was a little confused about his comment on the future of the parks

it's not just about where theme parks go, it's about where the whole vacation experience goes

Does this just mean a continued emphasis on hotels, and non-park activities?

He talked up Armageddon at DLP. Than why did they cancel the DCA version? Seems this would have been a quicker addition than what they are trying to fasttrack.

I'm sure I missed a few others, but am looking forward to see what is in the next installment.

 

[Another Voice]

I couldn’t resist….

1. New land for AK in 2004 – We’re either delaying Din-O-Rama again or Lego still isn’t coughing up the dough for BK, but there’s hope.

2. No demand for a Fifth Gate at WDW – We have no clue how to build sometime that will actually ATTRACT people, so we’re going to build hotels until the four parks burst at the seams and we’re forced to build someplace just to put the guests during the day.

3. Fast Track attractions at DCA – I’ve got the ride catalog from Six Flags on my desk right now.

4. Pooh Ride for D/L – SELL MORE PLUSH is the answer to all of life’s little problems.

5. Third Gate in Anaheim – Like the parking lot carnival hasn’t turned into enough of a sinkhole…

6. Yes to Hong Kong, No to South America – Yes, a communist country that slaughters its own citizens, threatens its neighbors and aims nuclear warheads at Burbank is much more friendly to our way of business than Brazil.

7. Not big on Discovery Cove – we can’t get people to shell out forty-three bucks for our latest carnival, do you know how many spinners we’d have to buy to get the tourists to cough up a Benjamin and a half!!!

8. D/L and Walt’s Anniversary – I’m sure there’s something in a basement somewhere we can sell on eBay.

9. Disney America after all – NEVER say no to the guy who signs the checks. It took more than a decade and four different park concepts, but he finally got his bloody Big Ferris Wheel. That blacksmith exhibit is just bound to show up somewhere. Just you wait and see.

10. The economics of DisneySeas works because the price of capital is so much lower in Japan – that’s true. And fortunately Disney was able to clip some coupons and got a really good deal on the five billion dollars in American capital we used to by a fourth rate basic cable station. And if could build a park people would PAY to see, that might work too – by why take that kind of risk?

I too am looking forward to the second part of the interview.