Disneyland, opened in Anaheim, California in 1955 has been an immensely successful theme park. Disney didn’t invent the amusement park when he opened Disneyland in 1955, he may not even have invented the theme park, but he did greatly improve the notion of the theme park. Disneyland is basically four theme parks, five if you include Main Street, with each park situated right next to each other so that one can walk directly from one themed area to another without passing through any area that is not “magical.” This also keeps walking to a minimum Unlike many amusement parks the attractions are not just plopped down anywhere, but there is a purpose in regard to an overall plan for their placement. The five theme areas are different, offering variety. Also, within each of the four “Lands” there is variety, but not random variety. That is the variety in each “Land” builds on the theme of that area. They are variations on a theme. In this way the attractions within each “land” adds to the interest of its neighbors. In particular the railroad station and operating steam trains adds to the theme of an early 20th century Main Street and the stern wheel steamboat adds to the theme of Frontierland.
Further, everything in Disneyland is pretty, it's idealized. There are no “going out of business” signs on Main Street, nor are there any broken windows or vacant lots filled with trash. Going along with idealization is that things are fake. The animals in the Jungle Cruise are fake, the castle is fake, the buildings on Main Street are fake. They are real buildings with insides, but while they look as if they have two stories they really don’t. Another thing is minimization. The buildings on Main Street are shorter than they look, with the use of forced perspective and the Autopia is a miniature highway. Everything is just cute, with a hint of realism. In a sense a caricature of the real world. Also, the rides, particularly the dark rides, emphasize imagination over speed. Even now there are no extreme roller coasters.
Clearly Disneyland was and is a well designed park, but it also was a project that came at the right time for success. During the depression of the 1930s and during the Second World War of the 1940s, the birth rate dropped, but with the end of the war in 1945, people started building families again. In 1955 the earliest of these “Baby Boomers” were reaching the age of 10 just at the age to want to go to an amusement park. Then there was the automobile. This meant that Disneyland would not have to be tied to the end of transit lines and could be placed anywhere there was a road. Thus, Disney had a wider choice of where to place his park which meant he could pick land that had a lower cost. Interstate 5 was completed from Los Angeles to south of Anaheim by 1953. Not only would this provide covenant car travel from the city, but it also encourages the growth of the suburban population around Los Angeles. Another innovation was television. By 1950 less than 10% of US homes had a TV, but by 1955, the year Disneyland opened, 50% had one and this percentage continued to grow. The first Disney TV show aired on December 25, 1950 and was called “One Hour in Wonderland.” On October 27, 1954, “The Disneyland Story” premiered. It was the first of a series which would promote the Theme Park. Also, there would be a feedback system where Disneyland would promote the Disney films and the Disney films would promote Disneyland. An example being the first castle in Disneyland was to be called Snow White's castle, but with the film Sleeping Beauty coming out in 1959 the name was changed to Sleeping Beauty's castle.
But then in 1966 Walt Disney died and along with him the originality, the imagination and the forward thinking seemed to die at least for the parks. Once Disney said “there would never be another Disneyland,” but in 1971 The Magic Kingdom opened. It was not named Disneyland, but it nevertheless was and is a Disneyland clone. It’s not original and the imagination that produced it did not come from the current designers, but came from 16 years earlier. In time four more clones were built, again not original and with the imagination that came from 1955. They were all copied, more or less from the original Disneyland. There were parks built that were not copied from the original Disneyland, but five of them were copies, not from Disneyland, but from other sources. Epcot is simply a copy of a World’s Fair, Hollywood Studio is a copy of Universal Studios’ tour and an attempt at combining a working studio with a theme park something that Walt had rejected in the 1940s and both which failed, despite trying to deny it Animal Kingdom is primarily a zoo and a safari ride, California Adventure is an attempted copy of California within the state of California and Paris Disney Studios was a mashed together park and an attempt to copy Hollywood Studios. Each of these five parks do significantly worse in regard to attendance than the Disneylands partnered with them.
As mentioned earlier according to aecom, theme park index in 2022, attendance at Hollywood Studios was only 63.6% of the MK, Epcot was only 58.4% of the MK and Animal Kingdom was only 52.7% of the MK. Also, California Adventure had only 53.3% of the attendance at Disneyland and Paris Studios had only 53.8% the attendance at Paris Disneyland. The one exception is Tokyo’s Disneysea, which is the only one worth comparing to Disneyland, but that is not owned by Disney. Disneysea had 84.2% of the attendance at Tokyo Disneyland. So, I don’t believe that just because the powers that be decided to put Car Land in the MK that it will be good for the guests or for Disney’s bottom line.
If Car Land is not that popular then why disrupt the most successful theme park in the world to put it there. On the other hand if Car Land is going to be very popular than it will increase congestion in an already congested park and it would be better to put it in a less crowded WDW park with fewer rides. By attracting people to one of these other park it could reduce congestion in MK. A win/win.
See my thread from 2023 titled “Disney non-Disneyland Parks” for more details: https://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-non-disneyland-parks.3906924/.
Tom,
Further, everything in Disneyland is pretty, it's idealized. There are no “going out of business” signs on Main Street, nor are there any broken windows or vacant lots filled with trash. Going along with idealization is that things are fake. The animals in the Jungle Cruise are fake, the castle is fake, the buildings on Main Street are fake. They are real buildings with insides, but while they look as if they have two stories they really don’t. Another thing is minimization. The buildings on Main Street are shorter than they look, with the use of forced perspective and the Autopia is a miniature highway. Everything is just cute, with a hint of realism. In a sense a caricature of the real world. Also, the rides, particularly the dark rides, emphasize imagination over speed. Even now there are no extreme roller coasters.
Clearly Disneyland was and is a well designed park, but it also was a project that came at the right time for success. During the depression of the 1930s and during the Second World War of the 1940s, the birth rate dropped, but with the end of the war in 1945, people started building families again. In 1955 the earliest of these “Baby Boomers” were reaching the age of 10 just at the age to want to go to an amusement park. Then there was the automobile. This meant that Disneyland would not have to be tied to the end of transit lines and could be placed anywhere there was a road. Thus, Disney had a wider choice of where to place his park which meant he could pick land that had a lower cost. Interstate 5 was completed from Los Angeles to south of Anaheim by 1953. Not only would this provide covenant car travel from the city, but it also encourages the growth of the suburban population around Los Angeles. Another innovation was television. By 1950 less than 10% of US homes had a TV, but by 1955, the year Disneyland opened, 50% had one and this percentage continued to grow. The first Disney TV show aired on December 25, 1950 and was called “One Hour in Wonderland.” On October 27, 1954, “The Disneyland Story” premiered. It was the first of a series which would promote the Theme Park. Also, there would be a feedback system where Disneyland would promote the Disney films and the Disney films would promote Disneyland. An example being the first castle in Disneyland was to be called Snow White's castle, but with the film Sleeping Beauty coming out in 1959 the name was changed to Sleeping Beauty's castle.
But then in 1966 Walt Disney died and along with him the originality, the imagination and the forward thinking seemed to die at least for the parks. Once Disney said “there would never be another Disneyland,” but in 1971 The Magic Kingdom opened. It was not named Disneyland, but it nevertheless was and is a Disneyland clone. It’s not original and the imagination that produced it did not come from the current designers, but came from 16 years earlier. In time four more clones were built, again not original and with the imagination that came from 1955. They were all copied, more or less from the original Disneyland. There were parks built that were not copied from the original Disneyland, but five of them were copies, not from Disneyland, but from other sources. Epcot is simply a copy of a World’s Fair, Hollywood Studio is a copy of Universal Studios’ tour and an attempt at combining a working studio with a theme park something that Walt had rejected in the 1940s and both which failed, despite trying to deny it Animal Kingdom is primarily a zoo and a safari ride, California Adventure is an attempted copy of California within the state of California and Paris Disney Studios was a mashed together park and an attempt to copy Hollywood Studios. Each of these five parks do significantly worse in regard to attendance than the Disneylands partnered with them.
As mentioned earlier according to aecom, theme park index in 2022, attendance at Hollywood Studios was only 63.6% of the MK, Epcot was only 58.4% of the MK and Animal Kingdom was only 52.7% of the MK. Also, California Adventure had only 53.3% of the attendance at Disneyland and Paris Studios had only 53.8% the attendance at Paris Disneyland. The one exception is Tokyo’s Disneysea, which is the only one worth comparing to Disneyland, but that is not owned by Disney. Disneysea had 84.2% of the attendance at Tokyo Disneyland. So, I don’t believe that just because the powers that be decided to put Car Land in the MK that it will be good for the guests or for Disney’s bottom line.
If Car Land is not that popular then why disrupt the most successful theme park in the world to put it there. On the other hand if Car Land is going to be very popular than it will increase congestion in an already congested park and it would be better to put it in a less crowded WDW park with fewer rides. By attracting people to one of these other park it could reduce congestion in MK. A win/win.
See my thread from 2023 titled “Disney non-Disneyland Parks” for more details: https://www.disboards.com/threads/disney-non-disneyland-parks.3906924/.
Tom,
