Negative Disney Sentiment

[lrodk]

I sincerely hate to post negative stories about Disney. i really try to dig hard for the good news, which in all fairness does exist, but it just seems that there is more and more trouble within the company with each passing week. While the Rumors Board appears to be mired with negative press these days, please realize that the current sentiment is refelctive of poor choices that current management has made over the past few years. I liken it to a snowball effect that just seems to be getting bigger and more and more out of control with each passing turn.

Please take heart, that we are not bashing the company when we bring out the negatives. Rather, we are speaking out freely in defense of a company that we all love. A company that was built on sound fundamentals, yet is being run into the ground a little at a time. It truly is a frustrating situation to watch such a fine company flounder like it has. I think therin lies the basis of alot of the frustration you're seeing here among many of the guests. Just remember that it's just that, frustration. And most of it is justifiable IMHO.

 

[johare]

Thanks...this was already posted earlier by Tannerman under the thread: " Fool on the Hill: You Can't Cheat Quality "

 

[toefungus]

I thought that was a very good article. It shows the reality of what Disney is facing and if they don't change, Disney is going down the drain. I really dont' think they will, but they're not doing so hot these days.

 

[lrodk]

Thanks Johare and DVC for the friendly reminder. I honestly didn't mean to duplicate Tannerman's post, which as it turned out was right under my eyes. Great article Tannerman.

I sincerely hope that someone steps up to the plate for the company before things get much worse. There really needs to be a cleansing of sorts, beginning first and foremost with upper management, if Disney has any shot of re-establishing itself as the powerhouse innovator that it once was. My gut feeling is that there will come a time, in the not too distant future, when someone like Roy Disney or the Bass family will say "enough is enough". The sort of "straw that broke the camels back". It won't be pretty, but it will be the first positive step for a company that has been floundering aimlessly for quite some time now.

 

[Janet2k]

lrodk, I agree. If we didn't care so much, things wouldn't get so heated. It pains me to see things change for not always the better. But hope springs eternal in my heart. A dream is a wish your heart makes (or something like that).

 

[King Triton]

I'm a big Disney fan and I hope Disney turns it all around. I think Disney needs to get back to the magic. Epcot lost lots of its magic by removing Horizons and World of Motion. That was a bad move. Atlantis was good, but way too violent for children. (No way Walt would have approved that one) Someone please tell Disney to provide more bus transportation - we waited for an hour to get from the park back to our hotel. I don't mean to complain, but it's not like Disney can't afford to add more buses when they're paying their top suits millions of dollars in stock options.

King Triton

 

[toefungus]

Epcot lost lots of its magic by removing Horizons and World of Motion. That was a bad move.

No it really wasn't a bad move. World of Motion and HOrizons were outdated, and it was time for somthing new. Test Track and Mission Space are so much better for Epcot. I can see about the buses, that's a $ issue. They didn't want to spend the extra money on a more efficent monorail system.

 

[King Triton]

Test track is more of a thrill ride which is better suited for Universal Studios. (It's hard to get excited over some crash dummies) I'm sure Mission Space will be awesome when completed. People go to Disney for the magic - for the imagination journey. Horizons and World of Motion showed the brilliance of the Disney Magic. Everyone I talk to misses both rides and wishes them back. I think Epcot needs more rides like that. Also, the old Imagination ride was light years better than the new one. (What was Disney thinking?) The new Imagination ride has no imagination - go figure. Disney needs more lifelike "cool" robotic rides - that's just my opinion. For me, Epcot is not the same without Horizons and World of Motion. Disney needs to stick to what it's famous for - "the magic." Without a doubt, Disney is the best - I'm a Disney fan for life!

King Triton

 

[BRERALEX]

thedscoop and King i totally agree with both of you about the ride placement. Test Track does seem out of place and to me its not disney. Not disney in the least. World of motion and horizons i like maybe they should have refurbished them thou cause they were out of date. And i mean really refurbish like revamp disney style not like journey into no imagiantion style.

I think the Dinosaur ride at Animal Kingdom does sorta fit if they developed that land a little more with more dinosaur stuff. A spalsh mountain type ride at AK would be awesome

 

[wdwguide]

Personally, my vote for the most displaced ride at WDW goes for the Tomorrowland Indy Speedway - there is simply nothing "Tomorrowland" about it. Others that don't quite seem to be in the right place are Festival of the Lion King in Fantasyland, and Tarzan Rocks at Dinoland USA.

Live Entertainment wise, Off Kilter isn't exactly Candian, and Aladdin and Jasmine somehow ended up on the wrong continent with their character greetings at Morocco.

Test Track, on the other hand, fits quite well into Epcot in my opinion, although more conceptually than in context. Of course it would be nice if they finally got it working correctly, four years after the originally scheduled opening date, but I've pretty much given up hope on that one.

 

[DisDuck]

I see the connection to Tomorrowland with the Speedway. It is now dated but I remember the old Wonderful World shows from the 50's and huge multi-lane highways with fast cars were featured in several shorts about the future.

When DL was built being in the 50's the Speedway was incorporated as something from/for the future. When MK built it included rides from DL this was one of them.

 

[YoHo]

I agree with the Duck, Speedway is well-placed, just antiquated.

As for Jasmine and Jafar in Morocco, I would assume it has to do with the fact that Morocco is a muslim country heavily influnced by the Turks. Aside from the opening song, there is nothing in Aladdin that says it must be on the Arabian Penninsula. Thus morocco is 100% appropriate.

Please se my other thread for my Epcot FutureWorld opinions.
In short, I think Test Track is great...Perfect even, but it needs a strong supporting cast and right now its a one man show.

 

[mike79]

The only way Disney can revive itself is with it's movies...what revived Disney the last time was The Little Mermaide. Disney needs a movie with a good story and great music if it wants to step back into the bright lights it had with Aladdin, Lion Ling,etc. Atlantis was horrible, just admit it. If Disney, within 3 years or so, can come up with a REALLY good animated feature, they're back on track, no questions asked.

 

[wdwguide]

Originally posted by YoHo

As for Jasmine and Jafar in Morocco, I would assume it has to do with the fact that Morocco is a muslim country heavily influnced by the Turks. Aside from the opening song, there is nothing in Aladdin that says it must be on the Arabian Penninsula. Thus morocco is 100% appropriate.

The Arabian Nights stories originated from Chinese, Persian, and Indian travelers of the silk road, and date back to about 850 AD.
The only reason I pointed this out in the first place is that many people do not question "facts" that Disney presents them, and will automatically associate Aladdin as part of the Moroccan culture when they see him at there at Epcot. I think Adventureland would be a much more appropriate place for him. But that's just my opinion, and I completely understand and accept yours.

 

[noblemickey]

I too am a big Disney Fan. Have been to WDW 30 times and am scheduled again for December and next March. It's easy to attack Disney and sometimes I think that much of the negative is from people who like to beat up Disney. However, of late, Disney has brought this on themselves! It hurts me to say that but as a stockholder and lover of WDW and most other things Disney, it appears that Disney has taken a nose dive. The stock is doing poorly, the movies, ie: Pearl Harbor and Atlantis aren't doing as well as hoped, ABC has very few hit shows, the Disney Stores are stale and uninviting and my favorite WDW appears to be slowly getting stale and dingy with employees less than ethusiastic. Eisner and Wells did a great job when they first came on board, but Wells is gone and Eisner doesn't seem to be the right man for job at this time. Fresh, ethusiastic, competent blood is needed and needed now. I sincerely hope that this large company can turn itself around and get each piece running well so we don't keep hearing about laying off excellent help to save money instead of increasing revenues by again giving us all a great product, something Disney was once known for and I hope will be again, soon!

 

[space42]

Well, I would consider myself a huge Disney fan. I went as a baby the second year it opened. I have since been more times than I can count (living 2 1/2 hours south and being a seasonal passholder)
I too am very concerned over the recent Disney news. I almost do not want to read this stuff anymore because I love WDW so much.

Anyway I have a theory about Ei$ner. I was reading on another Dis board about when DCA opened. They were saying how CM's were instructed NOT to look him in the eye and not to make conversation with him. Apparently he was very upset about the dismal turn out. From reading that, I wonder if Ei$ner is just too out of the loop on what is going on. Perhaps people are just afraid of him and do not wish to share their real feelings. There must have been SOMEONE in Disney that knew that DCA was NOT a good idea. Maybe the people that surround Ei$ner are just trying to please him with numbers and such and afraid to tell him what they really think? I could be completely off base here.

It seems as of late that negative Disney press is spreading like crazy. There are more and more articles in major newspapers (LA Times, Orlando Sentinel, etc).

I think that is just just a matter of time before the board has had enough of the current leadership and he gets to pursue other interests ;-)

 

[noblemickey]

Space 42, I would agree with you about the board getting tired of the status quo and replacing Eisner except the board is comprised of Eisner's hand picked team or friends and cronies. I hope Eisner can turn the ship around however if not real soon he must do what is right for the company and us shareholders and step down!

 

[disneyphilip]

In response to the person who said that the Disney Stores are now stale...

I agree on that one...the Disney doesn't really have any good merchandise these days.

Seems to me now that the theme parks have better merchandise (maybe because they're mostly items that are ONLY available at the the parks/resorts), like the incredible new WDW and DL Official Albums CDs...which have better music selections from their respective parks, including MARVELOUS ride-through "mixes" of several attractions like Splash Mountain--these newer albums ACTUALLY use LOTS of the ACTUAL "park" music and sounds, creating greater more immersive experiences and giving a bigger feeling of being at the parks, rather than the same short tracks, demos and recycled "film" recordings that were passed on as the actual park/attraction music in the past!

At least Disney STILL does put at least SOME good stuff out here and there, so it shouldn't be a TOTAL loss.

But I, too, miss most of the stuff we DID lose over the last few years.