From what I know, Walt never intended to build simply a clean amusement park.
Disneyland started out as a place for company picnics across the street from the studio. Then Roy suggested that they build a tour of the studio and let the general public in (there has always been a huge demand for a tour of the Disney lot). Walt let the idea sit for a long time, and then he suddenly several ideas came together and he pushed the project ahead.
Walt was first and foremost a storyteller. The best way to see what he thought about Disneyland is to watch the early episodes of his television series. Each land was a setting for a story. The Frontireland segment was where they should Davy Crocket, Seal Island was in Adventureland, the Men in Space series was in Tomorrowland, etc. And in the same way, the Jungle Cruise is a story presented in Adventureland.
Ive heard that by the time Disneyland opened, Walt was getting rather bored with animated films. The park gave him a whole new set of toys to create stories with. Even something as simple as the way the ticket booths lead into Disneylands entrance plaza, and the way the train station and tunnels block your view into the park was very deliberately set up as the opening of a movie. You go from the Disneyland sign in flowers below the station (the titles), and then walk out of the dark of the tunnels into a wide shot of world that no longer existed even in Walts time. Im sure you feel that sudden change in feeling when you make the same transition today. All of it was carefully created to produce that emotional effect.
To Walt it wasnt an amusement park thats why he called it a magic kingdom or a theme park or any of a half dozen names it went by. But to sell the concept to the bankers, and even the public, the company had to fall back on something people already new. And the park had to rely on a bunch of amusement park business practices (tickets, concessions, etc.), but Walt went out of his way to make the place as different from amusement parks as he possibly could. Disneyland was his place and was created for his purposes it wasnt just something spruced up and painted prettier than the competition.
Thats a long way of describing whats wrong with California Adventure. It turns its back on everything that Walt Disney learned from and created at Disneyland. Walts park tires to be more than just rides just as a feature length film is more than a collection of short cartoons. DCA lacks that vision, and honestly, it lacks the effort as well. There is no attempt to fit all the pieces together to produce something greater and theres no attempt made to create something new or original.
If the Company was trying for something different, why didnt they DO something different? This hip and edgy place still is based on themed lands with themed attractions with themed dining and themed shopping all the same basic elements that are in Disneyland but only partially executed. There were many concepts pre-DCA would have been far more complimentary to the resort and much more adult (imagine World Showcase on steroids), and there were concepts for DCA that really would have created uniquely Californian place (want to swim with sea otters and sea lions through a Catalina kelp forest or do you want to watch a real soap opera television show being produced right in front of you while its being broadcast live to the rest of the country on ABC?).
Theres certainly nothing wrong with a second gate at Disneyland, or perhaps even with the California theme. But the execution of California Adventure is a masterpiece of errors compounded by greed, cynicism and talent-free management. The root problem isnt going to be fixed by firing up the giant Xerox machine at WDW and zapping off a few more attractions. And the costs of fixing the place will be more than the original construction cost. In the meantime, this place is going to bleed Disneyland and Walt Disney World dry.
By the way, I just watched the nightly local affairs program on the largest PBS station here in Los Angeles (KCET). They had a segment on a new book thats just come out about L.A. in the 1950s. One of the places they talk about was Pacific Ocean Park, a huge seaside amusement park in Santa Monica. They had a big wooden roller coaster, a skyway across the ocean, parachute drops, food stands, and carnival games all in a clean and modern environment. Lawrence Welk and his band even played in the auditorium (they showed a photograph of the marquee). It was exactly the type of place that Paradise Pier tries to replicate.
Pacific Ocean Park lasted only 9 years. It couldnt compete with Disneyland and went bankrupt.
