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Pixar's sale to Disney keeping bloggers busy
Forum debates what deal means for theme parks
Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted March 15, 2006
With Disney's purchase of Pixar, creative minds in both companies may be wondering what the deal might mean for Disney's theme parks -- and some are wondering publicly.
Walt Disney Co. agreed in January to buy Pixar Animation Studios for $7.4 billion. Many Wall Street analysts hailed the merger as a way to infuse Disney's sluggish animated-movie business with Pixar's creativity.
But the deal also included at least one infusion of Pixar talent into Walt Disney Imagineering, the Disney arm that creates theme-park attractions. Pixar creative guru John Lasseter was named to an Imagineering post as part of the deal.
Now some current and former Pixar animators and Disney attraction designers are comparing thoughts about theme parks through an Internet forum started in February. On the unofficial Web site imagineerebirth.blogspot.com, they're speculating about how Pixar might affect the theme parks, then running discussions with the public on issues such as: What attractions work? Which ones don't? And why?
Saying that many of Pixar's employees are passionate about Disney, the site's creator, Pixar story artist Ken Bruce, 42, of Richmond, Calif., said in an e-mail that he wanted to "give voice to all of our concerns, issues which for most of us have been festering for well over a decade.
"It's also no secret that massive changes in the managerial hierarchy at Disney are on the horizon, so there's an interest in striking while the fire is hot," he wrote.
Disney is saying little about the blog. Imagineering spokeswoman Andrea Finger said it's one of hundreds of unofficial sites where people discuss Disney.
"We're proud that our work generates such passion and interest," she said.
At any rate, except for Lasseter's new role, she said there are no plans for merging creative interests at Pixar and Disney Imagineering.
"It absolutely is not in the works," Finger said.
But people at Disney and Pixar are tuning in, so it might yield some influence, said one of the blog's participants, Paul Torrigino of Sacramento, Calif., who said he was a designer with Disney Imagineering for 21 years before being laid off in late 2001.
"I have a little hope because I know everyone's actually reading it, and there's some great stuff in it," he wrote in an e-mail.
Among assertions being made by the blog's writers:
Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean rides are "classics," conceived through animation-style storytelling, and have yet to be topped.
Epcot's Mission: Space was a disappointing replacement for Horizons Pavilion, and offers visitors "virtually no re-rideabilty value," plus motion-sickness bags.
Main Street, U.S.A., and its shops were more magical when they featured more Americana and less Disneyana.
The giant Mickey Mouse arm holding a wand, installed in 1999 beside Epcot's Spaceship Earth, was supposed to be temporary but never came down. It looks "cheap," "tawdry" and "out of place."
Likewise, the giant Mickey sorcerer hat installed in 2003 as a focal point at Disney-MGM Studios blocks the original view of the faux Grauman's Chinese Theatre and reduces the Hollywood ambience.
Not everything old is embraced, and not everything new is criticized. For example, a designer who goes by the screen name Merlin Jones called The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney's MGM Studios "a masterpiece of Imagineering, bringing the best technology, theming and visual storytelling to the table."
One discussion urges Disney officials, particularly attraction designers, to spend more time as tourists in the parks that they plan.
Former Disney Imagineering designer Justin Jorgensen suggested, "Make them do this during summer tourist season, and you'll see shade structures and water fountains sprout like weeds."
Scott Powers can be reached at spowers@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5441.
Forum debates what deal means for theme parks
Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted March 15, 2006
With Disney's purchase of Pixar, creative minds in both companies may be wondering what the deal might mean for Disney's theme parks -- and some are wondering publicly.
Walt Disney Co. agreed in January to buy Pixar Animation Studios for $7.4 billion. Many Wall Street analysts hailed the merger as a way to infuse Disney's sluggish animated-movie business with Pixar's creativity.
But the deal also included at least one infusion of Pixar talent into Walt Disney Imagineering, the Disney arm that creates theme-park attractions. Pixar creative guru John Lasseter was named to an Imagineering post as part of the deal.
Now some current and former Pixar animators and Disney attraction designers are comparing thoughts about theme parks through an Internet forum started in February. On the unofficial Web site imagineerebirth.blogspot.com, they're speculating about how Pixar might affect the theme parks, then running discussions with the public on issues such as: What attractions work? Which ones don't? And why?
Saying that many of Pixar's employees are passionate about Disney, the site's creator, Pixar story artist Ken Bruce, 42, of Richmond, Calif., said in an e-mail that he wanted to "give voice to all of our concerns, issues which for most of us have been festering for well over a decade.
"It's also no secret that massive changes in the managerial hierarchy at Disney are on the horizon, so there's an interest in striking while the fire is hot," he wrote.
Disney is saying little about the blog. Imagineering spokeswoman Andrea Finger said it's one of hundreds of unofficial sites where people discuss Disney.
"We're proud that our work generates such passion and interest," she said.
At any rate, except for Lasseter's new role, she said there are no plans for merging creative interests at Pixar and Disney Imagineering.
"It absolutely is not in the works," Finger said.
But people at Disney and Pixar are tuning in, so it might yield some influence, said one of the blog's participants, Paul Torrigino of Sacramento, Calif., who said he was a designer with Disney Imagineering for 21 years before being laid off in late 2001.
"I have a little hope because I know everyone's actually reading it, and there's some great stuff in it," he wrote in an e-mail.
Among assertions being made by the blog's writers:
Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean rides are "classics," conceived through animation-style storytelling, and have yet to be topped.
Epcot's Mission: Space was a disappointing replacement for Horizons Pavilion, and offers visitors "virtually no re-rideabilty value," plus motion-sickness bags.
Main Street, U.S.A., and its shops were more magical when they featured more Americana and less Disneyana.
The giant Mickey Mouse arm holding a wand, installed in 1999 beside Epcot's Spaceship Earth, was supposed to be temporary but never came down. It looks "cheap," "tawdry" and "out of place."
Likewise, the giant Mickey sorcerer hat installed in 2003 as a focal point at Disney-MGM Studios blocks the original view of the faux Grauman's Chinese Theatre and reduces the Hollywood ambience.
Not everything old is embraced, and not everything new is criticized. For example, a designer who goes by the screen name Merlin Jones called The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror at Disney's MGM Studios "a masterpiece of Imagineering, bringing the best technology, theming and visual storytelling to the table."
One discussion urges Disney officials, particularly attraction designers, to spend more time as tourists in the parks that they plan.
Former Disney Imagineering designer Justin Jorgensen suggested, "Make them do this during summer tourist season, and you'll see shade structures and water fountains sprout like weeds."
Scott Powers can be reached at spowers@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5441.
