When looking at the Disney Parks fandom as a whole, I don't think there is a general consensus of what the community actually wants. This is such a vast and varied community that spans many generations and demographics, and with a brand that is so heavily tied with nostalgia, different groups of people are going to value different things. Personally, the Rivers of America is a lot more important to me than MuppetVision, but I know many others would disagree.
I was coming here to say something pretty close to this but there are like 9 other posts that echoed feelings I've felt all the while being mixed across the board, and i more or less think that's just how the world works.
There are two sides to every coin and neither side is right: it's all just a coin.
I don't know how old some of y'all are or where some of you are from or how often you go to Disney but i grew up in a travel agent family and got to tour new hotels before they were open to the public as a kid, back when they REALLY needed and valued TA's and pretty much relied on them to not go bankrupt. There are photos where my mom is pregnant with me at the Contemporary and then they came back six months and took another photo in the same spot and -boom- there i am, little bean;
Picked fresh like Disney intended. I have vivid memories of things like walking through Animal Kingdom Lodge with NO ONE in sight. It's surreal. Especially the things that sound weird to talk about in hindsight;
Goosebumps and TMNT in Hollywood Studios, anyone? I'm now in my 30's and I've been to Disney more times than I can count and I don't even live in Florida so it's always been a process for me to make the trip my entire life.
Context aside, if there's ONE thing we've seen that's become INCREASINGLY and FORCEABLY evident is that Walt's dream of
"(the parks) will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world," has been vastly misinterpreted by those in charge for better and for worse. It has become a gimmick for whatever change whomever is in charge wants to justify; I'm mostly looking at Eisner and Iger, here, but it's not like the buck stops there. Unfortunately, capitalism is to blame (yada yada yada), and the money machine that Disney has become also unfortunately knows where their chips lie.
They do not venture into the imaginary the same way they once did. They do not champion innovation the same way they once did. It has simply become intellectual property. The property exists in one medium. It's successful. They bring it to the parks. Rinse and repeat. We are LONG past the point of this being a NEW argument to anyone by any means.
Tiki Room gets Zazu and Iago.
Alien Encounter becomes Stitch's Great Escape.
Universe of Energy becomes Guardians of the Galaxy. You'd have to love the taste of dirt to not see this for what it is, but I'm not saying that I expect anyone to like it, either. I just ALSO expect people to
play favorites, and that may just be me cause i do not give a flying
fart about Rivers of America, but let's not be hypocrites...
Disney is
NOT INDEPENDANT OF THIS by any means. Universal replaced Jaws with Harry Potter and y'all love to talk about that (
the childhood trauma in me refuses) and we all know Spielberg misses E.T. in Hollywood. Even something like Six Flags just blew up Kingda Ka and who knows what it's going to become cause i have no clue.
Change is not new and should not be new for anyone and you can look back on whatever you want with whatever tinted shades you want, it isn't going to stop it from happening. C'est la vie.
Change is one of the only weapons in a company's arsenal to keep things fresh and keep the public interest and attendance coming. I swear there's an alternate realty out there where
Defunctland is an actual thing and it desperately needs a fresh coat of paint because some of y'all are seriously living in the past cause some of that stuff is outdated for a reason
and absolutely 100% needed to go and should never come back and that's why things like Rivers of America becomes CARS in the first place... *sigh*
You aren't the target audience anymore, y'all.
Take a deep breath, cause the only thing to blame are both in the mirror and in the hearts of the the ravenous horde of consumers. Maybe this is the TA side of me coming out to see how many FIRST TRIP TO DISNEY vacations i book, but KIDS are always going to be Disney's game and they hit em while they're young. Point fingers at whoever you want, protest changes at any corner, it really -
truly- does not matter
because the 'MAGIC' Disney supplies has ALWAYS been subjective and the litmus test is now the baby with the ipad, my guys. For every person sitting there saying "
Splash Mountain was XYZ to me" is not seeing the "
Tiana's Bayou adventure is XYZ to me" for the NEW generation. Kids are going to grow up with Monster's Inc and not Muppet Vision -
it hurts me, it brings a little mist to my eyes at the idea of going to Hollywood Studios in the future- but it is ALSO ignoring the people who have never been to the parks or who are going to grow with the parks in this entirely new shape it is in the process of taking. Say it "
lost it's atmosphere/plot" all you want, but when you use it in same sentence as "
nostalgia" you're being redundant imo; You're stating a fact you should've come to terms with
a long time ago.
Yes, this is a theme park. Themes change with the time. Time changes your perception. You are not the same person you were 30 years ago and neither are the parks. Stay in the past or take it on the chin with the rest of us and simply admit that the TARGET audience of Disney is NOT what is was and that THIS generation needs something DIFFERENT. Not bad/wrong/good/evil, but DIFFERENT. DIFFERENT CAN be bad/wrong/good/evil for many, for a whole plethora of reasons, BUT
a company like Disney does not have the time to worry about that if they want to continue to be RELEVANT. For better or for worse TIL DEATH DO US PART. Put the flowers on the gravestone. Say your piece. RIP (
ride and rock-it -sorrynotsorry that one can burn-) and move along. Nothing lasts forever, not even the best and brightest in the Magic Kingdom.
TL;DR - Toy Story's "Strange Things" intensifies.