Question for Another Voice and others

[DVC-Landbaron]

OK Mr. Captain. Evidently I have been unclear. Let’s take it one step at a time. And unlike AV, I’m not even going to try to keep it short. (BREAK OUT THE QUOTE FUNCTION – FULL STEAM AHEAD!!!)

To be what the Disney Company is can only come from the evolution of what the Disney Company was...Walt Disney

You are talking about what AV calls the “Idea” and what I always refer to as the “Walt philosophy”. And truly it is what brings us all together and sets the company apart from anything else I can think of.

Walt set the motion, Roy built on that, Mike & Frank added more

Right, sort of (I suppose) and dead wrong.

Right - Walt did indeed set things in motion and his philosophy or “Idea” was central to the way he did business.

Sort of (I suppose) – Roy, creatively added little to the mix. It wasn’t his “Idea” and there are some stories out there that point to the fact that he didn’t quite ‘get it’. But he did live with his brother long enough to have the Idea rub off on him and, to his credit, he did a good job carrying on after Walt was gone.

Dead Wrong – Mike and Frank, in the early days didn’t do much to take away from the the “Idea”, but they certainly didn’t add to it. And lately Ei$ner has done his best to… well… let’s just say… ‘ignore’ the “Idea”.

And what about Pixar? Oh, they have a wonderful creative environment, but have they been tested? Will they survive some failure? Will Steve Jobs offer them the leadership & ideology for them to say years later "what would Steve have done?" Doubtful don't you think.

WOW!! For as much as an optimist that you are for all things Disney, that is how pessimistic you seem when Disney’s name isn’t attached to the product!! I’ll bet if Jobs did take over as CEO at Disney, you’d be the first to say, “what would Steve have done”.

So Mr. Voice, you can discount pixie dust & Disney Magic as fanciful, hogwash or simply subjective if you choose

Now, far be it from me to answer for the exalted Mr. Voice (chances are he’ll answer before I finish this thing anyway) but, I don’t think he’s discounting it! In fact the opposite is true, for me at least. I embrace the pixie dust. It’s part of the “Idea” we were talking about earlier. It is just that kind of thing (and the CMs you mentioned as well) that set Disney apart from the drivel that’s out there.

It was Walt's to do, much as Microsoft was Bill Gates'.

Correct!! Give the man a cigar!! Walt did it!! And Gates set the tone and direction for his company. Certainly Microsoft wouldn’t be the same if not for Billie Boy! It may be better, it may be worse. But it sure wouldn’t be the same! I think that’s the point.[/quote] For that to happen Vivendi would have to create the loyalty, instill the belief and foot the bill that in this day and age won't happen. [/quote] And the only reason it won’t is because it does not have that all important “Idea”. BUT!! But, if it did have a creative “Walt” type at the head, it’d pass up Disney in a New York second!! Why? Because it’s PEOPLE that make the magic, NOT the company or the brand name. Talented people. Visionary people. “Idea” people. And I think that that is AV’s point.

Disney is Disney because of Walt's legacy and that can't be duplicated.

Sure it could, Captain!! All it takes is a Walt kind of guy. Now they’re not a dime a dozen, I’ll grant you. But somewhere out there I think someone can be found that understands the concept of the “Idea”!! Heck, half the people on the board understand the concept. Even you!!!!

I guess I will close by saying that my exception to a lot of your views (all of you) is that you discount the opinions of those of us who actually still love WDW

WHOA!!! Hold on there partner-Captain!!! By saying that you infer that we do NOT love Disney!! And you know, in my case anyway, that that’s simply not true!!!!

Disney is certainly not what it once was, but what it once was is an impossible ghost of the past.

Ah-ha!!! At last we can agree on something!! But I don’t think it should be an “impossible ghost”. Not if we have the right “Idea” man at the helm. He doesn’t have to be the second coming of Walt. He just has to ‘get it’. Maybe it’s because I ‘get it’ that I run my business that way. I surround myself with more talented people than myself. I set the tone and the goals. I delegate to an almost ridiculous degree. I make myself available. And then I push them to do better!!! Same as Walt!!!! But it all boils down to people.

for if your position is true, Walt was nothing more than a facilitator as Landbaron supposes (and this is where you surprise me, my friend).

Ok, the following is for you my good Captain. It’s a heck of a lot of typing!! I hope you appreciate it!!

The Quotes of the “Idea” man – Walt. First he put a team together:

Togetherness, for me, means team work. In my business of motion pictures and television entertainment, many minds and skillful hands must collaborate…. The work seeks to comprehend the spiritual and material needs and yearnings of gregarious humanity. It makes us reflect how completely dependant we are upon one another in our social and commercial life. The more diversified our labors and interests have become in the modern world, the more surely we need to interrogate our efforts to justify our individual selves and our civilization.

The whole thing here is the organization. Whatever we accomplish belongs to our entire group, a tribute to our combined effort. Look at Disneyland. That was started because we had the talents to start it, the talents of the organization. And our World’s Fair shows – what we did was possible only because we already had the staff that had worked together for years, blending creative ideas with technical know-how.

We developed so many talents as we went along that I lay awake nights figuring out how to use them. That’s how we became so diversified. It was a natural branching out.

You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the world… but it requires people to make the dream a reality.

And then it’s what he did when the team was together:

I haven’t drawn a single character in over thirty years. It’s not only that I have no time for it any longer, but I’ve found development of the stories themselves much more intriguing than drawing. This seems all the more amazing when one considers that each film. No matter how many people have worked on it, has what is called the “Disney touch”. The secret is teamwork. Each character is arrived at by group effort. An artist might have a lot of talent and come up with an excellent idea, but if, after it is thoroughly analyzed, the character cannot be adapted and worked with by the group, we discard it.

Of all the things I’ve done, the most vital is coordinating those who work with me and aiming their efforts at a certain goal.

I think if there’s any part I’ve played… The vital part is coordinating these talents, and encouraging these talents, and carrying them down a certain line. It’s like pulling together a big orchestra. They’re all individually very talented. I have an organization of people who are really specialists. You can’t match them anywhere in the world for what they can do. But they all need to be pulled together, and that’s my job.

My role? Well, you know I was stumped one day when a little boy asked, ‘Do you draw Mickey Mouse?’ I had to admit I do not draw anymore. ‘Then you think up all the jokes and ideas?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I don’t do that.’ Finally, he looked at me and said, ‘Mr. Disney, just what do you do?’ ‘Well,’ I said, ‘sometimes I think of myself as a little bee. I go from one area of the studio to another and gather pollen and sort of stimulate everybody. I guess that’s the job I do.’

It's people Captain. Plain and simple. People who have the "Idea". And are not just some corporate type that barely made it through business 101. Or as our friend bicker is fond of referring to them as "Professionals doing their jobs". Nah! I’ll take a talented dreamer any day of the week.

Your turn!!

 

[Another Voice]

Captain, sir. You speak of “magic” as if it was the birthright of a corporation. That once granted, it shall always exist and none other shall possess it. Somewhere, deep in a vault buried deep beneath Burbank’s soil, there is The Secret Recipe of Disney that grants a luster of unimagined joy. You also speak of Cast Members as a different breed of human – for they too can exist only at Disney theme parks and not others.

Sir, you are wrong. Cast Members are normal people, just like you and me, who day in and day out perform an incredible job in circumstances more difficult than you can know (and I do know what’s it like – I worked my way through college paddling guests around The Rivers of America way back in that impossible ghost of a time). And in two decades working on the Disney lot, I never saw the vault, the glow from a secret lab, or anyone wave a magic wand over a can of film. I did see, and continue to see, thousands of people working damn hard at their jobs. It has nothing to do with their location or the brand name that gets slapped on the product – what you see and enjoy is the result of their sweat, their effort, and their creativity. To explain those efforts as if it was just something in the water is a great disservice to all.

Disney is not a tiki god that needs to be thanked for the bounty it provides. “Disney” is the result of thousands and thousands of cast members, employees and others who work at their jobs. Disney is a living, breathing entity filled with fallible human beings. These people are not granted special powers because their paycheck has a mouse on it, nor are people who don’t work at Disney somehow a lesser form of artist.

The vast majority wants to do a good job, but some do not. Some lack the skill to achieve their goals, other are prevented from achievement through no fault of their own. And leadership is not always wise – the Universe did not grant the top floor of the Team Disney building an exemption from ego, greed or vice. Disney, like any human endeavor, occasionally makes mistakes. People should be told of great successes (‘The Princess Diaries’, DisneySea), but those projects that fall short of the goals should not be denied out of some misplaced sense of loyalty.

You write of Walt’s legacy and that is good – because that is what many, many of us are trying to uphold. Walt’s legacy can be duplicated by anyone who believes in it. It is not tied to a single place, nor does it have to come wrapped only in one kind of package. A living legacy only requires hard work and an attitude that does not accept anything less. To say that only a select few are capable of understanding what Walt was trying to accomplish means you are saying that he had nothing to say to the rest of the world. And I don’t believe that for a moment.

And let me close where you did, “…those of us who actually still love WDW”. That is why I am here. I do not want to see Disney diminish or disappear. I do not want them to slide into mediocrity. I want others to get the same enjoyment and enrichment that I found. And I will not let the legacy slip away or be turned into nothing but a marketing slogan.

You cannot measure what “Disney” means to me based on the number of nights stayed each year – but that doesn’t make it any less important.

 

[Captain Crook]

Oh, you guys. Do you even read what you write?

First off Hopemax, I am a very introspective person by nature...The bane of my miserable existence, I fear. But I am also a pragmatist. I can see beyond the good & the bad decisions of management and still enjoy WDW for what it is. Despite the Eisnerization of Disney (like that Landbaron?), WDWis still a fun place to visit. Much more fun than US/IOA, SeaWorld or Busch Gardens. Therefore, in my book, Disney is still the best and this is what really matters to me.

From here it's helter skelter...

Mr. Another, What other logical conclusion do you offer for the majority of WDW CM's being special, seeing themselves as special & servicing the guest in a far superior manner to their Orlando counterparts if it isn't an ingrained "Disney feeling?" I am fully aware that these CM's are "just people" but in my many conversations with them, they know they are different than the employees at other Parks and they relish in that. Oh, to be sure there is the oddball, but by and large this is an extraodinary group of people behaving in a way that I don't see or experience in any other venue. This is a result of a "Company mentality" started by Walt and maintained to this day. US/IOA would love this devotion but they can't have it. Why not? Because they don't have the history that people (including employees) love, cherish, honor & get all goose-bumpy over that Disney does. You see. it doesn't have to be tangible, hell, it doesn't even have to be real!

Further, in this day and age, this "magic" feeling will never again be seen. The human animal has changed and the devotion necessary to foster this far reaching socialogical behavior isn't at all likely in today's world. Sure there will be individuals with the talents, but greed & power will corrupt even them. There will be no new Walt Disney (until he is thawed). Other great men will walk the earth, many great new stories will be seen, but Walt's has been told and to assume that some great, imaginitive, business fellow who idolizes Walt's ideology will suddenly appear at the helm of Disney and start making the right choices for the right reasons is niave. We are far more likely to see Ted Turner or Rupert Murdoch in Mikes chair...

Disney IS a Company, like all other companies except for one thing. A special legacy of Walt Disney that I believe still exists today. It doesn't shine as bright and maybe someday that light will be extinguished. But I loved the WDWof the 90's and it isn't that big of stretch to get back to that place. Is my glass half full? Well, yes, maybe more. But my faith is in the on-going system that has run a particular way for many, many years but will cease to exist under a new system run by another, totally independent meglamaniac like Gates, Case or Murdoch...

 

[JeffJewell]

I must have been dozing, for it appears the Landbaron and AV have beaten me in replying to your post, CC, and both did so with style and aplomb, I'd say, but don't think for a second that's going to affect the length of my own post...

But the basics were set by Walt and still are entrenched at Disney today.

Well, at least we get to the heart of the disagreement right up front.

To me the basics of Disney Magic had to do with creativity, storytelling and lush detail. I just can't agree with you that these are still entrenched at Disney as the central foci of what the Company does.

How else can you explain CM's?

You explain CM's with the extensive new hire and continuing training programs that have largely fallen victim to budget cuts over the years (Disney's training methods are no longer the benchmark for the corporate world they once were). No one is born with a "CM" birthmark on their forehead, branding them forever as a quality Disney Cast Member. It takes training and dedication to make a CM in the way you're using the term. Simply cashing a Disney paycheck doesn't do it.

you can discount pixie dust & Disney Magic as fanciful, hogwash or simply subjective if you choose

Actually, he didn't do any of those things. He merely stated the correct opinion that a "copyright Disney" sticker does not, in and of itself, inbue any Magic into a project.

When you first saw the Power Rangers, did you think "well, another UltraMan... and there's five of them, now," or did you think "now, _that_ is a production that meets Disney's standards for Quality and Magic?" When you see them again next year with the Disney stamp of approval on them, what will have changed about the episodes themselves?

The name Disney, in this context, means absolutely nothing.

if your position is true, Walt was nothing more than a facilitator as Landbaron supposes (and this is where you surprise me, my friend). A "Disney" would not have grown by happenstance.

"Facilitator" doesn't imply anything about the nature of that which is facilitated. Eisner is "nothing more than a facilitator" as well, it's just that he facilitates share-oriented goals whereas Walt facilitated creative goals. It's the focus, not the function, that is crucial.

It was Walt's to do, much as Microsoft was Bill Gates'.

Although I know what you mean, MS/Gates is a bad comparison: Gates is much more of an Eisnerian marketer than a Disneyesque creator.

IOA is a nice Park, but few people see any magic in it.

I've read and heard a number of dissenting opinions on that topic.

For that to happen Vivendi would have to create the loyal, instill the belief and foot the bill that in this day and age won't happen

Yeah, but it's not happening in this day and age at Disney, either.

I guess I will close by saying that my exception to a lot of your views (all of you) is that you discount the opinions of those of us who actually still love WDW.

And I will say that my exception to a lot of your views (all of you, and you "all" know who you are) is your assumption that I do not love Disney, simply because I am willing to point out the places where I think it could be much better.

By saying all of the negative things you feel, you're saying we're chumps for still believing and perhaps thats true, but I'm a chump who has truly enjoyed WDW 21 nights so far this year

That's nonsense. If that were true, I'd be calling _myself_ a chump for preparing my twelfth through nineteeth nights this year at WDW come December.

Car #3 is still going to Disney World, okay? We love it, too. We're complaining so things will change so it will flourish in the future, instead of continuing down the path of becoming more and more like every other media conglomerate in the world.

Disney is certainly not what it once was...[snip] I agree that many things could and should be done better

That sounds like an application for at least Car #2.

why, when the enjoyment factor for my family is still there, should I ruin it by purposly being too introspective?

So you think we're ruining our enjoyment of Disney by suggesting that things could be even better, from several different perspectives, if the creative focus of the early had not given way to the marketing focus of recent years? It doesn't ruin _my_ enjoyment of Disney, I'm still going.

Believe me, everyone will know if I ever get into Car #4 so I can see Disney in the rear view mirror.

what it once was is an impossible ghost of the past.

I disagree: I believe that a CEO with a skill for handling creators and a commitment that the company be creative can result in Magic on an old-time Disney scale.

Jeff

 

[DVC-Landbaron]

Despite the Eisnerization of Disney (like that Landbaron?)

I LOVE it!!!

But you left out the all important "$"!

It should read: "Ei$nerization"

 

[YoHo]

Captain my Captain, The Harley is hitting the brakes and pulling up alongside the Another Voice Woody.

I will grant you this. Disney, The Name, Does attract people with a certain bent. Their history helps them to draw creative people and friendly people to work there.


BUT


The notion that no other company could have done it, or that no other company will ever be able to do it again is just dumb. An I apologize for being so harsh. I don't like using words like that, but you should no better.

The fundimentals that make Disney disney, that make the magic magical are a way of thinking and doing. I could do it, you could do it, anyone with the desire to do it could.

It would take a genious of Walt's caliber to run the company the way he did, but certainly anyone could foster those ideas and with the appropriate people in the creative departments, you could create magic.

 

[hopemax]

Further, in this day and age, this "magic" feeling will never again be seen. The human animal has changed and the devotion necessary to foster this far reaching socialogical behavior isn't at all likely in today's world. Sure there will be individuals with the talents, but greed & power will corrupt even them. There will be no new Walt Disney (until he is thawed). Other great men will walk the earth, many great new stories will be seen, but Walt's has been told and to assume that some great, imaginitive, business fellow who idolizes Walt's ideology will suddenly appear at the helm of Disney and start making the right choices for the right reasons is niave. We are far more likely to see Ted Turner or Rupert Murdoch in Mikes chair...

And this may be where the divide really lies.

I do believe that the "Magic" can be seen again. Are the business leader's of today really more ruthless than the JP. Morgan's or the Rockefeller's? Are the leaders in Hollywood really more controlling than the Louis B. Mayer's and Charlie Mintz's? Union busting, blackballing and all the other underhanded tactics of the business world used in the last bit of the 19th and the first part of the 20th century, if in all of that a Walt Disney could be found, why not now?

 

[Another Voice]

Captain, sir. I wish you had been around the company twenty years ago – the very time your idol took over. You would have heard the exact same things then that you are writing today: It’s Our Traditions, It’s Walt’s Men’s, No One Can Do It Better, The Others Won’t Understand, Only We Have The Magic…..

Not only were the people who had worked with and had been trained by Walt shoved out the door, do you know what this new guy’s claim to fame is? ‘Flashdance’ – that pour the water from the bucket, dance in your leotard, all I want to do is perform gem of a movie, that 100 minutes of cinematic “magic” was Michael Eisner’s big ticket into Hollywood fame and fortune. And he didn’t even make it, he was just the junior executive that signed the check. THAT was the company’s future. And you seem to have liked the results. If Walt’s legacy is strong enough then, why do you lack the faith today?

Walt’s legacy is not a brand name, a system, or a bunch of loyal customers. It is a commitment to the hard work it takes to change imagination into reality. Anyone who chooses to follow that lead – no matter where they work – can uphold that legacy. And on the opposite side, assuming the brand name of the founder does not reduce the workload, grant the imagination, or “magically” overcome laziness and greed.

Good work can exist without the Disney brand name – and a Disney label does not guarantee quality. We do not attack Disney when we like something outside of The System nor when we dislike something from The Brand.

 

[Captain Crook]

Scoop, as with DisDuck in past brouhaha's, you certainly CAN speak for me!

 

[YoHo]

Scoop, Capt. Your missing it.


the Part of DIsney that makes it like Steve McQueen is not magically connected to the Disney name.


The Differences between the Hyatt Grand Cypress and the YC/BC are the Story. the Disney Grand Cypress wouldn't magically be better. but the Hyatt YC/BC if it were built with the same story to the same specs would be just as magical.

I feel like I'm on the cusp of a break through and Its driving me nuts that I can't get you to understand.

 

[Captain Crook]

I feel like I'm on the cusp of a breakthrough...

Take two aspirin and post again in the morning.

 

[JeffJewell]

I feel like I'm on the cusp of a break through and Its driving me nuts that I can't get you to understand.

...welcome to my world.

Jeff

PS: Four in a row? Landbaron? Anyone?

 

[hopemax]

Ohh...I have mind tricks...hmm...Disney management must be either Jabba the Hut or Watto..."Your Jedi mind tricks do not work on me...only money..." Hmm...maybe that would explain a lot, Disney is being taken over by Toydarians!

I don't know much about Steve McQueen though, I remember my Dad watching the Towering Inferno though. I don't remember looking at the screen and exclaiming, "Who is that man?!" and finding myself sitting down and watching it. So I don't know how much "special something" McQueen really had, he certainly didn't do anything for me that day.

<------ also sees the cusp, and hopes Yoho can make it up the hill.

I think I see in the haziness of my mind things like being in a car and the driver has it in cruise control, and from my seat I can see that the gas gauge is below a quarter of a tank. We're just passing the sign for "gas 1 mile, next gas 111 miles" and the driver changes into the left lane and is telling me, "Don't worry we've driven the last 111 miles just fine, why should the next 111 miles be any different?"

 

[YoHo]

(whho-khhhhhhh whhho-khhhhhhhhh)

It is....Too Late for me my friends. The Landbaron is your master now. HE will show you the TRUE meaning of the MOUSE.

 

[JeffJewell]

In all seriousness though, besides Captain, does not anyone else feel the intangible? Do you all really believe that Hyatt running the YB/BC would be the same?

I absolutely feel the intangible, but I'm convinced that the greater portion of that intangible something is actually coming from my own memories, not anything that Disney is doing much differently from anyone else, these days. I've alluded to the fact that we'd still be going to Orlando in December even if Eisner decided that torching the parks and collecting the insurance money is the best way to remain profitable: it's a family trip with significance that dates back 29 years, now. We would stand on the ashes of Cinderella Castle, take our pictures, and still feel Magic, because a big chunk of "our" Magic is 1972 Magic.

It comes down to how we're each defining "Magic," again. Yes, I feel Magic at the Contemporary (as long as I'm looking away from the Garden Wings), but that's not because they've done such a good job maintaining and adding to the Magic, it's because of the effect the place had on me when I was six.

I still believe the "intangible" something is actually the result of very tangible story-telling and detailling: that the Magic isn't the brand name on the product, it's what _in_ the product.

To pick at a scab we haven't opened up for a while, now: consider Dino-Rama, particularly Triceratops Spin. Even though you and I might be in the "I'm finally back in WDW, back-stroking in the Magic: this is the best spinner I've ever been on," I feel that Magic was instilled in us before we saw the ride itself.

I simply have no idea what it might be about Triceratops Spin that will provoke that Magical feeling in new guests, someone who wasn't already Disney-addled before this trip.

That's the thing, to me. Will Triceratops Spin "ruin" my ride on Space Mountain? Of course not. Will the six-year-olds of today, in thirty years, have the same attachment to Triceratops Spin as I have to Space Mountain, even if they enjoy the ride, now?

I just don't think so.

Jeff

 

[All Aboard]

Will the six-year-olds of today, in thirty years, have the same attachment to Triceratops Spin as I have to Space Mountain, even if they enjoy the ride, now?

Why not? Do you have an attachment to Dumbo or the Mad Tea Party? Why wouldn't someone who's first trip to WDW included the Magic Carpets of Aladdin and Tricertops spin share the same feelings or attachments that we do to Dumbo?

If I were a CM right now, and I had to choose my "magical memory" for the bottom of my name badge, it would likely read "Space Mountain." That's the best memory from my first trip. That doesn't proclude me from having positive memories about Dumbo.

I do get an enormous thrill out of being able to take my daughter on Dumbo and recalling near-thirty year old memories of it. Our daughter will likely remember Dumbo in a similar manner to how she remembers the Carpets or the Spin, I believe.

 

[JeffJewell]

Our daughter will likely remember Dumbo in a similar manner to how she remembers the Carpets or the Spin, I believe.

Well, yeah, because Dumbo is just a cheap spinner, too.

I apologize for that, I'm weak and I couldn't resist.

For the sake of this argument, I'm gonna call back the Pop Century thread real quick, but this time, I'll agree with you that the All-Star Movies, with its 40 foot Buzz Lightyear, does qualify as traditional "Disney Magic," on the basis that it recalls Disney memories. Dumbo, therefore, is themed in a Disney Quality fashion: you see the big ears, you remember the movie; Disney Magic.

What Disney Magic is there in a Triceratops? Quite literally, _anyone_ can build a spinner with a Dino theme. If the gist of the question still concerns the 'scoop's point of that intangible Disney something-or-other, there is nothing that Disney is contributing to this ride that another company could not.

I'm not saying your daughter won't remember it fondly, I'm just saying that she'll remember it fondly in the same way she'll fondly remember other good times with her dad, and not because of the Disney Quality, Story, and Detail packed into the ride; not because of the "intangible Disney essence" stuff that spurred me to post.

Jeff

PS:

Do you have an attachment to Dumbo or the Mad Tea Party

Actually, not a lot, no. Even at six, I had been enough places that the Dumbo-style spinners and Tea Party style hurlers were old hat. My Space Mountain example was supposed to carry with it the implication that it was the extra attention paid to Space Mountain in contrast to the detail on similar but non-Disney small scale steel coasters that delineated the Disney difference(obviously, my example was slacking off its intended duty). The fond memories I have of Dumbo mostly involve my mother trying to keep her wig on (hey, it was the early 70's: that kind of thing was fashionable, then) and my little sister seated at the same time, not the incredible detail on Timothy's hat.

It can also go the other way: in my younger days, I was bored silly by Pirates of the Caribbean. Now, I have to ride it on every trip to MK, if only to see that first scene with the skeleton lashed to the wheel and the storm boiling behind him. Stunning, chilling effect that was simply lost on me as a youngster.

 

[YoHo]

I don't think that Eisner, or Eisner/Wells have added nothing. There are any number of things that they added that will be classics. (on the flip side, I loved the old Frontierland station that was bulldozed to make Splash mountain)


What I'm trying to say is that anyone can do this.

The only Intangible Disney has is Memories, History. And that would be the only intangible that they exclusivly have even if Eisner was so good that he made Walt look like a boob.

The skills and attitude that it took to create the Disney parks can be had by anyone. The history of those parks cannot. Children of today and tomorrow will remember the history through their parents eyes and so on and so forth.
In 15 years, You might see that kind of Devotion to the Universal parks as well.

Again, History is the only intangible.

 

[Captain Crook]

In 15 years, You might see that kind of Devotion to the Universal Parks as well.

See, this is where I disagree. While US/IOA have many fans and even a few rabid ones I don't think you could characterize it as anything that approach's the devotion to things "Disney". Certainly, the possibility exists for this to happen but it is so miniscle I don't even take it seriously. This devotion & care would have to be fostered over much time, even generations, and Vivendi doesn't care about that...Heck Disney seems to care only because it's their legacy...

 

[YoHo]

Its possible Uo doesn't have what it takes, I don't know. BUT, Even if they failed, it doesn't mean someone else couldn't succeed. Given the right attitude, a good start and a way into the collective memory (Disney Films were Walt's way in) someone else could easily duplicate that success.