Kenversations™
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The Good News: There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (At least there CAN be.)
Even if theme parks are not on top of their game at the moment, theme park design principles have been co-opted all over the world for all kinds of public places and even private places, too. The skills of Imagineers can also be useful in other industries. Like accomplished writer/director Adam Bezark once told me, theme park designers should have a skill that could be put to use even if theme parks didn’t exist.

I believe the industry as a whole, especially Disney theme parks, can revive and dazzle again, retaking the forefront of entertainment. Remember that the first generation of Imagineers consisted primarily of filmmakers. Subsequent generations have consisted mostly of people who had grown up with places like Disneyland Park and Universal Studios Hollywood, and now there are designers who were raised on music videos and video games. Maybe it is good that there are Imagineers-at-heart currently working outside of theme park design in films, theater, architecture, television, web design, automobile design, illustration, mechanical engineering, and so forth. When WDI ramps up big-time again, the diversified experience will be helpful.

Yes, attention spans are shorter and audiences are more desensitized these days, but I firmly believe that Disney theme parks will once again regularly open attractions that will keep an audience’s attention for more than five minutes without thrill ride elements or making the audience briefly uncomfortable (not that I mind a good drop or being stung in the back).

There are some principles that would need to be accepted in order to have a new golden age of Imagineering:

1. Though they do require significant and ongoing investment, theme parks are worth building and plussing. I like the Disney resort hotels at Walt Disney World Resort, but there’s no way I’d have gone back for repeat visits if EPCOT Center didn’t exist. Theme parks are a place to immerse your brand’s customers in tangible forms of your product, both exploiting your product’s worth and reinforcing it at the same time. Watching "Song of the South" on your imported laserdisc is one thing. Following Br’er Rabbit on Splash Mountain is entirely different. There’s no better place to sell the tie-in merchandise to your latest television show than your own theme park. Even if a park doesn’t bring in much profit, even if it ends up losing some money when all is said and done, if millions of people a year visit and have a great time, you’re strengthening your brand name and promoting your other products. It also helps to have a nice place to entertain people you’ll be doing business with, and a nice place to throw parties.

2. Off-the-shelf flat rides with decorations, thrill rides with minimal show, short movies, parades and modest stage shows, and vending carts all have their place in Disney theme parks. That place should be in rounding-out parks that have elaborate, detailed, innovative, hard-to-duplicate, ride-through show-filled attractions, dazzling live entertainment spectaculars, distinguished restaurants with great food, and charming shops with a variety of appropriate merchandise.

3. Disney theme parks need to be updated with projects both large and small. Things like Snow White’s Grotto at Disneyland Park may not get people to flock to the park, but they help make the overall experience touching and memorable.

4. There are still a lot of themes and formats that haven’t been done well in theme parks, and there is always new technology, and so there is still so much to be Imagineered Even just making "new & improved" versions of classic attractions can be exciting (think Peter Pan’s Flight with state-of-the-art ride systems, special effects, and lots of space).

5. Walt Disney Feature Animation films with elements Disney already owns can provide excellent material for compelling theme park experiences, whether or not they made a lot of money at the box office. What better way to make something profitable out of "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" and "Treasure Planet", than to use their elements and backstories for some location-based fun? Maybe a movie didn’t tell the story or build up the characters to satisfaction, but that can be done at the park. "Look, Ma…no lawsuits over character rights!"

6. Advancing and adapting new technologies to put Disney’s content to use in new ways is essential to keeping Disney unique and keeping the brand name valuable, and thus WDI needs a strong Research & Development function. Disney could even start new businesses or even industries this way.

7. If the established model -adding large parks with single-price unlimited access to Disney resorts that appeal to the widest common denominator and have attractions that cost $100 million, last five minutes, and have waits of 60-150 minutes- isn’t accomplishing corporate goals, perhaps it is time to explore alternatives, such as smaller parks with a more limited audience (think Busch’s Discovery Cove in the Orlando area), customized progressive pricing, and ‘"feature-length" attractions that immerse the guest in a more leisurely, interactive experience. That brings me to my final principle.

8. Disney needs to use smarter synergy. Synergy can be more than just owning the theme parks where your film characters pose for pictures and owning the stores that sell mugs featuring your film character on the side.