Disney California Adventure 1.0
At D23 the other week, Disney finally made big announcements for the parks. We've been waiting for, well, a long, long time, ever since the vaporware that was trudged out a couple years ago. But progress is finally coming, and most of what we heard was pretty exciting stuff. California Adventure is getting its share of the goodness, but as I sifted through everything my mind kept going back to how this park has really struggled over the years to find its identity.
You see, the original design conceit for DCA was all about California—hence the name. It came out of a three-day charrette in Colorado when Eisner pulled a bunch of senior folks together to figure out what the second gate in Anaheim would be. They'd tried before, such as with the over-the-moon Westcot plans. But by the time the dry erase markers had dried on the boards they'd solved it. They would celebrate the storied history of the state they were from. Lots of material there, so off they went.
DCA 1.0 started out modest. Various lands featured Hollywood, agriculture, flight, and seaside carnivals. Attractions were limited; some, like Soarin', were amazing. Others, like Superstar Limo, were, well...Anyhow, the challenge, as many of you are aware, was that the Paris resort was a financial albatross that convinced Disney execs they'd never again spend that kind of money on a park. The word came down—we'll only do half-parks from now on. At one point it was heard they were finished building new parks. Period. So the budget was severely constrained when Imagineers sat down to figure what to do here. And a big chunk of it was going to the magnificent hotel and shopping district next door.
Skipping ahead over the years we've seen significant changes to DCA. The big turning point was in 2012 when Buena Vista Street and Cars Land opened. Since then it's pretty much turned over to IP overlays, one land at a time. There's not much left pertaining to California these days other than BVS and Grizzly Peak. Hollywood Land, I suppose, but it's pretty dead there and there's really little there that's, you know, Hollywood. And even less when it becomes Avatar Land. Do we count San Fransokyo? Pixar is up the road in Emeryville. But hardly anything that celebrates the heritage of the state. Unless I'm forgetting something, everything announced at D23 had not a thing to do with California. Great stuff, but all from the movies. Oh yes, we're losing the Red Car Trolley.
So, what should Disney do? Change the name? Disney's Hollywood Studios in Florida is perfect for this trend in theming. You've read my take on trying to dump this stuff into the Magic Kingdom, especially when they have a movie-based park down the road. So, DCA could be the west coast movie park. Keep it out of the original Magic Kingdom, please, and do what you will here. And it would be appropriate. So, ideas for names? They're building an amazing world of adventures there in Anaheim. Oh, of course. Disney Adventure World. Perfect.
I'm a big sucker for maps, so here's a preview park map featured in Disney Magazine when DCA was first announced. Fun to see the difference!
