Reaction to DCA artwork
 

Have you guys seen it yet? Chuck has it up on o-meon.com

I see omnimovers!!! (well, what look like they COULD be omnimovers)

While lightyear's better than the hubcab, I'd have to say the Carthay Circle Theater will still leave DCA with the most lame central icon weinie in Disney park history.

And if they think World of Color is going to give Fantasmic a run for its money while featuring NO LIVE PERFORMERS, they are dreaming a worse dream that than the original California Adventure Dreamin'

According to today's WSJ, though, the budget for the remodel is 1.1 billion, which is more than it cost to build the park in the first place. I expect to see some really neat stuff...

I think that now they've consistently lowered expectations for that park, all of this is a VAST improvement, even if it will not create something on the level of Disneyland (or even if it is mediocre, it is still MUCH BETTER mediocre lol).

The Carthay Circle Theatre tho is a bizarre choice for central weenie. It would have been awesome tho to have a REAL icon, a la a giant shiny ball or a 100 foot Stay Puft Marshmallow Mickey which would explode every hour into marshkakke gooeyness, but again, better than the hubcap. And I really wish they would have ditched the DCA name/theme -- and they still might, before all the work is done thru the next 5 years.

I'm really excited for the Mermaid, Cars and Toy Story attractions.

"Marshkakke gooeyness?"
:D

Love it.

$1.1 billion doesn't go as far as it used to.

Some of the more grandiose plans have already been shelved.

The entry should be prettier than it is now, and the artist's rendering of the Carthay Circle Theater that will dominate the new central plaza is ineed pretty, if somewhat lackluster when compared with a medieval castle, a tremendous geosphere, a ginormous mega-tree, or even the Grauman's Chinese Theater.

Frankly, I will miss the Golden Gate Bridge.



I hope you like Pixar. Paradise Pier will indeed look prettier in some ways, but the cool Orange Stinger will be gone (as will the ugly Maliboomer). The buildings will be Victorian, and the area will still be dominated by the Sunwheel and the California Screamin' faux-wooden coaster. Toy Story Midway Mania will be the big new attraction, a C or D ticket at best.

Cars Land might be a pretty little addition, but the TestTrack-like ride will be a D ticket at best.

If you were about to O.D. on Pixar, you might be glad that the Ratatouille Rollercoaster has been shelved. The film has been very popular, but it's not selling plushes.

The Little Mermaid ride may be the big thing. What the hell it's doing in DCA is beyond me. I don't care if they renamed a failed restaurant after Ariel, and have a Triton Carousel .... The Little Mermaid has absolutely, positively NOTHING to do with California. Its an obviously DISNEYLAND attraction being put in the wrong park. Feh. Oh, and I don't believe there are any plans to change the exterior - so the Palace of Fine Arts replica will remain exactly as is.

The rest of the area around the lagoon is likely going to look like rice terraces somehow, but I predict even the coolest water screens and lighting will underwhelm as a major entertainment if there are no live performers.

The Hollywood section is going to look pretty much the same, with a little tweaking - barely noticeable, I bet.

I haven't heard any plans about re-doing the UGLY and BORING farm area and Cannery Row area.


The desert airfield look around Taste Pilot's and Soarin may be re-themed to the nicer Grizzly Mountain stuff. But the Grand Cal is going to intrude further into the park with its DVC wing, and the additions of animatronics and perhaps a train ride to Grizzly Peak have been nixed.



Sorry, but it doesn't sound to me like the $1.1 billion, more than it cost to build the park, is going to re-design the park in any significant way.


What a lametard waste of money!

(cross posted from elsewhere for your reading enjoyment)

I've read several posts in various threads that bemoan the idea of the California theme being diluted. I think that's the idea. DCA will not so much be a tribute to the Golden State anymore, but a unique theme park focussed on Walt's California. From the Red Cars to the Carthay Circle Theatre, to a 21st century take on the long missed Walt Disney Story, this will be stylish, atmospheric, and everything the current theme park isn't. Finally, guests will enter the park and have a sense of being transported somewhere else. I imagine there will be a name change, as well. "Disney's California Adventure" probably being replaced by "Walt Disney's California," again, bringing Walt's experience in California to the forefront.

I love the graphic of the Mickey sunburst from the Mickey Mouse cartoons on the wonder wheel! I'm excited, I think they've come up with a clever and respectful fix to a theme park that, frankly, traded on the Disney name without delivering the goods.

And in reading about it further, I see that Cars Land is going to replace the lamentable Bountiful Valley Farm. I thought it was going to be out in the Timon parking lot, so that's a change I can enjoy.

Because I'm looking for substantive changes to the dreadful park ... not window dressing or changing of a rose's name. (And by "rose" I mean "turd.")




So, what did we have at DCA when it opened: A Hollywood Land, a Seaside Amusement Park, a High Sierra Mountains area, a Flight-Test Desert Airfield zone, an Agricultural Farmland, a Cannery Row facsimile, and a deserted San Francisco Street.


What will we have by 2012: A Hollywood Land, a Seaside Amusement Park, a High Sierra Mountains area, a two-pronged Pixar Movie Land, a Cannery Row facsimile, and a deserted San Francisco Street.



Pardon me, but I don't see much difference. Making DCA prettier and even adding some more attractions does not change its worthlessness as an appealing theme park.


Don't get me wrong: I'm glad it will be better looking. I'm glad there will be more to do.


But it will still be THE SAME PARK.


A Rose.





And by rose, I mean ....

OK IsM I am gonna totally disagree with you here. A facelift IS important because it makes the park more appealing to hang out in. It gives the park some kind of emotional connection that it is currently lacking. As it stands, I hate hanging out in DCA because 90% of the "hang out" sort of areas are fugly and unappealing. The scale models for the DCA entrance look much MUCH better than what I thought (with the exception of the MGM-style turnstiles). It isn't just the removal of the hubcap and the addition of the theatre.

Disneyland is so much fun to walk around in because of the scenery; if DCA's overlay can match that level of detail it will make it a much much better park.

Look at Al's rundown at the end of today's update. It isn't that they're just adding a few things here and there. The two biggest problems with DCA are that it is ugly and there isn't much to do; this is a huge step in the right direction to correcting those things.

And here, there is a thematic shift as to "Walt Disney's California" (emphasis on the Walt Disney) from "A Celebration of California In General (*just add whoopi)". It's a mindset of having a Disney Adventure rather than visiting a park about California in California. Is it the greatest idea ever? No. HOWEVER -- it directly addresses the "who wants to visit a park about California in California?" issue.

IsM I'm not sure why the "deserted San Francisco Street" is a problem (during construction it will be the preview center, and who knows what it'll be after 2012). (FYI Gn2Dlnd and I had a good laugh this morning discussing the 3:00 parade for that area ;) )

They aren't going to demolish the thing and start over. But I guess that the park will forever remain worthless if you're of the mindset that "no matter what they do, the park is unfixable short of leveling the f*cker." :D (Of course, my requisite confusion with IsM's mindset might just be because I'm trying to figure out the mindset of someone whose mindset is unfigureoutable, lol)

I'm hoping that when the planned Little Mermaid area gets put in DCA, that they replace the Little Mermaid area in Disneyland with something else. We'll see, I guess.

:)