The Disney Frontier Blog

ever since Walt died everything that made Disney good is gone. Think about it, the original shops on main street each had a them( wizard of bras, the candle shop, flower shop,) Now all of the stores at Disney sell the same stuff but they just have different names. Disney channel used to be all about mickey and his friends, Now Disney channel only has bad TV shows with bratty teenagers. Walt's original concept for Disneyland was a place where parents and kids could have fun together, now Disney is all about making money. Walt didn't care if he made money or not on Disneyland, he just wanted families to have fun together. Disney is all wrong... Walt wouldn't want this.

they are also getting rid of the peach swing. They are going to remake it to be a mickey themed swing.

i agree with many here, some of this is great, but all of the re-theming is silly. Most kids don't care about Goofy or the Silly Symphonies or the Carthay Theater... the front gate was beautiful and unique while the new entrance looks just like another ripoff of Florida. Hollywoodland needs the most help - the Muppets are old retreads, the Millionaire building is still empty... the whole park needs rides NOT newly faced shops and a mickey face on the Sun Wheel. and the scary thing is they're doing so much at once, we will be stuck with all this for a long long time. Someone needs to reel in John Lasseter and whoever else thought up "California Pixar Adventure Land" Disney can and has done sooooo much better.

you are wrong to say "most kids don't care about Goofy or the Silly Symphonies or the Carthay Theater". not that it isn't true, but the point is they SHOULD be interested in history and it is up to the parents and the park to show the history so the little kids don't grow up being idiots like some people who post on this site. I do agree that the entire idea of putting a California themed land in California was the single dumbest thing they ever did (pixar or no pixar). The reason New Orleans Square wasn't put in Disney World was because they thought it was too close to the real thing. If you travel to California and want to see the landmarks you are going to visit the landmarks (related dumbass theme area: Universal Studios actually has a mural of the Hollywood hills as a photo backdrop on the same deck that overlooks the Hollywood hills.) Back to Disney, just build a replica of Tokyo's DisneySea instead and I'll call it good enough.

This is quite interesting, keep stuff like this coming, you impress me all the time!

This sounds exciting, with new rides and other stuff however, since this is Disney California Adventure, they should also put in Aerosmith Rock N Roll rollercoaster ride because I love that ride because with twist and turn on the L.A. Freeway and backround music. If you like to know what walt disney cars the ride is like, take a ride on the test track ride in Epcot center in Orlando Florida. otherwise this new expansion will be exciting

Disney is MORE hokey than in the 70's. They still had pride back then. They would never have made a Peter Pan Land or Fox & the Hound Land, give me a break! It's called Fantasyland and Peter Pan is just a small part of it. They are so low on imagination any more, all they can think of is making a whole land for a single movie. They are so driven by dollar signs that everything has to be branded with a proven marketable character. This type of attitude is not how Disney became a worldwide phenomenon.

Not too long ago, near the end of the Disney we knew and loved, they made a ride based on animated characters that did NOT have a hit movie behind them. This ride was immensely popular and is still a huge draw bringing people to the parks. Hard to believe? It's called Splash Mountain. Why can't there be some of that imagination in California Adventure? Let the quality of the ride be the draw, instead of making a cheesy ride out of popular characters?

Speaking of which, have you seen the concept art for the makeover of the Sun Wheel? All the Mickey's gang characters with smiles so big it looks like their heads might fall off. It's sickening.

Splash Mountain was INDEED based on characters from the Walt Disney Classic SONG OF THE SOUTH. If you actually rode on it (I suspect you haven't) you couldn't miss Brer Rabbit and Brer Bear or the fact the entire song track from SONG OF THE SOUTH. Though you may not consider SONG OF THE SOUTH a hit, many people do.

Splash Mountain WAS based on a popular Disney Movie -the Song of the South. They also used some of the characters from a Disneyland attraction "America Sings".

They think by adding disney characters and images is going to save this park? They should've investigated and let the public throw in great input like those of you here did. Tower of Terror is a great attraction that was very well done and Splash Mountain, those were the last two highly imaginative attractions in both parks that they did. The rest are like, 'eh' okay where's the magic and innovation? I think the "Little Mermaid" will be a good one. Not sure about "Cars" land, did anyone see that movie? Make the land death valley or something having to do with the desert in California...after all it is California Adventure, not Disney Movies Land. They're doing that because they're thinking marketing and money, not magic. Still, it's got to be better than how the park is now.

Let me make two suggestions to help Disney improve their parks:

(1) Some of the most popular rides Disneyland and Epcot had in the 1980s were based upon then-popular movies and videos not made by Disney--specifically Star Tours (based upon Star Wars), and Michael Jackson's special 3-D film based upon his Thriller video. Universal adopted this by adding Superman and Spiderman attractions and then adding a Back to the Future Ride (which was based upon a movie they owned)--and by adding a Star Trek attraction based upon a property they acquired. (In other words, movies and TV and videos are fine--but pick popular ones, not just the ones Disney or Pixar puts out); and

(2) Why not do stuff that is based upon well-known California attractions like the redwoods or the cable cars of San Francisco or Death Valley or Highway 1 along the coast from Santa Barbara to Carmel (including a section showing Hearst Castle, sea otters, aquarium, Monterey/Carmel, and Santa Barbara Panorama). What about Lake Tahoe, or a volcano (Lassen Volcanic park), the Winchester Mystery House, the Yosemite/Sequoia parks, Mammoth Mountain ski resort, or even some history (Gold Rush, Donner Party, old Spanish missions, Cannery Row, SF earthquake, Chinatowns, etc. The absolutely only thing I saw that was California related was a boardwalk similar to the one in Santa Cruz, and a ride section called "Gold Rush" that really had nothing related to anything on the Gold Rush, and the Hollywood section (which has been repeated ad nauseum at about 20 amusement parks).

Just a suggestion (or two).

You are wrong. Michael Jackson's 3D attraction was a Walt Disney Production called CAPTAIN EO by producer George Lucas and director Francis Ford Coppola. It had nothing to do with Thriller. It was a Walt Disney movie that showed within the parks themselves much like AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL which used the CircleVision process instead of the 3D process.

I agree with Gimlock--what's with all the movie and character-based stuff? I like the one Cars ride--but you could do this just as well without referring to the movie, which almost nobody watched. (It was the #1 movie in the US for exactly two weeks, then fell to #5 within 3 weeks, and #14 three weeks after that). Yes, it made money, but nobody remembers it like Toy Story, so why make an entire "land" within the park based upon it.

The Disney company needs to realize there is an entire world out there that is not based upon their hokiness. The world has changed since the 1970s, but apparently Disney doesn't want to change with it. And why call it California Adventure if the plan is to feature attractions based upon a young Walt Disney, and upon Disney movies. Why not just call it Disney Retrospective? That would describe it much better than calling it California Adventure, since personally, I don't see anything "California" about it except the winery.

It's really sad, because I used to go to Disneyland and Epcot all the time years ago--but when Disney stopping updating their stuff--I moved on--as the world did. When I go to southern California now (I live near San Francisco), I'd much rather visit Universal Studios or Sea World or the Getty Museum, or the Huntington Gardents or the beaches (Huntington Beach or Newport Beach) rather than waste my money on this turkey.

I think if the park gets more popular and attendance increases, it would stay open later and probably open earlier. At least I hope so.

I live in the UK and have visited DCA many times. It is my favorite theme park along with Universal IOA.

I think the changes are fantastic and should be a huge success. I just hope that once the changes are made the park stays open till 8pm or later - the park has a fantastic atmosphere at night.

Well done again Disney

Wow this is quite a disappointment, not that I expected much better. They are tearing down things that I thought were fine, and changing the style to look like Hollywood Studios in FL which I think is the ugliest park. All the new stuff sounds really unoriginal, uninspired, and ultra-character-based. They should have cleaned out Imagineering before giving them $1billion. Lack of funding was NOT the main problem with DCA. It's lack of inspiration.

Hey can you change the way you embed youtube vids.. there's no fullscreen button!