A Park in Bad Shape
What’s wrong with the Walt Disney Studios park? Theme park fans have been providing a barrage of answers for 12 years now, eagerly filling up blog posts, podcasts and forum threads with various lists of the park’s failings. But for all the discussion, most of their conclusions fall into just two categories: the lack of attractions and the park’s barren, unwelcoming environment.
It’s hard to argue with either point. This is the park that opened with just nine attractions, most of which were shows or walkthroughs with little repeat value. Beyond the impressive entrance plaza the park consisted of ugly, box-like buildings, empty expanses of tarmac and a parade of steel pylons, wired with industrial lighting and loudspeakers. There were no water features, no greenery, no shelter from the elements and almost nowhere to sit. Everything was painted in shades of beige and grey. It was a singularly joyless place.
Things have got a lot better since then of course. The Animation Courtyard, formerly one of the most desolate corners of the park, has been reborn as Toon Studio, incorporating several well-themed expansions, while the Tower of Terror now looms over everything, adding some much needed thrills and a striking visual icon to match. Better yet, Disney have abandoned the flimsy conceit that this is a working movie studio and every new addition from Toy Story Playland onward has focused on immersing guests in the world of the story being told, putting us ‘inside the screen’ rather than ‘behind the scenes’. So while it’s undeniable that there’s still a lot of work to do (half the park remains almost untouched since opening day) things are definitely looking up.
Or are they?
Having read much of the online discussion, it strikes me that the majority of critics have overlooked the park’s biggest flaw. The lack of attractions and atmosphere are certainly problems but they’re easy ones to fix — you just build more. That may sound trite but it’s exactly what Disney are doing, not only in the Studios Park but in California Adventure and Hong Kong Disneyland. A little imagination and a lot of money are all that’s needed. Unfortunately, the park’s real drawback is something far more fundamental and much harder to fix: its layout.
The physical composition of a theme park can be almost impossible to appreciate when you’re standing in it. After all, it’s the last thing the designers want you to think about and, if it’s done right, you’ll probably never even notice it. Just think: when walking through the Disneyland Park, have you ever encountered a redundant pathway that didn’t clearly lead to anything? Or an abrupt dead end where the park simply stopped? Or an area that was just inherently awkward to move around? Of course not. Because, in addition to its rich themes and endless details, the Disneyland Park is a masterpiece of civil engineering. Instead of being allowed to gradually filter into the park from front to back, guests are mainlined into the very heart of the park via Main Street USA, where they can then disperse evenly throughout the various lands. The main walkways offer clear sightlines of the major attractions (the famous ‘visual weenies’, designed to draw attention) but never give direct and immediate access. Instead, they flow and twist, fracture and reform, breaking up the crowds into manageable chunks and forcing people to slow their pace. This stops the park’s main arteries becoming race tracks, with everyone sprinting towards the nearest E-ticket, but also buys Disney time to point guests towards other items of interest. This is a park that rewards exploration, constantly revealing new ‘weenies’ and attractions in a series of visual treats. We’re always being shepherded to a new destination. The real trick is, they make us think it was our idea in the first place.
The Studios Park has none of this. Instead, it forces people through the narrow choke-point of the Studio 1 building before dumping them on what amounts to little more than a single tarmac roadway, the attractions lined up like strip-mall shops on either side. People don’t flow through the park so much as slop from one end to the other, like waves in a bathtub.
The problem is exacerbated by the park’s diminutive size. Unlike the Disneyland Park, which can swallow tens of thousands of people without chewing, the Studios’ small footprint leaves no spare room for crowds to disperse. With nowhere to put themselves, people just start to get in each other’s way and the park starts to feel very busy, very quickly.
For a practical demonstration of the problems this can cause, we need look no further than the now defunct Disney Cinema Parade, which caused chaos each time it rolled through the perimeter gates into the Backlot. Even on a moderately busy day, the crowds that gathered to watch were sufficient to block the exit to Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster, which opens directly onto the parade route. Worse still, they made the Rue Georges Méliés (the narrow avenue connecting the Backlot with Place des Stars) absolutely impassable. The Cast Members in charge of Armageddon frequently had to close the attraction, as people were unable to gain access (or be safely evacuated) for the duration of the parade. Movement from one area of the park to another became impossible as the parade blocked attractions and choked the main thoroughfare. For twenty minutes every day, the park ground to a halt.
But the most shortsighted aspect of the park’s design undoubtedly remains the positioning of the Studio Tram Tour attraction. Hugging the uppermost edge of the park, it acts as a barrier to expansion, separating the Studios from the vast tract of undeveloped land that sits, ready and waiting, to the south west. The park cannot grow without rerouting the attraction, which has already moved twice to make way for Toy Story Playland and La Place de Remy. Even now, 12 years after it first opened, I can’t look at the ride without wondering what on earth the Imagineers were thinking.
But for all the problems, there have been improvements. The cancellation of the Cinema Parade in favour of the smaller, more versatile Stars ’n’ Cars event was a step in the right direction, while the expansion of Toon Studio means that that side of the park no longer terminates in a dead end, and the bolder, more immersive environments of Toy Story Playland and La Place de Remy encourage people to linger.
The problem won’t really be solved until the Imagineers pluck up the courage (and the money) to cross the Tram Tour route, however. Only then will the park have the room it needs to start afresh, extending Hollywood Boulevard to a true central hub and mimicking the layout of its sister park across the esplanade. Various master plans have been drawn up over the years but, with no money to fund them, they’ve gone nowhere.
That might all change now that the Walt Disney Company is taking a more active interest in the resort’s fortunes. With enough time, effort and money — a lot of money — perhaps this ailing Parisian starlet could still get her big break.
This is a slightly amended version of an article I originally wrote for the Hollywood & Lime blog, run by @ejh92x My thanks to the old WDSFans website for allowing me to pinch appropriate images.
