Sorry for the lull in post, guys...
I've had a very busy week followed by an even busier weekend. I've been attending, with the help of a couple friends, the Destination D events and figured I'd bring you a couple of interesting nuggets. The first one was when asked about what was his favorite attraction never built, Tony Baxter mentioned that his favorite was DisneySea in Long Beach (the Port Disney Resort he was referring to). And the designs and plan for that is what allowed Tokyo DisneySEA to be built. That's music to my ears, hearing someone I greatly admire mention that. He GETS it. Let's hope the Disney Suits let him pursue some other dreams he has. I know he had been working on Plus +ing several attractions around the park, but he's got a few grand designs I'd love to see get greenlit. And if all goes well, we should start to hear about some of those as DCA's Phase One gets closer to the end. Cross your fingers. Too bad the Suits wouldn't let him talk about any of this.
But the other thing I wanted to mention, which is rather interesting is how much we owe to Breck Eisner. You know him, right? He's Michael's son. When Eisner first became head of the Mouse he put a halt to all development so he could see what they were working on and decide what would continue and what would be halted. Being as he wanted to see how these projects would be perceived by kids, he brought along his fourteen year old son, Breck to look at the projects. He wanted to see what ideas/concepts lit a fire under his son. Three things in particular made the young lad's eyes light up. Out of all the projects, Star Tours, Splash Mountain and Captain EO were what he liked. All three were then greenlight and the rest is history. We owe that young fella more than you can comprehend, so I guess I'll just have to forgive him for "Sahara."
So with that I only have one question. Where was young Breck when Disney's California Adventure was being thought up? Couldn't Eisner have brought his now early twenties son in and showed him the carnival model? He could of said: "Dad! What were you thinking!?" Saved a lot of time and money. Sadly he was around twenty-four or so and likely finishing up college. Dang higher education! Look at what you have wrought! Ok, ok. Enough of that, but imagine how things could have been different if the young man had just happened to have had bad taste?
You know, like his father...
11 comments:
"You know, like his father..."
Geez, tough crowd. Eisner did alot of things wrong, to be sure. But let's not forget that he did alot of things right, too. And for better or worse, he did take a very personal interest in the parks; more so than Iger has, it seems to me.
I wouldn't expect Tony Baxter to be around this time next year.
^^^^
You and your other jealous buddies can hope that all you like, but he WILL be around. Even if he eventually decides to leave Disney, he will continue to outshine those who, while they have held the power, haven't been able to come near the creative capabilities he has available.
Disney has suffered because of the political subversion that has killed off so many outstanding creative concepts he has come up with. When Baxter does decide to leave Imagineering, I'm looking forward to the book that will expose all the crap that has gone on there.
I had a talk with Tony at Destination D backstage, and he seems pretty excited about some of his projects. I wouldn't count on him being put out to pasture just yet. I don't think he's ready to hand off some of his dreams to others to build. Let's wait and see what happens.
That's interesting, as he's told others very recently that he's retiring of his own will within the year. Doesn't mean he can't continue to consult. He might actually make more consulting non-exclusively (to a variety of theme park concerns including Disney) than he does now.
As to that other guy's petty snipe about "jealous buddies" --- (what are you? Twelve?) --- Tony's not being FORCED to retire. He's just getting tired of the grind. And I suspect he wants to make what he's worth - and the truth is he can make a lot more if he's not exclusive to the Mouse.
I can listen to Tony Baxter for hours. He thinks like Walt and that's what I love about him.
So Breck Eisner has more power than George Lucas? There has to be more to this story than this one guy. There is probably chain of advisors and he interjected at one point.
To Doopy, I think the WORST thing about Eisner, was he was a micro-manager. He thought he knew everything about everything.
Iger doesn't know the theme parks (or animation). He came out of ABC sports. The best thing about Iger, is he allows his management team to do their jobs, without too much interference. He trusts his people enough to allow them to do what THEY know best. That's what THEY were hired to do. To know THEIR business units. It is Iger's job to support them and provide them the tools to do THEIR jobs. And that is why the Walt Disney Company is a better company under Iger.
Jedited-
Like all of the good people that Iger has running the show in Orlando? Maybe he needs to be a little MORE hands-on in that regard.
Going by what I've read elsewhere...while Breck Eisner was resposnible for choosing Splash Mt...he chose it over Western River Expedition, which was among the models presented to him. One of many failed attempts by the imangineers to get that particular attraction built. On the balance, I don't know if that was good or bad...Splash is a terrific ride, but something in me longs for WRE...
- Tasman
I totally agree with JediTed.
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