Well, if you think about it, it kind of is at a DISNEY theme park. It’s a THEME park not an AMUSEMENT PARK. There’s actually a difference. Theme parks are just what the name implies, a park with rides, shops, shows, games, etc., based on a theme. An amusement park has rides, games, possibly shows and shops but not based on any particular theme. So at a Disney theme park, you’re not going to want to ride much of anything that doesn’t pertain to Disney in some way. So I can totally see why he’d say this, because in the case of a Disney theme park, it would be true.
And here’s the problem, people thinking that Disney Imagineering and the theme parks aren’t a valid arm of the Disney legacy and its own distinct brand and exist solely in subservience to film.
Yes, intellectual properties were part of Disneyland from the beginning. Fantasyland was designed as the home for animated characters and for the most part that was it. People like to say “Frontierland was just there to promote Davy Crockett”, but in reality, it was the other way around. Disneyland needed financial backing and wide promotion which they got with the Disneyland television series hosted by Walt. Each land had its own corresponding programming, with Fantasyland focusing on cartoons and the nature films covering Adventureland, but Frontierland and Tomorrowland required fresh material because these were blind spots in their film library, thus resulting in Davy Crockett being shot in order to promote Frontierland. And there wasn’t even a Davy Crockett ride on opening day, just a small wax museum. Everything else there was just about exploring the wilderness. Also Mark Twain stuff even though Disney wouldn’t make a film based on his work until the 1990s.
Now getting into Imagineering, Walt drew from the animation and film crews to build the parks and they would set the standards many would strive for in the years to come. Marc Davis, the man behind Maleficent, Cruella de Vil, and Tinkerbell gave us the characters and gags of the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, Country Bear Jamboree, and more. Mary Blair, the woman behind the style and color of Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan gave us It’s a Small World. Claude Coats, one of Disney’s lead background artists from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and most of Disney’s Golden Age was responsible for the atmospheric set designs of Pirates and generally where all the spooky stuff in Haunted Mansion came from. Story artist John Hench, who worked on Destino with Salvador Dali would end up being the guy responsible for Space Mountain’s distinctive shape. The list goes on and on and the artists they would in turn inspire would go onto create their own legendary attractions and characters, existing in tandem with attractions based on familiar film faces.
Big Thunder Mountain, Spaceship Earth, the Tiki Room, the Tree of Life, the Forbidden Mountain are all as much iconic Disney locations as Pride Rock, Triton’s Kingdom of Atlantica, Elsa’s Ice Castle, and Wonderland. Figment, the Hatbox Ghost, Big Al, the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, Sonny Eclipse, Buzzy, the Yeti, and Redd are all Disney characters.
DISNEY ATTRACTIONS NOT BASED ON PRE-EXISTING PROPERTIES ARE VALID DISNEY PRODUCTIONS
The single greatest and most fascinating “futurist” architecture movement in the world right now is happening in Bolivia, where national prosperity and a dedication to works for the poor and public housing led to an explosion of colorful styles inspired by Aymara Indian art. There should be more articles about this, the interiors are just as amazing. Incidentally, most of these buildings are not for the rich or in trendy neighborhoods, but are public housing. I’ve heard this style referred to as “Neo-Andean” but like most currently thriving styles it doesn’t have a universally agreed on name yet.
Katsuya Terada’s art accompanied the strategy guides and Nintendo Power Articles about the first few Legend of Zelda games. In essence, his art created the world, and turned simple pixel sprites into fantasy worlds.
