D23 And The Shift In New Disney Park Projects

Disney Parks are an odd thing to behold. They can be these big, elaborate art pieces that represent so much creative ingenuity and expression from those who develop the attractions, with showcases of new technology. And yet, they can also be crass, commercial, and hollow in simply presenting brands slapped onto cheap additions. The last decade or so of Disney attractions have been a mixed bag. For every genuinely good idea, there’s stuff like the Epcot revamp or Princess and the Frog replacing Splash Mountain that, while good ideas, felt compromised by certain elements of management. The recent D23, however, has brought a different sort of tone and approach and may spell a new direction for the future of rides at Disney. Rather than just focusing on new, branded rides, many announcements felt tailor-made for the park fans and to improve more niche experiences.

The first big announcement like this of note was that the Space Mountain in Disneyland Paris will return to its original theming. For years, it has been stuck as Hyperspace Mountain, a frankly gaudy overlay with Star Wars projections that is usually temporary in other parks, but stuck around for some reason here. The issue is that Paris has a distinctive theme for its Tomorrowland. It is called Discoveryland there, and the theme is steampunk with architecture inspired by the works of French science fiction author Jules Verne. While not every ride follows the theme, the Space Mountain at the park did by having it be themed to Verne’s book From the Earth to the Moon. It was tasteful, distinctive, and an important part in Disney getting things on track for the park after its dismal opening, since it was beloved upon opening. Unfortunately, it was rethemed to generic sci fi elements in the late 2000s and the Star Wars theme later. What was once a unique and very beloved version of a classic ride was devalued for no real reason. The announcement that the original theme will be coming back tells me that there is a renewed sense of care going into the thematic observation of what rides need to be and in listening to criticisms by bringing back things that worked much better beforehand.

The Yeti in Expedition Everest has been one of the biggest quagmires around Disney’s neck for almost two decades. Built as the biggest fully moving animatronic at one point, design flaws in the ride resulted in the Yeti being left in an inoperable state due to stress on the building and the robot itself. Joe Rhode, who had developed Animal Kingdom and the ride, has stated for years that he wants to fix it, but Disney seemed to keep kicking the can down the road due to its cost, and Rhode’s retirement earlier this decade seemed to close the book on that. Fast forward to D23, and they announced that they will work to get it fixed. It is unknown if they will just put a new Yeti inside the mountain or take the time and money to actually fix the issues that plagued the old robot, but the fact that such a huge and complex issue that has been talked about for years will now be addressed is big, given how consistent a discussion point it has been for almost two decades now.

The biggest announcements of the night, though, were the last two. The presentation wrapped up first with an announcement that Disneyland’s Tomorrowland will be getting a complete revamp. Tomorrowland has always been a bizarre problem for any Disney park since futuristic attractions are hard to keep relevant. Any sort of plan for immense rethemes over the decades has either been canceled and scaled back, and the lands feel a bit odd with rides and architecture mixed in from different eras. Not to mention that one infamous failure, Rocket Rods, resulted in the closure of the classic PeopleMover and the abandonment of the track in the land due to it being hard to fix or remove due to it being so deeply engrained within the land. A revamp for the land has been discussed by park fans for years, but it has mostly gone unfocused until now. While it’s likely that we won’t get any news for a bit, the fact that it’s being heavily considered is a good sign for something that has needed to happen for a while.

It seemed like the last thing, but then Neil Patrick Harris, who was hosting the panel, surprised everyone by showing up as the Epcot character Dreamfinder to announce a revamp of the beloved Journey Into Imagination ride. The original version was one of the most beloved and classically feeling rides in the park, both due to its whimsical theming and beloved song One Little Spark. It follows Dreamfinder, a pilot who helps collect dreams and develops people’s imaginations, and his sidekick, a little purple dragon named Figment, in exploring the ideas and creativity connected to imagination. Unfortunately, the higher-ups felt it was outdated and rethemed the ride to be cheaper and more cynical without the classic characters. The retheme, Journey into YOUR Imagination, was so despised that it closed within a year, and Figment was hastily put back into the ride without Dreamfinder. People have been clamoring for a return to the original version for years since it really was special and still has admiration even this long after it has closed. Disney deciding to cap off their parks panel by saying they will return the classic ride to its original state is such a shock considering how apathetic their approach has been to original ride themes. I fully expected them to just close it and replace it with an Inside Out ride or something, but this choice means something is changing within Disney Imagineering.

What these announcements mean is that there isn’t going to be only a focus on branded rides, but a balance between those and maintaining a focus on park fans and original ideas. For a while, it felt that so many additions to the parks felt more driven by Disney+ data than if a ride or theme would fit into what the park was going for. It seems like this is shifting a bit with recent developments. The fact that the planned Tomorrowland update reportedly will push back the Avatar expansion in DCA, which seems to have more work already done on it, is a good sign that there is some reconsidering being done regarding what actually needs to be improved on within the parks. Compare the announcement in the late 2010s about Spaceship Earth getting a retheme (which had a random Moana scene teased) to the one from this panel, and there is a clear difference in approach. There is the possibility that some of these elements will not make it to the light of day since a lot of them seem to be early in development and mostly greenlit due to the new head of the parks division. Even so, they have acknowledged that the positive crowd reaction is a good sign and that, barring any big pandemic like what derailed a lot of the previous big plans announced in the late 10s, I do think most, if not all, of these ideas will get built. Frankly, there needs to be this sort of approach with Disney parks. Just because something isn’t working well doesn’t mean you need to slap some branded movie on it and call it a day. New ideas and themes do wonders within a Disney park, and they need to remember that they do serve an important purpose and are beloved by both the public and the die-hard park fans.