Disney Gets the Band Back Together at Imagineering
Happy days are here again!
You, my fellow Disney fans, know the joy I’m feeling thanks to a wholesome Instagram post.
View this post on Instagram
Yes, Disney has apparently gotten the Imagineering band back together as it plots the future of its Experiences division.
Let’s talk about this time of hope and optimism among Disney loyalists, how it came to be, and what it means.
Who Says You Can’t Go Home?
This past Sunday was Easter, a holiday that matters a great deal to me.
I spent time with my mother, who was 37 when she had me, and I’m…not young.
So, I never take encounters like this for granted, especially since the last time I ever saw my father was at an Easter family gathering.
For this reason, I’ve been thinking about homecomings and the nature of home itself a lot recently.
That’s why this post from Joe Rohde impacted me more than I would have thought possible.
The most famous recent Imagineer filmed himself returning to Walt Disney Imagineering.
In the immortal words of U2, it was a sort of homecoming for the Imagineer recently named a Disney Legend.
When Rohde left Disney, it didn’t seem like he had a choice in the matter, which was regrettable.
I wrote this article explaining why Disney would miss such a valued contributor.
As a rule, I hate reading my own writing, but I glanced at this one and nodded my head about this part.
“For more than 40 years, Rohde strove for perfection, and he somehow achieved that goal more often than not.”
Now, he could quickly point out the imperfections and compromises visible that only he can see, but that’s part of the point.
“This Imagineer expected such a high standard from his projects that they appear flawless to those of us glancing at them now.
“If Pandora isn’t perfect, it’s so close that ordinary people could never notice the difference.
Rohde’s passion for the Disney brand led the parks to unprecedented heights. That’s an irreplaceable contribution.”
That person, Joe Rohde, is now teaching classes again at Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI), and his presence raises even more questions.
The Other Imagineering Changes at Hand
I’m personalizing more than usual today, but that’s because the Rohde announcement has me in my feelings a bit.
In the wake of this news, I’ve been thinking about Barbara Bouza, who recently left Disney.
The former head of Imagineering had come from the outside world to run Disney’s most revered division.
In Ted Lasso terms, she was a football coach who showed up one day and tried to coach soccer.
I’m not saying everyone loves Bouza, but I’ve never heard one ill word spoken against her.
Instead, Bouza faced resistance due to what she represented.
She was the outsider, the non-Disney person suddenly running the most Disney of departments.
Walt Disney built his company through the labor of WED Enterprises, the precursor to WDI.
Bob Chapek was sending a message when he chose to hire a non-Disney person rather than promoting one of the many worthy candidates.
I overly sympathize with Bouza, as I once held a job where I took over for someone on maternity leave.
While they were gone, I more than doubled efficiency in six months, a functional impossibility, only to be permanently demoted when they returned.
I was suddenly perceived as a threat by someone who couldn’t risk their job now that they had a new mouth to feed, and I understood it.
Sometimes, no matter how well you do, your fate is sealed before you even show up on the first day of the job. That’s life.
At Disney, Bouza was the enemy, and her presence served as an awkward reminder that Chapek was in charge and Rohde had left.
But her loss is our gain as Disney fans.
Disney Gets the Band Back Together
We’ve known this day was coming for a while now. The writing has been on the wall since Bruce Vaughn returned.
With that single move, Disney CEO Bob Iger sent a message to his entire Imagineering team.
Gone were Chapek’s ways of prioritizing budgets and chain of command over creativity and subject matter knowledge.
Chapek preferred his own people, ones he could trust to be loyal to him and act in his best interests.
As the former Chairman of what we now call Disney Experiences, Chapek had burned too many bridges over the years.
Conversely, Iger had earned devout loyalty from Imagineers due to his track record of successfully completing announced projects.
Imagineers have trusted Iger to the point that they were among the happiest employees when he returned as CEO.
The hiring of Vaughn signaled that Disney would once again treat its most unique and valued workers as the treasures that they are.
Iger was demonstrating contrition for mistakes after he left, which he needed to do.
After all, the choice of Iger’s successor was ultimately up to him, and he botched it completely.
Iger’s mistake directly led to Rohde’s departure, among many others caused by the Lake Nona debacle.
When Disney brought back Vaughn, it thawed the frosty relationship between executives and WDI.
The announcement of Rohde as a Disney Legend is more than simply a hard-earned honor, too. It’s another act of contrition.
However, that’s only part of why Disney has taken this approach.
The Future of Disney Is at Hand
When Rohde left Disney, he noted that projects often take five years.
Since the Imagineer was already 65 at the time, he wasn’t willing to commit to working on something until he was 70.
That’s a vital point to remember because Rohde is now 68. If he felt that way three years ago, I doubt much has changed.
Instead, Rohde’s classes serve a different purpose, as nobody has more knowledge of Imagineering than him.
More importantly, nobody knows more about Disney’s Animal Kingdom than the Imagineer who built it.
Disney appears poised to announce an upcoming Animal Kingdom expansion as soon as this week during the Annual Shareholder meeting.
At the latest, we should learn specifics at the 2024 D23 Expo in August.
Bob Iger and Disney Experiences Chairman Josh D’Amaro weren’t about to risk such a vital project in the hands of novices.
Now, with Vaughn and, to a lesser extent, Rohde back in the fold, Disney’s trusted, proven leaders will have a hand in what comes next.
Out of everything I’m saying today, that’s the vital takeaway.
Disney has gotten the band back together because it’s about to spend tens of billions of dollars on theme park expansion.
That’s not a job for amateurs or even unproven but talented Imagineers.
The wisdom of seasoned pros is requisite to the success of these projects.
So, Rohde’s return is somehow both symbolic to Imagineers/Disney fans AND significant to the projects themselves.
Remember that in addition to the Animal Kingdom Central Americas project, Disneyland will add Avatar, too.
Who knows about theme park integrations of Avatar more than Joe Rohde?
A Word of Warning
My homework at the moment involves lots of research stories about prior Disney projects.
I’m evaluating projects that went perfectly like Pandora – The World of Avatar, ones that went okay like Toy Story Land, and ones that…were Disney California Adventure.
What I can tell you is that Disney stories have proven oddly cyclical over the years.
Hope abounds when park officials announce a project. Then, scrutiny emerges as matters progress slowly.
To wit, many of the 2015 articles about Pandora—The World of Avatar—were negative in tone.
Nobody remembers that now, but the frequent delays drained fans of hope.
As usual, Imagineering came through in the end, though, redefining theme park design via an alien planet.
Generally, when a new project disappoints, the explanation involves budget cuts.
That statement particularly applies to Disney California Adventure (DCA), which Eisner unintentionally sabotaged.
However, Toy Story Land also suffered that fate. Notably, both turned out great in the end, although DCA took some time.
Then, we have situations such as Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, where a ride and restaurant never came to be.
Again, that happens. The transition from the blue-sky phase to the implementation of a premise is fraught with peril.
Sometimes, good ideas prove impractical for any number of reasons, with cost being the most frequent one.
So, if/when that happens, please don’t dismiss the entire project because one element won’t turn out as you’d hoped.
Instead, have faith in this dream team of Disney Imagineers to build new experiences that will delight fans for generations to come.
Disney just brought back two of its most revered Imagineers for precisely that purpose. Today is a good day, my friends.
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