Five Things We Just Learned About Imagineers and Disney

The Wall Street Journal just posted a fascinating glimpse behind the curtain at Walt Disney Imagineering.

This article filled in some blanks about what’s been happening at Imagineering lately.

Here are five things we just learned about Imagineering and Disney.

Spoiler: It really was Bob Chapek’s fault…and Bob Iger’s, too. 

The Bobs Chased Off Plenty of Imagineers

Let’s start with the most inflammatory topic here, part of which we already knew.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Bob Iger and Bob Chapek chased off plenty of Imagineers.

The steps were different each time, but Walt Disney Imagineering (WDI) felt the impact the same.

Chapek entered the story in 2015 when he became the head of Disney theme parks.

That’s the position Josh D’Amaro currently holds, Chairman of Disney Experiences.

The title was different then, but the job tasks were identical.

Chapek was responsible for everything park-related, and as a business-oriented person, he bristled.

To the future (and now former) CEO of The Walt Disney Company, Imagineers were a problem.

Chapek “believed WDI had been allowed to operate without the same discipline required of the rest of the company.”

In other words, he thought that did the whole “rules for thee but not for me” routine.

As you know, that’s patently absurd since the job of an Imagineer is so demanding and open-ended.

Non-creative people don’t understand that creativity doesn’t perform on demand.

You get that “One Little Spark” whenever you can and mine it as much as you can while it’s there.

Chapek’s infamous disciplinarian streak, which ultimately cost him his job at Disney, hurt WDI.

The Imagineers suffered under the “culture” shock of an overnight change in expectations.

Suddenly, they faced new constraints that caused many to lose their jobs.

All this happened several years before the infamous forced move to Lake Nona.

For his part, Iger was just as guilty, partially because he forced a different sort of parameters on Imagineers…

Iger Dictated the Focus on Franchises

You can’t argue with results, but it’s clear from watching 20 years of Disney that something changed under Iger.

When the executive ascended to the throne as CEO at Disney, he had an unusual priority.

In 2005, Disney was in turmoil after the awkward end to Michael Eisner’s tenure.

With the world struggling due to a weak housing market that would lead to a crash, Iger was positioned to fail.

Disney had suffered for a few years, and now the economy was about to collapse.

To his credit, Iger had a plan. He wanted Disney to prioritize what it did best.

Iger dictated that everyone, including the Imagineering department, focus on franchises.

This is your shocked face, right? Well, that practice wasn’t the norm for Disney in the early 2000s.

Think about the recent history of the parks. We’d just gotten three big attractions in about a decade.

Those were the newest of the bunch, Mission: SPACE, and two at Disney’s Hollywood Studios before that.

Those rides were the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith.

When we factor Disney California Adventure into the equation, several other examples are available.

The park’s best new ride, Soarin’ Over California, and its worst one, Superstar Limo, were all original IPs.

The early failure of DCA may have played a factor in Iger’s evaluation of Disney’s woes.

He demanded that the company create more sequels while tightly integrating IP at the parks.

Little has changed in 20 years because the idea worked and is still working to this day.

Imagineering Runs over Budget a LOT

As proof, we can look at the success of Zootopia at Shanghai Disneyland…and Zootopia 2 in theaters.

If you disagree with the idea, I’ll ask you to glance at the box office results of Elio vs. Inside Out 2.

Imagineers feel that it stifles their creativity, but the data is clear.

Consumers vote with their wallets, and they clearly prefer this sort of branded content.

Barbara Bouza, the former head of WDI, provided this telling quote about Imagineering’s frustration:

“At every all-hands meeting, I would be asked if we’d get to create new Imagineering original stories again.”

So, even in the 2020s, the mandate exists, and many creatives find it oppressive.

As long as Disney keeps getting results, nothing will change, though.

Then, we have the other reason why friction exists between WDI and Disney’s C-suite.

Imagineering runs over budget a LOT! In fact, it happens so often that WDI gets a bit defensive.

“A spokeswoman said 93% of Imagineering’s work in the past four years has come in under-budget.”

The other seven percent tells the whole story, though, starting with an infamous example.

Disney spent $1.2 billion on Pandora – The World of Avatar, which is a reasonable amount.

Well, it’s reasonable to me. Disney had projected a budget of $850 million. So…

That’s a 41 percent cost overrun. If you did that at your job, how would your boss react? Exactly.

Somehow, that’s not even the most egregious example, though.

The Disney Adventure Wasn’t Cheap

Many writers (including me) have passed along that narrative, but the truth is much different.

While the Disney Adventure was a steal for Disney to buy, it still cost a fortune to complete.

When a different cruise business went bankrupt, Disney capitalized by buying this massive ship for free.

At the time, it was already half-built, giving Imagineers plenty of time to Disney-fy the ship.

Alas, that project proved somewhat disastrous once Disney owned the boat.

The original owners had planned a massive casino cruise ship at sea. Disney obviously went a different way.

However, the conversion from a gambling boat into a Disney Cruise Line vehicle proved challenging.

According to one Imagineer, “It was like trying to turn a Honda into a Hummer.”

Don’t get me wrong. By all accounts, Disney has achieved the impossible with the Adventure.

Still, I got sticker shock when I saw the final price, as it’s a LOT higher than early projections indicated.

Disney spent $1.8 billion on the Adventure, which is nearly double those initial estimates.

I wouldn’t describe this as another example of Imagineers running over budget.

When Disney bought the boat, nobody quite understood just how difficult (or expensive) the conversion would be.

Even so, this fact circles back to the statement of 93 percent of Imagineering budgets coming in on time.

The ones that don’t…well, I’ve just provided two extraordinary examples of budget overruns.

The cheaper one, Galaxy’s Edge, cost $350 million more than expected.

That’s not an insignificant amount, even to a company as big as Disney.

Smugglers Run Should Have Been Five Times as Good

Finally, just to show how frequently Imagineers and Disney’s top executives butt heads, we have this example.

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run didn’t turn out the way Imagineers had planned.

Technically, we’ve only gotten 20 percent of the ride we should have.

Imagineers designed the attraction to have five different missions, each of which told a Star Wars story.

Frustratingly, budget cuts and time restraints forced Imagineers to kill their darlings. Four of them.

Who is to blame for this issue is up for debate, but it’s not the ride it should be.

This brings me to the one bit of good news from this story: Bruce Vaughn is back in charge.

The current head at WDI had left after a brief time working under Chapek.

Then, Josh D’Amaro invited him to a meal and persuaded Vaughn to return.

In the process, D’Amaro built a bridge for all the Imagineers who left in the 21^st century.

Now, Vaughn is happily bringing some of them back to mentor a new generation of Imagineers.

Coincidentally or not, we’re also getting a second Smugglers Run mission in May.

So, I’m holding out hope that WDI will gradually introduce (at least) three more to achieve the ride’s original promise.

Long story short, Imagineering has really been through it in the 21^st century, but the tide has finally turned.

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Feature Photo: Disney.