Cast Blast is an annual event held for Disneyland Resort cast members.
The 2003 event, held April 15 and 16, included cast member movie screenings,
special discounts in Downtown Disney, a cast breakfast, and the Disney
Expo—a sort of in-house trade show where various divisions of the
Disney company and their operating participants showcased new products,
services, and features.
For many, the real highlight of the event was the “Disney Spotlight”—a
live presentation where Cynthia Harriss (president of the Disneyland Resort)
and Marty Sklar (vice chairman and principle creative executive of Walt
Disney Imagineering) shared upcoming plans for both the Disneyland Resort
and the company in general. In addition to their prepared remarks, both
fielded queries from cast members during question and answer sessions.
At one point, Marty Sklar joked that “all the Internet people”
were probably writing down everything he said.
He was right—and we have extensive notes to share with you.
Disney Spotlight was presented in a talk show format, with “Chris”
from Cast TV as the host, and Harriss and Sklar as the guests. During
the introduction, the host said, “We all know how Walt Disney felt
about sequels: ‘I’d rather be spending my time doing something new and
different.’ So take a sneak peak at some of the new and different films
in development.” With that, Chris rattled off some movie titles:
- Fantasia 2003-D
- Freaky Casual Friday
- Honey, I Shrunk the Dividend
- Mary Poppins II: Supercalifragilistic-agent-please-don’t-sue-us
- Peter Pan IV: Who’s Counting?
- Tron II: Why Not?
- Atlantis II: Why?
- The Country Bears – “There’s no sequel; we are just
going to re-release the film so another five people can go see it.”
After that bit of internal sniping, Chris introduced Cynthia Harriss,
who commented on the general state of the resort, as well as about some
upcoming events and:
- Declared the new Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh attraction to
be “a hit.”
- Invited cast members to visit the new Playhouse Disney attraction.
“If you haven’t been over [to Playhouse Disney] because you think
you are too old, because you are not 6, because it really does have
a great appeal for the youngsters, you have to go over to see just how
much the children enjoy it.” - Called Aladdin – A Musical Spectacular “A gigantic
hit for all of us—we are thrilled with that.”
- Boasted about customer-service scores at the Disneyland Resort. “Our
cast compliment ratio is the highest it has ever been in every single
line of business and we haven’t had a week of less than 90 percent.”
Harriss briefly addressed the focus for the 50th anniversary, saying
that resort executives are “very committed to making sure that everyone
in the world is aware of what is going to happen before the 50th—so
everyone will want to return and visit the Disneyland they knew, and the
new, expanded Disneyland Resort.”
She briefly detailed upcoming special events at the resort, including:
- ABC Super Soaps Weekends at DCA – “A great event last year.
It will be an annual event.”
- Pirates of the Caribbean movie premiere scheduled for June
28.
- ESPN X-Games at Disney’s California Adventure park from July 1 to
August 10 – “We think this is going to help build the DCA
brand, having extreme outdoor sports—what’s more California?”
She said that the resort would be building an X-Sports arena behind
DCA as well as venues inside the park.
She also listed two upcoming cast member events:
- Minnie’s Moonlight Madness
- Canoe Races (in its 40th year this year)
Marty Sklar provided more details about the 50th anniversary celebration.
In his prepared comments, Sklar confirmed much of what was previously
reported—there were no surprises. Some highlights and quotes:
The celebration starts in April 2005, and will continue for 18 months
after that. (Later in the question-and answer-session, Sklar quipped that
a “Disney year” is defined in Webster’s Dictionary as
18 months).
Sklar said that he wanted to use the anniversary as an opportunity for
the other divisions “to ride on the coattails of what will be done
here” at Disneyland.
“Disneyland is going to be the center of all this because it is
all about Disneyland,” Sklar said. “The other Disney parks around
the world are going to take advantage of that to become part of the whole
program that develops.”
He did promise, however, that Disneyland would be the primary focal point,
recognizing that it was the original park that was enjoying the anniversary.
Confirming a rumor we published in our March
10 report, Sklar announced that the Sleeping Beauty Castle would
take on a gold hue.
Our rendering of a gold castle. Let’s hope the Imagineers have a better
touch than we do with Photoshop.
“We are turning the castle gold. Actually, it was Tony Baxter’s
idea really to do that overlay,” Sklar said. “And if you think
about this 50th anniversary is the golden anniversary, so really a lot
of the things in the resort will have that kind of overlay. We certainly
want the castle to be the icon it is all over the world.”
The host asked Sklar for more information about the 50th anniversary
celebration, asking about some of the park’s classic attractions. “We
know that recently Space Mountain has begun preparations for the 50th.
If we look back at some of the classic attractions, how will they be honored
or worked into the celebration?” Sklar replied:
“We’ve got a couple of great example right now. I think [it’s
a] Small World is as good as I can remember—the new music, the
overlay, all of the work that has been on the facade, and behind it.
The [King Arthur] Carrousel, of course. I think there will be things
like that.
“But also, we have an idea to do a great historical piece on Disneyland
somewhere in Tomorrowland. If you think about how we have so many models
and original pieces, maquettes and sculpture, and various animatronics
things we could use. I think going back almost 50 years now and taking
the best of those pieces and videos, we have Walt, and other things.
We could do a fantastic show that could become an attraction in itself.
We are working on that.”
When asked about entertainment, Sklar replied, “Absolutely. Anne
Hamburger and Steve Davison and all their people are working on a great
new parade for Disneyland. We have a wonderful outside talent that will
be announced later. Also new parades for Disneyland and DCA. And what
would this resort be without a fantastic new fireworks spectacular that
really is a signature for the 50th.”
Sklar also acknowledged that all of the celebrations would fall under
an overarching theme related to magical beginnings.
“Well, if you think about it this place is… in all the world
there is only one Disneyland. And if you look at the statistics, probably
90 percent of people who come here now have been here at least once
in the past. So what an opportunity to get them to come back and relive
the fond memories they have.
“I know for me, I think I am typical in a lot of ways, both of
my kids worked here on Autopia. My brother who is a professor at NYU
[New York University] worked as a sweeper here. Now I bring my grandchildren
here and I see the park through their eyes. They’re 4 to 12 years old,
and it is really amazing to me to see it with kids who have grown up
in this fast communication age. They are so quick on the uptake and
what they can do that I’m learning all over again what this business
is about.”
Sklar also presented a slide show of the new Hong Kong Disneyland park.
“We are doing Disneyland again, and it’s a tribute to Disneyland,”
he said. Key points include:
- New hotels – Disney’s Hollywood Hotel, and another hotel based
on the Grand Californian Hotel at the Disneyland Resort
- New dedicated train station built by the Hong Kong government
- Visuals – Town Square, Space Mountain, a combined Adventureland/Frontierland,
Jungle Cruise, Tarzan’s Treehouse
- Hong Kong Main Street based on the traditions of Disneyland. Tokyo
was based on Magic Kingdom, and Hong Kong derives its roots from Disneyland.
When the question-and-answer session began, cast members asked for further
detail about the plans Harriss and Sklar had mentioned.
A cast member from Walt Disney Travel asked if the resort had any plans
for a new hotel. Harriss replied, “All of us know that we have a
wonderful piece of property that we are investigating the best use of
it. At this time we haven’t made that as a decision but it is certainly
something we are investigating as a team.”
A newly hired Imagineer asked, “Where do you see the future of
Imagineering?” Sklar said:
“Well, I think it is a good question from the standpoint that
it is not clear where in the world we can build another park. We have
had discussions about Mainland China, although it is probably off a
few years. With 10 parks and the eleventh coming online, these parks
have to [grow] continually as Disneyland did, and California Adventure
with Tower of Terror and Playhouse Disney—they have to be fed all
the time. It is one of the main ways we have brought people back to
these parks over and over again.”
With the mention of new attractions, the host asked about Mission: Space
at Epcot. Sklar responded:
“Oh, yeah, Mission: Space is so exciting. Probably open late this
summer. We finished half of it. It’s got four different places where
passengers get into a capsule, and they are a team. It’s very similar
to the G-forces astronauts experience during takeoff.
“This has been a tour-de-force both creative and engineering.
It’s very difficult to do, especially when you are dealing with 2000
people an hour. If you go around the world, it is pretty easy to see
things that are done for 500 or 700 people an hour. But we are always
challenged to do something for a mass audience, and 2000 people an hour
is tough, particularly when you are trying get a more hands-on individualism.
And that’s what we have done with Mission: Space. You really will feel
like your having an experience as an astronaut.
“There’s a big lead-up to that, of course. It is a fantastic-looking
pavilion, of course, if you’ve seen pictures on the cover of the annual
report. It is beautiful. And then a wonderful area and post show that
HP (Hewlett-Packard) is involved with. And I think people will have
a great time with it. By the way, we have developed a few things that
we are thinking about bringing back here [Disneyland] using for that
50th anniversary historical show we were talking about.”
Sklar presented a short video about Mission: Space, and also spoke about
the new animatronic dinosaur being developed by Imagineering. “We
can take it out into the park and walk it. We’ve been doing everything
from the skin [so that you can walk up and touch it]. It is a true breakthrough.”
When asked if there would be any of the Tokyo DisneySea aspects, Sklar
said, “We hope these will end up in other parks.”
Regarding whether and when the Castle would be opened, Harriss said,
“The Castle will be the showpiece icon for the 50th, but we haven’t
gotten as far as deciding on the inside.”
They were a bit more coy when asked if there were any plans for an E-ticket
attraction for Disneyland.
“There are a lot of plans for attractions,” is all Sklar said,
leaving the audience to wonder what might be in store.
