A few more words about Fantasyland…
Fri, 13 Aug 2010 Today’s paper carries a story in which new Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Chairman Tom Staggs confirmed that Disney is redrawing the Fantasyland expansion plans it announced last year.
The story arose out of an interview Staggs did with the Orlando Sentinel earlier this week. Obviously, space constraints in the newspaper made it impossible to include everything he said, so below are some of his expanded comments on the project.
– Staggs talked about the issue of making the Fantasyland expansion “broader,” an intriguing description given that some people have criticized the original Fantasyland plans for being too princess-heavy and girl-focused. Here’s how Staggs addressed that point:
“The appeal of the product to everyone, it was a part of the equation, no question. One of the things I thought the early design did fantastically was delivered on that princess experience. And that does tend to skew towards girls. And I think we’ve kept that intact. I know we’ve kept that intact — not exactly, necessarily, the way it was presented but that appeal is there. I think we’ve added some things that aren’t just princess-focused, and that’s a good positive….It’s not about saying, it was only girl before. It wasn’t only girl before. It was broad in its appeal before. Could we broaden the appeal further? Could we make sure it was something that really hit on all the marks? That’s really what we’re trying to do. That’s how this process is supposed to work.”
 – Staggs also defined “broad” in a couple of other ways:
“In any of our parks, we like to make sure that we’ve got a mix of attractions that everyone can enjoy. Some of the attractions are more aspirational than others – in other words, there’s more thrill or there’s more drama or there’s more tension. Some of them are sweet and wonderful and approachable at any age. And that’s one of the things that we try to look at. Do we have the right blend of asiparational rides and very approachable attractions?”
Also: “We also wanted to make sure that we’re designing something that was flexible, in the fact that it’s something that could play host to any number of celebrations or events or shows, etc., over time…We need to think not just about, ‘Oh we plopped some attractions down and those are done.’ We don’t think that way. We think about how do we accommodate the evolution of the guest experience for today, for tomorrow, for 20, 15 years from now? Our parks are things that go on and on and aren’t completed. And so we need to make sure we’re also setting ourselves up well for the future.”
– As is probably clear from above, Staggs stressed several times that he did not think that initial Fantasyland plans were poor. Rather, he said the changes being made now are no different than the continually evolving process that all of the company’s major creative projects go through:
“It’s tempting to define these things as, ’If you think it‘s better now, does that mean it wasn’t good before?’ But these are all matters of degree. This is how the creative process is supposed to work….It’s not, it was done, we reopened it, we started it over again. What I really like is we had a creative team that did some fantastic work on this Fantasyland project. They then took on and were part of this notion of challenging ourselves to see if we could do even better. They responded and they’ve come up with a product that I really think answers that challenge. I feel quite good about it and I also feel quite proud of them for the work they did and the output.”
Later, he added: “Far more of what was presented is going to be built than is not going to be built. In other words, the changes to this thing are, we think, making it better. But what was shown was great and is great. We’re improving it on the margins, is what we’re doing. Let me clear, the Fantasyland creative process has been a successful process since the beginning. It’s not one that was in trouble and has now been fixed. This is a very strong product. We think we challenge ourselves to make it better; I think the team has done just that.”
– Staggs said the initial Fantasyland plans, which were unveiled 11 months ago at the inaugural expo for the Disney-sponsored fan club D23, were conceptual and always likely to change:
“I think it’s worth knowing that D23, that’s really a gathering of our passionate guests and fans. And we clearly wanted to share something special with them, on the one hand, but we also know they understand the process…It wasn’t a blueprint, that was a creative presentation….We felt that the audience would understand that something that was presented there was subject to continued evolution.”
– Staggs said the current round of reviews begin early in the calendar year, which coincides with about the time he took over as chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts from Jay Rasulo (who took Staggs’ place as Disney’s chief financial officer). But Staggs cautioned against reading too much into the timing:
“The fact is, it was also an important time to make that creative challenge to ourselves. I can’t tell you exactly how things would have happened, but I also know that challenge to the team, that process, was not necessarily any more likely because I had taken my job than it would have been had I not taken my job. Enabling our creative process, challenging our people to do their best, it’s an important of what I do. But it’s also been an important part of what my predecessors have done.”
– Staggs has three young sons. But noted that he makes sure to get broad demographic feedback when he ventures into the parks himself:
“Being able to experience the parks with my kids is very, very instructive. But interestingly enough, two of my wife and I’s very good friends have only girls. So I try to make sure that I’ve got a pretty good blend in terms of my focus groups that I go in the parks with.”
– There have been some rumors floating around online that Disney might also be planning to add to the more boy-friendly Frontierland in the Magic Kingdom. But Staggs said Frontierland changes aren’t linked to the Fantasyland work:
“Well, Fantasyland isn’t doing a hostile takeover of Frontierland, if that’s what you’re asking. No, this is really focused around the Fantasyland expansion.”
– Staggs also dismissed the notion that Universal Orlando’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter has influenced Disney’s approach with Fantasyland:
“No. I mean, I haven’t seen it yet, so it’d be hard to influence me….I don’t see any evidence that somehow that has changed anyone’s direction or made them think differently…We need to make sure that, as we think about our product, we focus on, as I’ve said, the best possible guest experience. Someone else creating a guest experience that is good or great — I hope that encourages us even more but it shouldn’t fundamentally change our equation. And I don’t believe that it does.”
– On the questions of when will the revised plans be finalized and when will Disney unveil them publicly:
“As you would expect, with passing time, we’re getting close to where the rubber meets the road. So it has to be getting closer and closer to final product. But it’s not 100 percent done. We’ll still play with it. We’ll still go through the process of making sure that we’re doing the right things in the right order in the right way….The point at which we unveil is a fluid question. There may be aspects of it that we don’t really want to show until we drop the rope and let people see it live.”
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