Dreams, Realities, and Imagineers, An Editorial by LW Ghost

Once upon a time, in THIS galaxy and NOT one that’s far, far away, they sang a song that said this:

“IF we can dream it, THEN we can do it! Yes we can! Yes we can!”

And that was great and inspiring—a motto to live by, imagine by, and look to the future with.

Walt Disney in Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color (1966), Walt Disney Productions

Then some anonymous pundit I found calling himself Oliver added this cautionary note that might be worth thinking about in the here and now.

HE said this:

“If you want to follow your dreams, you have to say no to all the alternatives.”

To my mind, that’s where we’re at with Walt Disney Imagineering and their products and results right now. When a corporate culture says “Dream BIG and then we’ll see what we can afford” that’s fine. When it says “Here’s what we can afford and here are the preconditions of any and all dreams NOW go dream SMALL based on them” well…notsomuch.

Walt Disney in Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color (1966), Walt Disney Productions

In our videos, in the chats, there are people who keep saying “If they only can get rid of Bob Iger all will be well” and with respect they’re missing the point.

There has been, granted through his vision, intent, and demands, an entire cultural shift within this once great company. The rot of following those “alternatives” is widespread and is in both creative and practical visible results.

Recently there was a plumbing/sewage leak in the upper floor restroom of “The Land” pavilion at EPCOT. It was nasty but they stopped the leak. But then, a couple of weeks later, the ceilings below it in the entry area for “Soarin’” caved in, likely weakened structurally by water damage from the prior event.

Now tell me something about your house or business: IF YOU had an upstairs leak that you KNEW spilled into the lower levels, wouldn’t you want to check on damage and repair any before you let your spouse or children go under that questionable structure? Wouldn’t that be just plain common sense? Would you have to be engineers, let alone  “imagineers” to know that? I don’t think so. And yet…

A section of collapsed ceiling in Soarin’ at Epcot’s Land Pavillion in Walt Disney World – Photo Credit, M. Montanaro

This isn’t about qualifications, abilities, or even imaginations. This is about a culture of “do the least for the least” not “do the best and the safest and the finest whatever it takes.”

How much could it cost to check and then repair, if necessary, that area of one building at a huge theme park? And how much does the bad press of NOT doing so and having a collapse further cement the image of careless disregard growing every day?

And yet, it seems, nobody up the chain of command cares.

The issue at Imagineering isn’t one man or a small group—it’s a now-inbred culture of disdain for standards, disrespect for imaginations, disregard for customers, and an arrogance that says “Well, we’re Disney—we are THE brand and they’ll come just for that.”

Epcot Spaceship Earth Walt Disney World Orlando 2010. Photo Credit: chensiyuan, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

We, the people, the customers, are saying no. And it doesn’t take the impending opening of Epic down the road to make us feel that way. Nor does it take the now-common articles about how vacations in Bali are cheaper or any of the rejections of the attitude from the Disney corporate culture that being “diverse” in and of itself is a “skill” worth having all by itself.

They have lost their way. They have lost their core values. They are seemingly PROUD of that. This isn’t, alas, something that’s fixable in a day or a year or a few firings or even, perhaps, a decade. The adage about “If we can dream it” implies that they CAN dream it anymore. But if the limits on doing limit those dreams, the future is grim indeed.

I wish I had good news. I wish I had positive directions on a way out of this morass. I do not. What I have is memories of how it once was, not that long ago and in this very same galaxy. And not just in the parks, but in the movies and on TV and everywhere else. As my generation, and perhaps yours, of those with the memories of greatness pass from the scene, what does the Mouse replace us with? IF the whole world had lost those values, I guess the playing field would be at least even, but it hasn’t.

I repeat, in closing, that caveat: “If you want to follow your dreams, you have to say no to all the alternatives.”

Promotional image of Peter Pan’s Flight via Disney World website

Doing that means admitting error. Doing that means dropping the arrogance of perceived perfection. Doing that means admitting there are alternatives and that they are bad ones.

And I add my favorite “joke” about how many psychiatrists it takes to change a lightbulb that is also applicable to creative companies in entertainment: “Only one, but the bulb has to really WANT to change.” Until Disney does, nothing will get better at all.

What do you think about Disney imagineers and the direction of the company as a whole? Sound off in the comments and let us know!