On "Every Post Critical Or Trenchant?"

Epcot82 made a post today with the title "Every Post Critical Or Trenchant?" - which I have to imagine is somewhat inspired by my recent comments - in which he argues that there is a place for criticism of Disney. Fair enough. I never said don't criticize Disney. I've done it myself. You point out that, hey, I'm being critical too. That's true, I am. Because I think you are often wrong and turnabout is fair play.

Here's my real issue with Epcot Central. Statements like this from the most recent post: "Disney is filled these days with people who got into it for one key reason: to make money for themselves." Now that's a very sweeping generalization. There are some people, no doubt, who are at Disney for that reason. But there is a very large percentage of people who are there for something more: because they love the company and what it stands for, because they grew up and with and want to continue its tradition of excellence and magic. And its really upsetting to me to hear someone characterize these hard working people who do care in such an unfair and inaccurate way. So, yes, I am critical of Epcot82. That's not a contradiction.

Now here's where we agree. I don't think anyone can argue that Epcot is in terrific shape. I will argue to the floor all these people who think The Seas with Nemo is a bad thing because it is not. Both kids and families love it and I think it still serves the purpose of engaging families with sea life. I think its a great re-vitalization of a classic Epcot attraction and the queue line would tell you that more people agree with me than Epcot82 on this one. But I think we all share the concern that the Pixarization of the parks is crowding out original creations. Rides like Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Everest are right up there with any of Disney's best cinematic creations. And there needs to be a place for these types of attractions in the future. I too fear that in the rush to make attractions that launch simultaneous to the movie - Lasseter's stated goal - that we will get a lot of rides based on movies that aren't classic. Can anyone argue that A Bug's Life is really deserving of its own land or that A Bug's Land is even a great adaptation of the movie?

But back to Epcot, I will never forget my first visit to Epcot as a kid and how excited it made me about technology, science, and all manner of topics. I think it had a big part of why I do what I do today and I always have carried that feeling inside. And I would like that educational message to be a part of Epcot's future too. But I disagree with the notion that Disney characters have no place in that and that they don't belong in Epcot at all.

And I agree, that if you look through the narrow lens of Epcot - which is all Epcot82 has said he really cares about - the view is not so great. There is a lot of work that could be done on that park and all the money is going elsewhere. But you have to take a wider view. The company overall is doing well, a fact that Epcot82 and I will have to agree to disagree about, and many improvements have been made. But Disney can only invest in so many things at one time. From the perspective of the turnstile, Disney has much bigger problems than Epcot, namely DCA and HKDL. Fixing those problems is going to be very expensive. Whether you like how the money was spent, Epcot got a lot of investment over the last few years. And management must fix these others parks now. You can say that you don't care and stamp your feet that they should just put that money into Epcot, but its just not living in the real world. Jay and Bob are not bad people. They have to make tough decisions based on a limited amount of resources in a climate where Wall Street is very critical of media companies. They have a difficult balance to maintain. I think most Disney fans would agree that they have done a better job than their predecessors of managing that balance and the Parks are better for it.

So please be critical. But also be fair. My problem with your blog is not your criticism of Epcot or even Disney management. Its your unfair personal attacks and attempts to paint Disney's employees as unthinking uncaring greedheads out to destroy everything good that Walt built because that is not the case.