Dream It! Do It!: My Half-Century Creating Disney's Magic Kingdoms

by Martin Sklar

  While Michael Eisner was fully engaged in the development of Disneyland Paris (he even immersed himself in a weeks-long French language course one summer in Paris), he was far less focused on Tokyo. Michael did mount an all-out effort to convince OLC’s chairman, Takahashi-san, that the second park in Tokyo should be a Studio concept, based on the existing popular Disney-MGM Studios in Florida (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios). But when the Japanese made it clear they were not interested in the concept (Japanese film and TV studios are not the glamour worlds of Hollywood renown), Michael seemed to lose interest. This opened the way for our Imagineering design team, led by Senior Vice President Steve Kirk, to create a brand-new genre in the Disney park lineup.

  Called Tokyo DisneySea, the park was unique in many ways, but had some of its roots in a concept we had worked on for a park at the harbor in Long Beach, California, developed as an alternative to building a second gate in Anaheim. It also took advantage of the success of the Disneyland Hotel at the entrance to Disneyland Paris. Guests enter Tokyo DisneySea by walking under parts of the five hundred-room southern European-style Mira Costa Hotel, which (once you are inside the park) serves as the background for major live shows taking place on the waters of Mediterranean Harbor.

  It’s my belief that a major reason for the success of the Disney parks has been the depth of detail that has brought storytelling to a level never before imagined in the theme or amusement park world. As I put it in a speech at an International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) convention, “In a Disney park, not only is storytelling ‘the thing’—every thing tells a story. It’s the details, stupid!”

  Tokyo DisneySea (TDS) is a grand example of this basic Disney approach. As I marveled at the TDS designs presented by Steve Kirk and the team, I asked Steve and Jim Thomas, senior vice president for Tokyo Resort Development for the Imagineers, how they had convinced the OLC to spend what obviously was a king’s ransom on the key attractions and architectural settings of each land. This included the wonderful indoor Mermaid Lagoon, lit as an underwater spectacle; the exterior marquee, a fantastic rainbow of sea life forms sculpted in concrete and covered with shining jewels; Mysterious Island, not only home to the high-speed race Journey to the Center of the Earth, but also containing one of the finest works of three-dimensional art ever created in a Disney park, the fire belching volcano of Mount Prometheus and its amazing central Caldera; Lost River Delta, which was lifted right out of a Central American jungle, with live shows and ride adventures to suit every intrepid adventurer; the Arabian Coast, where Aladdin and his Genie reside in a live magic stage show; and much more.

  The grand designs made me wonder how Steve, Jim, and Imagineering’s other key project leaders (Orlando Ferrante, Art Kishyama, John Verity, and Craig Russell, the design management executive who lived in Japan nearly four years) convinced the OLC to spend so much money. They never told me, but I can make an educated guess: the OLC executives responsible for the project were not going to “lose face” when Tokyo DisneySea was compared to Tokyo Disneyland. Presuming that was one of their major objectives, they (and we) succeeded big time. In 2002, the year following its opening, Tokyo DisneySea was honored by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) with its annual Thea Award, in recognition of its “concept, design, and construction.” It was the first time TEA had honored a whole new park, and was one of forty-three awards to Disney projects and individuals in the eighteen years that the TEA Awards have recognized outstanding achievement associated with themed entertainment.

  As pleased as I was to see our Imagineering staff recognized again, I also felt the same empathy for the Imagineers working on other new parks that I had felt when Michael Eisner chose the Blizzard Beach concept without even listening to the other water park ideas for Walt Disney World. The three other parks developed in and around the same time frame—Hong Kong Disneyland (2005), Disney California Adventure (2001), and the Walt Disney Studios Paris (2002)—had fallen prey to a new Disney “standard”: build it small, for less money, and they will come anyway. Call it “the Paul Pressler phenomenon.” I’ll explain shortly…but the good news is that under Bob Iger as CEO, each of those parks is currently undergoing major infusions of attractions and investment. I’m confident that when completed, these major upgrades in expanded areas for guests, and imaginative new attractions for young and old to enjoy, will fully realize the potential of these “too small, not enough to do” parks.

  One example: Disney California Adventure opened with eighteen attractions, right next door to its sister park, Walt’s iconic Disneyland, which counted more than sixty attractions by its then forty-sixth year. Yet the admission price for both parks was exactly the same. You have one guess where the public wanted to go!

  The Hong Kong project had a special attachment for me. First of all, my initial view of the site was from a boat in Hong Kong Harbor; it was all water, and we were warned not to drift too close to shore, because the small shipyard that was about to be displaced was not thrilled about the coming Disney park. Some of their boat repairmen were reputed to be excellent rifle marksmen.

  Paul Pressler was aboard, and on this park, in fairness to Paul, the contract and budget were negotiated under the previous chairman, Judson Green, and his representative, Steve Tight, who apparently thought we were building an iron-ride, off-the-shelf park.

  In one sense only, it was a replica—the first and only time we have reused the design of Walt’s Disneyland castle, and the look of its Main Street. Even on my last trip to Hong Kong Disneyland, in May 2012, I was taken aback for a moment as I walked with American operations chief Noble Coker onto Main Street, U.S.A.—Walt’s nostalgic turn-of-the-century, middle-America throwback to another time and place. It’s an amazing feeling to be 7,241 miles from home, and yet feel right at home in a foreign land. In truth, with the dramatic green hills as a backdrop to the castle, many of my colleagues believe it’s even more “magical” than Walt’s original Sleeping Beauty Castle. (I’ve exercised my Fifth Amendment rights, even in China!)

  As their creative leader, I was proud of the designers, writers, illustrators, model makers, architects, engineers, and nearly 140 other disciplines that make up Walt Disney Imagineering on these projects. They gave 100 percent effort within what Eisner liked to call “The Box” approved for each of these parks, without worrying that their ride system or architectural facade or special effect would inevitably be compared to those in Tokyo DisneySea, whose budgets were inevitably larger. It made me feel that we had successfully carried on the traditions that Walt and the pioneering Disney Legends had established: that it was a “we” business. And as I always reminded the Imagineering teams, there was still only one name on the door: Walt Disney.

  Individual successes in each park were exported to other Disney parks: Soarin’ over California in California Adventure (to Epcot); Moteurs…Action! Stunt Show Spectacular from the Walt Disney Studios Park Paris (to the Hollywood Studios in Florida); and the infusion of Disney characters in appropriate parts of the globe at Hong Kong Disneyland to make the message of “it’s a small world” even more relevant to young audiences (to Disneyland).

  Outside the parks, around the world, Disney has sometimes introduced new products, especially in what became known as “Downtown” areas that combine entertainment, restaurants, and shopping. There were mixed successes like Pleasure Island at Walt Disney World; though popular for years, its club concepts aged with little change, and the area is now closed and being rethought. And the Tokyo Disney Resort’s Ikspiari, poorly laid out and designed by the Oriental Land Company (despite a strong critique from Disney). And there are hits, like the Downtown Disney areas at the Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World, popular with both vacationers and locals for their mix of fun, food, and shopping experiences: ESPN Zone, House of Blues, AMC movie theaters, even a Cirque du Soleil permanent theater show (in Florida).

  One disappointment for me was when the company lost faith in a project that st
ill is successful at Downtown Disney West/Side in Florida. Called DisneyQuest, it was created as an “indoor interactive theme park,” meant to be rolled out in major cities across the country. When the second one, in Chicago, did not meet expectations—whether because of marketing, location, timing, or concept—corporate Disney canceled its expansion. DisneyQuest’s interactive attrac-tions—CyberSpace Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Buccaneer Gold, Virtual Jungle Cruise, and other interactive adventures inspired by Disney park attractions—continue to excite our guests in Florida. I was very proud of the product, with its strategic and business strategy developed by Joe DiNunzio, and the team’s creative concepts, led by Larry Gertz. DisneyQuest also achieved fame when Professor Randy Pausch wore an Imagineering logo shirt during his “Last Lecture” at Carnegie Mellon University. A computer sciences expert, Professor Pausch was a key consultant to our DisneyQuest team. His “Last Lecture,” delivered while he was dying of cancer, was widely covered by television, and in a book, The Last Lecture, published by Hyperion in 2008. Randy called his talk “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams”; it was not about dying—it was about seizing every moment and living life to its fullest.

  “It’s not about how to achieve your dreams,” Professor Pausch said. “It’s about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you.”

  RIDING MICHAEL’S ROLLER COASTER

  Near the end of his twenty-one years as CEO, I was asked by Disney’s Corporate Communications to write an editorial in support of Michael Eisner’s creative role in the development of our park attractions. In part, this is what I said in an op-ed piece that appeared in the Orange County Register newspaper. I began by referencing that first meeting at Imagineering:

  We didn’t know what to expect from the new boss that…morning, but the day ended up being fun for all of us. Michael was excited by our creativity and had tremendous enthusiasm for what we did at Imagineering.… Ideas and the talent behind the ideas need to be nurtured in order to grow and reach full potential, and no matter how strange one of our ideas seemed on paper, Michael was able to recognize its universal appeal.

  By the time this article appeared, Michael’s days were numbered, as he came under fire from investor groups and other shareholders, members of the Disney board of directors, and the onetime cheerleaders originally responsible for bringing Eisner and Frank Wells to the company in 1984—Roy E. Disney and his business partner at Shamrock Holdings, Stanley Gold. Stanley, in particular, took great umbrage at what I had written.

  There were two important reasons I wrote that op-ed piece, despite the calls from Roy and Stanley and other shareholders. Firstly, Roy had very little to do with what went into the parks and resorts around the world, aside from his previous role as a member of the Disney board of directors. In fact, until the Animal Kingdom park (Roy was a big help in putting together and encouraging the advisory board), I can’t recall a creative or story meeting Roy participated in during my tenure as creative leader of Imagineering.

  Secondly, Michael’s role in working with the Imagineers to create imaginative places and attractions in the parks and resorts was enormous. I have already mentioned a few examples—but there were many highlights: Captain Eo, Star Tours, Mission: SPACE, Mickey’s PhilharMagic, Splash Mountain, It’s Tough to be a Bug!, Blizzard Beach, and several new parks and resort hotels around the world. No question his enthusiasm and role had diminished and it wasn’t the same relationship after Frank Wells’s untimely death.

  My op-ed piece was in some ways a “thank you.” I felt someone who was directly involved should say so.

  Despite the loss of Frank Wells, the second decade of Eisner’s leadership at The Walt Disney Company had begun auspiciously with the release of a series of animated features from 1995 to 1999 (Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Mulan, and Tarzan); a new relationship with Pixar that produced John Lasseter’s original Toy Story (1995) and A Bug’s Life (1998); acquisition of the ABC Television Network (1996); and the opening of the Animal Kingdom park at Walt Disney World (1998). There was also the forgettable D3: The Mighty Ducks (1996) and George of the Jungle (1997). But Frank Wells’s death left Michael without a true second-in-command whom Michael trusted implicitly, as he did Wells. Michael himself has said, “…it was never the same without Frank.”

  I fully admit to an incomplete view of all the challenges Michael Eisner faced in motion pictures, television, the rapidly changing world of interactive media, and so on. But I did have a seat at the table as the creative leader of WDI in the Parks and Resorts division, which accounted for 25.3 percent of corporate revenue when Eisner turned the CEO reins over to Bob Iger in 2005.

  Those of us who were in leadership positions at Walt Disney Productions (as it was then called) in 1984 when Eisner and Wells arrived were excited by the talent they attracted, including Gary Wilson from Marriott as CFO; Jeffrey Katzenberg in motion pictures from Paramount; and Rich Frank, also ex-Paramount, in television. They joined key leaders already in place: Dick Nunis, Attractions; Barton “Bo” Boyd, Consumer Products; Jim Jimirro at the fledgling Disney Channel; Jack Lindquist, Attractions Marketing; and Carl Bongirno, president, and me at WED Enterprises. By the millennium, however, they were all gone except for me. Michael did put in place a number of outstanding new executives: Bob Iger, of course, who came to Disney with the purchase of Capital Cities-ABC and who by 2011, as president and CEO, had acquired Pixar and Marvel Enterprises; Andy Mooney, who brought creative new directions beyond licensing to Consumer Products; and Anne Sweeney at the Disney Channel, now the top executive in Disney Television Enterprises.

  In TV and motion pictures, there was George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports; Dick Cook in motion pictures; and Peter Schneider and Thomas Schumacher, who followed their success in Feature Animation and built the Disney Theatrical Group, creating stage shows for Broadway and theaters around the world based on Disney animated stories (Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Mary Poppins, etc.). Tom continues to this day as producer and president of the Disney Theatrical Group.

  * * * * * * * * * *

  But it was the loss of key talent and the appointments Michael made to key leadership positions that caused many of my colleagues to lose enthusiasm for his leadership of the company. My own attitude mirrored that of most of the Imagineers at several losses and changes in particular.

  One, Jeffrey Katzenberg, was missed immediately. Jeffrey’s support in signing star talent for our shows, especially for the Disney-MGM Studios, helped Tom Fitzgerald and Bob Weis create some memorable film moments, including two films that opened the Disney-MGM Studios: The Lottery, starring Bette Midler and directed by Garry Marshall, and the animated Back to Neverland, starring the unlikely combination of Walter Cronkite and Robin Williams. Jeffrey made sure that Disney animation produced these and other animation subjects and staffed the important Animation Studios Tour. He was also enthusiastically supportive of Imagineering in the ongoing conflicts between the creative and operating points of view at the parks.

  Jeffrey had asked me to meet with him to discuss a “white paper” he was writing about future directions for the company, which I understood he was preparing at Eisner’s request. In fact, we later learned that when Michael fired him, Jeffrey had gone to Michael’s office expecting to discuss his assignment and the recommendations in his white paper. (In his book Partnership, Michael writes: “Jeffrey Katzenberg, who had done terrific work alongside me for nearly two decades, left the company when he didn’t get Frank’s job, and after Roy Disney demanded he be fired.”)

  Losing Jeffrey was a big blow to our staff, especially to Tom Fitzgerald, whom Jeffrey had helped school in working with star talent. We felt Jeffrey’s loss even more so with the hiring of Michael Ovitz. We did not know Ovitz, and he did not know our business, or the style of our talent. Imagineers are driven by the success of the project rather than their ego, stature
, and future contract negotiations—the world Ovitz epitomized as head of Creative Artists Agency. (Again quoting from his explanation in Partnership, this is how Eisner explained Ovitz’s “in and out” tenure at Disney after Katzenberg had left: “A year later, we hired Michael Ovitz, the head of Creative Artists Agency (CAA), who had been a business friend of mine in Los Angeles for years, to be Frank’s replacement. Fourteen months later, he was gone after the arrangement failed.”)

  Jeffrey, of course, has gone on to other successes since Disney, first by forming DreamWorks SKG with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen, and now, as CEO of DreamWorks Animation. Considering his legendary work ethic, leadership, and stature in the motion picture industry, his departure was a big loss for The Walt Disney Company.

  Imagineering also lost a key voice at the Disney Studio who understood that “resting on your laurels” was the antithesis of the tradition in innovation Walt established. For the years that Dick Cook, who had begun his Disney career working at Disneyland and loved the parks, served as chairman of Walt Disney Studios, the Imagineering group had a strong bond with the Studios. Cook was later fired by Bob Iger.

  Mickey Steinberg was another loss. In a business where complementary leadership skills can build one plus one into a ten, Mickey and I were the perfect fit. Mickey’s technical skills as an engineer and architect were impeccable—he had spent twenty-seven years managing John Portman’s financing and leading the building of developments around the world. That gave him a respect and deep appreciation for creative talent, and the importance of supporting the dreamers of new ideas. He concentrated on “the doing”—organizing every Imagineering function that contributed to making the project feasible and buildable, and overseeing dozens of functions: project management, of course, but also finance, estimating, engineering, architecture, manufacturing, and production.