Today I started my research at the Walt Disney Studios. This theme park, which opened in 2002, pays tribute to Hollywood and movies of Walt Disney, in the vein of Universal Studios or the similar Disney's Hollywood Studios park in Florida and the backlot area of Disney California Adventure.
The entrance plaza is designed to resemble the front gate at a movie studio backlot, and the rest of the park looks like such a lot, with large open spaces and massive buildings labeled ‘Stage 3’ or 'Main Stage.’ Park services and maintenance even ride around in those little golf carts with the tassel rooflines.
The park, especially when compared with Disneyland next door, is a travesty. Really just a horribly disappointing experience. I think I was there for about an hour and a half before I decided that my time was better spent next door.
The only worthwhile experience was the Twilight Zone Terror of Terror, and that's lifted directly from the stateside parks (the French version is an exact clone of the one at California Adventure). It’s not just that Disney spent too little on design and development (though they most certainly did; probably the suits are cautious after the resort’s harsh first few years), the problem also is that certain thematic design decisions just don’t work. As is the case with California Adventure, it seems many creatives at the company need to relearn the techniques that made Disney theme parks wildly popular in the first place.
Overall, the park lacks feeling. It comes across as shallow, boxy and cheap. Something i’ve come to expect from Universal or Six Flags, but not Disney. I think this problem stems from Disney’s decision to not embrace pure simulation. If the park is supposed to resemble a Hollywood backlot, then the appropriate solution is not to just suggest it, but to do it, all the way. Main Street U.S.A. or Frontierland work because they embrace the thematic extreme of pure simulation. This has its own drawbacks, and precious care must be taken to preserve the representation from being shattered by the outside world, but overall it’s a much stronger experience. Walt Disney Studios tries to walk the line between suggesting and simulating. Is it a joke? Is it for real? The impression is one of confusion. However, there are some interesting things going on, and although as a visitor I’m not particularly moved by them, I think I can read the design intent.
The entry building, after you cross the studio courtyard, is a massive studio warehouse. You enter through the doors onto a ‘HOT SET’—the classic lighting rigs and unpainted plywood walls with 2x4 framing are instantly recognizable.
Inside this stage building is a mock set of Hollywood and general Californian / American iconography.
There is a Brown Derby, a tropical place called ‘Liki Tiki,’ a classic retro gas station, the 'Hollywood and Vine’ department store etc.
Now this is where it get weird—the explicit metaphor of a set is carried throughout, so all these stage fronts are intentionally facades, bare wood backs and all. No matter which doorway you walk through, however, they all lead to one large area ‘backstage.’ On the left is one long retail space, and on the right is a fast food court.
I’m not sure how to feel about this. I get what they’re trying to do. This building is supposed to be a gateway that is taking you, literally and figuratively, ‘into the movies.’ So I can understand why the false fronts are false—to be consistent with the pure simulation of the stage set buildings (which is done rather well).
The problem is, the designers are explicitly telling their audience that this is all fake. This admission of illusion makes it very difficult to suspend disbelief, and take the whole thing seriously. And by that I mean, to take theming seriously you have to not look at it seriously.
Any crack in the façade is detrimental, and by showing the audience that it’s indeed all ‘just a show,’ a thematic environment can’t function the way it’s designed to.
It would have been better if these stage sets were designed to accompany the environments, as background elements. But walking through and inhabiting them fundamentally separates the audience from the simulation. And for thematic design, that’s the death knell.