Disney Brand Fatigue Is Damaging Its Parks

I think the executives at Disney work in an echo chamber. The feelings toward Disney, it’s content, and it’s parks seem to be universal, but when you hear their executives speak in public, it’s like they haven’t read a single thing the public has said about Disney for the last four years. They seem to have outward disdain for their own fans now.

I agree with your analysis on the film industry as a whole, but I think the biggest issue with Disney Parks is that they seem to not want people to come to the parks anymore. A summer vacay at Disney isn't something you can just do anymore; you have have to save every spare penny for like 7 years, then create a dozen spreadsheets to plan the damn thing like an Ocean's 11 heist. If you can manage to afford the ticket, you can't just walk in and say, "What do you feel like riding? Which show do you want to see? Are you hungry? Let's pop over to one of the quick-serve places and pick up something to eat." You have to pre-schedule and book ALL of that on your damn phone 30 days in advance. You can't walk up to a counter, see what's on the menu, and choose based on what looks good to you in the moment. Well, I mean, you can but they will tell you to come back in 3 hrs to pick it up. Wtf? That defeats the whole PURPOSE of quick-service counters. You have to make freaking reservations for hamburgers and hot dogs and frozen pizza are you KIDDING me? A Disney trip isn't relaxing or fun anymore; it's WORK. You can spend a week on a cruise for LESS than it costs to spend 5 days at Disney, and the cruise line will wait on you hand and foot...you get to relax. Disney only wants rich park-goers with lots of money, so they are making the "experience" as expensive and as unpleasant for the average family as they can. That has done as much damage to the brand as IP fatigue. And they didn't do themselves any favors with the way they are treating their creative talent.

I always thought that Disney replacing Tower of Terror with Guardians was a short sighted move. I still miss Tower of Tower a lot.

The biggest problem seems to be that Disney did not realise that their parks were a brand themselves, and instead they destroyed or merged those brands with others. There was no need to do any of this for brand recognition, because names like It's A Small World, the Matterhorn, Space Mountain etc, and their respective lands, already had brand recognition.

Audiences will tolerate a lot of things. Iffy CG effects, not-great acting, problematic actors. But one thing you can never cheap out on is the writing. You will often hear things like, "it was a good movie, but some of the effects were bad." You will NEVER hear, "it's a good movie, but the writing was bad." Because that's what decides if a movie is good or bad. The writing. Even if a movie with bad writing makes a lot of money opening weekend, it will come back to bite them when no one comes back to see the sequel. PRIORITIZE QUALITY WRITING. PAY THE WRITERS.

The trouble with relying upon brands is that people's tastes and interests change over time. You can be super into something one year and despise it the next.

The thing about Epcot is that even if the “futurism” might have become dated, the parts like that then for many slipped into “retro-futurism”, which itself is very fun.

I think that part of the issue is that our society is becoming increasingly sensitive to being marketed to. We can tell when something is crass marketing, and we don't have a lot of patience for it.

I went to WDW during Christmas 2018. While it was great to see the evening fireworks and projections and meeting characters, there was this cloud of STRESS hanging over all of us. My sister, in her TWENTIES, got mad because we met a character without her. My mom cried because we didn’t make a reservation. I regretted asking my father to pay for Be Our Guest after being excited for years. I was also tired all the time, even when doing “less intense” things like Little Mermaid or Frozen. I’m grateful my parents gave me the experience but it was difficult watching my family literally change behavior before my eyes due to the cost and anxiety Disney makes you deal with. It’s not worth it.

Sequel fatigue is real. On top of that, new IP is seen as risky, so the creative capital isn’t being used. It’s ironic however, since you can look at Disney Tokyo Sea and other European parks to see how original IP thrives.

As someone who worked at Disney in the 1990s I saw the transformation of the corporate culture. It all began with Frank Wells' death and Jeffrey Katzenberg's departure. Eisner, who was nothing but a corporate animal, shifted power away from creative executives to marketing people and accountants. By picking someone from the parks as his successor the transformation was complete. Salesmen, by their obsession with volume, always turn everything into a commodity, which is what movies are now. You can't expect premium pricing when you're peddling commodities.

I really hope one of the results of this huge strike will be a burst of creative movies. A24 just got approval to be the only studio making films right now, because they looked at Disney saying “Nobody can afford to pay what they’re asking” and called their bluff by giving the writers and actors literally everything they asked for. If indie companies can do it, anyone can.

I remember before the streaming service thing, a Disney film coming out was big. Whole family gets in the car, goes to the theatre and maybe you see some friends. Watch the film with them, then go and have some fun while discussing it. An afternoon where the most stressful thing was getting there before the film started.

Disney movies have arguably had their worst year in decades at the box office. They have also had terrible attendance numbers at their parks recently. I think they have done long term damage to their brand and spent that goodwill they had with consumers. I truly wonder behind closed doors if Disneys leadership even understands how they continue to diminish the brand.

The biggest bummer about the Pandora land is that if had gone with the original theme for that area of mythical beasts it could have had a timeless identity

The new dark rides rely too much on technology. The thing that makes rides like Peter Pan interesting is knowing it's models, anamatronics, miniatures, and paintings that are creating an imersive experience. They have presence and look real and that makes you the rider feel like you're there rather than feel like you're watching something. It's the difference between live theater and a movie.

Remember when Disney used to make amazing animated films that are timeless classics and were the king of theme parks? I miss those days. I really don't see a future where things come out well for them at this point.

WDW pass holder here. Spent a day at the parks solo last month (family just slows me down!). Went on Remy, Frozen, and Rise. While technology more advanced than Pirates or Haunted Mansion, the classic rides are so much better. The feel more creative and human.

In the past 3-4 years, every conversation I’ve had about watching a new movie in theaters has ended in someone saying something like “I’ll just wait till it’s on streaming”.

A final comment on Disney+.... Think of the beatles. The biggest band in history. But they couldn't get away with having an all Beatles streaming service. So they instead become a prestigious offering on another service. That's what Disney should have done with another service. Stayed with them, nurtured the relationship, kept the Disney vault concept but put it on there, and be this upscale high value thing on someone's service while Disney deposits fat checks.