Iger annouces “Carsland” at DCA and praises theme parks
Disney’s Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger spoke yesterday at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference in New York. For a company as large as Disney, and certainly since we are so interested in it, when the chief speaks we all tend to listen closely. As you can probably imagine, he had quite a bit to cover including, the Disney Channel, films, ESPN, and Blu-ray. But let’s discuss what he said about the theme parks.
According to the Disney Blog, Iger officially announced the addition on a “Cars-land” to Disney’s California Adventure in Anaheim.
Concerning theme parks, Iger confirmed that the “parks are in great shape” and that Disney will continue to invest in capital, not just in maintenance. “Everything we have done with Pixar in the parks has worked extremely well,” he asserted. He also confirmed a new attraction for Disney’s California Adventure: “We are going to build a Carsland at California Adventure. Which will be a real anchor for that park in the near future.”
It is interesting to see that he refers to it as a “real anchor” and a “land”, as opposed to a ride or attraction. We have seen concept drawing for what is a “Test Track” style attraction themed to Cars, but expanding it into a full land is a fascinating idea. I do not have any rumored details for you on this because I am not too dialed into what happens on the west coast. If any one has some info please post it in the comments section below or on the Disney News Network Forums.
The Orlando Sentinel, via Bloomberg News, expanded upon Iger’s upbeat attitude toward the theme parks. They also give credit to a couple of the new e-ticket gate-busters for a banner year.
Disney will continue to add attractions at its domestic and international resorts, Iger said. A Finding Nemo ride at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., and the Expedition Everest roller coaster at Walt Disney World in Orlando have helped boost sales at the theme-park unit. In the nine months ended June 30, theme-park revenue was up 6.2 percent to $7.84 billion.
Expedition Everest opened in April 2006 in Disney World’s Animal Kingdom theme park. Mixing a roller coaster with a story about a Yeti creature and a mountain, the ride has drawn praise for pleasing teenagers and young adults without scaring away their parents or younger siblings.
This I particularly enjoyed reading because I am such a huge fan of Expedition Everest. In my humble opinion, Everest is exactly the type of ride that Disney should be building. It is what separates them from the pack. It uses amazing theme and detail in the finest Imagineering tradition, and it rides the line between thrill and family to keep everyone happy.
When I rode Everest for the first time, I was blown away. But more importantly, it put a smile on face, because it signaled to me that Imagineering finally got its groove back.
We urge you to discuss this more and leave your comment below, or feel free to come over to the Disney News Network Forums where we discuss this and many other topics in the Mouse Extra Forums.
Oleg said,
September 20, 2007 @ 5:46 pm
Carsland could still be just one large attraction (test track), a place to sit and eat, a place to get a snack, and a shop… with theming of walkways, etc. it does not have to be multiple attractions. Note that some of the Disney Studios areas in Paris have this notion of CARS land - but it’s really one attraction (small), a photo op place, playground, etc. geared more towards kids. Since Flik’s Fun Fair is already in place, they would have to do some tinkering.. but the idea is not new or novel..
Raidermatt said,
September 22, 2007 @ 1:40 am
I have a feeling Carsland was something Iger wasn’t supposed to mention. That’s not how they typically announce new attractions, especially an “anchor”. Also, Disney put out a press release the same day about the expansion at the Grand Californian, and there was no mention of Carsland.
That said, it would seem that the land would be based on the concept art in the annual report, the one that did show a Test Track like attraction. Though it showed a two track Test Track like attraction, which could be cool.
I’ve never been a big fan of Test Track because I find the theme/story very mundane. But if themed toward Cars and if done well, it could be really nice. Then again, we’ve seen how things can change drastically from the concept art, so we’ll have to wait and see. My guess is they won’t talk about it much until Toy Story Mania is open, or at least very close to it. For marketing reasons, they typically like to keep the focus on the next thing, not something further down the road (pun intended).
Mike said,
September 23, 2007 @ 2:17 am
I love Test Track. I always found it a lot of fun, although the theme is a minus point I suppose