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merlinjones
04-11-2003, 10:43 AM
hazlnut wrote: >>Missing the point<<

>>My two and half year old like the new pooh ride, isn't that what it's all about?<<

Camp Snoopy maybe, not Disneyland.


>>I don't think it was designed with adults in mind.<<

That's the problem.

Getting the point:

"You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway." - - Walt Disney

"Part of the Disney success is our ability to create a believable world of dreams that appeals to all age groups. The kind of entertainment we create is meant to appeal to every member of the family." - - Walt Disney

"We try it in everything we do here, you know... for the family. We don't actually make films for children. But we make films that children can enjoy along with their parents." - - Walt Disney

"Adults are interested if you don't play down to the little two or three year olds or talk down. I don't believe in talking down to children. I don't believe in talking down to any certain segment. I like to kind of just talk in a general way to the audience. Children are always reaching." - - Walt Disney

"I think of a newborn baby's mind as a blank book. During the first years of his life much will be written on the pages. The quality of the writing, whatever it will be, will affect his life profoundly. Let us multiply that single mind by millions. What is written on that enormity of youthful minds will alter the course of the world. This is how history is determined. It is self-evident to anybody who studies the history of the human races." - - Walt Disney

"You can't live on things made for children - or for critics. I've never made films for either of them. Disneyland is not just for children. I don't play down. - - Walt Disney

"All you've got to do is own up to your ignorance honestly, and you'll find people who are eager to fill your head with information." - - Walt Disney


Anybody want to break this news to TDA employees?

merlinjones
04-11-2003, 11:20 AM
More:

"I do not make pictures for children, at least not just for children. I won't play down to them. Too many people grow up. That's the real trouble with the world, too many people grow up. They forget. They don't remember what it's like to be twelve years old. They patronize; they treat children as inferiors. I won't do that. I'll temper a story, yes. But I won't play down, and I won't patronize." - - Walt Disney

"We think of the family audience. Mickey Mouse would not have been the success he was were it not for the broad appeal. We are not playing just for kids. If you took your kids to the movies and left them there to be picked up later and did not go yourself, I'd feel unhappy. After all, if you are aiming at the kids, what age would you aim at?" - - Walt Disney

"I do not make films primarily for children. I make them for the child in all of us, whether we be six or sixty. Call the child innocence. The worst of us is not without innocence, although buried deeply it might be. In my work I try to reach and speak to that innocence, showing it the fun and joy of living; showing it that laughter is healthy; showing it that the human species, although happily ridiculous at time, is still reaching for the stars." - -Walt Disney

"A child is helpless in choosing what is to be engraven on his mind during the formative years. The awesome responsibility is assumed, for better or worse, by adults. Today we are shapers of the world of tomorrow. That is the plain truth. There is no way we can duck the responsibility; and there is no reason, except sloth and cowardice, why we should." - - Walt Disney

"Disneyland really began when my two daughters were very young. Saturday was always Daddy's Day, and I would take them to the merry-go-round, and sit on a bench eating peanuts, while they rode. And sitting there alone, I felt there should be something built, some kind of family park where parents and children could have fun together." - - Walt Disney

"The important thing is the family. If you can keep the family together - - and that's the backbone of our whole business, catering to families - that's what we hope to do." - - Walt Disney

innerSpaceman
04-11-2003, 01:51 PM
Isn't there some sort of merlinjones software I can get that has a different cool Walt quote pop up on my computer screen each day?

hazlnut
04-11-2003, 02:20 PM
I thought we were talking about the Pooh ride.

The enjoyment of which for me was of the vicarious variety.

I enjoyed watching my little girl enjoy it.

Would I go on it with just my wife?

merlinjones
04-11-2003, 02:47 PM
>>I thought we were talking about the Pooh ride.<<

Those quotes are all relevant to the Pooh ride... and the business of Disney in general.

Or do you think Walt a fool?


>>The enjoyment of which for me was of the vicarious variety. I enjoyed watching my little girl enjoy it.<<

Cool. But how would your child have enjoyed the ride any less if it had been full of more wondrous animation, texture, art, humor and storytelling?

Would you lose any of your vicarious enjoyment if it was cooler ride?


>>Would I go on it with just my wife?<<

You tell me. I know lots of people who are grown up and love to go on the Fantasyland rides, including myself! Disneyland was created for the young at heart, not just the young.

There is no reason to be proud of creating anything for the lowest common denominator. If so, there wouldn't even BE a Disneyland (see Walt quotes above).

...Or would you and your child actually prefer a cheaper, uglier, more shallow ride to a better one?

If so, the religion of consumerism, consensus, demographics, brand marketing, business administration, investment banking and public relations is killing the national soul.


>>Isn't there some sort of merlinjones software I can get that has a different cool Walt quote pop up on my computer screen each day?<<

I'll work on it. Too bad we couldn't get to pop up on the computers of Disney executives companywide. Maybe a hacker could torture them with Walt quotes every day!

hazlnut
04-11-2003, 02:53 PM
It seemed like they spent some money in there. I was half expecting to see a bunch of Country Bears in tigger costumes.

They didn't spend Indy money... It wasn't the greatest dark ride, but it was true to the original Pooh books and films.

merlinjones
04-11-2003, 02:59 PM
>>It wasn't the greatest dark ride, but it was true to the original Pooh books and films.<<

Respectfully, I feel the original Pooh books and films were executed far more artfully and could have been represented on a far more comparable level in every way. I think this is the Disney Store window version.

hazlnut
04-11-2003, 03:14 PM
Good point, it did feel a little stiff.