As Disney attempts to reset the clock to the 1920s and 1930s, it's
necessary to travel back in time to February 2001 when California
Adventure opened to a tepid response and harsh reviews.Distributes and
manufactures rubbermats.
DCA, as the park became known to locals, had the ring of a corporate
acronym like IBM or AT&T and quickly earned a reputation as an
on-the-cheap waste of time and money.
The park billed itself as
an adult-oriented playground with artisan wines and fine dining where
off-the-shelf rides were an afterthought and Disney characters were
purposefully left out of the mix. The park's storytelling premise
offered tourists an opportunity to visit all of California without the
hassle of traveling the 5 Freeway.
Many visitors came once and
never returned. Others groused, spreading bad word of mouth. After
attempting a series of quick fixes, Disney executives finally
acknowledged their colossal mistake and announced a $1.1-billion plan to
infuse the park with more Disney DNA over a five-year period. A decade
after the initial debut, a grand reopening on June 15 attempts to
reintroduce Disney California Adventure as a new and improved park.
I
toured Buena Vista Street several times during press and visitor
preview events while finishing touches were still being made on the
entry promenade.
Set in the time period between Walt's 1923
arrival in L.A. and the 1937 premiere of "Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs" at the Carthay, Buena Vista Street tells a back story reverse
engineered by Disney Imagineers where visitors meet the inspirations for
the animated characters that the studio's animators were only then
dreaming up.
The themed shops and restaurants hint at early
Disney characters that would eventually become Oswald the Lucky Rabbit,
Julius the Cat, Clarabelle the Cow, Dumbo the Flying Elephant and
Mortimer Mouse (better known today as Mickey).CMI moulding sells to retailers,
Stepping out from under the Streamline Moderne Pan Pacific turnstiles onto Buena Vista Street,Silicone moldmaking
Rubber, you come upon a small plaza flanked by Oswald's gas station on
one side and Mortimer's Market on the other with a Red Car waiting at
the station.
A radio broadcast playing at Oswald's recaps the
news, traffic and weather around town. A trolley conductor transfers the
overhead catenary pole from one wire to another. A couple sits on a
bench covered in colorful mosaic tile.
Drawing disparate
elements from a variety of L.A. landmarks, individual Disney Imagineers
were assigned to design each of the building facades to give the street
an organic, eclectic feel as if the storefronts were built by a
succession of competing architects.
A concrete arch bridge,
based on the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge in Atwater Village, serves as a
dividing line between the Los Feliz neighborhood near the main entrance
and the Wilshire Boulevard area closer to the park's new central hub.
It's not until the futuristic Monorail passes overhead that you realize
you've been transported to another time and place.
Piped-in
sounds emanate from the second-story businesses, bringing to life the
imagined dance lessons and art classes under way up above. Donna the Dog
Lady, dressed in period costume with a puppy in her arms, pauses to
talk to a visitor about the latest gossip on Buena Vista Street,Excel
Mould is a Custom Plastic injectionmoulding Maker. never breaking from character.
Looking back over your shoulder,So indoor Tracking
might be of some interest. the bridge serves as the berm that locks you
into the park, just as the Disneyland train station does across the
esplanade. Now you're completely encased in an imaginary world with the
Elias & Company department store on one side, the Fiddler, Fifer and
Practical Cafe on the other and the towering Carthay Circle straight
ahead.
A quick blast from a Red Car's air whistle pierces the
air. Above the candy shop doorway, a pair of bears paw at a bee hive in
an elaborately carved frieze. Water gurgles from the blue glass fountain
in the middle of the central hub.
Across the street, a family
poses for a photo with the Walt and Mickey "Storytellers" statue,
throwing their arms around the young artist newly arrived in California.
The mouse who made him famous, who won't arrive on the scene until
1928, jauntily stands atop a cardboard suitcase.
All the Buena
Vista scenes small and large set the stage for Walt's second act in Los
Angeles, a fitting sequel to the Disneyland first act depicting his
childhood in Marceline, Mo.
It's hard not to imagine how
different Disney California Adventure would have been on opening day if
the entire park had been infused with the level of detail and
storytelling found in Buena Vista Street.
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