Why Can't Disney Get Avengers Campus Right? | Another Failure in Walt Disney Studios Park

Just before this video ended, it hit me: Disney management is not making mistakes -- they've making cold, calculated decisions. As long as they're able to draw enough people in, "just good enough" will always be their target. In the original parks, even details like line-of-sight intrusions to maintain the specific atmosphere of each land were pre-planned and important. Now, it's just a case of "this is an amusement park." They really don't give a hoot about the magic, or about setting the bar higher than the competition; they just care about making sure they have something to draw people onto the properties and leave their money behind when they leave. i know a lot of former Disney fans who aren't doing that anymore, it'll be interesting to see how long this chapter lasts... and if there's going to be anything left for a next (hopefully better) chapter in the history of the company.

I find it so bizarre that when I think of a Marvel attraction, the first thing that pops into my head is Hulk, not one of the high tech themed rides made by the company that owns Marvel, but a green rollercoaster at a different companies park Really shows how a fun ride is a lot more impactful than an overly ip based one

It feels like Disney is so disconnected from its audience

One possibility for why Disney is doing this is that the current Marvel popularity might not last all that much longer and that the attractions might not age well as tastes and interests change. It’s possible that Disney is anticipating this by creating attractions that can be more easily “reimagined” into the next big thing.

I appreciate you calling out Iger for a lot of this. Most Disney fansites want to lay the blame at Chapek's feet, but Iger called the shots for a lot of what's wrong with Disney. Endless budget-cutting happened throughout Iger's tenure while prices skyrocketed. I'd really like to see you do a deep dive into the pros and cons of Iger's decisions.

Said this before, but Disney took every wrong lesson from Universal's success with Potter, figuring it could be mimicked with any popular property. It can't: Potter is a "lived in" world with literary DNA and the ability to appeal to all five senses. Meantime, who wants to visit "Avengers Campus"? Same with Galaxy's Edge: Star Wars is not really about physical locations, given each world in it is just "the ice planet", "the forest moon", etc. The only other property you could make this work with is probably Tolkien's Middle-Earth...and it seems Universal might've gotten the rights to that, too! Beyond that, all the talk of "now you can live what you watched in the movies"...man, if I want to take part in a movie, I'll *watch the movie*. Theme parks are a different medium than films; if you're going to adapt a film property for a theme park, it has to be done in the "language" of themed entertainment, while most of this comes off as slapping a brand on a relatively generic experience, like putting a movie character's likeness on a juice box so more kids will ask their parents to buy it.

Walt Disney had something current management doesn't have; he was a filmmaker. He knew it was important to put on a good show and capture your audience right from the opening credits. When you arrive at Disneyland's Magic Kingdom, even before you enter the gates, you can see and hear the Disneyland Railroad. When you walk through the tunnels, you're greeted to Street Cars, Horse Draw Carriages, and Double Decker buses. Main Street is alive with motion and energy. You can see the energy of Fantasyland and Tomorrowland from the Hub. The Carrousel is spinning and peeking through the Castle, while the Astro Orbiter is spinning right out front. Emerging from Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, you can see Dumbo spinning, Peter Pan flying, and Casey Jr. thinking he can. Deeper in, Teacups are moving, Alice's caterpillar is crawling down leaves, canal boats are floating by, and bobsleds are careening down the Matterhorn. The point is; the land has energy, and you can see and feel this in every land Walt Disney, the film maker, had a hand in. The old Tomorrowland had the People Mover out front creating energy. Then the Astro Orbiter further in. On the water, Submarines were floating by. On the ground, Autopia cars were motoring by. In the sky, Monorails were whizzing by, as were the Skyway buckets. Galaxy’s Edge and the new Marvel lands lack energy. From the moment you enter them, you can see and hear that they are dead lands. There’s no energy. Nothing is moving. Everything that moves in these lands is hidden in show buildings. Can this be what Imagineers are proposing to Disney management? Seem unlikely. Disney’s current management doesn’t understand how to put on a show and get their guests excited from the moment they enter the park or land within the park. Even Michael Eisner, also a filmmaker, knew how to do this before the failure of Euro Disney scared him off from taking any more chances. Bring back Eisner? No. Of course not, but it’s too bad that Disney lost John Lasseter because he managed to put some movement and energy into Cars Land before he was ousted.

When epic universe opens I hope Disney has a wake up call.

It hurts especially knowing that there are so many people in this company that DO care and DO want to create fantastic rides, experiences and immersions but are consistently kneecapped by a management that seems to be more and more risk adverse and focusing on the bottom line. Of all the big entertainment companies Disney of all things can afford to go big or go home and take the occasional loss. But at least they would have TRIED.

The iron man ride took everything from rock n rollercoaster and made it dull and boring. They could’ve added music from AC/DC and more lights on the ride itself but Disney just doesn’t know how to make good rides anymore I guess

Here's a way to "fix" an Avengers Training Facility themed queue that I literally thought of just now, sitting on my ass, watching this video: Have the queue move through different rooms in the Avengers compound, with a TON of small props and visual narrative elements. An extremely high tech kitchen with cookbooks left out by Vision as he learns about human food. Maybe a cabinet is open and each avenger has their own shelf, we can see how each of them organizes their food and what food they have, a wine fridge full of Asguardian wine with a label "too strong for mortals", maybe even a dog bowl in the corner labeled "Rocket" but it just has like a regular sandwich or unopened can of beans because no one knows what Rocket eats anyway. Grocery lists! Hand towels! Personalized mugs! Maybe it's a smart kitchen attached to Friday and she interacts with small props on a 10 minute loop, a kettle boils over and she turns off the burner, a light bulb goes out and she orders a new one. She could get a call from Captain America that he'll be back soon and could she please start brewing his coffee etc! ALL THAT they could pack into one fake kitchen. A queue hallway that's just a long hall full of bedroom doors slightly ajar. In the movies/shows we see Wanda has a nice bedroom with all sorts of detail, recreate that and other avengers bedrooms and just leave the doors slightly open so guests and peek into each room as they pass by! Those rooms can be fully static and would still be interesting. Heck even having all the doors open except one would be interesting and build in some character! Who's room is that? Why do they have it closed? Have guests walk through a garage/workshop that has all of Tony Starks fancy cars, maybe a beat up bike for Peter Parker, mounts for the Falcons different wings! Black Widows motorcycle! Bags of fertilizer in the corner for Groot! They could literally just make room after room of the compound jam packed with details and easter eggs, I know fans have all sorts of headcanons about the Avengers living and training together at the compound sitcom style. This would be such an easy way to play into that aspect of the universe, which could also remain pretty timeless. Christ they could have a trophy room that's just full of all the random junk the avengers have collected over the years, props can be removed and added as new movies come out. Black Widow died? Redecorate her room for Miss Marvel! It seems so easy to pull fun ideas and inspiration from the MCU, there is SO much there that the movies barely scratch the surface of. Detailed theming is such a good way to build out the world and teach us completely new things about characters we'd never know otherwise, like what kind of tea Thor drinks or what bedspread Hawkeye has. Ugh. So much wasted potential. Great video as always.

The really crazy thing is that Six Flags has specifically come out and stated that they're looking to significantly improve the quality of the park experience. Now, I'm fairly certain that they simply have Cedar Fair in their sights, not Disney, but it would be amusing if Six Flags (of all chains) ends up delivering a better guest experience than the House of Mouse does.

Honestly I feel like all the Marvel stuff just isn’t meant to stay.. it feels like it’s a purposeful jump on a trend, not an investment, and something that can be easily torn down and replaced once it’s no longer popular. A worrying trend compared to attractions that are build remain relevant for generations.

I feel like the trap Disney fell into when creating Avengers "Campus" is just that--trying to stick so strongly to a storyline that it seems underwhelming. How exciting could basically a military training facility be? Avengers is based in the real world so the only thing exciting they could make in "their style" that could look interesting would be creating Asgard or Wakanda etc and then it limits them to one specific part of a massive IP. I think it was always intended as a meet and greet land to showcase screen accurate costumes, that are pretty great when compared to the cheap-costume esthetic found in Marvel Island in IOA. I'm not sure any one attraction could make it much better.

Removing the Pym’s Kitchen pretzel element is a perfect metaphor for the degradation of Disney’s creativity. I’m just in utter shock at how bland and sanitized this land looks, especially compared to “lower-end” parks. AND THIS IS WITH THE NUMBER ONE FILM FRANCHISE OF ALL TIME! The idiocy is UNBELIEVABLE! How did Chapek get his contract extended again?! #SaveDisney

Something that fascinates is that Disney has stopped caring what their buildings look like. This is the company that left a major legacy in Googie Architecture (Space Mountain, Contemporary), hired post-Modernist starchitects, and mastered vernacular architecture (Grand Floridian/ Californian). Yet the biggest franchise is history is in bland buildings.

I think the main problem is that unlike with Marvel Superhero Island at Universal, which was based off the comics, and therefore can have more style and personality, Avengers Campus is based off the MCU movies, which outside of Guardians of the Galaxy and maybe Thor, all look dull, sterile, and boring. So needless to say, any attraction you make is also going to look dull, sterile, and boring. Which is why the two best rides Disney has made so far are both based on Guardians of the Galaxy

The details I found in Universal's comic book area was fun, goofy, and kind of campy, but still so much more interesting than what Disney can offer. Why not give this land a beautiful color pallet so that there is something that pops and catches your eye everywhere? How did they expect this land to appear on Instagram, which is one of the best free marketing tools they have?

The most frustrating thing about this Embarassment of a park is... that it worked. After it opened visitor numbers spiked and overall...Disney is making a profit and is most likely getting away with lazy uninspired attractions and making tons of money by selling cheap plastic garbage at a high price.

The Disney Company is purely in the profit harvesting mode with the parks division. The market has told them that demand is inelastic due to the pull of their IP and the nostalgia/goodwill they have built up pre 2007. The parks division will continue to drag its feet with uninspiring and slow additions until the market tells them otherwise which likely won't happen in this decade to any significant degree. They will continue to focus on profit centers like new DVC resorts and even those are thematically bland and will ruin former imagineers efforts that were done with sight lines, etc. Thanks for another great video