The Walt Disney Company is in a unique position when it comes to promoting its franchises. It has a theme park that can be used to push new movie and TV projects and can be promoted by those same media franchises. The Disney Parks are nearly always a massive moneymaker for Disney, so it’s perhaps not that shocking when the company revealed during an investor meeting on Tuesday that it plans to spend $60 billion on the parks over the next decade, more than twice what it had previously projected.
However, what’s perhaps more interesting is the word from Disney Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro that Disney plans to use that money to promote some parts of the Disney synergy machine that maybe haven’t seen the same level of use as others. That could mean older movies that have been largely overlooked, but it could also mean a lot of brand-new characters and films that simply haven’t been brought to the parks quite yet. Here’s where Disney should be spending its billions.
The Black Cauldron
Is The Black Cauldron the movie that nearly destroyed Walt Disney Animation forever? Yes, it is. Is it really that bad a movie? Yes, it is, but that doesn’t mean that it should be swept under the rug and forgotten about forever. Even Disney recently released a Horned King MagicBand, so the company hasn’t forgotten about the franchise entirely.
I’m not saying The Black Cauldron needs its own ride at Disneyland, but the Disney Parks have great Halloween events every year, which are going on right now, and The Black Cauldron was made for just such an event. Even if we only see the movie appear during the spooky season, it would be worthwhile.
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Disney Animation tried something new in the early 2000s with a pair of non-musical, action-adventure movies in Treasure Planet and Atlantis: The Lost Empire, the former would be such a flop that Disney would literally write it off on its taxes within a week. While Atlantis fared better, it was only by comparison.
I’ve seen women Disneybounding in the parks as Kida, so I know there are fans of this work. Adding Atlantis to the parks would bring something that’s just that little bit different, and different is good. Who knows, maybe promoting a project that didn't find that much love the first time around would help others discover it now on Disney+.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
The Hunchback of Notre Dame isn’t a complete stranger to Disney Parks. We have heard “Out There” playing during nighttime spectaculars, and we’ve seen characters appear in parades here and there. The fact of the matter is that the movie is great and a lot of people love it, and we just need more.
The fact that we keep hearing Hunchback music indicates there’s something there, so maybe a stage show is in order, specifically something inspired by the Broadway show we never got would not run amiss. This $60 billion is being spent on the Disney Cruise Line too, not just the parks, so a Hunchback stage show there where it's worth pulling out all the stops would be excellent.
101 Dalmatians/Cruella de Vil
Disney Villains are almost always popular, sometimes more so than the movies that inspired them You don’t see a lot of references to 101 Dalmatians in the Disney Parks, but everybody knows Cruella de Vil. You’ll see her as a character in the parks, often around Halloween, and she’s so good that we need more of her.
We know that Disney is looking at expanding Magic Kingdom as part of planned new attractions at Walt Disney World, and that’s likely going to be where a decent chunk of this money will be spent. A Villains Land has been suggested as one possibility for the area, and that would be the perfect spot for a permanent Cruella show or attraction.
Mary Poppins
Outside of animation, Disney has often struggled with franchises that aren’t Marvel or Star Wars-related. Only the Pirates of the Caribbean films, which, of course, already have their own ride, have really been successful. But before them, there was Mary Poppins, and somehow she still doesn’t have her own ride.
She was supposed to get one though. Prior to the pandemic, a new attraction was planned for Epcot’s UK pavilion that would have brought the practically perfect nanny there in a big way, but the post-pandemic budget crunch killed that idea. If Disney is going to spend some money, let’s spend some to bring that idea back.
The Muppets
During the recent Destination D23 Parks panel, The Muppets were everywhere. Josh D’Amaro got the “15 seconds to curtain” call from Scooter. Uncle Deadly came out to talk about the Haunted Mansion. Longtime Muppets puppeteer and voice Dave Goelz took center stage with D’AMaro to talk about his 50 years working with the Muppets. It seemed all but assured some new Muppet project would be announced for the parks, and yet, nothing happened.
MuppetVision 3D has been gone from Disney California Adventure for years, and the show seems destined to disappear from Disney’s Hollywood Studios someday sooner rather than later. The Muppets have appeared in the parks now and then, but they are the definition of underutilized characters. We need to see more of them in the parks. Having the Electric Mayhem take over Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster, as has been suggested is one option, but there are so many more.
With Disneyland’s massive expansion all but assured to get approved, and an expansion of Magic Kingdom being teased alongside a now, somewhat decided Animal Kingdom expansion, we know where a lot of the $60 billion that Disney is going to spend over the next 10 years is going to go. What we will see in those new areas is less certain, but it's likely we can expect to see more of Anna and Elsa, or the Avengers, at Disneyland Resort. Seeing some of that is fine. I look forward to it, but hopefully Disney won’t forget that it has so many more popular stories, and somebody is a fan of each one.
