mr eisner oh hi michael oh certainly mr
eisner uh sorry to disturb you but i'm
delivering to you mr barry boswick and
mr richard kind if you'll just sign for
them yeah right on there
thank you very much
oh hey michael my turn hi michael barry
so
yeah we were told to meet the big cheese
at the disneyland resort
it's the big cheese i'm not the best i
wish i was the big cheese this is the
big cheese
oh
hi fellas gee i've been looking for you
all day oh i want to give you a personal
tour of disney's california adventure oh
what do you say we start with a ride on
california screaming
so mickey it's just you and me and i
love that ride and i want to go on it
with you ah let's go
okay boss okay boss
you know mickey i think this is the
beginning of a beautiful theme park you
betcha it wasn't
and now the story of a company in panic
and the one ceo who just couldn't seem
to catch a break
it is the funk plan
[Music]
on july 17 1955 disneyland opened its
gates to the public and along with
elaborate theming it had an expansive
magical parking lot due to its placement
in anaheim disneyland's land was far
from sprawling this made the parking lot
prime real estate for any kind of
expansion including a potential second
gate while a variety of concepts for a
second park were proposed over the years
it wouldn't be until 1982 that the walt
disney company would seriously begin to
consider it on october 1st of that year
epcot center in orlando florida's walt
disney world opened this created the
walt disney world resort as it is known
today and it made a multi-day vacation
to the resort necessary if guests were
going to explore all of the offerings
two years later in 1984 it was becoming
increasingly clear that despite epcot's
success disney as a company was not
doing well a string of box office
failures from their studio and big
budget projects for the parks had
brought disney to the lowest point in
the company's history and many feared a
takeover in a bold move by the company
then ceo and president ron miller was
ousted and michael eisner was brought in
as the company's new ceo eisner had big
plans for the company the most notable
of which were to turn the company's
failing studios around make the existing
disney parks more appealing to older
audiences expand internationally with
the addition of a european park and
finally make anaheim a multi-day resort
with the addition of a second gate in
1987 the walt disney company acquired
the rather corporation decades earlier
in the mid-1950s walt disney had asked
oil tycoon and television producer jack
rather to build the disneyland hotel
since disney lacked the funds having
spent most of his money constructing
disneyland since then and up until
disney's acquisition in 1987 the rather
corporation had owned the disneyland
hotel and property near the theme park
the obvious next step after obtaining
the necessary assets was to finally
build a second theme park in the
disneyland resort and it might have been
that simple had eisner not gotten
distracted
apart from the disneyland hotel the
rather corporation also owned the rms
queen mary a retired ocean liner that
was permanently docked in long beach
california after disney acquired the
rather corporation eisner became
interested in transforming the queen
mary and surrounding land into a new
resort called port disney port disney
was to feature hotels a cruise ship dock
and an all new ocean-themed amusement
park called disney sea eisner pitted the
cities of anaheim and long beach against
one another trying to decide whether to
build disney sea as the second gate to
the disneyland resort or build it in
long beach within port disney the
announcement was made in january of 1990
and anaheim and long beach both worked
with disney in order to bring the new
theme park to their city however the
citizens of both cities were not
thrilled with the disney expansion
citing the issues the residential
neighborhoods of anaheim already faced
due to the existing park this along with
a variety of other legal logistical and
budgetary issues caused eisner to
announce in late 1991 that plans for
port disney and disney c had been
scrapped in favor of an alternative idea
that the imagineers had been drafting
due to the popularity of florida's epcot
eisner and the imagineers believed that
a west coast version of the park was the
best idea for disneyland's second gate
the park would have been almost
identical to epcot with a few notable
changes such as a larger spaceship earth
improved future world attractions and a
much different world showcase including
a steel dragon coaster in the asia
pavilion and a boat cruise around the
entire world westcott was announced at
the same time as the cancellation of
port disney and disneysea in 1991 one
year later euro disneyland would open
which for a variety of reasons that are
too long to discuss here failed horribly
the budget for the parks division was
cut dramatically and as ideas for
westcott grew it became clear that the
company could not afford such an
expansion but eisner did not give up on
the disneyland resort and despite the
issues went forward with his plans for a
second park eisner had a simple
technique that he often used when he
decided on new projects the technique is
known as jealousy whenever eisner saw
another company doing something
successfully he decided that disney
would do the same thing moreover he
would take the idea and do basically the
same thing in basically the same place
for instance after seeing the success of
the amusement park zoo hybrid busch
gardens tampa in the early 90s he
greenlit disney's animal kingdom the
park was just over an hour from busch
gardens after seeing the success of the
church street station nightclubs in
orlando florida eisner greenland his own
nightclubs and pleasure island at the
disney village marketplace pleasure
island was about half an hour from
church street station so when westcott
was canceled and disney returned to the
drawing board it wouldn't be long until
eisner was presented with a new idea
since the disneyland resort at the time
provided such a short visit to
vacationers many of the guests would go
explore the other tourist offerings of
california after their trip disneyland
president paul pressler recognized this
and pitched an idea to eisner if disney
could provide all the sights and
attractions of the state of california
within the disneyland resort then guests
would have no reason to leave and spend
their money elsewhere this concept would
develop into the plans for california
adventure a california-themed theme park
to be located in the already
california-themed california concept art
for the park was released in 1996 a year
after westcott was canceled the release
dated that california adventure would
feature everything from soaring above
yosemite valley to the glitz and glamour
of hollywood movie making the original
concept art from the park had a sense of
serenity and it seemed to be designed as
an intimate romantic tribute to
california in the hollywood section of
the park there was to be a recreation of
the theme building the observation deck
and former restaurant at the los angeles
international airport which was being
renovated by walt disney imagineering
around the time the california adventure
was in development this was to be the
show building to one of california
adventure's signature attractions
superstar limo a high-speed dark ride
that would take guests on a wild
paparazzi chase through hollywood as
guests boarded the attraction they would
be greeted by michael eiser himself
eisner would tell guests that they had
to get to the big premier grommen's
chinese theater as soon as possible to
sign a contract for their next film but
he warned guests that the paparazzi were
all over town and if they were caught
doing anything to ruin their image then
eisner would have to cancel the deal the
limo driver would then floor it in an
attempt to get guests to the movie
premiere on time according to disney
historian jim hill the ride system would
have been a combination of a traditional
dark ride and a family-friendly roller
coaster the ride would have also
included a variety of jokes and gags for
instance guests would fly past the
famous tale of the pup hot dog stand
with a large man and rhinestones
creating sounds of flatulence but as
guests turn the corner it would become
clear that this was actually elvis
presley squirting mustard onto a hot dog
the ride ended with guests reaching the
chinese theater only to have eisner tell
them that he would have to cancel the
contract because they had been caught by
the paparazzi then a picture taken of
guests while on the ride would be shown
cropped into a tabloid reporting on
their limo chase after this guests would
exit and walk the red carpet into the
chinese theater which was the gift shop
and exit to the attraction where fake
oscars on-ride photos and t-shirts would
have been sold the original concept of
superstar limo was nothing
groundbreaking but it seemed that it
would have been a fun dark ride that
would have fit perfectly in the
hollywood section of the park however
the mid 90's version of the attraction
would not be the one the guests
experienced when the park opened and
this time it wasn't eisner's fault
[Music]
in august of 1997 in paris france diana
princess of wales was killed in a limo
accident her driver was supposedly
fleeing from paparazzi when he lost
control of the wheel the tragedy
captured the attention of the entire
world who grieved the death of the
princess and the other passengers as for
eisner and his team they now had a big
problem superstar limo could no longer
be a high-speed paparazzi chase because
it would now seem that it was some sort
of twisted reference to the tragedy the
imagineer scrambled briefly considering
cloning a disney mgm attraction to the
anaheim park top contenders with a great
movie ride the twilight zone tower of
terror or rock and roller coaster which
at the time was still in development of
these the tower of terror was probably
considered to be the top contender as
eisner was heavily pushing for the idea
of a ride hotel hybrid on top of most
everyone besides him thinking that this
was a bad idea that logistically would
be problematic if not impossible it was
also clear that the budget for
california adventure would not allow for
this or any of the other potential
attractions which meant the hollywood
section of the park would not have a
ride on opening day or would it forced
whether by situation or executives to
write a treatment for an acceptable
version of superstar limo the imagineers
had a few solutions one remove most of
the references to paparazzi two remove
any high speed element by having the
limos inch forward through the show
building and three add more setting
specific jokes and gags the idea wasn't
good and the imagineers considered
superstar limo to be dead unfortunately
if their job was to please the boss they
had done it a little too well eisner who
had been in the entertainment industry
for decades adored the inside jokes and
hollywood gags he loved them so much
that he greenlit the new terrible
version of the attraction imagineering
most likely baffled at what they now had
to do did their best to make the
attraction work this included scrapping
the chinese theater gift shop and adding
the theater as a show scene in the ride
in order to fill time after budgets were
slashed even more the theme building
exterior was scrapped in favor of a
cartoonish cutout look this art style
was also used within the ride itself the
only three-dimensional animated figures
would be that of celebrities but due to
the lack of budget these would have to
be celebrities whose likenesses were
cheap or stars that the walt disney
company already had contracts with also
these were not animatronics but barely
animated figures with minimal
unconvincing movement at some point
eisner realized that the ride was going
to be bad so he made a few quick changes
to save face first he removed a
reference to dreamworks animation that
read dream jerks animation which
referenced the ongoing feud between
former president of walt disney studios
jeffrey katzenberg who now worked for
dreamworks and eisner also eisner asked
imagineering to remove him from the ride
and the on-ride footage was replaced
with a sleazy hollywood agent barking
orders a guest proving that superstar
lumo foreshadowed more than one
catastrophe the retooled ride opened
with california adventure on february 8
2001. so was it as bad as they thought
it would be
yes
yes it was
[Music]
here and around hollywood boulevard
there's lots of fun and interesting
places to eat and shop all geared to
bring out the hollywood in everyone and
if you've ever wanted to be a star then
you have to ride superstar limo
the cartoon cutout exterior of superstar
limo features a variety of landmarks
from los angeles such as union station
city hall and the beverly hills hotel
one section features the world's
shortest railway los angeles angels
flight the railway which was constructed
in 1901 had recently reopened but an
accident resulted in the death of a
passenger on february 1st 2001 exactly
one week before california adventure and
superstar lobo would open however the
prominent reference on the queue's
exterior would not be removed another
interesting feature was the flower bed
that was decorated to look like a pool
after making their way into the queue
guests would find themselves in the
baggage claim area in the lax airport
the inside jokes to california and the
entertainment industry would begin with
a female announcer giving instructions
to arriving passengers the white zone is
for loading and unloading only
no schmoozing
further into the queue guests would
encounter television screens playing an
entertainment news report featuring a
horrifying puppet version of the late
joan rivers rivers would describe
hollywood's next biggest star who was
set to arrive at lax that day the star
turns out to be the guests entering the
ride in this queue area there were more
cartoon cutouts that helped foreshadow
what a terrible experience guests were
about to have one example of this was a
baggage carousel with packaged oscars
after guests winded their way through
the queue they would approach the ground
transportation section of the airport
and board their limo a sparkly purple
cartoonish limo a cast member guides
them into their cars and tells them to
enjoy their premiere guests are then
sent on their way into their soon to be
recurring nightmare an announcer tells
them to keep their hands feet and egos
in the limo at all times
the limo enters a dark tunnel and the
guest agent appears on the screen
attached to the ride's vehicle despite
being a creepy gross puppet this turned
out to be the most realistic part of the
ride
the first showroom is beverly hills and
regis philbin pops out of the door
fanning himself with money next up
melanie griffith with antonio banderas
then immediately following cindy
crawford and this is just the beginning
the next show seen is the sunset strip
here guests get to see tim allen and
jackie chan after this guests enter a
second tunnel and are reminded by their
agent to not be late the third show seen
is bel air where guests can see drew
carey with a handful of star maps guests
also run into sponsors trying to get
them to sign advertising deals a third
tunnel features another reminder from
their agent before the malibu show scene
here guests encounter cher standing in
the corner of the scene as if she
doesn't want to be there the limo then
enters the studio lots where guests
encounter paparazzi screenwriters and
production assistants all represented
through cheap cutouts after this guests
arrive for their premiere where none
other than whoopi goldberg greets them
guests are shown an on-ride photo of
themselves before entering a final
tunnel where their agent tells them that
they are a superstar and that was super
star limo
[Music]
so now everybody i thought we'd go over
to superstar a little a limo yes
why well because i'm on it excellent
that's right because
here at the california adventures right
next to disneyland exactly located right
next to this superstar has a special
superstar the the picture of me is super
limited it looks exactly like this
really it's kind of it's like a
photograph
oh here we go here we go now this is not
a scary fest ride right no no this is
just like a scenic like as if you were
doing hollywood you want to become a
superstar right now yeah
come on my darling let's take a ride
yeah see how are you on the way back say
hi to me
and there's hollywood beauty cindy
crawford
crawford all right bro hey there's tim
allen
[Music]
everyone it's bunnyman tim allen
hold your breath now
we got a
[Music]
wow
hollywood favorite whoopi goldberg
fluffy all right we're going to
california there might be no better way
to illustrate the reaction the public
had to the ride than the on ride photos
it is no surprise that the ride was
received negatively with guests
complaining that they had waited a half
hour to ride the cheap pop-up book
superstar limo was not the only issue
california adventure as a whole was
berated by the general public and
critics alike but overall the lines were
so short at times out here i thought it
was closed
this is outstanding the concept was bad
the execution was worse and superstar
limo was unforgivable it is no surprise
that on january 11 2002 less than a year
after the park opened superstar limo was
closed management had no replacement in
mind they just realized that guests
visiting california adventure would be a
lot happier if they never experienced
the attraction the building sat
abandoned in the hollywood pictures
backlot for four years rumors circulated
to various redressings that the ride
could undergo jim hill reported that the
imagineers were considering retooling
the ride into goofy's superstar limo
where goofy would drive guests through
hollywood and the c-list celebrities
would be replaced with classic animated
disney characters to pull this off
disney would take over 100 disney
figures that had been placed in disney
stores throughout the united states and
moved them into the new show scenes
another idea was to reopen the ride as
is and over the course of a few months
introduce animatronics of the muppets
cast at various points in the ride these
characters would be wearing hard hats
and be actively renovating superstar
limo as guests rode through it the
muppets would also be commenting on how
horrible the current version of the ride
was the finished product after the
transformation would be miss piggy's
superstar limo of course neither of
these ideas happened and the building
continued to sit abandoned it wouldn't
be until after eisner stepped down from
ceo in 2005 that the superstar limo
space would receive a new attraction as
the first step in what would become a
1.5 billion dollar expansion and
renovation to california adventure the
new management team constructed the
pixar themed dark ride monsters inc mike
and sully to the rescue the simple dark
ride would take guests throughout the
events of the first monsters inc film
and it was set to open on january 23
2006 but that is not the end of
superstar lumos story oh no the ride
very much lives on in the absolute worst
way possible since the monsters inc dark
ride was a quick fix for the park coming
a year before the major expansion it
didn't have the budget to bulldoze the
space and start over quite the opposite
really in order to save money the
imagineers decided to utilize as much of
superstar limo as possible this included
retrofitting the cutout exterior with
door designs which actually matched the
film's intro animation repurposing the
limos into monstropolis taxis reusing
the track layout and some of the tunnel
sequences and there was one more thing
oh yeah they stripped the c-list
celebrity figures and dressed them into
various animatronics throughout the ride
some of these zombietronics are more
obvious than others and the drew carey
and jackie chan figures are especially
easy to spot but don't worry most if not
every figure in the ride was reused in
some way while the new ride has received
mixed reviews and its inclusion of the
previous attraction's assets is
unsettling to say the least it is a far
better dark ride than superstar limo
while disney might wish they could erase
superstar limo from the memories of the
unfortunate park guests that experienced
it it is still important to remember the
ride and the other missteps of
california adventure the story is a good
reminder that even a company as big as
disney can still get themselves into
financial difficulty creative gridlock
and even some pretty wacky situations
on the next defunct land michael eisner
learns the differences between building
a park in tokyo and building a park in
paris we'll resort to the magic of
disney
and
hope that that in the end makes the
dream come true
[Music]
you