My dad was an explosives expert. He always said that the best thing about defusing bombs was that if you messed up, it wouldn't be your problem anymore.
@@cFrogjar well, During World War II, there were alot of bombs, everywhere. When Disney's construction company was in Hong Kong doing construction, mostly early stage landwork development, there were alot of old, unexploded bombs in the waters. So they called in bomb experts and thats what they said
Disney not wanting to merge with Comcast to save the "soul" of the company from being destroyed by a massive multi-media conglomerate has to be one of the best cases of real life dramatic irony ever.
Oh, we care about the feelings of fish now? Okay, I'll eat the bugs and get the jab. Wait, do we care about the feelings of bugs yet? What about viruses?
"Eisner was worried Iger lacked the creative vision to run the company" In hindsight, this is IMMACULATE foreshadowing for what the Iger era of Disney was known for: merging with/assimilating existing creative houses/IPs into the Disney brand. (Lucasfilm, Marvel, 20thCF)
That's what I took from all this. Iger's strategy was to simply buy successful companies in the hopes that they would continue being successful without any oversight. It should come as no surprise that Disney mismanaged its portfolio once it got too large.
@@vladpiranha every Disney movie since Endgame besides Far From Home and thier two most recent animated movies have been horrendous bombs. Most don't make back thier budget and have massive losses if you account for marketing not counted in the budget. Mulan 2020 lost them $130 MILLION! I feel like one guy said it best though I don't remember who (I think Enter but I don't know for certain); Disney's strength has always been in adapting media into film and TV shows. The problem is now that they have either adapted everything or the stories are copyrighted which will make any future re-releases a pain in the ass to get permission for. This is why they've been buying up everything. Disney is quickly running out of steam and the executives know it.
I see this point but I also think it completely undermines Iger's tenure and respective legacy as head of the company. He is single handedly responsible for saving the company and I'd argue that he is the best CEO since Walt. Eisner was GREAT but crumbled when Wells died, could not work with Katzenberg (who produced the Disney Renaissance films) or Ovitz (founder of CAA). He let the Pixar relationship sour, Disney was almost acquired by comcast and Roy O Disney quit to try and oust him.
I'm amazed that Disney's park supervisors failed to take note of holidays that were important to HONG KONG, not the US. They should have known there might be bigger-than-normal crowds on Chinese New Year's. No excuse for that mess...
Micheal Eisner thought Bob Iger didn’t have the creative skills to run Disney. He was definitely right. Disney is doing better than ever financially but they’ve definitely lost their magic. Eisner took risks and some ideas failed while others didn’t. But he tried.
Yes Adrianna, a thousand times yes! Anyone who loves theme parks should hate Bob Iger (and JK Rowling for that matter). Theme parks are for beautiful lands and original ideas, and particularly for theming that fits. Iger knows nothing of these things.
Partariothegoth ruined the characters years after the books finished. Basically took every fact we knew about them, and went “Oh yeah, but...”. For example, she said Hermonie was black when in every single picture and description of Hermonie, she was described as white. She also created characters out of nowhere. She created a jewish character years after book 8 was published to please a a fan on twitter. The list goes on.
I’m from Hong Kong and here’re my two cents. The “cultural sensitivity” argument for not building a haunted house shows that they didn’t really do much research. Hong Kong Disneyland’s major rival Ocean Park has been holding an annual Halloween event since forever. It frequently leans into local ghost stories and folklore. Most of generation has participated in the event. And Lan Kwai Fong, HK’s Soho district, is often flooded with people on Halloween. So Hong Kong people aren’t really all that superstitious. The Mystic Point is more yikes-y for me, on the other hand. It feels so colonial and dated. It’s supposed to be a new attraction (?). It’s cute if you don’t think too much about it but not really particularly spectacular. It just feels very tone-deaf to me. I was too young to know that it’s a budget park. And our city is quite small so my only exposure to theme parks were either Ocean Park and Disneyland. Ocean Park is infinitely more exciting. Even upon Disneyland’s opening, most people were like what are we gonna do with a park with barely any rides lol That being said, I’ve spent many great days there with friends. What Disney has and Ocean Park has not is the atmosphere. It does feel like you can leave all your stress outside and just have a good time. I once had an annual pass but it was quite cheap, around 65 USD. We would go to Disneyland in our uniforms after school for like 3 hours at a time lol. They soon discontinued the cheapest tier annual pass (our tier). Before immigrating to the UK, I visited the Park with some of my best friends. So many memories. Though objectively not a very good theme park, but it’s still quite nostalgic for a lot of us. (Please forgive any mistakes made because I didn’t want to proofread a TH-cam comment lol)
So now I'm curious- what IS the deal with the "Chinese culture dislikes depictions of the undead" story that I hear so often? As someone who mostly does videogames rather than theme parks I hear of game companies who have to redesign sections of their games to like, remove reanimated skeleton enemies or re-design them so they're somewhat more flesh-covered (primarily seen in World of Warcraft), and the answer given then was along the lines of "depictions of the undead is taboo in China, and so we just have to change their depictions to be sold over there". But I have ALSO heard that that's complete bullshit, and that it's really just about what person at the censorship buraeu you know and pay, so if you just grease the right wheels you can have dancing skeletons in every room of your game. Yet then there's also a THIRD line of thought I see tossed around now and then saying that there's NO straightforward answer to be found because different regions of China have very different cultural norms around these things and depending on the background of whoever is in charge of investigating your game / movie / whatever to determine whether it's fit to be released in China, you can get WILDLY different results so all you can do is hope you're assigned a friendly one. And so with all this information out there that isn't making me any wiser or painting any clearer a picture, I guess I'll turn to you who at least say you're from Actual China, and thus might have some Actual Insights into it all. Can you clarify which of these things, if ANY of them, are actually true?
@@goranisacson2502 Hi, person from Asia here. I think the idea of being ok with it is very recent and really only is mostly true to the younger generations. Halloween is a very Western thing and it's the younger generations that are more exposed to that culture. Older ones however, are more superstitious. Do keep in mind as well that it's not only Hong Kong citizens they want to attract. The park was built to attract tourists all around Asia. HK, in my opinion, is one of the most Western influenced places in Asia just because of the British occupancy up until the 90s. Their neighbours aren't that familiar with that culture until much later. Which means other cultures may not be ok with those imagery, especially parts of the mainland. I grew up in a small town which meant I grew up with a lot of the superstitious stuff of old. I still don't wear black because of these beliefs. I personally am not ok with that either which is why I think the Mystic Manor was a right move; and I enjoyed that ride very much. I know for a fact that there will be people out there who won't be happy if they went in and had the Haunted Mansion experience instead.
I'm from Hong Kong and saw Disneyland open as a kid. Several years later when I did have the chance to visit both parks, I found Disneyland to be utterly boring as a rollercoaster junkie. Ocean Park had more rides and that's all I cared about. When I visited the real rollercoaster DIsneyland had was the Space Mountain. Both are now boring parks but it's down to what Hong Kong has become more than anything.
Well, based on the information presented in this video, there were apparently outright censorship laws regarding depicting the undead. So regardless of whether the subject matter would appeal to or put off the Hong Kong public (and tourists from mainland China), Disney probably did not want to deal with someone raising a legal stink while trying to turn the park's fortunes around.
Personally, I'm hoping that part of Season 3 might be diving further back into history for defunct attractions and parks of the past. Things like: The Ryounkaku Tower in Tokyo 1890-1923, Japan's first skyscraper The First Ferris Observation Wheel at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and of course The Terrible Trio of Harry Traver, three of the most dangerous and nearly deadly wooden roller coasters ever built. And of course a history of the granddad of all theme/amusement parks: The Original Coney Island.
If you're a kid from southeast Asia with Disney dreams but on a budget, Hong Kong Disneyland was definitely "THE Disney land" for us. It's cheaper, more accessible, and closer enough than going to Tokyo Disney and Shanghai Disney.
@@The_Conspiracy_Analyst No? You don't need a visa to go to Hong Kong for a short period of time. Maybe for your country? Sure, there is an issue with COVID right now. However, generally speaking, HK Disneyland IS the most accessible Disneyland for SEA kids. Though this may be anecdotal evidence, but majority of my friends had trips to HK Disneyland as their graduation gift out of high school or elementary. Going to Tokyo and Shanghai is more expensive. We don't even consider western countries because visa schedules can take months.
@@blink2nap You've always needed Visas, even if you visit from a rich, welcomed country like Japan. LOL what are freaking smoking? And it's MUCH worse for places like the Philippines or Vietnam to get Visas to go there. And it's only going to get WORSE in the future due to the political situation in HK. PRC is putting it and itself on lockdown, and it's not because of some little virus. That's just the EXCUSE they use.
@@blink2nap Before Chinese tourist took over Hong Kong, I heard that HK basically had the same status like Tokyo, basically the cultural and tourism capital of Asia, either it's Tokyo or Hong Kong. (But I'm from Hong Kong too, I know at least half HKer will tell you Tokyo is much better, or other Japanese cities, and the kids that never been to Japan might tell you it's Souel.)
@@li_tsz_fung I personally don't think that they were one the same level even back then as I do think that my wealthier friends has never been to Hong Kong Disneyland and instead went more towards Tokyo Disneyland/Disneysea while most of my average/above average friends in terms of income level went to Hong Kong Disneyland which created the mindset that Tokyo > Hong Kong for Disneyland.
Seriously. I actually made a list of all the film franchises that Disney owns, and here it is: Aladdin Alice in Wonderland Alien Alita: Battle Angel Anastasia Avatar Bambi Beauty and the Beast Big Hero 6 Bolt Brave A Bug’s Life Cars Chicken Little Cinderella Coco Diary of a Wimpy Kid Die Hard Dumbo Emperor’s New Groove Enchanted Fantasia Finding Nemo Fox and the Hound Frozen Good Dinosaur Hercules Home Alone Hunchback of Notre Dame Ice Age Incredibles Independence Day Indiana Jones Inside Out Inspector Gadget Jungle Book Kingsman Lady and the Tramp Lilo and Stitch Lion King Little Mermaid Marvel Cinematic Universe Mary Poppins Maze Runner Mickey Moana Monsters, Inc. Mulan Muppets National Treasure Night at the Museum Nightmare Before Christmas One Hundred and One Dalmatians Onward Percy Jackson Peter Pan Pete’s Dragon Pinocchio Pirates of the Caribbean Planes Planet of the Apes Pocahontas Predator Princess and the Frog Ratatouille Rescuers Rio The Simpsons Sleeping Beauty Snow White Star Wars Tangled Tarzan Tomorrowland Toy Story Tron Up Wall-E Winnie the Pooh Wreck it Ralph Zootopia
@@MP-nq9ht tbh a lot of these arent even franchises and are just random individual films. Also Disney doesnt own the Alvin franchise, those specific films sure but if they wanted to make more films they would have to get the licenses from the production company that actually owns them.
What I expected: Decisions which made Hong Kong Disneyland a failure What I got: Character redemption arc for Michael Eisner With that said, I'm SO excited for season 3!
Dani David Eisner doesn’t get redeemed from me, he got rid of so much beloved attractions because his son thought that Disney wasn’t hip (companies should not be hip it’s not creative) He let the company let rides to rot and left abandoned ( some are still abandoned to this day), All the points that Roy Disney used to show what Eisner was doing. Also let’s face it some Disney Renaissance films aren’t that good( the only 1990’s Disney films I love is The Rescuers Down Under).
16:26 "This (Comcast's bid to buy Disney) strengthened Roy's argument to preserve the soul of the company, which would certainly be destroyed if it were to be absorbed into a large media conglomerate" That's absolutely hilarious in retrospect. You either die the hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
Hongkong Disneyland was my first Disneyland experience. I can never forget my 8 year old self looking at a map of the park while the sky was overcast and a light drizzle falling over us, thinking "I'm at Disney!" Didn't even realize it was a budget park! It was truly a magical experience!
i remember going to hk disney every other weekend with my family, and never got bored of it, when its a small world opened i was ecstatic, i was actually more disappointed when i visited again when i was older and went to toystory land lmao, sth abt childhood nostalgia i guess
I think that really speaks to the skills a lot of imagineers had and have when it comes to operating under constraints. Little kids don’t care about the annual portfolio of a company, but the magic really speaks to people.
“This inspired Iger to repair Disney’s relationships with Pixar, which he would do six months later by purchasing the animation company.” Ah yes, Disney’s universal solution to a problem: Throw more money at it.
Iger was pretty great as a ceo because he’s good at one thing making money he revived the disney the disney brand from it’s low points in the 2000s and now it’s pretty massive along with the opening of the shanghai park
@@staringcorgi6475 problem is, Disney got so successful and big that there is no soul anymore. Disney now is a conglomerate with no identity, they only place you can feel soul is the parks, and even that is starting to fade
*Me after watching Defunctland Season 2* "Wow Michael Eisner sounds like an asshole" *Bob Iger takes over* "You know, Michael Eisner wasn't really that bad...At least he pushed for creativity and had a clear passion for what he did"
How can that many bad things happen to one theme park? Dead fish, airborne illnesses, WW2 bombs, leadership revolts, local backlash, and an opening year that was both low attended and super overcrowded to the point of SCALING FENCES to get in. You couldn't plan this much chaos if you wanted to
I feel kind of bad for Eisner. He made some dumb decisions, sure, but I feel like there's also a lot that happened in some of these videos that can be chalked up to bad luck. Like Princess Di's death happening shortly before Superstar Limo, for instance. How the hell do you foresee something like that???
You went over the effect of SARS and its impact on Disney. Makes me realize that someday soon, you'll be making a video of the effect of COVID on Disney and the quality of life changes. Great video.
@@MrMWorks that's not true. That park was being proposed by Paramount and has been "in development" for years and years with no progress. Disney will not build a park in London or Kent because you can get a train from Kings Cross and Ashford to Paris. Given that Disney parks are insanely expensive and don't have great rides, I really doubt there's even the demand for a Disneyland in the UK.
@@MrMWorks nope, that’s actually a paramount park . It is known as ‘Disneyland london’ by the sensationalist media. I don’t think it’s begun groundwork, as that project has been going on and off for YEARS. I really wish there could be a Disney park in England but seeing as Paris is so close, I doubt it will ever happen.
Michael Eisner at the start of the season: A micromanaging egomaniac fueled by jealousy and greed that nearly drove the Disney company into bankruptcy and/or a corporate buyout Michael Eisner at the end of the season: A bold risk taker who made mistakes but had big dreams, some of which, unfortunately, ended up being too big.
You can be both. Egomaniacs at least tend to want to do big impressive things that get attention. Miserly cost-cutters usually end up the worst of both worlds as they get in everyone's way.
I just feel so bad for Hong Kong. Eisner basically cheated on them with the Shanghai park and gave them a subpar product when they thought this park was gonna save them.
Eh, it was mostly the Hong Kong government who thought that way. A lot of locals were skeptical from the very beginning or had a wait-and-see approach to the news.
On one hand, I kind of understand it. China is as large as the U.S. and is home to a population nearly four times larger than the U.S.'s; given the U.S. has two Disney resorts on opposite ends of the country, it's reasonable to assume on a surface level it would work in China also. On the other hand, that mentality doesn't justify their spotty consultation with HK's government nor the undercooked state of the park. If anything, creating two parks might have been the only reasonable business move in what was otherwise a colossal failure of communication and planning.
It's like Iger is the opposite of Eisner. Eisner took creativity to heart, gave strong direction, but ended with sparing expenses. Iger spares no expense, but severely lacks creativity and direction. It's all acquiring IPs, milking IPs, creating 'safe' IPs etc. In the end, when either didn't take risks their output suffered.
And hoo boy under Iger some output that's not Marvel suffered. I'd bring up Star Wars but that pretty much falls into the same camp as Halloween II/Resurrection/Godzilla '98: divisive to Negative but either made money (The Last Jedi/HWII/HW:R) or underpeformed (Solo/HW:5 & 6 and the Rob Zombie reboot duology)
Also, under Iger's watch, Disney became what it had never been before: a company with very clear political biases. The live action remakes are the most ridiculous in their pandering that Hollywood ever got.
Ironically, in the early 2000s Disney fans said exactly the same things about Eisner that they do about Iger today; that under his leadership Disney had become soulless, unoriginal, and obsessed with profit. To see Eisner as some kind of risk-taking genius is pretty revisionist in my opinion.
Kevin, this series has been a wild ride. I’ve loved being a part of it and I’ve loved watching along as a fan. The ending to this episode was epic. Well done dude.
@Nigel Cam It makes sense to push for a bigger market in Asia. Eisner was not reckless. Disney had its foot in the door years ago with Tokyo so it makes perfect sense to try building a Hong Kong Disneyland for stronger market share. That's just business 101: If they love it, give them more! They even opened a second park in Japan called DisneySea.
His biggest downfall was lack of focus and wanting to start projects just because someone else was doing it. It would be like Six flags, or Nickelodeon, trying to get into airlines, cruises, hotels, arcades, animal safaris, restuarants, and more, all within one decade. He was all over the place, instead of focusing on a one or two (humongous, costly) projects at a time. Let's not forget the sneaky approach, upsetting areas, and Disney's habit of overreach -- over aggressiveness with copyright (when they've built most of their brand from pre established characters/ stories; at least post Mickey era), going so far, their lobbying extended copyrights way beyond what's reasonable (affecting everyone and everything, not just them), and this desire for being basically a monopoly. Though there's adults that have love for Disney, their attempts to corner markets beyond children (ABC, ESPN, National geographic, Star Wars, etc.), but refusing to keep them/ expand them appropriately to be mature enough, is more than frustrating. It's all good to expand, but they are terrible at expanding their scope outside of children. All their past history for 2-3 decades and actions up until now, have sent a message and led to, corporate elitism taking precedence over quality. Not that they are outside the typical Americanized corporate mindset now a days -- but as a "family" brand, this $$$ above all else mindset, ironically ends up excluding a majority of families these days. Again, it's par for the course in modern times, but their infiltration into other areas leaves even less to admire than usual. Eisner's strategy left a noticeable impression and will continue to do so.
When I went to Disneyland Hong Kong back in 2010 there was no line for Space Mountain (Which was pretty much the only good ride there), so me and my sister kept on riding it over and over without any obstruction whatsoever.
Allan Biala it takes time for new visitors to realise that there are great rides behind the facades. Rides that are obvious, such as the teacups or treehouse have long lines on opening and for a few years, as they are obvious fun.
RIP Space Mountain and all the repeat rides I did on that. I don't like it as much now that they've changed it to Hyperspace Mountain. You can see the track now so it removes the mystery from the movement, and it's hard to keep up with the story beats since everything goes so fast and they try to cover the dialogue in 3 different languages. 😭
it's a mystery how Disney gets enough people to make wait times around 20m. WHO HAS THE PATIENCE TO WAIT 20-90 MINUTES FOR A TWO MINUTE RIDE?! ... to me, parks just need a theme that isnt jarring. too much focus on IP themes, these days. 6 Flags is proof that experienced themepark enthusiasts want good thematic rides at a reasonable price far more than familiar themes with perfected props at a high price.
Haven’t watched the video yet since I’m still on my way home. But as a Hong Konger, I just wanted to show appreciation for covering Hong Kong Disneyland and bringing attention to the wonderful mess that it is. Will leave another comment about my thoughts once I’ve watched the video! But I’m just so happy to see this covered here!!! ❤️
Okay, wow, just finished watching this. What a wonderful way to end the season. Thank you so much to the entire Defunctland team for making this a spectacular ride filled with so much history and respect for art of building theme parks and rides. On this particular episode itself, I'm super impressed with how well-researched this was - covering plenty of what was going on locally, internationally and internally within Disney. Having seen all this Hong Kong Disneyland stuff play out through a local lens, it was insightful to see the reasons that led to the decisions made at the park. It explained a lot of disappointments I've felt about the place. That said, while I know a few people who have annual passes and are absolutely in love with the park (bless their souls for helping it stay open), I personally have mixed feelings. I first experienced Disney in Anaheim as a kid, so I definitely noticed the lack of rides and attractions at the park during its opening year in 2005. At the time though, I was just happy to have a Disneyland nearby and looking back at pictures of my 11-year-old self at the park brings back lots of good memories. While it didn't have a lot, it offered enough to satisfy those who yearned for a Disney experience. I was just hoping that expansion efforts would happen soon. But the decade following that, going to Disneyland felt like a chore - something that I would only do if relatives from other parts of the world came over. I memorized the place, even had a strategy for riding and watching everything within one day (not that it was big to begin with lol). The magic was gone and I couldn't justify spending so much money to visit the place. But after doing a solo trip AND a company one to HK Disneyland during the Christmas of 2017, I'd say that I'm actually starting to feel a change. It's as if the park is actually getting its spark back. While still far from the magic I felt at Anaheim, the large investment is certainly making a difference for me. High ticket prices are still holding me back but I would be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to visit in early April just to try that Ant-Man and Wasp ride or see that upcoming Frozen-themed land whenever it opens. AND I am SO looking forward to seeing what they do with the castle. They tried really hard to make that tiny thing look huge but its size was always something people noticed. Only time will tell if anyone will actually miss that thing hahaha! P.S. For anyone planning to visit, Mystic Manor is a MUST. It's the best ride, hands down. I could easily ride that over and over again.
And now Disney is buying bigger and bigger chunks of Hollywood and have traded creativity for live action remakes and nostalgia. Bob Iger is a different kind of CEO
They are still creative... They are just bank rolling THAT with remakes and nostalgia. I'm on again off again OK with it in that, I don't have to go see it, and I still get stuff I like out of it. so IDK.
Iger is pure capitalist. That's all he is, use big bucks and established formulas to make bigger bucks and do the same. Rinse and repeat. The guy is a cancer, to Disney and to the world.
Thank you for actually showing footage of the definned shark. As confronting and awful as it is, people need to see it so they realise what an utterly unforgivable practice shark finning is and why shark fin soup should be illegal.
It disgusts me that they won't even properly hunt the poor things. If they must be hunted, can't the rest of them be used as well, or at least just put them down instead of leaving them to suffer? It's so wasteful and needlessly cruel.
@@somedragonbastard Well there is an argument to be made that large carcasses are extremely beneficial to oceanic scavengers and that benefit is felt throughout several layers of oceanic life. Its not like it is on land where a carcass would only be useful a handful of birds and mammals. But of course nothing is more beneficial than just leaving them tf alone. I'm really hoping with the wild cultural shift of the last generation that shark fin soup will die out before the ocean's populations do, its an absolutely sickening exploitation of resources.
As soon as he started to mention it, I covered my eyes cos i knew what was coming, although I'm glad he showed it. It traumatized me the first time I ever saw footage of it so much that I became vegetarian (amoung other disgusting meat production footage). Best thing I ever did & feel so much better physically & consiously.
I honestly can’t believe content this amazing is free. I mean the amount of work, research, and passion you have to pour into this is amazing. Thank you for your dedication.
@benji I'll be the one who isn't pretending to be confused by your comment by saying this was inappropriate as that has nothing to do with defunctland's well done research.
I wonder how the cast members who voted Eisner out feel about it now. I became a cast member when Iger was already in charge and all I heard from the old-timers was how the company was getting greedier and worse every year. Disneyland was apparently a good place to work at one time, but I never experienced it.
@tinylilmatt Wow. We at least still had sign-ins and discounts while I was at Anaheim. The year I started was the first year they stopped doing the holiday party, though. My issue wasn't so much lack of perks as lack of adequate pay, especially since they were finding ways to make us juggle more and more tasks so they could schedule fewer and fewer people.
From the other videos on the channel, it sounds like Disney has been a mess since Walt and Roy died. Between failed projects, resorts, and parks, lackluster animation pre- and post-90s, multiple hostile take over attempts, and the crazy Eisner brought to the table. What you're saying sounds more like false nostalgia, where everything was better before when it really wasn't.
That little tribute to Eisner at the end is heartwarming. He made some poor decisions towards the end of his career with Disney, but his heart was always in the right place, as much as it can be for someone in a corporate position.
End of video: long beatiful conclusion about the value of creativity and risk Me: thinks about Iger making tons of IP rides and remakes of Disney animated films. Cries a little.
Elizabeth H the live action Disney movies are kinda awesome and well designed. Bob Iger is still doing good at Disney and probably can’t wait until Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge opens this summer like many Disney fans.
@@Kaylin777 Walt didn't want alcohol served at his park. Galaxy's edge is serving alcohol. Thanks Bob Iger. Can't wait to hear about all the fights breaking out and the kids getting accidentally intoxicated! That's going to be a pr nightmare and the end of Iger.
@@Kaylin777 The live action movies were good at best, at least until Beauty and the Beast (2017), when they started becoming soulless remakes. Take it from someone who enjoys both the live action Jungle Book and Alice in Wonderland. It's not just the live action, it's not just the remake, it's the fact that they are so clearly cashing in on the trend, and the newer live action movies don't even have the small amount of creativity that they used to have.
I really miss the cheesy videos they used to make with Eisner, showing him with animated characters, putting him in a hot air balloon, etc....Iger has obviously done a lot for the company, but he always seems a little stiff and corporate in comparison
"a little stiff and corporate" that's funny seeing as how he's the CEO who acquired a record amount of studios and IPs, let 2011 winnie the pooh (the film that would make or break the 2D department's fate, mind you) get put on cinematic death row, abuse the safe and profitable remakes, and has made no public appearances outside of press conferences and business exclusive events
"Iger would work to repair relations with Pixar when six months later they acquired the animation studio." Yeah, that sounds about right for an Iger "repair".
More like a forced 'consensual' experience: "shhh shhhh just relax, don't scream... I'm going to 'repair' our relationship. You'll enjoy this, I promise..." Corporate gross take-over shit.
I was not expecting that positive spin on Michael Eisner at the end. I've spent much of the recent years thinking Iger saved the company and how bad the late Eisner years were. That definitely leaves you with some things to think about.
Honestly, I wasn't expecting it either, but it puts a perfect cap on both the season of Defunctland and Eisner's legacy. He had the same drive through his entire career, but at some point in it, he lost the spark that made it work. I like that for all that's been said against Eisner (understandably), there's still something to take away from what he tried.
You can't just think of the last years of Eisner though. You have to take the good with the bad and when it was good with Eisner, we got all of those amazing timeless films. You know, the ones they are pointlessly remaking.
@@ASwegoalong I will say, I'm from the East coast US/Atlanta area and we have massively profited off of recent Disney decisions. That said, how did Iger ruin the company? I would prefer more creativity in films, but I enjoy the remakes/Marvel. Also, every time they tried a new IP in the last few year it lost money, so I understand. Not to mention, they have and are still massively expanding across Disney World and adding new additions/fixing many issues that various parks had, like Animal Kingdom/Hollywood Studios which always felt like a 1/2 day versus MK and Epcot that you can devote an entire day to.
As (unfairly?) hated as Dr. Eisnerstein is, Igor is absolutely the true villain here and the most evil thing Eisnerstein ever actually did was helping Igor replace him, change my mind.
Hey thanks for making this! I actually live in Hong Kong and I had heard that the park wasn't making a profit (especially covid kicked the crap out of it and Ocean park). I've been to both HK Disney and Shanghai Disney, Shanghai in my opinion has better rides. However, HK Disney is still a fantastic experience, it's remarkable how much detail they have crammed into that small parcel of land. The hotel, the park, even just the grounds themselves are all really well designed and maintained. The new castle looks fantastic. I'm also a teacher and at least according to my students, most seem to still prefer Ocean Park.
I've only been to two of these types of park - HK Disneyland and Universal Studios in Osaka. Universal is a fun day out. HK Disneyland is a big disappointment. Disneyland isn't nearly as appealing a day out as Ocean Park. At one time my kids had annual passes for HK Disneyland, but only because we lived 20 minutes away, and it was a reasonable place to spend a couple of hours every now and then. If I had travelled to it for a vacation I would be very unhappy.
@@steveunderwood3683 I lived in mainland China for 10 years, and wen't to Ocean Park a couple of times. SOOOO much better than HK Disneyland, went there in 2012 I think it was and left by 3pm because I was dying of boredom lol. Went to Universal Studios in Singapore in 2014 which is a fantastic day out, and once again beats HK Disney by a long shot.Far superior rides, I guess as an adult I didn't really find anything very appealing about Disneyland. This btw is the only Disneyland I've been to. God, do I miss my days in Asia!
I went to both Disneyland and Ocean Park when I stayed in HK for a bit, I preferred the latter because Ocean Park had the much better thrill ride offering in Hair Raiser & amazing animal exhibits, but HK Disneyland is by no means a bad park. Hell, the fact it draws 2/3rds of the entire population a year given HK’s limited size is pretty impressive
I can tell you as an experienced pyrotechnitian that still has all his fingers that this is more or less the working philosophy when dealing with anything that should have exploded but hasn't.
Living in Germany. Yeah Bombs get digged out like every odd month and its mostly fine (place gets evacuated bomb gets disposed stuffs back to normal in less then a day) And while Magnet fishing friend once caugt a 120mm Mortar Granade only thing you do is lower it back slowly call police for them to get rid of it and cross that magnet off as lost. If you don´t fuck with old bombs and tickle the dragons tail they are most of the time not an imminent thread
I love it. Also, who are these bomb experts? Is there a bomb college you can go to? Are they all gathered at a bomb institute??? How does one become a bomb expert? And what do they do day-to-day, when there aren't any bombs being dug up?
@@neolexiousneolexian6079 explosive specialists come in a varity of flavours some work as EOD (explosive ordanence disposal), some as investigators for explosion related accodents/crimes some work in construction/demolishion and some work mining related jobs basicaly everything that has to deal with high explosives. For training depends but there kind of are explosion schools and/or the military
Kevin, this was one heck of a video. Hong Kong is probably the park I know the least about so to see the story of Eisner's last major project was so interesting! This whole season has been incredible and I've adored seeing it unfold. Here's to season 3!
mike walsh-thorpe If you want to know more there is a vid with a similar title that goes much more in-depth with the concept plans and propsed lands that were never built. Very interesting. I think by ReviewTyme. I lot of good vids there.
I do want to say, you'd never have known that HK Disneyland was the worst performing park they had, me and my family often went to Hong Kong as a stopover to Europe and every time we'd go to Disneyland, some of my best childhood memories are at that park and I never had a single bad experience
Anyone else get the feeling that what happened wasn't so much Michael Eisner's fault as much as it was whoever kept pulling those attendance estimates and other statistics out of their butt
Yeah, some of Eisner's biggest screw ups seem like they were based on accountants and planners giving false predictions, which he then used to make decisions that everyone blamed him for when things didn't turn out the way he'd been told they would
@@nowandaround312 Agreed. I know he was a bit of a prick but at least u could see a passion for creativity and risks when you look back at all his promotions and commercials. I kinda miss seeing someone represent Disney in that form. It's sadly probably the closest we'll ever get to getting another Walt Disney.
People only create inflated data when they feel under threat in their job for one reason or another. There was probably a problem somewhere in the company culture at the time that caused this. Whether Eisner was responsible for that, or not, I don’t know.
I love how this channel has turned poor Eisner into a meme....and then redeemed him. Personally, I like Eisner. He had uber flops yes. But one can only flop big by aiming big. He clearly loved Disney, and clearly tried his best to save the company from stagnation and indeed make it global again. The global behemoth we see today with its universal brand awareness and control over our childhood, is Eisners true legacy. Disney in 2019 is his baby, more than Igers or even-dare I say it-Walt himself.
I was very much in the "hate Eisner" camp when it came to his departure. However, I have since learned that he was just what the Disney Corporation needed when he showed up. Indeed, he SAVED Disney Corp. Rob Plays had an interesting video about him in which, as he put it (paraphrased despite the quote marks), "Disney was used to putting a lot of money and effort into a film and coming up with a homerun. This was much harder to accomplish after Walt died. What Eisner figured out was, it wasn't necessary to always get a homerun. If a much less expensive movie only gave you a 'single or double', you could still make a profit. And at that time, profits were what Disney Corp needed." Despite his comment at the end of your video, I wonder if he was trying to apply this "singles and doubles" attitude to the theme parks. The problem with that being, the whole reason the theme parks were created was to provide something better than a carnival or fair. Thus, Hong Kong got quite gypped when Disney decided to make a discount park. I can understand why Hong Kong would not be happy with Disney Corp after all of this.
i feel like Eisner was more: "you dont always need a homerun, but that doesnt mean you cant try for one, just dont be disappointed unless you strike out" current disney seems more in line with that "just get a base hit/walk" because its profitable and nothing else matters. Eisner may not have had walt-level creativity on a personal level, but it was the closest the company got since walt had died. I feel like the disney renassiance era was on equal, though very different than the original disney golden age. its hard to beat animation records when the novelty (and therefore alot of the hype) of the medium is gone. color films wouldnt really be a selling point after the 40s. audio animatronics require major leaps of tech and realism to dazzle audiences, but they'll never achieve the legendary status of "great moments with mr lincoln." Eisner certainly tried to bring new and exciting theme park concepts: that VR park, pleasure island appealing more to adults than kids/families, dance clubs appealing to teenagers... but these were usually pursuing the new simply for the dazzle factor, and thus fall victim to the Tomorrowland problem. Even if Eisner had tried to make things timeless however, its likely he would have failed. Hollywood was becoming less a land of charm and glamor, and more associated with fallen stars and overdose scandals. the timeless old world charm Walt delivered was becoming more and more problematic for people, and only continues to be so. disney is kinda doomed to keep moving now, otherwise they become outdated, "old fashioned charm" is dead... and they had a hand in killing it for better or worse.
I really appreciate that you ended this with eisners “failure is a part of success” speech. for all the kicking it felt like with this series it was coming from a place at the end where you gave him an actually beautiful sendoff to guy who saved disney and made some really tough decisions without the people he trusted anymore and his process may have been lost at the time.
@@stafonvoncamron The only Disney family member who still has some semblance of influence with the company is Roy Patrick Disney, Roy E's son. Roy P. still attends shareholder meetings while his sister, Abigail, is now one of Disney's fiercest critics.
I also thought that's what Kevin was going for. That movie's incredibly creative, hilarious, and it's dated very well. And as a parent now (I wasn't when it came out), I get a massive kick out of the dynamics between the parents and kids.
Hi I know this is a year old, but I think this is in relation to the massive overhaul the film had to undertake. It was originally a very fleshed out musical called "Kingdom Of The Sun," but due to incredible financial strain and the desire to change audiences, the entire film was reworked into a really wacky and undoubtedly hilarious "Emperor's New Groove." The plot synopsis for the original movie is online, along with balled for Yzma called "Snuff Out The Light." It sounds like an incredible tale, but I'm still satisfied with what came from it.
@@catheryncofield716 was about to say this same thing. It is almost most definitely a dig at Emperor's New Groove's hellish production and total rewrite and not necessarily at the quality of the movie itself
I definitely recommend interested parties seek out "The Sweatbox", a documentary which covers the trainwreck that was The Emperor's New Groove's production. I like the movie, but it really was hell for the people working on the project.
@@catheryncofield716 I'm so glad the original idea fell completely through as "The Emporer's New Groove" is probably my favourite Disney animated film. Actual timeless classic.
Damn. The way Kevin describes Iger's non-fear of large price numbers and Eisner's focus on creativity almost alludes that he's gonna be covering Iger's tenure in Season 3 which was almost the opposite of Eisner's in terms of vision. I am so hyped.
*fast forward to a year later and the new episodes focus on Walt Disney and Disneyland when he was alive (plus Coney Island and the Green Lantern Nut Crusher)*
As someone who grew up going to HKDL (I was an annual pass holder from the day it opened until I left hong kong in 2018), this park is absolutely still my favorite. I decided to watch this after my disapointment of a visit to the floridian magic kingdom (it just wasnt for me). while this park may have been a "flop", it still remains my favorite park until this day. While I can't comment on HKDL from Aug. 2018- now, from personal experience, I still have many castmember friends who still keep my love for HKDL alive.
Oh my god, this series is just like a drug. I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF IT! This is so beautifully made and thought of, and very educational. As an Indonesian, and never going Disneyland, this was very entertaining and eye opening.
Kevin, my man, my Disney brother, season 2 was truly epic. This video was incredible and funny and taught me a lot that I never thought I needed to know. Thanks for making the only TH-cam videos I will literally stop whatever I’m doing to watch! I CANNOT wait for S3! See you then!
We honeymooned in Hong Kong in 2018, and visited both Disneyland and Ocean Park. It took us only half a day to see everything that interested us at Disneyland (but we did have a good time). For us, Ocean Park was much better - we could easily have spent two days there!
Ive been to both twice already its the opposite for me id rather go to Disneyland than Oceanpark , the cold places isnt fun also the fishy smell isnt for everyone
Comments about the value of risk are poignant, because the leadership at Disney Parks today will not open anything if it isn't attached to some movie. Very risk-averse.
It seems like Eisner’s concern that Iger struggled with creativity would be a big foreshadowing of the company entering the 2020s. Especially after the death of Roy E. Disney in 2009 and worse, the removal of John Lasseter after a sexual misconduct case.
Because it is. In the Theme Park business, there are only two categories: Disney/Universal parks (2%) and EVERYONE ELSE (98%). an old rule of thumb for theme parks is the bigger the size and the larger the budget for a park, the more likely no profits be made in 2-5 years. Disney/Universal is a separate category in itself that in order to build one it needs a cooperating NATIONAL GOVERNMENT to foot the bill for its construction...
Although this entire series is outstanding, I must say 34:03 onward was unprecedented! Its conclusion of Michael Eisner's story is incredibly inspiring! This is an important lesson all artists should take to heart, whether you lead Disney or are a 'mere' solo artist.
As a passholder of Hong Kong Disneyland and someone who goes there like 10 times a year, this is perhaps the most elanorative video about the puny park. I've been to the other parks around the world, they were beautiful, magical and anything, and sometimes when I take a look back at Hong Kong, it falls short. The lack of rides was a problem, the theming was terrible, and friendly cast members were hardly findable. But what keeps me coming to this park, is because the nostalgia it gave me. Despite how people around me would criticize the park, including officials criticizing Disney for earning from the IPs and kept the loss to the government, people having a mind set of "Disney is for kids", I never stop coming back. Perhaps it could be because the sense of belonging the park gave me. After this video, I liked how you can critically point out problems when the park is built and it's early years, but since the 2010s, the change began. Since 2016, Hong Kong Disneyland attendance surpassed Ocean Park's, and according to the fiscal report out weeks ago, the loss it made is far less than ocean park's, while caused only because of the construction projects ongoing. The management team tried very hard to develop new attractions, seasonal events, discounts to draw customers. And in recent years, I think it can be justified to describe that HKDL finally had the taste of success. I hope more people would give HKDL an actual chance, and see the good there actually is, and to credit the hardship of the team's in bringing new experiences for the success. Moreover, I think HKDL also associates to people. It doesn't have good theme, sure, but it gives the visitors nostalgia. I think the reason why I still go back is because it gave me the dream to become an imagineer, hoping to solve problems of themeing before it's too late. Thank you for this amazing video, and it helped me in learning about the park's past.
@@SweetSoulBrother0 No idea. Frankly Shanghai Disney is way too far for any Hong Konger or person who lives in Southern China to casually stroll in for a day (having to cross the border for HKers). Also I believe that Chinese Disney fans will have difference perceptions of Disney when compared to HK Disney fans.
@@SweetSoulBrother0 I'm from HK, so I really don't know much about Chinese' view on Disney. And the fact that HK doesn't use Chinese social media sites is a factor.
@@SweetSoulBrother0 For HK, I think people actually do appreciate the park. However, the reason is because they don't know that it actually could've been better.
I've been going through and marathoning Defunctland episodes and after watching this one I've gotta say, it's interesting to me how concerned Eisner was about his legacy with Disney, given how that was such a huge focus of Walt Disney's in his later years. That + his focus on creativity and risk-taking makes me think that Eisner, for all his faults, seems to have been a CEO very much in the same spirit as Disney himself.
That was exceptionally well done. I knew that there was a lot of drama involved in bringing Hong Kong Disneyland to fruition. I never realized it was quite how bad things were. And think you for painting a fair portrait of Michael Eisner. Certainly he made some awful mistakes as Disney CEO, but far too many people cast him as the devil incarnate. He was a good exec with geniune passion who lost his way, especially after the death of Frank Wells. Excellent video!
"This strengthened Roy's argument to preserve the soul of the company, which would surely be destroyed if it were absorbed into a conglomerate" Until they became the conglomerate themselves, that is.
Disney's has gotten to shit ever since they stopped being just one of the big and turned into the biggest of them all. They can't stop consuming and don't care about the warning signs (the ever so deteriorating opinion of Star Wars and the remakes). It will bite them in the ass sooner or later.
Just wanted to say, I always come back and watch this video when I’m feeling uninspired, when my artistic work or otherwise seems to have hit a wall. There’s something about the way you present Eisner’s legacy here, as something that ultimately crashed and burned, and yet had so many bright spots because of the importance of creative risk, that makes me cry every time. And feel a little more inspired again, to take those risks. Thanks Kevin. I love Defunctland, and keep making those creative risks yourselves. I feel certainly the better for it
Sometimes it seems like Eisner really had good ideas, but they didn't work out for various reasons. Other time it seems like he was literally throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.
I love how your videos have transformed I remember when you didn’t like your voice and you would Distort it. You have come such a long way! The confidence and quality of your content is stunning! Good job Kevin!
It's all distortion all the way. Kevin Perjurer is a made up name and that's obvious. "Perjury" is the legal term for "lying." A Perjurer is technically a liar. My theory is that "Kevin" is actually a woman using a false identity and voice masking software to pretend to be a man. In those first few episodes, she went to far with the downward pitch, but then brought the levels up to the more natural sounding voice we hear today.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe you knoww.. you could be on to something lol never thought of it that way. I know his name was fake, I just remember him OR HER tinkering with the voice distortion because everyone actually wanted a more natural sounding person to record the videos.
I'm from HK and I'm going to Disney next week! As much as it doesn't measure up to other Disneylands, I still think it's pretty neat and there's still a crap ton of people going nowadays. It's also worth mentioning how most people prefer Ocean Park over Disney since 1) It's got more style and there's nothing else in the world to compare to it, 2) its basically a zoo and theme park wrapped into one which is great for families, 3) its cheaper than Disney too.
Master Markus It never recovered from Isaac Hayes choosing Scientology over the two men who help gave him work and later his death (along with killing off Chef in the series 10th year on the air). That plus sacrificing other recurring characters for those who haven't made an impact like those in the first 5 years
Despite so many videos that have been painting Eisner in such a bad light (which honestly comes down mostly to the subject matter of the channel) I am very pleased that you ended this season with what was actually some respectful comments toward Eisner, reminding people of the more positive aspects of his legacy.
my parents took me and my sister to disney world three months after 9/11 because it was dirt cheap. we stayed at the grand floridan. truly magical experience.
Has there been a Defunctland video on Legoland? Lego had a real rough time in the 90s with issues like overexpanding into all kinds of side projects while their core products suffered.
I mean, depending on what you count as cheap, she isn't really wrong. DCA, HKDL, and WDSP, while lackluster, still cost several hundred million dollars each. Theme parks are a very expensive type of business.
I think the point Kevin is trying to make is that Eisner believed creativity trumped spending a lot of money. Sometimes this attitude equalled success, sometimes it went wrong. Iger was the opposite - he placed no value on creativity, his belief was that if you spend enough money you will see a return. Again, this has had some success - but I would add it attracts just as much criticism. My view is that the whole purpose of the Disney company is to be creative. Eisner had some facepalming failures but at least he somewhat contributed to this idea. Iger, outside of judging Disney as a mere company that needs to make money, did nothing to uphold this principle. From a theme park fan's point of view, Iger was worthless, whereas Eisner's tenure deserves some respect overall.
10:50 yeah this is normal even in Europe. It's more rare to NOT find a random bomb during construction. Even when I lived in a smaller town they found one when they were renovating the train station right in front of our apartment complex. I guess it'd sound... concerning for Americans but we're used to it.
It depends on the area in America and the age of the unexploded bomb. I currently live in the place the US Civil War started, and every so often Civil or Revolutionary War ordinance is randomly found. Authorities are notified to deal with it, but if you live in my area long enough, as long as it's obviously old you know it's only a minor issue. The bulk of America, though, is a different story because there's no relatively innocent reason to find an unexploded bomb.
@Tee Wew28 The quote I referenced was about the situation in 2003. Earlier in the video it said Disney's acquisition of Capital Cities (ABC, ESPN, etc.) in 1996 made them the largest media company in the world. The more I think about it the more I think that "soul of the company" line was, like many in this video, probably deadpan sarcasm and I just missed it on the first watch
This is something of a masterpiece of a finale to an ever-improving series (and it started off on 'really bloody good') of an informative and absolute brilliant show that I love to bits and regularly rewatch. Thank you also for being so fair and nuanced on this whole debacle, Eisner included. Just...thank you, really!
@@louiseramos1256 Totally respect your opinion, but there was something about Atlantis that put me off. Especially that robot. I did like the engineer girl. Now Treasure Planet. I loved nearly all of it. I thought it was an interesting retelling of the story it's based off of, and the relationship of Jim Hawkins and John Silver was some of the best written in animation. Every once in a while I rewatch it.
The worst Hong Kong Disneyland "land" by far was the Penny's Bay Community Isolation Center, adjacent to the park, where people who contracted Covid were shipped to live for at least 7 days. I was sent there in July 2022 after testing positive for COVID while in a Hong Kong quarantine hotel. The worst part was driving through the "Welcome to Hong Kong Disneyland" arch before being sent to the city of temporary housing, where I would get locked in for a week.
That must have been a wild scene. With the bright, cheerful, happiness of Disney mixed with the uncertainty of medical mask, hazmat suits, and imprisonment. That would be a decent horror movie lol
Hey, he’s tryin at least. Would be more excruciating to hear him try to make *them* speak his native language..it at least shows respect. Even though he didn’t learn thoroughly & sounds a little off, you gotta give it to him for trying, 👍
haha i know right imagine attempting to learn how to speak another language to show appreciation and respect. i could never expose my weaknesses! no way
if we continue this metaphor, Iger only swings at the slow moving pitches that are easy to hit and none of the more fast, risky ones, and walt disney is babe ruth
Hello, Hong Konger here. I was 5 years old when Hong Kong Disneyland opened, so I actually never heard of all the controversies surrounding the development of the theme park. As a kid, I always just thought it was cool whenever our school would have a field trip to Disneyland. Having said that, between Disneyland and Ocean Park, Ocean Park is a lot more of an exciting experience, while Disneyland is pretty chill in comparison (minus all the long lines hehe). Great video! Subbed! 😄
And so ends the tale of Eisner. Once a visionary leading a golden age, but slowly began to lose his way through misguided understanding of creativity. The word "budget park" is the craziest thing I've heard
garfield15 What the hell is wrong with the idea of making a more affordable theme park? Many people will never be able to go to Disneyland or Disney World because the ticket prices are so huge. A smaller, less elaborate park is a great idea. They just executed it poorly.
@@nowandaround312 it wasn't "budget" in the sense of ticket prices; it was budget in the sense that "this park is being built on a (small) budget". It's an English expression.
"...worried that he (Bob Iger) lacked the creative skills to run a company such as Disney". Michael Eisner was right about that at least. They may be financially successful but this is the most creatively bankrupt I've ever seen the company. While I know Eisner was making bad decisions and dragging the company down, I think I miss him more and more every day. I adore your Disney series, thanks so much for sharing this with us!
“Don’t worry, the bombs that old won’t go off. But sometimes they will” is the most bomb expert sentence ever
My dad was an explosives expert. He always said that the best thing about defusing bombs was that if you messed up, it wouldn't be your problem anymore.
@@BlackCanary87 "If I were a bad Demoman, I wouldn't be here discussing it with you, would I?!"
@@BlackCanary87 that is so morbid. But also true
I scrolled down here during the intro animation, wtf happens in this video
@@cFrogjar well, During World War II, there were alot of bombs, everywhere. When Disney's construction company was in Hong Kong doing construction, mostly early stage landwork development, there were alot of old, unexploded bombs in the waters. So they called in bomb experts and thats what they said
Disney not wanting to merge with Comcast to save the "soul" of the company from being destroyed by a massive multi-media conglomerate has to be one of the best cases of real life dramatic irony ever.
lol true
"you were meant to destroy the massive multi-media conglomerate, not become them!"
You either die a hero, or etc.,
@@supercharleyman A modified quote from a franchise that mega-corp Disney has also continued to ruin. Disney = Sith. 😆
"You have become the very thing you swore to destroy."
"The amount of fish being killed was generally in line with what they expected." Now that's a phrase
Shell Oil is taking notes
Capital always gets what they want
hong kongese fish genocide moment
Oh, we care about the feelings of fish now? Okay, I'll eat the bugs and get the jab. Wait, do we care about the feelings of bugs yet? What about viruses?
@@satouhikou1103 I think they were referencing the thousands of fish being killed rather than the fishes hurt feelings
"Eisner was worried Iger lacked the creative vision to run the company"
In hindsight, this is IMMACULATE foreshadowing for what the Iger era of Disney was known for: merging with/assimilating existing creative houses/IPs into the Disney brand. (Lucasfilm, Marvel, 20thCF)
That's what I took from all this. Iger's strategy was to simply buy successful companies in the hopes that they would continue being successful without any oversight. It should come as no surprise that Disney mismanaged its portfolio once it got too large.
@@vladpiranha that's exactly what happened to GE.
@@vladpiranha every Disney movie since Endgame besides Far From Home and thier two most recent animated movies have been horrendous bombs. Most don't make back thier budget and have massive losses if you account for marketing not counted in the budget. Mulan 2020 lost them $130 MILLION! I feel like one guy said it best though I don't remember who (I think Enter but I don't know for certain); Disney's strength has always been in adapting media into film and TV shows. The problem is now that they have either adapted everything or the stories are copyrighted which will make any future re-releases a pain in the ass to get permission for. This is why they've been buying up everything. Disney is quickly running out of steam and the executives know it.
@@lorddrayvon1426 I think you're leaving out a MASSIVE variable for why all those movies are bombing
I see this point but I also think it completely undermines Iger's tenure and respective legacy as head of the company. He is single handedly responsible for saving the company and I'd argue that he is the best CEO since Walt. Eisner was GREAT but crumbled when Wells died, could not work with Katzenberg (who produced the Disney Renaissance films) or Ovitz (founder of CAA). He let the Pixar relationship sour, Disney was almost acquired by comcast and Roy O Disney quit to try and oust him.
"Oh, a new defunctland!"
First frame of the video: michael eisner
"oh this is going to be GOOD"
"Michael Eisner left Disney"
EVEN BETTER!!!
Eisner: lot of air pollution in Hong Kong, huh?
Hong Kong: no worries we’ll fix it
Bruh _how_
Its not that bad in HK. At least now it's not. Beijing has it much worse.
I'm amazed that Disney's park supervisors failed to take note of holidays that were important to HONG KONG, not the US. They should have known there might be bigger-than-normal crowds on Chinese New Year's. No excuse for that mess...
Remember that time cover where all the major landmarks of asia where jamed into Beijing and the title said, "how Americans view china"
Skycrapers filled with trees! www.ecosia.org/images?q=skyscrapers+filled+with+trees. hundreds of skyscraper filled with smog eating trees!
A Shop Vac
Micheal Eisner thought Bob Iger didn’t have the creative skills to run Disney. He was definitely right. Disney is doing better than ever financially but they’ve definitely lost their magic. Eisner took risks and some ideas failed while others didn’t. But he tried.
@Gabreya Bradley Not for long with another fucking remake
@@TheStarBot Oh the remakes! Something something childhood ruined!
Yes Adrianna, a thousand times yes! Anyone who loves theme parks should hate Bob Iger (and JK Rowling for that matter). Theme parks are for beautiful lands and original ideas, and particularly for theming that fits. Iger knows nothing of these things.
@@keithwellerlounge74 wait, why JK Rowling? what'd she do?
Partariothegoth ruined the characters years after the books finished. Basically took every fact we knew about them, and went “Oh yeah, but...”. For example, she said Hermonie was black when in every single picture and description of Hermonie, she was described as white. She also created characters out of nowhere. She created a jewish character years after book 8 was published to please a a fan on twitter. The list goes on.
I’m from Hong Kong and here’re my two cents. The “cultural sensitivity” argument for not building a haunted house shows that they didn’t really do much research. Hong Kong Disneyland’s major rival Ocean Park has been holding an annual Halloween event since forever. It frequently leans into local ghost stories and folklore. Most of generation has participated in the event. And Lan Kwai Fong, HK’s Soho district, is often flooded with people on Halloween. So Hong Kong people aren’t really all that superstitious.
The Mystic Point is more yikes-y for me, on the other hand. It feels so colonial and dated. It’s supposed to be a new attraction (?). It’s cute if you don’t think too much about it but not really particularly spectacular. It just feels very tone-deaf to me.
I was too young to know that it’s a budget park. And our city is quite small so my only exposure to theme parks were either Ocean Park and Disneyland. Ocean Park is infinitely more exciting. Even upon Disneyland’s opening, most people were like what are we gonna do with a park with barely any rides lol
That being said, I’ve spent many great days there with friends. What Disney has and Ocean Park has not is the atmosphere. It does feel like you can leave all your stress outside and just have a good time. I once had an annual pass but it was quite cheap, around 65 USD. We would go to Disneyland in our uniforms after school for like 3 hours at a time lol. They soon discontinued the cheapest tier annual pass (our tier).
Before immigrating to the UK, I visited the Park with some of my best friends. So many memories. Though objectively not a very good theme park, but it’s still quite nostalgic for a lot of us.
(Please forgive any mistakes made because I didn’t want to proofread a TH-cam comment lol)
So now I'm curious- what IS the deal with the "Chinese culture dislikes depictions of the undead" story that I hear so often? As someone who mostly does videogames rather than theme parks I hear of game companies who have to redesign sections of their games to like, remove reanimated skeleton enemies or re-design them so they're somewhat more flesh-covered (primarily seen in World of Warcraft), and the answer given then was along the lines of "depictions of the undead is taboo in China, and so we just have to change their depictions to be sold over there".
But I have ALSO heard that that's complete bullshit, and that it's really just about what person at the censorship buraeu you know and pay, so if you just grease the right wheels you can have dancing skeletons in every room of your game.
Yet then there's also a THIRD line of thought I see tossed around now and then saying that there's NO straightforward answer to be found because different regions of China have very different cultural norms around these things and depending on the background of whoever is in charge of investigating your game / movie / whatever to determine whether it's fit to be released in China, you can get WILDLY different results so all you can do is hope you're assigned a friendly one.
And so with all this information out there that isn't making me any wiser or painting any clearer a picture, I guess I'll turn to you who at least say you're from Actual China, and thus might have some Actual Insights into it all. Can you clarify which of these things, if ANY of them, are actually true?
@@goranisacson2502 Hi, person from Asia here. I think the idea of being ok with it is very recent and really only is mostly true to the younger generations. Halloween is a very Western thing and it's the younger generations that are more exposed to that culture. Older ones however, are more superstitious. Do keep in mind as well that it's not only Hong Kong citizens they want to attract. The park was built to attract tourists all around Asia. HK, in my opinion, is one of the most Western influenced places in Asia just because of the British occupancy up until the 90s. Their neighbours aren't that familiar with that culture until much later. Which means other cultures may not be ok with those imagery, especially parts of the mainland. I grew up in a small town which meant I grew up with a lot of the superstitious stuff of old. I still don't wear black because of these beliefs. I personally am not ok with that either which is why I think the Mystic Manor was a right move; and I enjoyed that ride very much. I know for a fact that there will be people out there who won't be happy if they went in and had the Haunted Mansion experience instead.
I'm from Hong Kong and saw Disneyland open as a kid. Several years later when I did have the chance to visit both parks, I found Disneyland to be utterly boring as a rollercoaster junkie. Ocean Park had more rides and that's all I cared about. When I visited the real rollercoaster DIsneyland had was the Space Mountain.
Both are now boring parks but it's down to what Hong Kong has become more than anything.
Well, based on the information presented in this video, there were apparently outright censorship laws regarding depicting the undead. So regardless of whether the subject matter would appeal to or put off the Hong Kong public (and tourists from mainland China), Disney probably did not want to deal with someone raising a legal stink while trying to turn the park's fortunes around.
@@tyteen4a03 Well guess what: Not every park is made to pander to coaster addicts.
That opening. You're going places man. Hopefully season 3
Maybe he’ll tackle Paradise Pier from Sacramento.
Obviously!
Personally, I'm hoping that part of Season 3 might be diving further back into history for defunct attractions and parks of the past. Things like:
The Ryounkaku Tower in Tokyo 1890-1923, Japan's first skyscraper
The First Ferris Observation Wheel at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair
and of course The Terrible Trio of Harry Traver, three of the most dangerous and nearly deadly wooden roller coasters ever built.
And of course a history of the granddad of all theme/amusement parks: The Original Coney Island.
@@sirrliv Coney Island? are we forgetting that Denmark has one that's over 400 years old?
@@sirrliv "The Terrible Trio of Harry Traver" sounds like an absolute winner. Definitely hope to see that covered.
I can't believe we're ending the Eisner era. It's been a wild ride, guys.
999MonsterJam I’m gonna miss Kevin’s subtle but obvious mega shade whenever it’s time to discuss Eisner 🤣
His era has been over since 2005, and it should be been sooner tbh
Good riddance to bad rubbish, IMO. Eisner was trash garbage.
@Dennis Mitchell replace him with Jim Reid-Anderson. He can't be any worse.
Mr. Perjurer's Wild Ride
I just realized that this is a Defunctland episode talking about a defunct CEO under the guise of a theme park.
If you're a kid from southeast Asia with Disney dreams but on a budget, Hong Kong Disneyland was definitely "THE Disney land" for us. It's cheaper, more accessible, and closer enough than going to Tokyo Disney and Shanghai Disney.
Wrong. There's still visa issues that make it unworkable. Now more than ever.
@@The_Conspiracy_Analyst No? You don't need a visa to go to Hong Kong for a short period of time. Maybe for your country? Sure, there is an issue with COVID right now. However, generally speaking, HK Disneyland IS the most accessible Disneyland for SEA kids. Though this may be anecdotal evidence, but majority of my friends had trips to HK Disneyland as their graduation gift out of high school or elementary. Going to Tokyo and Shanghai is more expensive. We don't even consider western countries because visa schedules can take months.
@@blink2nap You've always needed Visas, even if you visit from a rich, welcomed country like Japan. LOL what are freaking smoking? And it's MUCH worse for places like the Philippines or Vietnam to get Visas to go there. And it's only going to get WORSE in the future due to the political situation in HK. PRC is putting it and itself on lockdown, and it's not because of some little virus. That's just the EXCUSE they use.
@@blink2nap Before Chinese tourist took over Hong Kong, I heard that HK basically had the same status like Tokyo, basically the cultural and tourism capital of Asia, either it's Tokyo or Hong Kong.
(But I'm from Hong Kong too, I know at least half HKer will tell you Tokyo is much better, or other Japanese cities, and the kids that never been to Japan might tell you it's Souel.)
@@li_tsz_fung I personally don't think that they were one the same level even back then as I do think that my wealthier friends has never been to Hong Kong Disneyland and instead went more towards Tokyo Disneyland/Disneysea while most of my average/above average friends in terms of income level went to Hong Kong Disneyland which created the mindset that Tokyo > Hong Kong for Disneyland.
It's so weird hearing how Disney was in financial trouble, considering they own everything now.
Yeah, thats part of the reason they made those cheap direct to dvd sequels too
It already happened before after Walt's death. They were close to being bought up back then.
Seriously. I actually made a list of all the film franchises that Disney owns, and here it is:
Aladdin
Alice in Wonderland
Alien
Alita: Battle Angel
Anastasia
Avatar
Bambi
Beauty and the Beast
Big Hero 6
Bolt
Brave
A Bug’s Life
Cars
Chicken Little
Cinderella
Coco
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Die Hard
Dumbo
Emperor’s New Groove
Enchanted
Fantasia
Finding Nemo
Fox and the Hound
Frozen
Good Dinosaur
Hercules
Home Alone
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Ice Age
Incredibles
Independence Day
Indiana Jones
Inside Out
Inspector Gadget
Jungle Book
Kingsman
Lady and the Tramp
Lilo and Stitch
Lion King
Little Mermaid
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Mary Poppins
Maze Runner
Mickey
Moana
Monsters, Inc.
Mulan
Muppets
National Treasure
Night at the Museum
Nightmare Before Christmas
One Hundred and One Dalmatians
Onward
Percy Jackson
Peter Pan
Pete’s Dragon
Pinocchio
Pirates of the Caribbean
Planes
Planet of the Apes
Pocahontas
Predator
Princess and the Frog
Ratatouille
Rescuers
Rio
The Simpsons
Sleeping Beauty
Snow White
Star Wars
Tangled
Tarzan
Tomorrowland
Toy Story
Tron
Up
Wall-E
Winnie the Pooh
Wreck it Ralph
Zootopia
@@MP-nq9ht tbh a lot of these arent even franchises and are just random individual films. Also Disney doesnt own the Alvin franchise, those specific films sure but if they wanted to make more films they would have to get the licenses from the production company that actually owns them.
Shoddy Workmanship people who have money, don’t spend money.
What I expected: Decisions which made Hong Kong Disneyland a failure
What I got: Character redemption arc for Michael Eisner
With that said, I'm SO excited for season 3!
I wouldn't call it "redemption," more like trying to give the guy the benefit of the doubt after being so mercilessly picked on for so many years.
WJS Productions Awww...poor power mad wee lamb, “picked on” for so many years...sniff, sniff...🙄🤨🤣
Dani David Eisner doesn’t get redeemed from me, he got rid of so much beloved attractions because his son thought that Disney wasn’t hip (companies should not be hip it’s not creative) He let the company let rides to rot and left abandoned ( some are still abandoned to this day), All the points that Roy Disney used to show what Eisner was doing. Also let’s face it some Disney Renaissance films aren’t that good( the only 1990’s Disney films I love is The Rescuers Down Under).
I forgot to mention The Paul Presler Cost Cutting Era.
Eisner is a hero
At least when he was in charge Disney wasn’t just recycling the same old crap ad nauseam as they’ve been doing since Eisner left
16:26 "This (Comcast's bid to buy Disney) strengthened Roy's argument to preserve the soul of the company, which would certainly be destroyed if it were to be absorbed into a large media conglomerate"
That's absolutely hilarious in retrospect. You either die the hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.
ShockedLogic one of the most over used quotes ever.
To be fair, I’d rather have Disney than Comcast
Ironically a buyout was why Roy brought on Eisner in the first place
Rip roy disney the last person I remember who genuinely cared about disney.
@@joshuajoe1419 Disney is already worse tho, and they bought EVERYTHING
Hongkong Disneyland was my first Disneyland experience. I can never forget my 8 year old self looking at a map of the park while the sky was overcast and a light drizzle falling over us, thinking "I'm at Disney!"
Didn't even realize it was a budget park! It was truly a magical experience!
i remember going to hk disney every other weekend with my family, and never got bored of it, when its a small world opened i was ecstatic, i was actually more disappointed when i visited again when i was older and went to toystory land lmao, sth abt childhood nostalgia i guess
I think that really speaks to the skills a lot of imagineers had and have when it comes to operating under constraints. Little kids don’t care about the annual portfolio of a company, but the magic really speaks to people.
“This inspired Iger to repair Disney’s relationships with Pixar, which he would do six months later by purchasing the animation company.”
Ah yes, Disney’s universal solution to a problem: Throw more money at it.
"you're forgetting one itty, bitty detail.... I OWN YOU"
Disney animation was in the dumps. It was an extremely smart business move.
i love that line, it's so disturbingly casual
Iger was pretty great as a ceo because he’s good at one thing making money he revived the disney the disney brand from it’s low points in the 2000s and now it’s pretty massive along with the opening of the shanghai park
@@staringcorgi6475 problem is, Disney got so successful and big that there is no soul anymore. Disney now is a conglomerate with no identity, they only place you can feel soul is the parks, and even that is starting to fade
*Me after watching Defunctland Season 2*
"Wow Michael Eisner sounds like an asshole"
*Bob Iger takes over*
"You know, Michael Eisner wasn't really that bad...At least he pushed for creativity and had a clear passion for what he did"
Bob Chapek takes over:
You know what at least Iger wasn't a cost cutting cheapskate.
I don't care if Disney stays or goes, but if it keeps heading in this direction I can only imagine what comes next.
Just goes to show that nothing's so bad that it can't get worse🤷♀️
So was Iger lmao
And didn't put a fake leader in charge to take his punishment then come back and act like a messiah
How can that many bad things happen to one theme park? Dead fish, airborne illnesses, WW2 bombs, leadership revolts, local backlash, and an opening year that was both low attended and super overcrowded to the point of SCALING FENCES to get in. You couldn't plan this much chaos if you wanted to
I feel kind of bad for Eisner. He made some dumb decisions, sure, but I feel like there's also a lot that happened in some of these videos that can be chalked up to bad luck. Like Princess Di's death happening shortly before Superstar Limo, for instance. How the hell do you foresee something like that???
Yeah that park seems very unlucky and almost cursed
Makes one think that maybe Disney (at least the Dr. Eisnerstein & Igor eras) really is Satanic and God literally hates them.
What do you expect form place that go from opium war?
Well that is known as "American management" Over promise and under deliver - it's the American way!
There's something just so perfect about Eisner funding Bojack Horseman, considering the premise of that show.
Yet another poor decision on his part
You went over the effect of SARS and its impact on Disney. Makes me realize that someday soon, you'll be making a video of the effect of COVID on Disney and the quality of life changes. Great video.
The funny thing about that, earlier this year, Disney began the ground work for Disneyland London (actually in Kent).
The crazier thing is that COVID and SARS are the same disease.
@@epicrotfl7017 SARS is only related to Covid-19, with them both being coronavirus viruses
@@MrMWorks that's not true. That park was being proposed by Paramount and has been "in development" for years and years with no progress. Disney will not build a park in London or Kent because you can get a train from Kings Cross and Ashford to Paris.
Given that Disney parks are insanely expensive and don't have great rides, I really doubt there's even the demand for a Disneyland in the UK.
@@MrMWorks nope, that’s actually a paramount park . It is known as ‘Disneyland london’ by the sensationalist media. I don’t think it’s begun groundwork, as that project has been going on and off for YEARS. I really wish there could be a Disney park in England but seeing as Paris is so close, I doubt it will ever happen.
Old Defunctland: Michael Eisner is theme park Galactus
New Defunctland: Eisner tried his best but stumbled real bad a few too many times
Character development
It's a fair assessment. He succeeded too many times to be a villain but made too many mistakes to not be human.
@@piperian3962 What a nice statement, I like it very much.
Alex R
I wonder what he will say about Iger and Chapek, though...
th-cam.com/video/b33tkUD6Fr8/w-d-xo.html
Blink twice if the Mouse got to you...
Eisner: with Chinese New Year around the corner I just wanted to be the first one to say-
Me: oh no
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Hong Kong people are chill with that
Lol I couldn't even tell what he said
IKR that hurt my soul D:
I was dozing off to the video and dead ass thought he said "cunt hey fat joy" lmao it caught me off guard 😂
Michael Eisner at the start of the season: A micromanaging egomaniac fueled by jealousy and greed that nearly drove the Disney company into bankruptcy and/or a corporate buyout
Michael Eisner at the end of the season: A bold risk taker who made mistakes but had big dreams, some of which, unfortunately, ended up being too big.
You can be both. Egomaniacs at least tend to want to do big impressive things that get attention. Miserly cost-cutters usually end up the worst of both worlds as they get in everyone's way.
I just feel so bad for Hong Kong. Eisner basically cheated on them with the Shanghai park and gave them a subpar product when they thought this park was gonna save them.
Eh, it was mostly the Hong Kong government who thought that way. A lot of locals were skeptical from the very beginning or had a wait-and-see approach to the news.
PanickedPixel Yeah, but it sucks that it this hurt their economy.
Your bias is showing.
We have marvel land now so all is forgiven
On one hand, I kind of understand it. China is as large as the U.S. and is home to a population nearly four times larger than the U.S.'s; given the U.S. has two Disney resorts on opposite ends of the country, it's reasonable to assume on a surface level it would work in China also.
On the other hand, that mentality doesn't justify their spotty consultation with HK's government nor the undercooked state of the park. If anything, creating two parks might have been the only reasonable business move in what was otherwise a colossal failure of communication and planning.
It's like Iger is the opposite of Eisner. Eisner took creativity to heart, gave strong direction, but ended with sparing expenses.
Iger spares no expense, but severely lacks creativity and direction. It's all acquiring IPs, milking IPs, creating 'safe' IPs etc.
In the end, when either didn't take risks their output suffered.
And hoo boy under Iger some output that's not Marvel suffered. I'd bring up Star Wars but that pretty much falls into the same camp as Halloween II/Resurrection/Godzilla '98: divisive to Negative but either made money (The Last Jedi/HWII/HW:R) or underpeformed (Solo/HW:5 & 6 and the Rob Zombie reboot duology)
Also, under Iger's watch, Disney became what it had never been before: a company with very clear political biases. The live action remakes are the most ridiculous in their pandering that Hollywood ever got.
Ironically, in the early 2000s Disney fans said exactly the same things about Eisner that they do about Iger today; that under his leadership Disney had become soulless, unoriginal, and obsessed with profit. To see Eisner as some kind of risk-taking genius is pretty revisionist in my opinion.
David Baird but no lies were told.
@@davidbaird2211 Only proving that the bar keeps getting lowered further and further if yesterday's bad becomes today's decent.
Kevin, this series has been a wild ride. I’ve loved being a part of it and I’ve loved watching along as a fan. The ending to this episode was epic. Well done dude.
@jacob lebeau i think its just the season 2 finale
Disney Dan hi dan
Youngjoysinner Unless Kevin says that's it. Until then, I will wait until he gives an official word on Defuntland's future.
Ask Keven to interview both of the men themselves and to give advice to both of them.
@@jeremyriley1238 they gotta close more rides/themeparks/etc so there will always be a de-funked-land!
Disney: "We want to fill the park to capacity."
(Park fills to capacity)
Disney: "Wait we weren't ready for this"
That seems to be a theme with Disney.
I like that you ended Eisner’s story on a positive note. He made a lot of mistakes, but he had an interesting creative vision.
Maddie Joy
Sadly, I’m afraid the same may not apply to Iger, the man who killed Star Wars.
@Nigel Cam It makes sense to push for a bigger market in Asia. Eisner was not reckless. Disney had its foot in the door years ago with Tokyo so it makes perfect sense to try building a Hong Kong Disneyland for stronger market share. That's just business 101: If they love it, give them more! They even opened a second park in Japan called DisneySea.
His biggest downfall was lack of focus and wanting to start projects just because someone else was doing it. It would be like Six flags, or Nickelodeon, trying to get into airlines, cruises, hotels, arcades, animal safaris, restuarants, and more, all within one decade. He was all over the place, instead of focusing on a one or two (humongous, costly) projects at a time.
Let's not forget the sneaky approach, upsetting areas, and Disney's habit of overreach -- over aggressiveness with copyright (when they've built most of their brand from pre established characters/ stories; at least post Mickey era), going so far, their lobbying extended copyrights way beyond what's reasonable (affecting everyone and everything, not just them), and this desire for being basically a monopoly.
Though there's adults that have love for Disney, their attempts to corner markets beyond children (ABC, ESPN, National geographic, Star Wars, etc.), but refusing to keep them/ expand them appropriately to be mature enough, is more than frustrating. It's all good to expand, but they are terrible at expanding their scope outside of children.
All their past history for 2-3 decades and actions up until now, have sent a message and led to, corporate elitism taking precedence over quality. Not that they are outside the typical Americanized corporate mindset now a days -- but as a "family" brand, this $$$ above all else mindset, ironically ends up excluding a majority of families these days. Again, it's par for the course in modern times, but their infiltration into other areas leaves even less to admire than usual. Eisner's strategy left a noticeable impression and will continue to do so.
@@austinreed7343 If Star Wars has been "killed", then it was killed long before Iger oversaw Disney's acquisition of it.
Matthew Hoobin
Back in 1997. But yeah; it wasn’t completely dead until five years after Disney... oh wait, the Mandalorian exists.
Was this your version of "I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed" to Michael Eisner?
Michael "Dr. Eisnerstein" Eisner: I'm not mad, I'm disappointed
Bob "Igor" Iger: I AM ANGERY
It feels like the longer Iger is around the more people are going to regret Eisner's ousting purely because of who he was replaced by.
Thats just his whole channel
May Sparkle
Same will happen with Chapek.
Iger: For the longest time, I used to simply be disappointed. But no more. You have finally made me angry.
@@asteroidrules Same with George Lucas.
When I went to Disneyland Hong Kong back in 2010 there was no line for Space Mountain (Which was pretty much the only good ride there), so me and my sister kept on riding it over and over without any obstruction whatsoever.
Allan Biala it takes time for new visitors to realise that there are great rides behind the facades. Rides that are obvious, such as the teacups or treehouse have long lines on opening and for a few years, as they are obvious fun.
PRASIE. PRASIE PRAISE PRAISE.
That’s so dope
RIP Space Mountain and all the repeat rides I did on that. I don't like it as much now that they've changed it to Hyperspace Mountain. You can see the track now so it removes the mystery from the movement, and it's hard to keep up with the story beats since everything goes so fast and they try to cover the dialogue in 3 different languages. 😭
Sounds like the best park ever 2bqhfamalamadingdong
Eisner creating theme-park-themed theme parks as a way to save money on theming is a level of chaotic genius most people can only aspire to.
I mean, this is the same man behind the California-themed theme park in the already California-themed California.
lolol it was very interesting being a kid who lived 30 mins from anaheim disneyland to be visiting california adventure
it's a mystery how Disney gets enough people to make wait times around 20m.
WHO HAS THE PATIENCE TO WAIT 20-90 MINUTES FOR A TWO MINUTE RIDE?!
...
to me, parks just need a theme that isnt jarring. too much focus on IP themes, these days.
6 Flags is proof that experienced themepark enthusiasts want good thematic rides at a reasonable price far more than familiar themes with perfected props at a high price.
Haven’t watched the video yet since I’m still on my way home. But as a Hong Konger, I just wanted to show appreciation for covering Hong Kong Disneyland and bringing attention to the wonderful mess that it is. Will leave another comment about my thoughts once I’ve watched the video! But I’m just so happy to see this covered here!!! ❤️
Okay, wow, just finished watching this. What a wonderful way to end the season. Thank you so much to the entire Defunctland team for making this a spectacular ride filled with so much history and respect for art of building theme parks and rides.
On this particular episode itself, I'm super impressed with how well-researched this was - covering plenty of what was going on locally, internationally and internally within Disney. Having seen all this Hong Kong Disneyland stuff play out through a local lens, it was insightful to see the reasons that led to the decisions made at the park. It explained a lot of disappointments I've felt about the place.
That said, while I know a few people who have annual passes and are absolutely in love with the park (bless their souls for helping it stay open), I personally have mixed feelings. I first experienced Disney in Anaheim as a kid, so I definitely noticed the lack of rides and attractions at the park during its opening year in 2005.
At the time though, I was just happy to have a Disneyland nearby and looking back at pictures of my 11-year-old self at the park brings back lots of good memories. While it didn't have a lot, it offered enough to satisfy those who yearned for a Disney experience. I was just hoping that expansion efforts would happen soon. But the decade following that, going to Disneyland felt like a chore - something that I would only do if relatives from other parts of the world came over. I memorized the place, even had a strategy for riding and watching everything within one day (not that it was big to begin with lol). The magic was gone and I couldn't justify spending so much money to visit the place.
But after doing a solo trip AND a company one to HK Disneyland during the Christmas of 2017, I'd say that I'm actually starting to feel a change. It's as if the park is actually getting its spark back. While still far from the magic I felt at Anaheim, the large investment is certainly making a difference for me. High ticket prices are still holding me back but I would be lying if I said I wasn't tempted to visit in early April just to try that Ant-Man and Wasp ride or see that upcoming Frozen-themed land whenever it opens. AND I am SO looking forward to seeing what they do with the castle. They tried really hard to make that tiny thing look huge but its size was always something people noticed. Only time will tell if anyone will actually miss that thing hahaha!
P.S. For anyone planning to visit, Mystic Manor is a MUST. It's the best ride, hands down. I could easily ride that over and over again.
im also from hong kong !!
@@PanickedPixel You speak the truth. Mystic Manor is a must, and there are so many cool things coming to Hong Kong. What a great comment, jeez.
PanickedPixel Thanks for the local’s perspective.
I felt the same way when Kevin covered Wonderland Sydney. 🇦🇺
PanickedPixel Same
I didn't ask for Defunctland on my birthday.
But Defunctland came through.
Ciara Sprague Happy birthday!
Happy birthday! :3
Same here to me🥳
Happy birthday
hope you have a wonderful day ciara!!
And now Disney is buying bigger and bigger chunks of Hollywood and have traded creativity for live action remakes and nostalgia. Bob Iger is a different kind of CEO
A new challenger approaches
Calling it now, by the end of Iger's tenure, he will somehow have found a way to militarize the Walt Disney Corporation.
They are still creative... They are just bank rolling THAT with remakes and nostalgia.
I'm on again off again OK with it in that, I don't have to go see it, and I still get stuff I like out of it. so IDK.
Iger is pure capitalist. That's all he is, use big bucks and established formulas to make bigger bucks and do the same. Rinse and repeat. The guy is a cancer, to Disney and to the world.
@@jollyonmiller5325 I don't think Eisner was exactly a shining example of the true proletariat.
Thank you for actually showing footage of the definned shark. As confronting and awful as it is, people need to see it so they realise what an utterly unforgivable practice shark finning is and why shark fin soup should be illegal.
It disgusts me that they won't even properly hunt the poor things. If they must be hunted, can't the rest of them be used as well, or at least just put them down instead of leaving them to suffer? It's so wasteful and needlessly cruel.
@@somedragonbastard Well there is an argument to be made that large carcasses are extremely beneficial to oceanic scavengers and that benefit is felt throughout several layers of oceanic life. Its not like it is on land where a carcass would only be useful a handful of birds and mammals. But of course nothing is more beneficial than just leaving them tf alone. I'm really hoping with the wild cultural shift of the last generation that shark fin soup will die out before the ocean's populations do, its an absolutely sickening exploitation of resources.
A whale shark at that 😭🥺 i love them
yeah people don't seem to know the consequences of killing sharks
As soon as he started to mention it, I covered my eyes cos i knew what was coming, although I'm glad he showed it. It traumatized me the first time I ever saw footage of it so much that I became vegetarian (amoung other disgusting meat production footage). Best thing I ever did & feel so much better physically & consiously.
This is the sweetest love letter to Michael Eisner... Look how far we've come
I honestly can’t believe content this amazing is free. I mean the amount of work, research, and passion you have to pour into this is amazing. Thank you for your dedication.
@benji what
@benji what
@benji I'll be the one who isn't pretending to be confused by your comment by saying this was inappropriate as that has nothing to do with defunctland's well done research.
@@SmashFinale Besides, no one has the "Right to Free Speech on TH-cam" in the first place.
Everything should be free... it is your mind that is enslaved.
I wonder how the cast members who voted Eisner out feel about it now. I became a cast member when Iger was already in charge and all I heard from the old-timers was how the company was getting greedier and worse every year. Disneyland was apparently a good place to work at one time, but I never experienced it.
@tinylilmatt Wow. We at least still had sign-ins and discounts while I was at Anaheim. The year I started was the first year they stopped doing the holiday party, though. My issue wasn't so much lack of perks as lack of adequate pay, especially since they were finding ways to make us juggle more and more tasks so they could schedule fewer and fewer people.
From the other videos on the channel, it sounds like Disney has been a mess since Walt and Roy died. Between failed projects, resorts, and parks, lackluster animation pre- and post-90s, multiple hostile take over attempts, and the crazy Eisner brought to the table. What you're saying sounds more like false nostalgia, where everything was better before when it really wasn't.
@@ScooterinAB Well, I said it was already a shitty place to work when I started, so there's definitely no nostalgia from me.
@@Claubuza I meant for your co-workers. In almost every job I've had, people bitch about how it used to be better before X ruined it.
Yup, this but with another park. Iger’s greediness and soulless-ness has crushed my dreams of a career with the company.
That little tribute to Eisner at the end is heartwarming. He made some poor decisions towards the end of his career with Disney, but his heart was always in the right place, as much as it can be for someone in a corporate position.
I've always loved his ingenuity and creative ideas, even if it lost the company money
He had some great ideas. It’s just that they don’t profit enough to justify keeping them.
Actually, this was a very honest and fitting tribute to Eisner.
Matt Hintz
I wonder what would fit as an Iger tribute once he leaves?
Austin Reed Star Wars land
@@austinreed7343 Well we can't know until it's over.
End of video: long beatiful conclusion about the value of creativity and risk
Me: thinks about Iger making tons of IP rides and remakes of Disney animated films. Cries a little.
Elizabeth H the live action Disney movies are kinda awesome and well designed. Bob Iger is still doing good at Disney and probably can’t wait until Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge opens this summer like many Disney fans.
@@Kaylin777 found the Di$ney war$ trilogy fan.
@@Kaylin777 Walt didn't want alcohol served at his park. Galaxy's edge is serving alcohol. Thanks Bob Iger. Can't wait to hear about all the fights breaking out and the kids getting accidentally intoxicated! That's going to be a pr nightmare and the end of Iger.
@@Kaylin777 The live action movies were good at best, at least until Beauty and the Beast (2017), when they started becoming soulless remakes. Take it from someone who enjoys both the live action Jungle Book and Alice in Wonderland. It's not just the live action, it's not just the remake, it's the fact that they are so clearly cashing in on the trend, and the newer live action movies don't even have the small amount of creativity that they used to have.
@@Kaylin777 "well designed" sis belle's dress was ugly
I really miss the cheesy videos they used to make with Eisner, showing him with animated characters, putting him in a hot air balloon, etc....Iger has obviously done a lot for the company, but he always seems a little stiff and corporate in comparison
"a little stiff and corporate"
that's funny seeing as how he's the CEO who acquired a record amount of studios and IPs, let 2011 winnie the pooh (the film that would make or break the 2D department's fate, mind you) get put on cinematic death row, abuse the safe and profitable remakes, and has made no public appearances outside of press conferences and business exclusive events
Holly McKenna And now Iger isn't even the CEO anymore
@@dundee6402 whose the CEO now?
@@void-xt8pw the new CEO is Bob Chapek
@@slamgrene8440 Rumor has it that Iger is planning a presidential run in 2024. Let that sink in.
These are so well made it feels like a documentary that you had to pay for.
Excellent work.
"Iger would work to repair relations with Pixar when six months later they acquired the animation studio."
Yeah, that sounds about right for an Iger "repair".
No better fix than controlling the entirety of the damn thing
I want to repair my relationship with a family member. I should buy them and force them to make me food
And now, Pixar has to repair relations with it's fans...
@@Wesrl I'm going to repair my relationship with my ex by buying him.
More like a forced 'consensual' experience: "shhh shhhh just relax, don't scream... I'm going to 'repair' our relationship. You'll enjoy this, I promise..." Corporate gross take-over shit.
I was not expecting that positive spin on Michael Eisner at the end. I've spent much of the recent years thinking Iger saved the company and how bad the late Eisner years were. That definitely leaves you with some things to think about.
Honestly, I wasn't expecting it either, but it puts a perfect cap on both the season of Defunctland and Eisner's legacy. He had the same drive through his entire career, but at some point in it, he lost the spark that made it work. I like that for all that's been said against Eisner (understandably), there's still something to take away from what he tried.
You can't just think of the last years of Eisner though. You have to take the good with the bad and when it was good with Eisner, we got all of those amazing timeless films. You know, the ones they are pointlessly remaking.
@@JacklynBurn There's more than just a little to take away man. As far as films, Eisner made a huge mark on cinema.
@@ASwegoalong I will say, I'm from the East coast US/Atlanta area and we have massively profited off of recent Disney decisions. That said, how did Iger ruin the company? I would prefer more creativity in films, but I enjoy the remakes/Marvel. Also, every time they tried a new IP in the last few year it lost money, so I understand. Not to mention, they have and are still massively expanding across Disney World and adding new additions/fixing many issues that various parks had, like Animal Kingdom/Hollywood Studios which always felt like a 1/2 day versus MK and Epcot that you can devote an entire day to.
As (unfairly?) hated as Dr. Eisnerstein is, Igor is absolutely the true villain here and the most evil thing Eisnerstein ever actually did was helping Igor replace him, change my mind.
God why am I more excited for season 3 of defunctland than Stranger Things
Because 80s nostalgia can only take you so far.
Shots fired.
Because you have the sensibilities of a normal person
Because unlike stranger things defunctland season two was awesome
@@consumerclaims4702 that is true
Hey thanks for making this! I actually live in Hong Kong and I had heard that the park wasn't making a profit (especially covid kicked the crap out of it and Ocean park). I've been to both HK Disney and Shanghai Disney, Shanghai in my opinion has better rides. However, HK Disney is still a fantastic experience, it's remarkable how much detail they have crammed into that small parcel of land. The hotel, the park, even just the grounds themselves are all really well designed and maintained. The new castle looks fantastic. I'm also a teacher and at least according to my students, most seem to still prefer Ocean Park.
I've only been to two of these types of park - HK Disneyland and Universal Studios in Osaka. Universal is a fun day out. HK Disneyland is a big disappointment. Disneyland isn't nearly as appealing a day out as Ocean Park. At one time my kids had annual passes for HK Disneyland, but only because we lived 20 minutes away, and it was a reasonable place to spend a couple of hours every now and then. If I had travelled to it for a vacation I would be very unhappy.
@@steveunderwood3683 I lived in mainland China for 10 years, and wen't to Ocean Park a couple of times. SOOOO much better than HK Disneyland, went there in 2012 I think it was and left by 3pm because I was dying of boredom lol. Went to Universal Studios in Singapore in 2014 which is a fantastic day out, and once again beats HK Disney by a long shot.Far superior rides, I guess as an adult I didn't really find anything very appealing about Disneyland. This btw is the only Disneyland I've been to. God, do I miss my days in Asia!
I went to both Disneyland and Ocean Park when I stayed in HK for a bit, I preferred the latter because Ocean Park had the much better thrill ride offering in Hair Raiser & amazing animal exhibits, but HK Disneyland is by no means a bad park. Hell, the fact it draws 2/3rds of the entire population a year given HK’s limited size is pretty impressive
10:45 "The bomb experts assured Disney that bombs that old won't go off - although they did mention that sometimes, they do" That's encouraging...
I can tell you as an experienced pyrotechnitian that still has all his fingers that this is more or less the working philosophy when dealing with anything that should have exploded but hasn't.
This is why they tell you on fireworks that if it doesn't go off - JUST LEAVE IT ALONE!
Living in Germany.
Yeah Bombs get digged out like every odd month and its mostly fine (place gets evacuated bomb gets disposed stuffs back to normal in less then a day)
And while Magnet fishing friend once caugt a 120mm Mortar Granade only thing you do is lower it back slowly call police for them to get rid of it and cross that magnet off as lost.
If you don´t fuck with old bombs and tickle the dragons tail they are most of the time not an imminent thread
I love it.
Also, who are these bomb experts? Is there a bomb college you can go to? Are they all gathered at a bomb institute??? How does one become a bomb expert? And what do they do day-to-day, when there aren't any bombs being dug up?
@@neolexiousneolexian6079 explosive specialists come in a varity of flavours some work as EOD (explosive ordanence disposal), some as investigators for explosion related accodents/crimes some work in construction/demolishion and some work mining related jobs basicaly everything that has to deal with high explosives. For training depends but there kind of are explosion schools and/or the military
Kevin, I love this series. I am not going to lie, that last line "one little spark" made me burst into tears. Goddamn you and this beautiful show.
Kevin, this was one heck of a video. Hong Kong is probably the park I know the least about so to see the story of Eisner's last major project was so interesting! This whole season has been incredible and I've adored seeing it unfold. Here's to season 3!
mike walsh-thorpe If you want to know more there is a vid with a similar title that goes much more in-depth with the concept plans and propsed lands that were never built. Very interesting. I think by ReviewTyme. I lot of good vids there.
I do want to say, you'd never have known that HK Disneyland was the worst performing park they had, me and my family often went to Hong Kong as a stopover to Europe and every time we'd go to Disneyland, some of my best childhood memories are at that park and I never had a single bad experience
Well, sure; the less crowded the park is, the better the experience.
I was so shocked that eisner helped fund bojack horseman but as I was writing out my shock I realised it actually fits perfectly with the show. bravo!
Anyone else get the feeling that what happened wasn't so much Michael Eisner's fault as much as it was whoever kept pulling those attendance estimates and other statistics out of their butt
Yeah, some of Eisner's biggest screw ups seem like they were based on accountants and planners giving false predictions, which he then used to make decisions that everyone blamed him for when things didn't turn out the way he'd been told they would
@@nowandaround312 Heavy is the head that sits the crown. No matter what happens the President or King goes first because they are the public face.
attendance estimator man is my favorite character of this series and the one true villain
@@nowandaround312 Agreed. I know he was a bit of a prick but at least u could see a passion for creativity and risks when you look back at all his promotions and commercials. I kinda miss seeing someone represent Disney in that form. It's sadly probably the closest we'll ever get to getting another Walt Disney.
People only create inflated data when they feel under threat in their job for one reason or another.
There was probably a problem somewhere in the company culture at the time that caused this.
Whether Eisner was responsible for that, or not, I don’t know.
I love how this channel has turned poor Eisner into a meme....and then redeemed him.
Personally, I like Eisner. He had uber flops yes. But one can only flop big by aiming big. He clearly loved Disney, and clearly tried his best to save the company from stagnation and indeed make it global again. The global behemoth we see today with its universal brand awareness and control over our childhood, is Eisners true legacy. Disney in 2019 is his baby, more than Igers or even-dare I say it-Walt himself.
I was very much in the "hate Eisner" camp when it came to his departure. However, I have since learned that he was just what the Disney Corporation needed when he showed up. Indeed, he SAVED Disney Corp. Rob Plays had an interesting video about him in which, as he put it (paraphrased despite the quote marks), "Disney was used to putting a lot of money and effort into a film and coming up with a homerun. This was much harder to accomplish after Walt died. What Eisner figured out was, it wasn't necessary to always get a homerun. If a much less expensive movie only gave you a 'single or double', you could still make a profit. And at that time, profits were what Disney Corp needed."
Despite his comment at the end of your video, I wonder if he was trying to apply this "singles and doubles" attitude to the theme parks. The problem with that being, the whole reason the theme parks were created was to provide something better than a carnival or fair. Thus, Hong Kong got quite gypped when Disney decided to make a discount park. I can understand why Hong Kong would not be happy with Disney Corp after all of this.
i feel like Eisner was more: "you dont always need a homerun, but that doesnt mean you cant try for one, just dont be disappointed unless you strike out"
current disney seems more in line with that "just get a base hit/walk" because its profitable and nothing else matters. Eisner may not have had walt-level creativity on a personal level, but it was the closest the company got since walt had died. I feel like the disney renassiance era was on equal, though very different than the original disney golden age.
its hard to beat animation records when the novelty (and therefore alot of the hype) of the medium is gone. color films wouldnt really be a selling point after the 40s. audio animatronics require major leaps of tech and realism to dazzle audiences, but they'll never achieve the legendary status of "great moments with mr lincoln." Eisner certainly tried to bring new and exciting theme park concepts: that VR park, pleasure island appealing more to adults than kids/families, dance clubs appealing to teenagers... but these were usually pursuing the new simply for the dazzle factor, and thus fall victim to the Tomorrowland problem. Even if Eisner had tried to make things timeless however, its likely he would have failed. Hollywood was becoming less a land of charm and glamor, and more associated with fallen stars and overdose scandals. the timeless old world charm Walt delivered was becoming more and more problematic for people, and only continues to be so. disney is kinda doomed to keep moving now, otherwise they become outdated, "old fashioned charm" is dead... and they had a hand in killing it for better or worse.
If there's one lesson we can all take from the Michael Eisner hindsight saga is that no matter how bad it seems, it'll always inevitably get worse.
A great ending about art vs risk. "Mediocrity is what fearful people always settle for."
I saved that quote. It's actually pretty damned inspiring.
Can confirm!
“There’s hope for The worst magic kingdom”
COVID-19: nah
COVID-19: Say no more,fam.
Xi Jinping: "Hey."😏😈
sars must really hate disneland Hong Kong for some reason...
@EmperorJuliusCaesar Thanks for rubbing it in 😞
real thx to CCP bruh
You have been knocking it out of the park every single time Kevin. Season 3 can only get better
Zack Likes To Ramble pun intended, question mark
I really appreciate that you ended this with eisners “failure is a part of success” speech. for all the kicking it felt like with this series it was coming from a place at the end where you gave him an actually beautiful sendoff to guy who saved disney and made some really tough decisions without the people he trusted anymore and his process may have been lost at the time.
I love how Roy E. Disney was the person who both got Eisner hired and got him out of the company, because that’s how he rolled.
I don't know why Roy didn't become the CEO, they should keep only Disney family members as the CEO.
@@stafonvoncamron The only Disney family member who still has some semblance of influence with the company is Roy Patrick Disney, Roy E's son. Roy P. still attends shareholder meetings while his sister, Abigail, is now one of Disney's fiercest critics.
@@dynasty0019 Not sure critic is a strong enough term. Outrage and raw venom is more what the emotions of the Disney family are towards the company.
Hope you aren't insulting Emperors New Groove with using it for the "No Creativity" shot at 12:55. Thems be fightin words.
I also thought that's what Kevin was going for. That movie's incredibly creative, hilarious, and it's dated very well. And as a parent now (I wasn't when it came out), I get a massive kick out of the dynamics between the parents and kids.
Hi I know this is a year old, but I think this is in relation to the massive overhaul the film had to undertake. It was originally a very fleshed out musical called "Kingdom Of The Sun," but due to incredible financial strain and the desire to change audiences, the entire film was reworked into a really wacky and undoubtedly hilarious "Emperor's New Groove." The plot synopsis for the original movie is online, along with balled for Yzma called "Snuff Out The Light." It sounds like an incredible tale, but I'm still satisfied with what came from it.
@@catheryncofield716 was about to say this same thing. It is almost most definitely a dig at Emperor's New Groove's hellish production and total rewrite and not necessarily at the quality of the movie itself
I definitely recommend interested parties seek out "The Sweatbox", a documentary which covers the trainwreck that was The Emperor's New Groove's production. I like the movie, but it really was hell for the people working on the project.
@@catheryncofield716 I'm so glad the original idea fell completely through as "The Emporer's New Groove" is probably my favourite Disney animated film. Actual timeless classic.
Damn. The way Kevin describes Iger's non-fear of large price numbers and Eisner's focus on creativity almost alludes that he's gonna be covering Iger's tenure in Season 3 which was almost the opposite of Eisner's in terms of vision. I am so hyped.
*fast forward to a year later and the new episodes focus on Walt Disney and Disneyland when he was alive (plus Coney Island and the Green Lantern Nut Crusher)*
@@SuperWolsey
So, will Iger be season 4?
As someone who grew up going to HKDL (I was an annual pass holder from the day it opened until I left hong kong in 2018), this park is absolutely still my favorite. I decided to watch this after my disapointment of a visit to the floridian magic kingdom (it just wasnt for me). while this park may have been a "flop", it still remains my favorite park until this day. While I can't comment on HKDL from Aug. 2018- now, from personal experience, I still have many castmember friends who still keep my love for HKDL alive.
I visited HKDL in 2019 and it was by far the best one I've visited, everything felt new and clean, it really was great.
We also had a great time. Shows and characters were not as good, but the quiet and uncrowded experience was great.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡
Bomb experts: "Bombs that old won't go off come onnnnn. You're all worrying too much!
......but sometimes they do."
Just wow.
Ya, *rEALLY* reassuring.
What did you expect, its China. They don't give a fuck
"60% of the time, works everytime!
Except when it doesn't."
Much expert on b o m b
Yeah.."sometimes" they do..
Omg..
Oh my god, this series is just like a drug. I CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF IT! This is so beautifully made and thought of, and very educational. As an Indonesian, and never going Disneyland, this was very entertaining and eye opening.
Kevin, my man, my Disney brother, season 2 was truly epic. This video was incredible and funny and taught me a lot that I never thought I needed to know. Thanks for making the only TH-cam videos I will literally stop whatever I’m doing to watch!
I CANNOT wait for S3! See you then!
We honeymooned in Hong Kong in 2018, and visited both Disneyland and Ocean Park. It took us only half a day to see everything that interested us at Disneyland (but we did have a good time). For us, Ocean Park was much better - we could easily have spent two days there!
Ocean Park is sooo much more fun!!!
Ive been to both twice already its the opposite for me id rather go to Disneyland than Oceanpark , the cold places isnt fun also the fishy smell isnt for everyone
Comments about the value of risk are poignant, because the leadership at Disney Parks today will not open anything if it isn't attached to some movie. Very risk-averse.
Thank you for letting me know I’m not the only person who feels this way.
Exactly, Iger doesn't understand originality. He only acquires more IP while destroying the classics.
Iger doesn’t appreciate creativity
It seems like Eisner’s concern that Iger struggled with creativity would be a big foreshadowing of the company entering the 2020s.
Especially after the death of Roy E. Disney in 2009 and worse, the removal of John Lasseter after a sexual misconduct case.
Because it is. In the Theme Park business, there are only two categories: Disney/Universal parks (2%) and EVERYONE ELSE (98%). an old rule of thumb for theme parks is the bigger the size and the larger the budget for a park, the more likely no profits be made in 2-5 years. Disney/Universal is a separate category in itself that in order to build one it needs a cooperating NATIONAL GOVERNMENT to foot the bill for its construction...
Although this entire series is outstanding, I must say 34:03 onward was unprecedented! Its conclusion of Michael Eisner's story is incredibly inspiring! This is an important lesson all artists should take to heart, whether you lead Disney or are a 'mere' solo artist.
As a passholder of Hong Kong Disneyland and someone who goes there like 10 times a year, this is perhaps the most elanorative video about the puny park.
I've been to the other parks around the world, they were beautiful, magical and anything, and sometimes when I take a look back at Hong Kong, it falls short.
The lack of rides was a problem, the theming was terrible, and friendly cast members were hardly findable.
But what keeps me coming to this park, is because the nostalgia it gave me. Despite how people around me would criticize the park, including officials criticizing Disney for earning from the IPs and kept the loss to the government, people having a mind set of "Disney is for kids", I never stop coming back. Perhaps it could be because the sense of belonging the park gave me.
After this video, I liked how you can critically point out problems when the park is built and it's early years, but since the 2010s, the change began. Since 2016, Hong Kong Disneyland attendance surpassed Ocean Park's, and according to the fiscal report out weeks ago, the loss it made is far less than ocean park's, while caused only because of the construction projects ongoing.
The management team tried very hard to develop new attractions, seasonal events, discounts to draw customers. And in recent years, I think it can be justified to describe that HKDL finally had the taste of success.
I hope more people would give HKDL an actual chance, and see the good there actually is, and to credit the hardship of the team's in bringing new experiences for the success.
Moreover, I think HKDL also associates to people. It doesn't have good theme, sure, but it gives the visitors nostalgia. I think the reason why I still go back is because it gave me the dream to become an imagineer, hoping to solve problems of themeing before it's too late.
Thank you for this amazing video, and it helped me in learning about the park's past.
Do you live in or near Hong Kong? What is the perception of Shanghai's park to Chinese Disney fans?
@@SweetSoulBrother0 No idea. Frankly Shanghai Disney is way too far for any Hong Konger or person who lives in Southern China to casually stroll in for a day (having to cross the border for HKers). Also I believe that Chinese Disney fans will have difference perceptions of Disney when compared to HK Disney fans.
@@shadowedgames134 interesting, hoped there was more information via chinese social media sites on it
@@SweetSoulBrother0 I'm from HK, so I really don't know much about Chinese' view on Disney. And the fact that HK doesn't use Chinese social media sites is a factor.
@@SweetSoulBrother0 For HK, I think people actually do appreciate the park. However, the reason is because they don't know that it actually could've been better.
I've been going through and marathoning Defunctland episodes and after watching this one I've gotta say, it's interesting to me how concerned Eisner was about his legacy with Disney, given how that was such a huge focus of Walt Disney's in his later years. That + his focus on creativity and risk-taking makes me think that Eisner, for all his faults, seems to have been a CEO very much in the same spirit as Disney himself.
That was exceptionally well done. I knew that there was a lot of drama involved in bringing Hong Kong Disneyland to fruition. I never realized it was quite how bad things were. And think you for painting a fair portrait of Michael Eisner. Certainly he made some awful mistakes as Disney CEO, but far too many people cast him as the devil incarnate. He was a good exec with geniune passion who lost his way, especially after the death of Frank Wells. Excellent video!
I had no idea that the development of HK Disneyland was so bad either.
"He would repair relations with Pixar by acquiring them six months later." Sounds like he made them an offer they couldn't refuse.
Lol
"This strengthened Roy's argument to preserve the soul of the company, which would surely be destroyed if it were absorbed into a conglomerate" Until they became the conglomerate themselves, that is.
Disney's has gotten to shit ever since they stopped being just one of the big and turned into the biggest of them all. They can't stop consuming and don't care about the warning signs (the ever so deteriorating opinion of Star Wars and the remakes). It will bite them in the ass sooner or later.
We still have anime,video games,& TH-cam. I think the world will be okay if we don't have to see Disney anymore in the next fifty years.
Just wanted to say, I always come back and watch this video when I’m feeling uninspired, when my artistic work or otherwise seems to have hit a wall. There’s something about the way you present Eisner’s legacy here, as something that ultimately crashed and burned, and yet had so many bright spots because of the importance of creative risk, that makes me cry every time. And feel a little more inspired again, to take those risks. Thanks Kevin. I love Defunctland, and keep making those creative risks yourselves. I feel certainly the better for it
Sometimes it seems like Eisner really had good ideas, but they didn't work out for various reasons. Other time it seems like he was literally throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks.
*stands up and applauds*
that ending....
man that ending with Michael Eisner's speech got me...
well done Kevin eagerly awaiting fort season 3
I love how your videos have transformed I remember when you didn’t like your voice and you would
Distort it. You have come such a long way! The confidence and quality of your content is stunning! Good job Kevin!
Me too, I so agree 👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿
I believe the original was the actual voice, and the current is the “distortion”.
@@Trevin_Taylor Nah, he definetly used to down-pitch his voice to sound more manly.
It's all distortion all the way. Kevin Perjurer is a made up name and that's obvious. "Perjury" is the legal term for "lying." A Perjurer is technically a liar.
My theory is that "Kevin" is actually a woman using a false identity and voice masking software to pretend to be a man. In those first few episodes, she went to far with the downward pitch, but then brought the levels up to the more natural sounding voice we hear today.
@@MidlifeCrisisJoe you knoww.. you could be on to something lol never thought of it that way. I know his name was fake, I just remember him OR HER tinkering with the voice distortion because everyone actually wanted a more natural sounding person to record the videos.
This is one of the best, if not THE best series on TH-cam. It is beautifully made and is the definition of creativity on TH-cam.
I'm from HK and I'm going to Disney next week! As much as it doesn't measure up to other Disneylands, I still think it's pretty neat and there's still a crap ton of people going nowadays. It's also worth mentioning how most people prefer Ocean Park over Disney since 1) It's got more style and there's nothing else in the world to compare to it, 2) its basically a zoo and theme park wrapped into one which is great for families, 3) its cheaper than Disney too.
"He has funded a few TV shows, including the successful Netflix animated comedy BoJack Horseman."
All is forgiven.
SuperDevolution Indeed
I wish I could like Bojack Horseman as much as other people do, but after watching the first season, the rest just feels too repetitive thematically.
Master Markus So is South Park but we keep watching
@@SuperWolsey
Well, I don't. I think South Park has it's good episodes but it's a REAL mixed bag.
Master Markus It never recovered from Isaac Hayes choosing Scientology over the two men who help gave him work and later his death (along with killing off Chef in the series 10th year on the air). That plus sacrificing other recurring characters for those who haven't made an impact like those in the first 5 years
Despite so many videos that have been painting Eisner in such a bad light (which honestly comes down mostly to the subject matter of the channel) I am very pleased that you ended this season with what was actually some respectful comments toward Eisner, reminding people of the more positive aspects of his legacy.
marscaleb
Even Iger has some positive aspects to his legacy.
Well... it maybe pregnancy hormones, but the ending had me in tears. Amazing job, not only with this video but the series as a whole.
Lindsey Hines May nah it isn’t I’m crying too and I’m not pregnant
I am also pregnant and crying my eyes out. 😅
Total stranger here, but congratulations. :)
@@VenomBlade95 Thanks!
@@Lindseyehines I hope nothing but the best for you and your child! Congratulations!
I went to Legoland with my dad right after 9/11 and there was *nobody* there. We rode the same ride 6 times in a row with zero line. Crazy.
my parents took me and my sister to disney world three months after 9/11 because it was dirt cheap. we stayed at the grand floridan. truly magical experience.
Has there been a Defunctland video on Legoland? Lego had a real rough time in the 90s with issues like overexpanding into all kinds of side projects while their core products suffered.
“There’s no such thing as a cheap theme park”
-Jenny Nicholson
I was going to say Action Park, but they paid on the back end rather than the front.
Economically there is and they are the best ones in terms of Return of investment (if played out right)...
I take all she says with a grain of salt. For someone who goes to Disney a lot she doesn't know shit.
I mean, depending on what you count as cheap, she isn't really wrong. DCA, HKDL, and WDSP, while lackluster, still cost several hundred million dollars each. Theme parks are a very expensive type of business.
What about Sixflags Magic Mountain?
You guys are better quality than television documentaries.
Also, 4:25. I see what you did there :)
Saw that too lol
Eisner basically says “I took risks. It made for things that went wrong but it also made for things that went right. “
He seems to not regret this.
I don't see why he would, or why he should. Not all of his decisions were good ones, but there wouldn't be a Disney company today if not for him.
You can’t do anything new and amazing if you don’t try to take any risks. What is the point of your comment, no one should do anything bold ever?
He absolutely has regrets. There's a video or two of him talking about what he did wrong at the end of his Disney tenure somewhere.
I think the point Kevin is trying to make is that Eisner believed creativity trumped spending a lot of money. Sometimes this attitude equalled success, sometimes it went wrong. Iger was the opposite - he placed no value on creativity, his belief was that if you spend enough money you will see a return. Again, this has had some success - but I would add it attracts just as much criticism.
My view is that the whole purpose of the Disney company is to be creative. Eisner had some facepalming failures but at least he somewhat contributed to this idea. Iger, outside of judging Disney as a mere company that needs to make money, did nothing to uphold this principle. From a theme park fan's point of view, Iger was worthless, whereas Eisner's tenure deserves some respect overall.
@@keithwellerlounge74 If anything, this proves that people have yet to figure out the method to the madness of Walt Disney's original methods.
10:50 yeah this is normal even in Europe. It's more rare to NOT find a random bomb during construction. Even when I lived in a smaller town they found one when they were renovating the train station right in front of our apartment complex. I guess it'd sound... concerning for Americans but we're used to it.
It depends on the area in America and the age of the unexploded bomb. I currently live in the place the US Civil War started, and every so often Civil or Revolutionary War ordinance is randomly found. Authorities are notified to deal with it, but if you live in my area long enough, as long as it's obviously old you know it's only a minor issue. The bulk of America, though, is a different story because there's no relatively innocent reason to find an unexploded bomb.
When everything you know is built on bloodshed, yeah. You better be used to it.
"the soul of the company... would be lost if it were absorbed into a large media conglomerate" Disney IS a large media conglomerate
Can't lose the soul of your company if you're the one devouring other companies.
@Tee Wew28 The quote I referenced was about the situation in 2003. Earlier in the video it said Disney's acquisition of Capital Cities (ABC, ESPN, etc.) in 1996 made them the largest media company in the world. The more I think about it the more I think that "soul of the company" line was, like many in this video, probably deadpan sarcasm and I just missed it on the first watch
This is something of a masterpiece of a finale to an ever-improving series (and it started off on 'really bloody good') of an informative and absolute brilliant show that I love to bits and regularly rewatch.
Thank you also for being so fair and nuanced on this whole debacle, Eisner included.
Just...thank you, really!
HEY!
Emperor's New Groove is amazing.
That was kind of late- or epilogue-Renaissance Disney.
I also loved Atlantis and treasure planet. I went to see Atlantis about 9 times when it came out
"No, no... he's got a point" 🤔
😅
@@louiseramos1256 Totally respect your opinion, but there was something about Atlantis that put me off. Especially that robot. I did like the engineer girl.
Now Treasure Planet. I loved nearly all of it. I thought it was an interesting retelling of the story it's based off of, and the relationship of Jim Hawkins and John Silver was some of the best written in animation. Every once in a while I rewatch it.
But the movies underperformed
The worst Hong Kong Disneyland "land" by far was the Penny's Bay Community Isolation Center, adjacent to the park, where people who contracted Covid were shipped to live for at least 7 days. I was sent there in July 2022 after testing positive for COVID while in a Hong Kong quarantine hotel. The worst part was driving through the "Welcome to Hong Kong Disneyland" arch before being sent to the city of temporary housing, where I would get locked in for a week.
That must have been a wild scene. With the bright, cheerful, happiness of Disney mixed with the uncertainty of medical mask, hazmat suits, and imprisonment. That would be a decent horror movie lol
Micheal Eisner is the perfect anti-hero protagonist for a comedy show.
Also, exceptionally beautiful work there, Kevin!
Listening to Eisner speak in other languages is just... so INCREDIBLY painful.
Is. It. EVER!
I still giggle about his voice cracking for the euro disney opening
Hey, he’s tryin at least. Would be more excruciating to hear him try to make *them* speak his native language..it at least shows respect. Even though he didn’t learn thoroughly & sounds a little off, you gotta give it to him for trying, 👍
haha i know right imagine attempting to learn how to speak another language to show appreciation and respect. i could never expose my weaknesses! no way
like... he couldn't spend five minutes googling pronunciation? I could've said the Cantonese phrase better and I don't speak a single word of it.
Eisner was like a baseball player who swings at everything. Sure he had a lot of homeruns, but he also had huge amount of strike outs.
So he was Mark McGwire?
@@ck-1649 without the steroids, yes.
if we continue this metaphor, Iger only swings at the slow moving pitches that are easy to hit and none of the more fast, risky ones, and walt disney is babe ruth
Alaina Schneider
Though he does hit some fast and risky ones by accident.
@@alexschneider1667 Who would Chapek be?
Hello, Hong Konger here. I was 5 years old when Hong Kong Disneyland opened, so I actually never heard of all the controversies surrounding the development of the theme park. As a kid, I always just thought it was cool whenever our school would have a field trip to Disneyland. Having said that, between Disneyland and Ocean Park, Ocean Park is a lot more of an exciting experience, while Disneyland is pretty chill in comparison (minus all the long lines hehe). Great video! Subbed! 😄
And so ends the tale of Eisner. Once a visionary leading a golden age, but slowly began to lose his way through misguided understanding of creativity.
The word "budget park" is the craziest thing I've heard
He killed creativity and it’s still seen to this day.
Doesn't help that his best friend died in the 90s and that led to him burying himself in his work and eventually burning out
So long as some place actually called Budget Park never happens.
garfield15 What the hell is wrong with the idea of making a more affordable theme park? Many people will never be able to go to Disneyland or Disney World because the ticket prices are so huge. A smaller, less elaborate park is a great idea. They just executed it poorly.
@@nowandaround312 it wasn't "budget" in the sense of ticket prices; it was budget in the sense that "this park is being built on a (small) budget". It's an English expression.
"...worried that he (Bob Iger) lacked the creative skills to run a company such as Disney".
Michael Eisner was right about that at least. They may be financially successful but this is the most creatively bankrupt I've ever seen the company. While I know Eisner was making bad decisions and dragging the company down, I think I miss him more and more every day.
I adore your Disney series, thanks so much for sharing this with us!
Gracie Sullivan Truer words, darlin
Dont hear much from Eisner these days. I do miss him. Wonder what hes doing now
“I miss Michael Eisner” - Kevin Perjurer
And will he miss Iger when Chapek takes over?
Yes 😂
That was a farce.
"Sometimes you either die the villain, or you live long enough to see youself become the hero."
- Rob Eisner, probably