Word: disneying
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That is hardly the pace-setting media juggernaut the founders, with their impeccable pedigrees, envisioned. Spielberg is the creative force behind Jaws, Jurassic Park and the new War of the Worlds. Katzenberg was Disney's animation genius. Geffen discovered the Eagles and introduced Guns N' Roses to the world. Together the moguls planned to move beyond movies and music to TV, toys and the Internet...
...WILSON, 74, cartoonist for Esquire, the New Yorker and, most famously, Playboy, where his full-page watercolors were a relatively sex-free staple of the men's magazine; of heart failure; in Encinitas, Calif. A longtime painter of witty ads for New England Life Insurance, he helped animate such Disney films as Tarzan and The Little Mermaid...
Still, most of the park looks as if it were airlifted from the U.S. Imagineers used Walt Disney's original designs for the first Disneyland in Anaheim as a starting point. Many Disney classics are there, including a fairy-tale Sleeping Beauty Castle and a Space Mountain roller coaster. Will this slice of Americana appeal to the Chinese? Disney executives think so. The Chinese "have heard so much about the parks around the world, and they want to experience the same thing," says Don Robinson, managing director of Hong Kong Disneyland. Disney may be catching China at just the right...
...park's success isn't a sure thing. Disney faces a special hurdle in China. Until a few years ago, hardly anyone knew Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck even existed. Disney characters were banned for nearly 40 years after Mao's takeover. Now Chinese kids are familiar with the classic characters--in part from pirated DVDs--but their knowledge of Disney lore is limited. "This is the first market where we've opened a park in which we don't have a long-term relationship with our guests," says Rasulo...
Even before its opening, Disney is plotting to expand. According to Rasulo, Disney has been in discussions with government officials in China to bring a Disneyland to the mainland, perhaps to Shanghai. Executives are already preparing new attractions for Hong Kong, such as an updated version of the popular racing ride Autopia, due to open in mid-2006. On the drawing board are plans to nearly double the park's capacity and possibly add a second park. "We're in for a long-term commitment," says Robinson. "It's not like just opening an office and selling a product...