By now, you know the story. In 2001 – the waning years of exiting CEO Michael Eisner at the height of his cost-cutting, budget-slashing era – Disneyland’s long-time dream of gaining a second theme park became real in the form of a nightmare. Disney’s California Adventure was a mistake from the start. A self-referential, comical park designed with a “tongue-in-cheek attitude” and an “MTV” flair, Disney’s post-modern spoof of the Golden State had practically no rides, no Disney characters, and barely anything for families. “Too much California, not enough Disney,” the park languished for years.
In 2007, then-new CEO Bob Iger announced a never-before-imagined solution: a five-year, billion dollar reimagining that would gift the park with new rides, new lands, a new spirit, and a new name… kinda. Removing the possessive s, Disney California Adventure was officially re-dedicated in June 2012 – the start of what fans call the “DCA 2.0” era. Buena Vista Street, Hollywood Land, Grizzly Peak, Paradise Pier, Cars Land… California Adventure was a park of beautiful environments rooted in the diverse settings and historic time periods that make California what it is.
Now, of course, the rides added inside those beautiful, historic, Californian lands happened to be exclusively based on Disney and Pixar films – Monsters Inc., Toy Story, The Little Mermaid, Cars, etc. But hey, who could complain in a park that included a 1920s Los Angeles, a 1950s redwood national park, a 1900s seaside boardwalk, and more? Despite its cartoon inhabitants, “DCA 2.0” was definitely a California Adventure… with a Disney twist.
But the story didn’t end there… Nearly as quickly as they’d cut the ribbon on a reborn California Adventure, Imagineers were sent back to the drawing board to… well… to seemingly undo all the work they just did. A second wave of change axed California from Soarin’ Over California; transformed the Hollywood Tower Hotel into a warehouse-prison-power-plant populated by Marvel superheroes; saw Pixar characters sweep through the park’s boardwalk, and produced a modern Avengers Campus recruitment center bringing Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and the Scarlet Witch to the Golden State.
Fans maintained that if you squint, Avengers Campus kinda-sorta makes sense as a sort of creative embodiment of California’s technological Silicon Valley – with its “reclaimed” warehouses turned into a sleek recruitment center of grad students, whiz kids, and 21st century hero tech showcases.
And when, at the 2024 D23 Expo, Disney announced a Coco dark ride for the park (likely joining the lineup of Pixar Pier), it, too, made enough sense that you could say, sure… Even though Pixar’s Coco takes place in Mexico, Mexican culture is Californian culture, and a celebration of Día de los Muertos is “close enough” to make sense. (And besides, who could argue against the park getting something it desperately needs to elevate to “Disneyland” caliber – a beautiful, high capacity boat ride?)
Okay, okay, so it’s impossible to deny that the park once lambasted for being “too much California, not enough Disney” had definitely swung to the opposite extreme. Like all Disney Parks, California Adventure hasn’t had a ride greenlit in the last two decades that hasn’t been connected to a high-earning Disney IP. And even if that didn’t look likely to change, at least Imagineers seemed to be trying to maybe make these properties make sense in the context of the park’s waning allegiance to historic California. Until…
There’s no question that California Adventure was a main focus of the 2024 D23 Expo. In the same multi-hour presentation that announced two new rides for Avengers Campus and the Coco boat ride, we learned the inevitable: the long-promised Avatar-themed land en route to the Disneyland Resort would land at – where else? – California Adventure.
Of course, it makes sense. The only other option at Disney’s West Coast resort – Disneyland Park – is a park already stuffed with E-Ticket rides, with very little room for expansion, and already home to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Even after decades of focused expansion, California Adventure needs more to do – and frankly, something headlining and defining. In an IP-focused Walt Disney Company, a new, exclusive iteration of Pandora fits the bill. California Adventure’s Pandora will be anchored by an epic, technological boat ride through the beauty and trials of Pandora’s aquatic environments.
But now more than ever, the question must be asked: should California Adventure change its name? We’ll dig into our (controversial) opinion on the next page…
