Infusing Nostalgia into California Adventure

The Los Angeles Times got a sneak preview of the Blue Sky Cellar opening on Oct. 20 at Disney's California Adventure. Yes, you read that correctly: They got a preview of a preview center. Disney is hyping the Blue Sky Cellar like an exciting new attraction — even giving it a page in the attractions section of the California Adventure Web site. You'd think the preview center would only be news for people who blog about Disney (in other words, people like me), but apparently not. Gary Goddard, a former designer at Walt Disney Imagineering, said it best when he told the LA Times that when it comes to California Adventure's $1-billion makeover, Disney's reputation is at stake. Cynics who love to point out the park's failure and fans who want to see Disney turn the park around are dying to know what happens next.

So what happens next?

According to Bob Weis, executive vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering, people want to be transported somewhere else. For Walt Disney, Disneyland was his way of creating a calm and contained environment in which the stress of modern life was forgotten the minute you crossed under the park's berm. The problem with California Adventure has always been that as a whole it doesn't replicate that feeling. It's too close to reality. In fact, from several places in the park you can see the Anaheim convention center.

Imagineering's answer to this dilemma? Transport guests back in time to Walt's early days in California. The Blue Sky Cellar displays sketches and artwork of the park's new entrance plaza. The cheesy C-A-L-I-F-O-R-N-I-A postcard look is gone, replaced by 1920s Los Angeles and the iconic Carthay Circle Theatre, where Walt premiered "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in 1937 and "Fantasia" in 1940. Also in this new plaza, old Red Car trolleys await to transport guests to other areas of the park. Weis told the LA Times, "We're taking them to a more idealized, more nostalgic feel of California." Nostalgia is great, but the new main gate looks a little too familiar. Am I the only one who has noticed this?

The park's new "return to the past" theme will extend to other areas of California Adventure. Paradise Pier is being overhauled to look like a turn-of-the-20th-Century boardwalk amusement park, and the newest addition to California Adventure, the town of Radiator Springs from Pixar's "Cars," will capture the feeling of Route 66 circa the 1950s. Weis told the LA Times that John Lasseter, chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, even encouraged the Imagineers to drive the stretch of Route 66 that extends from California to Amarillo, Texas — something I actually did when I moved to Washington, D.C. It's this kind of dedication to detail that makes Disney fans like me excited to see the final product.

Try not to get too excited, though. The $1-billion dollar investment runs through 2012, so it'll be a while before we see this new vision of California Adventure. In the meantime, check out the Blue Sky Cellar, located in the old Seasons of the Vine building in the Golden Vine Winery.