Amusement parks It s a Small World Rumours and Bristol s New Aquarium

Tuesday, April 08, 2008 Amusement parks: It's a Small World Rumours and Bristol's New Aquarium In the news today, the science based attraction in Bristol, "@Bristol" is adding an aquarium and the weekend saw Disney's Imagineering quash various rumours flying around the revamping of its iconic and much loved "It's a Small World" ride.

Set on Bristol's historic Harbourside, @Bristol is great, one of the city's stand out attractions, an interactive science museum which allows the kids to get really hands on. My daughter's school takes trips there, last week she came back from one so enthused and hyper: "Wow dad, its amaaaazing, you get to fiddle with everything and you don't even get told off !". It is now to add an aquarium, with Newquay's Blue Reef set to create 35 news jobs once the aquarium opens in 2009. It will include a coral reef, a walk-through aquarium tunnel, sharks and a display about the Severn Estuary. I find the people strangely fantasied, Possessed with rumours. Disney is a big company. Like General Electric, Coca Cola and Blooloop it is an instantly recognisable global brand and so anything it does is subject to the most rigorous scrutiny. There are any number of associations, websites and societies, the sole aim of which is to examine and analyse what Disney does and speculate on what it might do. (Hat tip to Brady at The LA Times' Funland) The buzz in the chat rooms and on the blogs about the company's plans to alter its renowned "It's a Small World Ride" has reached fever pitch with various allegations flying around about Disney's plans to "bastardise" and "marginalise" the work of the ride's creator, Mary Blair. One particular rumour to stick in the craw of many was that Imagineering (Disney's creative arm) was planning to remove the ride's "rainforest" , replacing it with an “Up With America” scene. There has even been an online campaign to halt the (rumoured) changes. So this weekend, Imagineering Executive Vice President Marty Sklar put out an open letter in which he responded to the rumours. To the relief of many, he explained that: The rainforest scene is not being replaced Mickey and Minnie Mouse characters will not be added to the ride Although some Disney characters are being added to the ride these will be seamlessly integrated into "appropriate thematic scenes in the attraction and (done) completely in the distinctive ‘Mary Blair style.’ Sklar, a 50 year Disney veteran , "Disney Legend" and winner of the TEA's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, acknowledged that "It's a Small World" is a classic and added " the greatest "change agent" who ever walked down Main Street at Disneyland was Walt himself. In fact, the park had not been open 24 hours when Walt began to ‘plus’ Disneyland, and he never stopped.”
Posted By Charles Read -- At 11:28 AM \| Comments (4) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Amusements Parks, Attractions Business, Science Centres , Unclassified, Zoos & Aquaria Tags @Bristol, aquarium, Disney, It's a Small World
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Comments :

Ah, rumors...

Better for people to talk about you than not, but at times the 'buzz'--like the nearly invisible gnat about the ear--can be nearly unbearable!

At one point, rumors that Holiday World had been sold were such that we issued a news release in an attempt to dispel the falsehoods. It ended up as a banner headline on the front page of the next morning's paper.

And so it goes...

Paula Werne
Holiday World PR

Comment By Paula Werne At 4/12/2008 11:47 PM

The power of rumours eh? Here in the UK this last week one of the country's biggest banks was almost brought to its knees by rumour alone. HBOS lost 11 % of its market value on Wednesday after a malicious rumour spread like wild fire. It had been (falsely) circulated that the bank was in trouble and was seeking emergency funding from the Bank of England.

With the markets highly volatile, HBOS’ share price plummeted from 480p each to 398p at one stage, before recovering slightly to 427p. It is reckoned whoever circulated the rumour made pushing £100 million (!!) from buying and selling shares . A massive police investigation is now underway. All on the back of a rumour !

Comment By Charles Read At 4/13/2008 10:12 AM

Blue Reef Aquariums Ltd also announced they were selng out to Spain's Grupo Aspro, already owners of two of the UK's largest aquariums (in Edinburgh and Cheshire), as well as one of Europe's largest, L'Aquarium in Barcelona. Adding Bristol willl bring their total in the UK to 7 aquariums, together with their theme park interests.

Comment By Keith Thomas At 4/18/2008 11:26 AM

More good news about @Bristol - according to the April 2008 issue of LF Examiner, the 350-seat Imax theater, which closed a year ago for budgetary reasons, will reopen in 2009 along with the new aquarium.

Comment By Judith Rubin At 4/30/2008 8:26 PM