{"id":430034,"date":"2026-08-11T20:02:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T20:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/430034\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T20:02:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T20:02:12","slug":"disneylands-70th-party-is-over-at-d23-the-park-looks-to-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/430034\/","title":{"rendered":"Disneyland’s 70th party is over. At D23, the park looks to the future"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Disneyland\u2019s yearlong, nostalgia-filled 70th anniversary celebration<\/a> has come to an end. Attention now turns to preserving the resort\u2019s legacy for the next 70 years. <\/p>\n

We\u2019re two years removed from the passage of DisneylandForward<\/a> by the Anaheim City Council, the ambitious multibillion-dollar plan to reimagine and expand the world\u2019s most famous theme park, and questions are now swirling on what\u2019s to come. <\/p>\n

Sign up for Mr. Todd’s Wild Ride <\/p>\n

An insider guide to the ever-changing world of theme parks, coming to you straight from SoCal \u2014 the theme park capital of the world.<\/p>\n

By continuing, you agree to our Terms of Service<\/a>, which include arbitration and a class action waiver. You agree that we and our third-party vendors may collect and use your information, including through cookies, pixels and similar technologies, for the purposes set forth in our Privacy Policy<\/a> such as personalizing your experience and ads. <\/p>\n

Hints can likely be found by looking at what\u2019s already been built, at least at Disney\u2019s international parks. Documentarian Leslie Iwerks did just that with her new film \u201cDisney Worldbuilders,\u201d which will have its premiere this weekend at the all-things-Disney convention D23<\/a> at the Anaheim Convention Center and then stream on Disney+ starting Aug. 20. <\/p>\n

Iwerks, the director of the recent, and terrific, \u201cDisneyland Handcrafted,\u201d<\/a> comes from Disney royalty. Her grandfather, Ub Iwerks, was a legendary animator instrumental in the development of Mickey Mouse. Her father, Don, was a cinematic and special effects wizard<\/a> who worked on numerous Disney attractions, including the Michael Jackson-starring film \u201cCaptain EO.\u201d As a documentarian, Iwerks has explored Disney before as the director of \u201cThe Imagineering Story\u201d and has a long career<\/a> of films that touch on not just Hollywood but also politics and environmental issues.<\/p>\n

\"Leslie <\/p>\n

Leslie Iwerks has dedicated a significant portion of her career to analyzing the Disney theme parks. <\/p>\n

(Iwerks & Co. \/ Disney+)<\/p>\n

If I had any concerns about the future of Disneyland, watching \u2018Worldbuilders\u201d helped ease them. That\u2019s in part because the film makes it clear that the Disneyland template was pretty firmly set in place 70 years ago by park patriarch Walt Disney. <\/p>\n

While it\u2019s entirely possible for theme park spaces to jump the shark, so to speak, especially when they focus too much on marketing or re-creating familiar film and television moments (see, say, San Fransokyo Square at Disney California Adventure), \u201cWorldbuilders\u201d zeroes in on the parks\u2019 enduring mission of being places of play. The film features interviews with the likes of Pixar chief Pete Docter, \u201cFrozen\u201d mastermind Jennifer Lee, Marvel maestro Kevin Feige and \u201cAvatar\u201d creator James Cameron, who collaborated with Walt Disney Imagineering to turn their cinematic universes into physical spaces for fans to interact with. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always blown away at the audacity of Walt saying, \u2018I\u2019m going to create the happiest place on Earth,\u2019 and thinking that could actually be a business model,\u201d Iwerks tells me.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd what I learned about these filmmakers is that they were all inspired by the Disney parks,\u201d she continues. \u201cUnbeknownst to me, they had a spark going to a Disney theme park. It excited their imagination.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

\u201cFrozen\u201d co-director Jennifer Lee poses with a robotic Olaf at Disneyland Paris in a scene from Leslie Iwerks\u2019 new film \u201cWorldbuilders.\u201d<\/p>\n

(Roger Do Minh \/ Disney+ \/ Iwerks & Co.)<\/p>\n

You see it in Shanghai\u2019s \u201cZootopia\u201d-inspired land, with its oversize benches that hide parking spaces for critter vehicles beneath. It\u2019s an area full of movement, with puppets and animatronics gracing nearly every structure, aiming to capture wonder and silliness as much as it is the world of the film, which Iwerks notes was unexpectedly inspired by the original Disneyland. It\u2019s present, too, in the \u201cFrozen\u201d area of Disneyland Paris, which seeks to reference and modernize the Disney fairy tale, using imagery of castles and magic not to symbolize happily ever after but familial and friendship bonds. <\/p>\n

\u201cAll these lands allow you to explore, and allow yourself to be free, to play, to be whimsical,\u201d Iwerks says. \u201cThey allow yourself to get out of your own \u2018daily frets,\u2019 as Walt called them. There are a lot of technologies vying for attention today, such as cellphones and gaming and lots of things, but there is something tangible about walking through a Disney park that is irreplaceable. That is that tangible sense of play that you can see, you can touch and you can smell. These are visceral memories that stay with us as human beings throughout our entire lifetime.\u201d<\/p>\n

Could either \u201cZootopia\u201d or \u201cFrozen\u201d make its way to Disneyland? Neither, I believe, would be out of place, but there\u2019s a special delicacy when adding to Walt\u2019s original park. Even with the passage of DisneylandForward, land isn\u2019t limitless. Expansion should be thought about not just for the next decade, but the next 50, leaving space for new stories yet untold. To place \u201cAvatar\u201d in Disney California Adventure is a definitive statement that the audiences of 2060 will want to hang with the Na\u2019vi as much as those of 2030. <\/p>\n

Thus, a wide-angle approach is best. When Pandora \u2014 the World of Avatar was built in Animal Kingdom at Florida\u2019s Walt Disney World, it was done so with a thesis on themes of conservation<\/a> and environmentalism more so than a focus on any of the film\u2019s characters. Disney California Adventure\u2019s own Cars Land is a love letter to Route 66 and roadside Americana<\/a> as it much as it is an ode to the Disney\/Pixar films. <\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

At D23 in 2024, Disney released concept art of an \u201cAvatar\u201d-inspired attraction said to be coming to Disney California Adventure. <\/p>\n

(20th Century \/ Disneyland Resort)<\/p>\n

\u201cWorldbuilders\u201d makes it clear that as much as Disney\u2019s parks have stayed the same, how we build themed lands has changed. Gone, for instance, are the big tent ideas of Frontierland, Adventureland and Fantasyland. Theme park designers today take a more targeted approach, bringing to life fully realized cinematic worlds such as Star Wars: Galaxy\u2019s Edge or the aforementioned Cars Land. That\u2019s not necessarily a negative. Galaxy\u2019s Edge, for instance, succeeds because it\u2019s a not a point-by-point re-creation of any locale seen in the films. Instead, it\u2019s a place we can visit, and create our own tales<\/a>. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a reminder, for instance, that Disneyland, despite the prices<\/a>, the crowds, the marketing or whatever hang-up one may find, endures because it allows us to, well, play. To be a little silly. And that was the lesson of Iwerks\u2019 \u201cWorldbuilders.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about original thinking,\u201d Iwerks says, when asked whether she believes it\u2019s important to continually document the Disney theme parks. \u201cSo much of Imagineering is focused on original thinking. People can be really smart, but it doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re an original thinker. One of the greatest things in the world is to create something out of nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

We may arrive at a \u201cFrozen\u201d land wanting to see Anna, Elsa or, especially, the robotic Olaf, but we remember it because it gave us permission to imagine an alternate, more fanciful reality. Thus, it\u2019s a treatise that it is not the intellectual property that makes Disneyland unique; it\u2019s the belief in a more communal, playful world. <\/p>\n

Speaking of D23 …<\/p>\n

Theme park fans should get ready for some news this weekend. <\/p>\n

Expect updates and details on previously announced \u2014 and well into development projects \u2014 such as Disney California Adventure\u2019s \u201cCoco\u201d boat ride and two Marvel attractions<\/a>, which will effectively double that park\u2019s Avengers Campus. The centerpiece of the latter is a ride featuring many of the Avengers in battle across the multiverse with King Thanos. <\/p>\n

The attraction, first announced in 2019, was given a name at 2024\u2019s D23, Avengers Infinity Defense, and it will feature locations such as the Black Panther nation of Wakanda, Asgard and New York City. Early looks have it leaning heavily on visual effects interspersed with physical sets, but expect a deeper unveiling this weekend.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A recent photo of construction at Disney California Adventure\u2019s Avengers Campus, where two attractions are under development. <\/p>\n

(Todd Martens \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Longer-term, fans are eager for word on what\u2019s planned with the \u201cAvatar\u201d franchise, previously announced<\/a> to take over part of the Hollywood-themed section of the park currently home to a \u201cMonsters, Inc.\u201d family dark ride. That attraction, Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!, is slated to close in 2027 to make way for the Cameron-created franchise. There\u2019s been some chatter, most of it online-driven and unsubstantiated, that Disney would pivot from \u201cAvatar\u201d to instead center \u201cZootopia,\u201d but I\u2019m not convinced. Clarity will arrive in the coming days. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ll refrain from diving too heavily into rumors, but expect at least one longer-term hint at a bigger swing, hopefully, for instance, the reimagined plans for what is currently the Toy Story Lot, as well as nearer-term updates on Disneyland\u2019s post-70th entertainment. Fans, of course, will forever be hoping for Walt Disney Imagineering, the division of the company responsible for theme park experiences, to unveil that it is remaking Tomorrowland, which, while home to many a popular attraction, is also stuck with a number of underutilized buildings. While I encourage optimism and dreaming as much as any Disney parks fan, I\u2019ll believe it when I see it. <\/p>\n

Disneyland fans, however, may have to come to grips with the fact that some of the most exciting updates will be centered on Florida\u2019s Walt Disney World. Imagineering is expected to at long last detail the attractions coming to the Magic Kingdom\u2019s hotly-anticipated Villain\u2019s Land. Also of note, a reveal of the \u201cEncanto\u201d attraction plotted soon for Animal Kingdom.<\/p>\n

This week in SoCal theme parks \"Key <\/p>\n

Key issues remain in union contract talks between the Walt Disney Co. and its parade, show and costumed characters.<\/p>\n

(Jae C. Hong \/ Associated Press)<\/p>\n

A dispute in contract talks. Disneyland employees behind its parade, show and costumed characters have been negotiating their first union contract with the Walt Disney Co. since October 2024. The two sides remain apart on a number of key issues. Disney\u2019s proposal to the roughly 1,700 workers represented by Actors\u2019 Equity omits paid parental leave and cuts paid holidays from 12 to 11, according to an April 6 email reviewed by The Times. Disney says no benefits are being cut because the unit organized in 2024 and the talks are setting first-contract terms rather than modifying an existing agreement. Times Business writers Wendy Lee and Samantha Masunaga have more on the negotiations<\/a>.
New sound barriers coming to Hollywood Drift, says councilmember. Universal Studios Hollywood appears to be taking steps to address noise complaints <\/a>regarding its new high-speed, outdoor roller coaster<\/a>. The office of L.A. City Councilmember Adrin Nazarian stated the theme park will install two additional sound barriers to mitigate the sound of rider screams on its new ride Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift, which have been described by nearby residents<\/a> as \u201cdisturbing\u201d and \u201cuntenable.\u201d Nazarian\u2019s office made the announcement Monday evening on social media<\/a>. A Universal Studios Hollywood spokesperson has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Montezooma\u2019s is now open! Knott\u2019s Berry Farm\u2019s four-year overhaul <\/a>of Montezooma\u2019s Revenge into Montezooma: The Forbidden Fortress has reached its conclusion. The historic ride began welcoming guests late last week. Look for a report on the remodeled attraction here soon.
Attendance at Disney parks is up. The Walt Disney Co. noted in its recent earnings call that attendance at its domestic parks for the three-month period that ended June 27 is up 3%<\/a> over the comparable period last year. International visits remain a challenge, but the company noted that summer promotions helped fuel the increase, especially at Florida\u2019s Walt Disney World.
Cheap! A full year of Knott\u2019s! At a time when it seems like everything is getting more expensive, Knott\u2019s Berry Farm is currently running a heavy sale on 2027 season passes<\/a>. Through Sept. 7, a base level pass is just $99, down from its non-sale price of $215. A \u201cgold pass,\u201d which also includes admission to Six Flags Magic Mountain, is currently $129, down from $240. while a \u201cprestige pass,\u201d which includes parking and a number of other perks, is $329, down from $399.
Slash is back at Halloween Horror Nights. Guns \u2018N Roses guitar slinger Slash is a staple at Universal Studios Hollywood\u2019s Halloween Horror Nights<\/a>, and is returning to create a soundtrack for a haunted house this year. Slash is providing music for a house titled \u2018\u201cKillcea\u00f1era: Music by Slash,\u201d an original maze that flips the script on a teenage rite of passage. Here, a 15-year-old girl seeks revenge on those who have wronged her. Halloween Horror Nights begins Sept. 3<\/a>. The best thing I ate at the parks this week \"The <\/p>\n

The fish and chips from Gordon Ramsay at the Carnaby at Downtown Disney. <\/p>\n

(Todd Martens \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

I admit, Downtown Disney\u2019s Gordon Ramsay at the Carnaby is growing on me, especially if one can get seated on the outdoor bar patio, which is far more welcoming<\/a> than the pub\u2019s indoor bar. I found the latter a little cold and unwelcoming, but the back patio is more lively, especially with pennant race baseball on its big screen TV. I finished a recent Disneyland day with the Carnaby\u2019s fish and chips, which is essentially one giant piece of cod with fries and \u201cmushy peas.\u201d It\u2019s pricey, at $33, but it\u2019s also incredibly hefty and filling. It\u2019s certainly the strongest fish and chips on Disneyland property, and sea salt-infused batter was so crisp and rich that it almost felt wrong to slather the fish in tartar sauce. I couldn\u2019t quite place my finger on the flavor \u2014 I\u2019ve read that Ramsay\u2019s fish and chips recipe includes custard powder \u2014 but there was a burnt buttery tone that was far from dry. I\u2019ll be back. <\/p>\n

Tell us your stories. Ask us your questions.<\/p>\n

Have a theme park tale to share? Whether it was a good day or less-than-perfect day, I would love to hear about it. Have a question? A tip? A fun photo from the parks to share? Email me at todd.martens@latimes.com<\/a>. I may feature your note in an upcoming newsletter. <\/p>\n

Ride on, <\/p>\n

Todd Martens<\/p>\n

P.S.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned to Mr. Todd\u2019s Wild Ride this week for all the big Disney parks news from D23. Saturday evening Disney will be hosting a panel at the Honda Center to reveal new details on attractions coming to its theme parks around the world, and I\u2019ll be there delivering breaking coverage straight to your inbox. <\/p>\n

Also, say hi if you see me wandering the Anaheim Convention Center. I\u2019ll have Mr. Todd\u2019s Wild Ride stickers to share. <\/p>\n