Livin' in the Trees

Some things can make you feel old.

Take for instance the story that popped up on mouseplanet yesterday about the Treehouse Villas being reborn (you can visit the story here)

Old timey Treehouse

New-fangled above-the-flood-plane Treehouse

When I was a kid, we spent three or four vacations back in the Treehouses. They were completely secluded back in this woods that Disney had carved out. There was a real sense of being away from everything.

At the time, I had mixed feelings about them, because they were so far off the beaten path. It was a real production getting anywhere. With one exception: Disney Village.

Back in the 80' and early 90's you could rent an electric golf cart if you stayed in any of the villas and drive--across golf course paths, public roads, and sidewalks--all the way up to Disney Village. And it wasn't like there was just a little parking pad when you first got there. We would drive all the way around to the Empress Lilly and park right in front. There were even little quad boxes where you could plug in your ride while you went shopping, dining, etc.

Back when there was a paddlewheel...

There was a such a feeling of freedom associated with the carts and the Treehouses, the whole Disney Village Resort area.

By contrast, things now are so heavily programmed between the village, Saratoga Springs and the whole DVC machine. Disney characters are everywhere. So are chain restaurants and traffic snarls. The Treehouses may be coming back but it is in name only. Disney can't buck their own trends.

You're Going to (Disney's) Hollywood (Studios)

Artwork (c) Disney

Disney announced a new American Idol attraction that will set up shop in the old Superstar Television building at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

While WDW management should be commended for a) doing something with this abandoned structure and b) using a television property rather than creating another shopfront stuffed with princesses and c) avoiding the temptation to go cheap and incestuous with their own tween-centric High School Musical/Cheetah Girls/Hannah Montana programming, I still have to wonder how well this all-but washed up Fox show will play in just a few years. American Idol is showing its age. The viewing audience for its opening episode this season was its lowest in four years. As malaise sets in and the wind goes out of American Idol's sails, the park will be left with another empty Who Wants to be a Millionaire building.

Still, I'm curious to visit this attraction and to find out how Disney deals with one of the show's most iconic elements: Simon Cowell's signature insults. Many viewers tune in to American Idol just to watch as unfortunates are singled out by Cowell and subsequently ridiculed during each season's initial episodes. Will Disney subject their guests to random acts of mean-spiritedness? If they avoid this aspect of the show, will they be neutering it for guests who are coming just to hear wry British putdowns?

And one last thing...what is with this concept art? The people are rendered about 3x as large as they would appear against the existing structure. As part of this renovation, are they shrinking the building? Are they only inviting the sad victims of bovine growth hormone overdoses? Either way, the whole thing just comes across as something more rinky-dink than I imagine Disney had hoped.

And one last-last thing, again on the concept art. For those who pine for the original Disney-MGM Studios with its Hollywood-That-Never-Was aesthetic, well, let's just kiss that old idea goodbye. If this attraction is realized as rendered, we'll have a sleek contemporary structure and an overscaled, visually hyperactive LED board screaming at the end of Hollywood Boulevard. If the hat wasn't enough, this attraction may well be the cut that kills the old Bob Weis-era Studios.

Oh well, here's hoping they have a Clay Aiken rubberhead wandering the park.