Former Disney Imagineer Criticizes Recent Disney World Designs
A former Imagineer is calling out Disney’s current lack of imagination. Jim Shull worked for Disney for thirty-three years, where he was the creative director for projects in all of the Disney Parks, including the Rock ‘n Roller Coaster, 100 Years of Magic, and The Magic Carpets of Aladdin in Disney World. Since then, he’s been an online presence via his website and podcast, giving people a behind-the-scenes look at the various attractions he worked on. Earlier this week, Shull made a series of posts on X criticizing some of Disney World’s recent designs, calling them “uninspired” and “an unacceptable embarrassment,” among other things.
First, Shull talked about CommuniCore Hall in EPCOT, a sort of entertainment center and rest area (from what I gather from the description on the Disney World website) with concerts, character meet-and-greets, and seating where you can bring food:
Blaming the Summer heat for a grumpy reaction to this image (from @bioreconstruct ) which looks like a mid west shopping mall (except for the monorail). Uninspired architecture doesn’t belong in #Epcot pic.twitter.com/LztEADfEXx
— Jim Shull (@JimShull) July 8, 2024
I see what they were going for in that image, with the design being similar to the famous Spaceship Earth sphere (or EPCOT Ball), but he’s right; without the shaping of the sphere, it doesn’t look as impressive.
Next, Shull takes aim at the expansion to the Polynesian Village Resort near The Magic Kingdom:
Blaming the Summer heat for a grumpy reaction to this image from @bioreconstruct of the Polynesian Hotel expansion. Wing T. Chao wouldn’t have allowed this bland standard average architectural design at #WDW I expect a neon sign on the roof next. pic.twitter.com/RBJ8UrOES5
— Jim Shull (@JimShull) July 8, 2024
I definitely agree with Shull about this; what a boring design to what should be a fun tropical atmosphere. Granted, it’s still under construction, but I don’t think it can get much better from an architectural standpoint. Wing T. Chao, the man Shull says “wouldn’t have allowed” this design, was a big Imagineer at Disney from 1972 to 2009, where he was the executive vice president in charge of master planning, architecture, and design and was responsible for negotiating with France and Hong Kong for the construction of Euro Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland. In other words, Shull is bringing out the big guns and illustrating how far downhill things have gone at Disney World.
Shull then shared a post from BlogMickey.com criticizing the floor lighting at the World Celebration Gardens, an outdoor venue at EPCOT:
Any number of reasons could be the one the floor lighting failed; bad installation, heavy after park close vehicle traffic, poor weather sealing, etc. This failure could be especially hard to correct. https://t.co/BCj9LsBnX7
— Jim Shull (@JimShull) July 8, 2024
If you want a sense of what Shull and BlogMickey.com are saying, look at the image of World Celebration Gardens on DisneyWedding.com, a site for people who want to get married at Disney World. It’s luminous… you know, because the lights work, which they apparently don’t very often. Shull says the problem with it, depending on what it is, could be “especially hard to correct,” indicating that this is more poor planning on Disney’s part.
Finally, Shull goes back to CommuniCore Hall, this time lambasting the interior design:
Time for a rant. This is an unacceptable embarrassment as show and it is a waste of investment capital for #TWDC. When there’s no festival using the space it looks like a bus station. #BadEpcot #EmptyEpcot pic.twitter.com/IyQJwFHpyI
— Jim Shull (@JimShull) July 9, 2024
Boy, he’s right on the money with this one. It looks like a hospital cafeteria. You don’t get the sense that you’re someplace special, which is supposed to be the point of Disney World.
What makes these posts important is that Jim Shull is a generally positive guy when it comes to Disney Parks and other theme parks. He works to make people love and appreciate the attractions even more. That he’s calling this stuff out means things are really bad at Disney.
