Defunctland: The Failure of Hong Kong Disneyland

“Don’t worry, the bombs that old won’t go off. But sometimes they will” is the most bomb expert sentence ever

Disney not wanting to merge with Comcast to save the "soul" of the company from being destroyed by a massive multi-media conglomerate has to be one of the best cases of real life dramatic irony ever.

"Eisner was worried Iger lacked the creative vision to run the company" In hindsight, this is IMMACULATE foreshadowing for what the Iger era of Disney was known for: merging with/assimilating existing creative houses/IPs into the Disney brand. (Lucasfilm, Marvel, 20thCF)

Me after watching Defunctland Season 2 "Wow Michael Eisner sounds like an asshole" Bob Iger takes over "You know, Michael Eisner wasn't really that bad...At least he pushed for creativity and had a clear passion for what he did"

"The amount of fish being killed was generally in line with what they expected." Now that's a phrase

Eisner: lot of air pollution in Hong Kong, huh? Hong Kong: no worries we’ll fix it Bruh how

I’m from Hong Kong and here’re my two cents. The “cultural sensitivity” argument for not building a haunted house shows that they didn’t really do much research. Hong Kong Disneyland’s major rival Ocean Park has been holding an annual Halloween event since forever. It frequently leans into local ghost stories and folklore. Most of generation has participated in the event. And Lan Kwai Fong, HK’s Soho district, is often flooded with people on Halloween. So Hong Kong people aren’t really all that superstitious. The Mystic Point is more yikes-y for me, on the other hand. It feels so colonial and dated. It’s supposed to be a new attraction (?). It’s cute if you don’t think too much about it but not really particularly spectacular. It just feels very tone-deaf to me. I was too young to know that it’s a budget park. And our city is quite small so my only exposure to theme parks were either Ocean Park and Disneyland. Ocean Park is infinitely more exciting. Even upon Disneyland’s opening, most people were like what are we gonna do with a park with barely any rides lol That being said, I’ve spent many great days there with friends. What Disney has and Ocean Park has not is the atmosphere. It does feel like you can leave all your stress outside and just have a good time. I once had an annual pass but it was quite cheap, around 65 USD. We would go to Disneyland in our uniforms after school for like 3 hours at a time lol. They soon discontinued the cheapest tier annual pass (our tier). Before immigrating to the UK, I visited the Park with some of my best friends. So many memories. Though objectively not a very good theme park, but it’s still quite nostalgic for a lot of us. (Please forgive any mistakes made because I didn’t want to proofread a YouTube comment lol)

Michael Eisner at the start of the season: A micromanaging egomaniac fueled by jealousy and greed that nearly drove the Disney company into bankruptcy and/or a corporate buyout Michael Eisner at the end of the season: A bold risk taker who made mistakes but had big dreams, some of which, unfortunately, ended up being too big.

Micheal Eisner thought Bob Iger didn’t have the creative skills to run Disney. He was definitely right. Disney is doing better than ever financially but they’ve definitely lost their magic. Eisner took risks and some ideas failed while others didn’t. But he tried.

It's so weird hearing how Disney was in financial trouble, considering they own everything now.

Eisner creating theme-park-themed theme parks as a way to save money on theming is a level of chaotic genius most people can only aspire to.

Hongkong Disneyland was my first Disneyland experience. I can never forget my 8 year old self looking at a map of the park while the sky was overcast and a light drizzle falling over us, thinking "I'm at Disney!" Didn't even realize it was a budget park! It was truly a magical experience!

Eisner: with Chinese New Year around the corner I just wanted to be the first one to say— Me: oh no

“This inspired Iger to repair Disney’s relationships with Pixar, which he would do six months later by purchasing the animation company.” Ah yes, Disney’s universal solution to a problem: Throw more money at it.

Disney: "We want to fill the park to capacity." (Park fills to capacity) Disney: "Wait we weren't ready for this"

If you're a kid from southeast Asia with Disney dreams but on a budget, Hong Kong Disneyland was definitely "THE Disney land" for us. It's cheaper, more accessible, and closer enough than going to Tokyo Disney and Shanghai Disney.

That opening. You're going places man. Hopefully season 3

16:26 "This (Comcast's bid to buy Disney) strengthened Roy's argument to preserve the soul of the company, which would certainly be destroyed if it were to be absorbed into a large media conglomerate" That's absolutely hilarious in retrospect. You either die the hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.

There's something just so perfect about Eisner funding Bojack Horseman, considering the premise of that show.

Thank you for actually showing footage of the definned shark. As confronting and awful as it is, people need to see it so they realise what an utterly unforgivable practice shark finning is and why shark fin soup should be illegal.