Hit or Miss

S1 E4: Michael Eisner hires business minded managers to placate Wall Street, diversifying the company and placing an aggressive focus on consumer products and making money. After the challenges of Euro Disneyland, the Imagineers spearhead several successful projects, including designing two Disney-branded cruise ships for a new cruise line; rethinking the concept of a zoo with Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park; and receiving praise for Tokyo DisneySea, the second park at Tokyo Disney Resort. Despite these accomplishments, the next three parks, Disney’s California Adventure, Walt Disney Studios, and Hong Kong Disneyland, are criticized for being cheap, too small, and breaking the design principles so instrumental to the company’s early success. Michael Eisner is blamed and ousted, and the Imagineers worry that the pattern seems irreversible.