If I Were Disney CEO Part 16 - Walt Disney Studios Paris

"To all who enter this studio of dreams...welcome.  Walt Disney Studios is dedicated to our timeless fascination and affection for cinema and television.  Here we celebrate the art and artistry of storytellers from Europe and around the world who create the magic.  May this special place stir our own memories of the past, and our dreams of the future."

Michael D. Eisner, March 16, 2002

--------------------

After then Euro Disneyland opened in 1992, a second park had been planned and promised for 1996.  Another version of the Disney-MGM Studios park was long in the works to serve as a second park for the Euro Disneyland resort.  When Euro Disneyland failed to meet expectations, thanks to an overbuilding of hotel rooms in the resort, the plans for a second gate were quickly shelved.  

What did finally open in 2002 was a much smaller version of the studio style park.  Just a year after Disney wowed with the opening of Tokyo DisneySea and baffled with the opening of Disney California Adventure, a severely under-built Walt Disney Studios Paris opened at the Disneyland Paris Resort.  The Park opened with four areas (Front Lot - an indoor main street, Back Lot, Production Courtyard, and Animation Courtyard) and an anemic nine attractions. Seven attractions have been added to the park, six of which were added to expand Animation Courtyard into Toon Studios, but the park is still viewed as the worst of the now twelve Disney theme parks.

The good news is that Disney has committed to transforming this ugly duckling into the swan that it should be.  Disney has announced an unprecedented two-billion euro, multi-year expansion and renovation of the studios park, transforming the Production Courtyard and much of the back lot into Marvel Studios, adding an attraction to the Toon Studios, adding Galaxy's Edge and Arendelle lands around a large new lagoon area.

The concept art is amazing.

(c) Disney

This is a massive expansion and addition.  To give you a sense of size, the first image below shows the bounds of the potential expansion property that surrounds Walt Disney Studios Park.

all rights - Martin Smith

The plot provides for a large scale expansion like Disney has never seen.  The image below provides a rough estimate of the amount of land the new expansion will entail.

As you can see, the expansion will nearly double the size of the existing park, adding many popular new draws, while still leaving room for more exciting lands.

And while I'm excited about the expansion, there are a few priorities that I would want the company to stick to while proceeding.

Primary Goals:

• Down with Studio 1! - The park has long suffered from an over-reliance on the sound stage building theme.  In particular, the park has one of the least interesting and inviting "Main Street" experiences of any theme park, first proceeding through an open courtyard surrounded by sound stages and then being forced through Studio 1, a giant sound stage with shops and food court lining its interior.  Once through Studio 1, guests then have a backlot street directly facing them and then more sound stages to either side.  This opening act needs to be completely re-written, replaced by a new enticing Hollywood street.  It is truly amazing how much difference the transformation to Buena Vista Street made in California Adventure and there must be a similarly appropriate change here.
• Pixar Prioritization - in the front Animation Courtyard/Toon Studio area, there is a small sample of Disney studio properties and then a large section of Pixar Animation.  Given Disney studio prevalence in Disneyland Paris and in other locations in this park, I would change the focus to have all Pixar together to the right as you enter the park.
• Intelligent Park Layout - as a new ring is added around the planned lake, walking paths should be added in a similar fashion to allow moment around its edges.  Put another way, you should not have to go from Marvel Studios back to the main street and hub and then out to Galaxy's Edge.  If they are close enough to each other, then you should be able to move from Marvel Studios to Galaxy's Edge in addition.  This should continue with other planned additions around the lake.
• Vive la France! - Just as in Disneyland Paris, planned additions should be looked at for their connection to France and the continent, not just their world wide appeal.  There are specific Disney properties that are immensely popular in Europe that should be accounted for in the park.

With these goals in mind, I’ll walk through each land in the park and discuss the updates.  I'll be walking through the park clockwise from the Front Lot and Studio 1, heading through the newly planned Marvel Studios first and working around to Toon Studios/Pixar Studios.  This clockwise approach is generally the approach we take in visiting such theme parks, so it makes the most sense to me to approach it this way in addressing the parks needs and changes.

Front Lot/Studio 1 -> Hyperion Avenue:
As stated in the first goal, one of my primary desires would be to radically transform the act one for this park.  The courtyard to Studio 1 approach is one of the most underwhelming beginnings to a park, particularly with the over-abundance of soundstage style buildings.  To correct this, Studio 1 and the front lot completely transforms to Hyperion Avenue.

Hyperion Avenue is the address of Disney's first studio in Los Angeles.  Not the more famous one on Buena Vista, but his first studio.  A studios with a distinctive design and a more distinctive billboard.

Original Walt Disney Studios

The goal would be to completely remove Studio 1, laying Hyperion Avenue right through the middle of it, headed straight on back to the new lake.

Guest services, wheelchairs, and restrooms to the right as you enter the main courtyard through the turnstiles would get redressed as the Hyperion Studio complete with billboard.

New Entrance

With Hyperion running down the middle, shops and dining options would be built on each side of the street, in classic Los Angeles and Hollywood style.  A mixture of Hollywood Boulevard in Disney Hollywood Studios, Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood Studios, and Buena Vista Street in Disney California Adventure.  I would like to stick closer to the 1920s/1930s Los Feliz look, including a lot of Spanish Revival, to match the Disney Hyperion Studio look.  As the guests progress down Hyperion Boulevard, the time period of the architecture can move forward as well.

I would like to borrow one concept from Disneyland Paris and create arcades on each side of the new buildings on Hyperion.  Here they would pay homage to the previous themes of the park, by having the Production Arcade on the left and the Animation Arcade on the right.  Each would pay tribute to the history of film.  Live action film in the Production Arcade and animation in the Animation Arcade.  Would be a wonderful way to pay tribute to French film, like George Melies.

Hyperion Avenue would continue on through what was Studio 1 up to Disney Bros. Plaza and would then continue on to the new lake.  As Hyperion continues, the goal is to remove the false fronts that have provided a back lot look and replace them with fuller buildings to finish out the classic Los Angeles and Hollywood theme.   For example, the false fronts on the right in front of the current Art of Walt Disney Animation building would be removed.  They are unnecessary and block a very unique and interesting building.

Likewise, the false fronts and terrace to the left in front of the Tower of Terror would be replaced with a store, much like Keystone Clothier in Disney Hollywood Studios.  Disney has proven adept in placing functioning buildings in unique shapes and places.  This should be no exception.

Hyperion from Disney Bros Plaza to the new lake

The entire stretch would give good opportunities for new buildings for retail and dining.  These should be positioned in a way, particularly on the right to grant access to Toy Story Playland, but to separate the themes, keeping the street more old Hollywood and keeping the Toy Story Playland setting feeling more isolated.

On the left hand side of the street, past Tower of Terror, I would add a copy of Mickey's Runaway Railway from Disney Hollywood Studios.  This building should be designed to look like a continuation of the street with unique storefronts, much like the Grand Avenue section in Disney Hollywood studio.  The entrance to the ride would be a classic theater facade facing the lake.

This will create a long stretch from park entrance to lake shore, but the new view should be worth it.

Marvel Studios:

The previous Production Courtyard/Backlot area will be transformed into Marvel Studios.  Parts of this are already in preparation.  There is a Marvel Stunt Show in the old Cinemagique building and an Iron Man retheme of Rock 'n' Roller Coaster has been long rumored.  The concept art gives us little clues to work from.

(c) Disney

I hope to utilize the space in a greater way, making use of what has already been planned, but adding the rest in an appropriate manner.

Cinemagique will stay a stunt show, but will become a S.H.I.E.L.D. Training facility and Stunt Show.  This will be an indoor Marvel version of the Jedi training, making use of the drones and projection technology that has already been implemented.

Next door, the current Disney Jr. and Stitch Live space will give way to a Spider-man dark ride.  There are rumors of a Midway Mania style ride and a swinging version of Peter Pan, which would be very interesting.   I would shoot for the latter, but want to keep this a ride with a very low (if any) height restriction.  Spider-man is the entry Marvel character and it should have the broadest possible audience able to ride.

Directly across, in the garden area by Tower of Terror, I would build a smaller theater to be used for Marvel promotions.  This would be a preview theater that would be used to show 4-D-ish clips for upcoming Marvel features and could be used to show Marvel one-shots or to house meet and greets in the interim.

Marvel Studios

The two restaurants past the Spider-man ride would remain as restaurants, but would likely get new menus and styling.  Restuarant des Stars would keep its menu and buffet, but would become a S.H.I.E.L.D. commissary.   Disney Blockbuster Cafe would change its menu and name and become a version of the Shwarma restaurant in Avengers.

Across the way, the Armageddon "ride" would become a Hulk encounter.  Themed to a science expo where Banner is presenting, with the effects used in Armageddon updated to represent a Gamma-ray explosion and culminating in an encounter with a very sophisticated Hulk audio-animatronic.  This may need to eat into the space for Cafe des Cascadeurs.

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster would be updated and themed to Iron Man and a Stark Expo, as rumored, and Moteurs Action! would be replaced by the ultimate Avengers E ticket rumored for Hong Kong.

The main pathway would proceed on between Iron Man and Avengers into the new expansion.


Avatar: The World of Pandora:

Avatar is mentioned here as a placeholder.  It's hard at this point to get a sense of exactly how much land each of the new expansions will be taking up.  Depending on the image, there may be an expansion pad between Marvel and Galaxy's Edge and there may not be.  Some have suspected that if there is space, it would be for the Star Wars hotel, similar to the one being added in Florida.

If there is available land, I would place any Avatar addition between Marvel and Star Wars. I'd like to keep all live action, higher adventure areas on the left side of the park, with the more family oriented, animated additions on the right.

This version of Avatar could be a clone of the addition in Animal Kingdom or any combination of Flights of Passage, an expanded Navi River Journey, or the planned roller coaster.

An indication of the potential for Pandora

Not certain, but a possibility to file away.

Galaxy's Edge:

The next addition that is known is Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge.  What is not known is the particulars of this new land.  Based on the concept art, it does not seem to be an exact copy of the land being added to Disneyland and Disney Hollywood Studios.  The art below seems to only indicate the addition of one ride, potentially just the Battle Escape ride, but not the Millenium Falcon.  Rumors are conflicting.

(c) Disney

Hopefully, there is enough land being added to permit a great expansion of this property.  No land should open with just one ride, and if nothing else, I would add the planned but scrapped Bantha transportation ride around the land.   There seems to be plenty of room to build the full version and include the hotel.

Plenty of room

In an ideal world, this would not be Batuu like Disneyland and Disney Hollywood Studios, but would be a complete different location in the Star Wars Universe.  Perhaps Coruscant or Endor.

I am however, glad they are starting the framework for this addition.  I just hope it continues.


The Kingdom of Arendelle:

The next planned addition is the Kingdom of Arendelle, or a Frozen themed land.  From indications, the mountain will act as a weenie for the park, with it nearly as tall as the Matterhorn and making it the tallest structure in the two Paris parks.  The mountain is rumored to house a version of Frozen Ever After in EPCOT.  This would be a near copy in show scenes, only not constrained by any previous existing ride structure.  The ride would be a copy of the one planned for Hong Kong (Tokyo's version will be more extravagant).

(c) Disney

The area will also have a restaurant and a store (Oakens?).  It may have a secondary ride.  Hong Kong was planned to have a second ride, which has changed over time.  First it would have had an lps sleigh ride, much like Cars Rally here in Walt Disney Studios Paris.  It is now planned to have a version of the Seven Dwarfs mine train themed to sleighs in the wintry mountains.

I would plan for Cars Rally to move here and be updated to the sleighs sliding on ice version of the second ride.  This is largely due to my thoughts for the next themed area.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs mini-land:
In the next available expansion area, I would add a mini-land themed to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  The movie remains the fourth highest grossing film of all time in France.  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs remain popular and this would be a unique addition for the resort.  While Frozen is being copied in other locations, Tokyo is getting unique Tangled and Peter Pan sections, Florida has Storybook Circus and the Little Mermaid, and Shanghai has the Burton Alice.  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs could make for a very interesting and unique addition for Paris.

I would add a version of Snow White's Scary Adventure in a building designed to look like the castle in the beginning of the film and transitioning into the dark forest.  This would be the classic ride, updated with the project mapping effects that Disneyland has been adding.  I would add a copy of the Seven Dwarfs mine train from Florida, leaving off the vignette in the cabin at the end, and instead replaced by animatronics of the Dwarfs crossing the log to return home.  Finally, I would add a dining option in the Dwarfs cabin.

With Snow White's Scary Adventure moved to this park, it could be replaced in Disneyland Paris with a "C/D" ticket Tangled ride.  Tangled would keep the similar German location, especially fitting next to the Italian Pinocchio.

Duckburg:
For the next addition, I again would like to focus on something that is still immensely popular in Europe.  The Duck family comics were staples in Europe long after Disney stopped making comics in America.  As such, the Duck family and Ducktales are a very big draw in European markets.

For that reason, I would add Duckburg as the next section.  This would contain Donald Duck, and his friends and family.  Scrooge McDuck, Launchpad McQuack, Darkwing Duck, Daisy, Huey, Dewey, Louie, April, May, June, the Aracuan bird, Jose, Panchito, Darkwing Duck, etc.  The Beagle Boys, Flintheart Glomgold, Magica de Spell.

Life is like a hurricane here in Duckburg

This land would be themed to look like the city of Duckburg, with a walkthrough of Donald's boathouse, a Junior Woodchuck restaurant, like in Tokyo, perhaps a Launchpad's Crash Course spinner.  It would culminate at Scrooge's Money Bin for a grand animatronic dark ride on the scale of Pooh's Hunny Hunt in Tokyo.  This would be a great adventure for all ages, traveling with Scrooge McDuck on a quest to get his number one dime back.

Pixar Studios:
Finally, I would consolidate the Toon Studios into Pixar Studios.  Much of this land is already Pixar with only the Art of Walt Disney Animation, the Flying Carpets Over Agrabah, and Mickey and the Magician being from Walt Disney Feature Animation.

I would replace Art of Walt Disney Animation with the Art of Pixar Animation.  This would accompany an internal change, removing the Mushu pre-show and replacing the interior with a setup much more like Disney California Adventure.  This would be accomplished by breaking the interior up into a series of rooms including an Animation Academy, the Pixar zoetrope, a character close-up for Pixar meet and greets, a Pixar preview theater for a Pixar short festival and movie previews.  This would also include a Pixar gallery store.

Pixar Studios, with Finding Nemo subsection

I would next change the first set of buildings and rides over into a Finding Nemo section anchored by Crush's Coaster.  Mickey and the Magician would be replaced by the Finding Nemo musical, Flying Carpets would be replaced by an octopus ride or the Blowfish Balloon Race from Tokyo.  The Cars Rally would be replaced by The Whirpool teacup ride from Tokyo DisneySea.  Finally, I would carve out a section of Studio 4, behind the Ratatouille store and restrooms, to add Turtle Talk.   The current living character initiative attraction (Stitch Live) is being replaced, so I'd like to add back a more thematically appropriate one.

The Ratatouille and Toy Story sections would remain largely the same.  I would add the Alien Swirling Saucers as is rumored for Toy Story Playland and would seek to add a Woody's Roundup Carousel.  This section could also use an Andy's Toybox counter service.

Toy Story Additions

Likewise, while I would like to add Turtle Talk, it would bear exploring adding a counter service seafood restaurant at the back of Studio 4.

Seasonal Overlays:
This is another park where seasonal overlays are not needed.  It would be great to have appropriate decorations particularly in the Hyperion Avenue, Arendelle, Duckburg, and Toy Story Playland sections.  Arendelle would be very interesting with touches from the Olaf's Frozen Adventure short.

Parades and Nighttime Spectaculars:
This park has also suffered from a lack of parades and night time entertainment.  Disney has begun using the Tower of Terror as a backdrop for projection shows for an electronic music festival, for Christmas, and for Star Wars celebrations.  Once the lake is added that should no longer be the focus, but can be a nice bonus.

A parade will not be desirable given the extreme length of a possible performance path.  Generally, I would think day time and night time entertainment would be best suited for the lake.  The lake could house great harbor shows like in Tokyo Disney Sea, providing varied day time entertainment.

At night, the lake could house a combination of fountains, pyro barges, electric light floats, and possibly drones (depending on the size of the lake) to create a truly unique night time experience.  I think Disney could even reuse a name from the park for any nighttime spectacular.  Disney Presents Cinemagique!

Cartoon Mascot:
For the cartoon mascot for the park, I'm turning to the character that really started to turn the park around.  Remy from Ratatouille.  With the addition of the Ratatouille ride and restaurant, the park really started to be noticed.  This area changed the traditional thinking of adding Parisian or French inspired design into the parks and started to finally draw the crowds to this location for something unique.  Remy deserves that recognition.

--------------------

As always, thank you for working through this with me.  Next up in the series will the the Disneyland Paris resort as a whole.  Hotels, Disney Village, and future expansion.

In-Service

It's hard to believe and it seems to be moving up earlier and earlier, but Jamie starts in-service tomorrow.  That wonderful time of meetings and trainings getting ready for the new school year, starting in just a little over a week.  

To all teachers out there: may your meetings be brief and informative, may they focus only on the information you really need to know, may they be entertaining, may they be uplifting, and then may they get out of your way.

It's funny thinking about the word in-service.  That really seems to describe a teacher's life doesn't it.  They spend their lives in service.  Nominally in service to the district that has hired and pays them for a specific task.  Truly, in service to the students entrusted in their care, who need the knowledge only they can impart.  

First, I would like to say thank you for your life in service.  I know I am better for those who have taught me and I see that same impact in others.  I see the way Jamie can reach students, even those previously written off.  I hope each of you knows the impact that you have and hear it often.

Second, I lift up many prayers for you as this new year is starting.

I pray for physical, emotional, and spiritual strength to get through each and every day.  To face whatever new event is brought before you, both professionally and extracurricularly.

I pray the curriculum is able to still excite you.  That you are able to make new discoveries and new passions within your chosen field.

I pray you see each student with fresh eyes, with God's eyes, so that you can see what may be able to reach through to the previously unreachable one.  May you be that teacher.

I pray that each of you has a wonderful support system of friends and family encouraging you along the way.

I pray that each of you hears from former students regarding the positive impact you have had in their lives.  May you continue to receive the encouragement you need to keep it up.

I pray that you have parents that are supporting you and aiding you in the education of their children, not acting as obstacles or impediments.  

I pray you have plenty of time to get away, to unwind and recharge on a frequent basis throughout the year.  That you are able to invest in yourself, as well as others.

I pray for the support of your administration.  That they are able to go above and beyond to give you what is needed to make this year better than ever.

I pray for a change in the political climate of our state and nation, to stop being hostile to the public school system and to actively fight to improve each and every campus.  Not through new tests, standards, and regulations, but through abundant funding and support.

I pray for a change in the voting habits in our state and nation, so that candidates who continue to gut public school funding are voted out of office.

Most of all, I pray you know you are valued and appreciated.  That there are people praying for you and supporting you.  Most likely, more than you could ever realize.

I pray this is the start of a wonderful and meaningful year. 

You've got this.

A Defense of Reckless Love

reckless - utterly unconcerned about the consequences of some action; without caution; careless; characterized by or proceeding from such carelessness

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God
Oh, it chases me down, fights 'til I'm found, leaves the ninety-nine
I couldn't earn it, and I don't deserve it, still, You give Yourself away
Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God, yeah

Sunday morning, our worship set included the song Reckless Love by Cory Asbury.  It is a highly singable song with a beautiful melody and can be a very impactful and powerful song in worship.  The lyrics speak of God's continual pursuit of His creation.

Singing it Sunday morning made me think of recent conversations that I have seen online calling the song out as heretical.  And it seems this has been a popular topic in Christian social media, along with several articles all just a Google search away.

God's Love is not Reckless, Contrary to What You Might Sing

Should Christians Listen to "Reckless Love"? - Christian Research Network

Bethel Music and Bieber Sang It.  But Do We Really Believe In 'Reckless Love'?

No, Cory Asbury's 'Reckless Love' Isn't Heretical, But Could've Gone Further

The uproar focused on the use of the single word "reckless" in the chorus.  Critics would argue that God by His very nature could not be reckless, careless, or could not act without caution.  In particular, they would point to all of God's actions as being intentional and pre-ordained.

The discussion even reached a point where Cory Asbury felt the need to explain his use of the word reckless to describe God's love.



So, in being a fan of the song and the message that it conveys, I thought I would add my defense to Reckless Love.  In particular, a few points I believe the critics are not giving enough credence to.

1) The language is poetic, not literal - Asbury's point is one that should be given weight.  He's not describing God as reckless, but using reckless to describe the showing of God's love.  Further, he's not using a literal definition of reckless to describe God's love, but an idea.  The idea that God's love is extravagant, that it is lavish.  It's conveying the type of love exemplified by the father in the story of the prodigal son. We've talked about how, in many ways, the word 'prodigal' exemplifies both the wayward son and the father in the story.  "Prodigal" means spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant and having or giving something on a lavish scale.  We know how the son spends prodigally; he blows through his entire portion of his inheritance.  We also see this kind of spending by the father in celebration of his wayward son coming home.  The father lavishes his son with a fine robe, sandals, and a ring and orders the fatted calf be slaughtered for a celebratory meal.  The father extends far more generosity on this returned son than could ever be expected.  And that is the way the Father loves us.  Far more lavishly, far more generously than we could ever hope to expect.  From our perspective, it looks a bit reckless.

2) The perspective of the song cannot be ignored - When dealing with art, it is always important to determine what perspective the piece is to be viewed from.  Here the song is clearly coming from man's perspective on how God's love appears.  What God's love looks like from the outside or from the believer/recipient.  A description of how that person felt or perceived that show of love.  From that perspective, it's easy to see how God's love could be seen as reckless.  How it could even be seen as wasteful.  Who am I to deserve such love?  I may can understand God's purpose and its theological implications in a rhetorical sense, but that does not preclude recognition of the feeling attached to it as well.

3) The song deals more with emotion than rhetoric or theology - Art is also better suited to address emotion and feeling than theology or rhetoric.  A song, even without words, can tap into a mood or a feeling.  It's why instrumental only music can often be referred to as 'mood' music.  Likewise, lyrics are more often used to capture a feeling than a specific thought.  The poetry of the language, the repetition used, the rhythm in the way the words are conveyed.  These all help tap into the feeling the song is addressing.  I would argue the overall feeling Reckless Love is trying to convey is awe of the actions of God and humility regarding our lack of worth to deserve them.  "I couldn't earn it, I don't deserve it, still, You give Yourself away." And in the context of that emotion, God's love can appear to be shown with reckless abandon.

I don't know why this stood out to me as so necessary to give a defense.  Perhaps it is just my tolerance level fading as I age, losing interest in theological nit-picking (likely why I will also have a defense around Christmas-time for Mary Did You Know?).  I have long subscribed to the idea of "in essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, and in all things charity."  While this quote and its attribution are controversial as well, they promote an idea of harmony that is sorely missing in our world and in the church today.  And as I study, the list of things that are essential to the faith, those core tenets on which unity of understanding is absolutely essential, continues to be refined.  Whether or not we should sing Reckless Love to me, seems to be an argument in missing the point.

Whether or not you believe reckless is a fine word in the song or believe it should be changed to something like relentless, why don't we just celebrate the awesome love that God has demonstrated to us and then go out and do likewise.

There's no shadow You won't light up
Mountain You won't climb up
Coming after me

There's no wall You won't kick down
Lie you won't tear down
Coming after me

Facebook Stinks and Other Updates

So, Facebook has apparently made changes to its policies, particularly those that allow third party apps to post to Facebook.  This includes scheduling apps like If-This-Then-This and Hootsuite, which can be used in a variety of ways to pre-plan posts and links, and to schedule them in advance.   I understand this is a method of combating bots, but it seems there would be a way to help real individuals keep using the service in a more convenient manner.

I have generally been using If-This-Then-This to automatically link blog posts to Facebook.  Blogger lets me schedule a day and time for the blog post to hit the blog and then IFTTT would automatically post to Facebook when a new blog was posted.  It made the whole process nearly seamless and ensured that if I were on top of things, new posts would hit the blog at 6:00 am each morning and a link would be posted to Facebook at that same time as well.  This is important because I can see that most of the readership is coming from Facebook links.

With the new changes, I can no longer seamlessly link the blog to my Facebook page.  The new post is still generally hitting the blog at 6:00 am each morning (including this one), but I'm having to manually post the link to Facebook.  It seems something may also be going on with their algorithm downplaying linked postings, as the readership numbers have dropped to a single digit.  I'm not sure they the links are even being seen.

With that in mind, I'll also be pasting the entire content of this blog to Facebook just as a separate post to see if it breaks through without the link.

Further, I want to remind readers that are so interested, that I have enabled subscription options to make sure you can continue to follow the blog in other ways should you so desire.  You can get an email sent to you each time a new blog is posted with the Follow by Email box to the right.  You can subscribe to the posts below that, even using an RSS feed if you so desire.  If you want to keep reading and there is any way I can help you do so, let me know and I will assist in any way I can.

I appreciate everyone who is reading and the feedback I have received.  I'm going to keep plugging away at this and just wanted to let you know, I'm up to making alternate arrangements to keep this accessible.

Thank you all.  Will keep you posted.

If I Were Disney CEO Part 15 - Disneyland Paris

"To all who come to this happy place, welcome.

Once upon a time...A master storyteller, Walt Disney, inspired by Europe's best loved tales, used his own special gifts to share them with the world.

He envisioned a Magic Kingdom where these stories would come to life, and called it Disneyland.

Now his dream returns to the lands that inspired it.  Euro Disneyland is dedicated to the young and the young at heart...with a hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration for all the world."

Michael D. Eisner

Chairman, The Walt Disney Company

April 12, 1992

--------------------

With Disneyland Paris, Disney had the imagineers swing for the fences. Recognizing that the setting in Paris put the theme park among the most beautiful cities and sights in the world, Disney knew its theme park had to be beautiful.  And the Disney castle in the land of real castles had to dazzle and amaze.

And in many, many ways, Disney succeeded.  Disneyland Paris is for sure the most beautiful castle park that WDI imagineers have created and it is a masterpiece of well thought design and master plan.  It encapsulates what a theme park should be, just like Tokyo DisneySea.

Imagineers made several interesting design choices, down to even changing the tried and true layout of the castle park and changing the purpose of one of the traditional lands, which pay off in many exciting ways.

For a great read on perhaps the six best ideas in the design of Disneyland Paris, I highly recommend the Disney and More blog and its current article.  Disney and More is a blog maintained by a French author, written in English (and including very helpful translations of French press releases) about news and rumors regarding the whole Disney organization and other interests.  Well worth checking out.

That's not to say there are not problems and issues that must be addressed.  But in terms of design and creation, it is one of Disney's most successful endeavors.

Primary Goals:

• Project Sparkle - many of the complaints against Disneyland Paris come from upkeep and maintenance, feeling it is not up to the standards of Disney's American parks.  Now that Disney has majority ownership of Disneyland Paris, the whole park needs a spiffing up from top to bottom and a commitment to the excellent maintenance and cleanliness that Disney is known for.
• Dedication to Discoveryland - Discoveryland is one of the greatest changes Disneyland Paris made and a great theme to be developed.  Disney has a lot of popular attractions that can easily fit this theme, so additions must be made to fit the theme, not to suit popular IP.
• Consistent Hours and Quality in Restaurants - one of the chief complaints that is made for Disneyland Paris is inconsistency in food options.  I know theme parks are not known for having great food in general, but the stateside parks have made great headway in having inventive and delicious offerings.  And for a park located in one of the greatest (if not the greatest) culinary cities in the world, bad food in the park is unforgivable.  In addition, the operating hours of many restaurants are determined in a day-to-day crowd-based manner, leading to confusion as to what is available at any one time.  Standardization of operating hours would go a long way in improving this metric.
• Vive la France! - there should be a greater embracing of French identity in the parks, investing in what is popular for the continent, not just what is selling in the world overall.

In terms of expansion, there are several plots open for expansion throughout the park.  The map below provides an overview of several of the locations I will be discussing.

A map outlining previously identified locations for expansion

With these goals in mind, I’ll walk through each land in the park and discuss the updates.  I'll be walking through the park clockwise from Main Street, heading through Frontierland first and working around to Discoveryland.  This is generally the approach we take in visiting castle parks, so it makes the most sense to me to approach it this way in addressing the parks needs and changes.

Main Street:
If Disneyland's Main Street represents small town America and the Magic Kingdom's represents a slightly larger town, Main Street in Disneyland Paris is mid-size city life at the turn of the century, with a handful of truly unique experiences.

First would be the opening act.  The parks entrance gates are all located at the base of the Disneyland Hotel.  This majestic Victorian hotel and its Fantasia Gardens appropriately set the stage for the park to come.

Second are the two arcades on each side of Main Street.  While other castle parks force all guests through the center of Main Street on to the castle and the hub, here there are two covered arcades situated "behind" the shops on each side of Main Street.  These arcades are meticulously dressed, filled with the level of detail that is synonymous with the best of imagineering.  The Liberty Arcade, leading to Frontierland, contains dioramas on the Statue of Liberty and the immigrant experience.  The Discovery Arcade, leading to Discoveryland, contains dioramas on American invention.

Finally, the castle.  Recognizing that Europe is filled with the true inspiration for the castles at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom, the imagineers went completely fanciful in designing Sleeping Beauty Castle here.  A completely unique and beautiful structure, designed to allow greater utilization in the day.  There's an animatronic dragon under the castle, making for an exciting walkthrough.  The castle stage as been moved off center, to preserve the view from Main Street and to allow better views of the show during the day.  The castle moat has fountains and water screens that make the night time spectaculars packed with all tricks used across Disney shows.

I have no complaints or suggestions for Main Street beyond the general improvements to food options and operating hours above.  While I would have loved to see the original plan for the 1920s Chicago inspired Main Street, I am amazed by what has been realized.


Frontierland:
In one of the more interesting design choices imagineers made, Frontierland and Adventureland swapped their traditional locations, putting Frontierland next to Main Street for the first time.  This works so well, for a variety of reasons.  It continues the exploration of America from turn of the century Main Street to the Wild West.  The architecture allows the transition to blend together more seamlessly.  It also contributed to unique offerings within the land itself like the Haunted Mansion version of Phantom Manor and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad located in the middle of the Rivers of the Far-West.

For the Rivers of the Far-West, I would make sure both the Mark Twain (the traditional paddlewheel) and the Molly Brown (the sidewheel boat) are refurbished and operating.  I would also want to add just a couple more Marc Davis style sight gags along the way.

I would also seek to ensure that the Lucky Nugget Saloon has a stage show.  How can you not have a can-can somewhere in Disneyland Paris?

There are a couple of areas that I would seek to re-develop.

First, in the area surrounding the Chaparral Theater, I would replace it with a Mine Train to Rainbow Caverns.  This would be essentially a "Little Thunder" Mountain, utilizing the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train technology to create a miniature mine train roller coaster that could be ridden by younger guests.  The signature moment of the ride would be the interior portion in the Rainbow Caverns, a faithful recreation of the same from the Disneyland Mine Train to Nature's Wonderland, complete with appropriate soundtrack.  While I understand theaters from an operational standpoint, the Chaparral Theater has never really housed anything theme appropriate since Pocahontas in 1999.  The Mine Train would add life and excitement to the area and essentially revitalize old plans for a mini-mine train ride.

Frontierland additions

I would also seek to replace the Woody's Roundup Village area with Geyser Mountain.  A space shot to Tower of Terror's drop ride, Geyser Mountain would rocket guests into the air from an underground cavern to the top of a derrick.  If more of the exterior portion were exposed, it could create a very unique experience from Tower of Terror.

These two attractions would fill out an already dense area, to make it one of the most unique Frontierland's Disney has to offer.


Adventureland:
Adventureland in Disneyland Paris can be broken down into distinct locations.  An Agrabah Bazaar complete with Aladdin walkthrough, the jungle with Adventure Isle and the Swiss Family Robinson treehouse, Indiana Jones, and Pirates (including Pirates of the Caribbean and a clean transition to Peter Pan in Fantasyland).

This Adventureland is missing at least two mainstays - the Jungle Cruise and the Tiki Room, but makes up for it with additions like Skull Rock and Adventure Isle.

The long rumored and needed addition to Adventureland has been the Indiana Jones Adventure ride, which would go between the current Indiana Jones Temple du Peril roller coaster and Pirates of the Caribbean.

I've also included a more detailed schematic of how the ride would look exactly placed in that location.

Adventureland really needs another ride that is not height restricted.  Currently it has Pirates and the walk through attractions.  While a Jungle Cruise would not be practical given Paris' climate, I would love to explore similar options.  Could the bridges to Adventure Isle be raised enough and the river around Pirates be widened enough to create an Adventure Cruise around Adventure Isle, similar to how Hong Kong treated their Jungle Cruise?

If not, could the service roads be routed in such a way, that ride could be inserted between Colonel Haithi's and Temple du Peril?  Something like a Jungle Tour, a safari jeep ride through the jungle, seeing the various sights and animatronic animals.  Perhaps something like Pacific Ocean Park's Banana Train?

Opportunity for additional expansion

Fantasyland:
As stated above, Fantasyland has a perfect transition from Adventureland, tying together the pirates of the Pirates of the Caribbean and Peter Pan. The remainder of the land is whimsical and charming, standing out as one of the fullest Fantasyland offerings that Disney has created.  As indicated in the overview above, there are two spots indicated for attraction expansions and one major expansion pad beyond the berm.

For the additions to this land, I intend to embrace the Vive la France! objective listed above.  When the park was originally built, attempts to recreate Paris or France were avoided because the imagineers assumed that with the real thing so close by guests would not respond to it.  With the addition of the beautiful recreation of Paris in the Ratatouille area in Walt Disney Studios Paris, Disney has learned this is not quite the case.

First, in the large expansion pad beyond the berm, I would add a Beauty and the Beast sub-land, to honor Disney's most successful French princess.  In this area, I would add Gaston's pub, the Be Our Guest Restaurant, the new ride from Tokyo, and Enchanted Tales with Belle.  The latter does not need to be in the same setting as the Magic Kingdom version, but could just be an outdoor storytelling encounter.

Beauty and the Beast

I would even re-theme the nearby Casey Jr. Circus Train to remove the American Circus train from this location and replace it with Maurice's Mechanical Marvel, to really extend this storybook vision all across the area beyond the berm.

There are two other pads for attractions that can be filled as well.  The first is across from the teacups.  In this location, I would place a Cinderella dark ride, one in which you ride in the carriage to and away from the ball.  Cinderella has never had a dark ride and it could be very interesting.  The exterior should continue the chateau appearance of the area around it.

Two new dark rides

The other area is across from it's a small world and on the path to Discoveryland.  Here I would put a Hunchback of Notre Dame dark ride in which you would ride on a gargoyle and fly through the story of the Hunchback.  The entire ride could be the version of the story told in The Bells of Notre Dame, particularly with verses added from the musical.  A recreation of Notre Dame at the top corner facing it's a small world as the entrance.  The rest of the strip could be a recreation of a Parisian street, possibly with an Aristocrepes walk-up counter location included.


Discoveryland:
Discoveryland is a radical reinvention of Tomorrrowland.  Instead of creating a land focused on the future, imagineers turned to a future world envisioned by Jules Verne.  The whole land was infused with that steampunk version of science fiction.  Space Mountain had touches of From the Earth to the Moon, even carrying that in it's title.  The Nautlis from 20,000 Leagues was featured, as was the Hyperion airship from Island at the Top of the World.  Later additions have focused on more up to date intellectual property such as Buzz Lightyear and Star Wars.  My preference, though, would be to fill this area with time period and genre appropriate rides, focusing on stellar rides that Disney has already created that fit.

To do so, the area would become a great mixture of Jules Verne, Arthur Conan Doyle and H.G.Wells.

The Obitron would remain as it is.  Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters would be replaced by a War of the Worlds shooter ride.  Cafe Hyperion stays as is, but Videopolis would get a stage magic show with heavy steampunk influences like Mickey and the Magician instead of Philharmagic.

Lots of changes

The expansion pad between Videopolis and Star Tours would get a new dark ride featuring the Arthur Conan Doyle book The Lost World.  With the ride potentially straddling the train tracks and featuring dinosaurs, this would be a great way to incorporate a version of the primeval world diorama, such that the train could be seen from the ride.

Star Tours would be replaced with a Time Machine inspired ride.  Since there will be a Star Wars land in Walt Disney Studios Paris, it will make more sense to make sure the ride in this location is theme appropriate.

The Discoveryland Theater next to Star Tours would be replaced with a steampunk influenced version of Soarin, entitled Soarin' Around the World in 80 Days.  The video would be sequenced to complete a trip around the world.

The expansion pad next door would get the Tokyo DisneySea dry version of the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea dark ride and a Vulcania restaurant.  There would not be a need to create Mysterious Island necessarily here or below, but the show building could hopefully be disguised in a way utilizing the train tracks.

Space Mountain would definitely lose the Hyperspace Mountain overlay and would be restored back to the Space Mountain From the Earth to the Moon version, complete with animatronic Jules Verne.

Finally, Autopia would be replaced by Journey to the Center of the Earth.  Again, there would not be the need to recreate Mysterious Island, but rockwork indicating digging within the caves would make a great backdrop.

Plenty of space for a great E ticket.

This would make a very compelling land, perhaps one of the greatest lands Disney has ever implemented, in my humble opinion.  Four, potentially five E ticket attractions.  Five other supporting attractions, plus new vistas for the railroad.  Five attractions without a height restriction.  All squarely within theme.  And steampunk remains a great aesthetic.


Seasonal Overlays:
I do not see a need for seasonal overlays in this park and would not recommend them.  The attractions that have received them in other parks either do not exist in this park or are in a radically different form.  I would stick with the themed decorations appropriate for Main Street and Frontierland, along with seasonal shows, parades, and entertainment as the extent of seasonal offerings.


Parades and Nighttime Spectaculars:
Disneyland Paris has recently added the Stars on Parade parade and Disney Illuminations for its nighttime spectacular.  Both are excellent additions for this park.  Disney Illuminations in particular pulls out all the stops for what a nighttime spectacular at a castle park could entail.  Fireworks, fire effects, projection mapping, water screens, fountains, etc.  It is truly impressive.  Future additions should seek to build on this vision.  If anything, Disney Dreams!, its predecessor, may have been a little more well received and could be used as the default show in rotation.


Cartoon Mascot and Magical Guardian:
For a cartoon mascot for this park, I would recommend Daisy Duck.  A perfect lady for a beautiful park, and a good fit given the popularity of Duck family in Europe.

[Editor's note: it occurs to me I did not do cartoon mascots for the Tokyo parks since I did not do a true If I Were Disney CEO blog.  In case you are wondering, I would recommend Donald Duck for Tokyo Disneyland and Duffy the Disney Bear for Tokyo DisneySea.]

For the magical guardian, here there would be three: Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, the three fairies from Sleeping Beauty.  Given Sleeping Beauty's castle and the French location of the film, these three are perfect fits.

[Likewise, the magical guardian for Tokyo Disneyland would be the Fairy Godmother from Cinderella.  Again tied to the castle]

--------------------

As always, thanks for reading.  Up next, the most likely candidate for best ugly duckling transformation - Walt Disney Studios Paris.

The Traveler's Report Part 3 - Prague

Part 3 of the Traveler's report, from Jamie:

Prague, Czech Republic’s capital city in a land once known as Bohemia. Prague was much more my speed than Berlin. Very picturesque with its historic architecture and lush vineyards. Prague Castle happens to be the largest in terms of acreage, over 18 to be exact. This place houses so many beautiful baroque and gothic structures. A couple of us took a ride up the funicular to take in the grandeur of the city and rest our feet awhile. There was a little cafe where I whetted my thirst with an amazingly refreshing cider that made my taste buds smile. I felt a little bohemian free spirit while venturing down its streets.

The city center of Prague.

Such a beautiful hotel. I’d hate to think of the cost to stay in the heart of the city in that opulent hotel.

This little pink door was next to our hotel. Inside it contained a garden wonderland filled with mazes. The message on the sign reads, “enter if you dare.” I couldn’t help but think of Lewis Carol. Would I be Alice searching to find a way out of this wonderland? It’s open to the public but never the hours we were there so alas, this mystery garden still remains a mystery to me.

A beautiful church next to our hotel outside the city. Such a gorgeous sight as the last of the sun beams hit the top of the Church.

A room with a view!

St Vitus, Prague Castle's Cathedral.  One of my favorite shots of the entire trip. 

The famous window of the Defenestration. Habsburg Ferdinand ll, the Holy Roman Emperor of Bohemia attempted to make Catholicism the sole religion of the empire, the Protestants of Bohemia (modern Czechia) protested the suppression of their religion. In anger, Bohemian nobles in Prague flung two representatives of Ferdinand out of a window of the Royal Palace.

Ironically they survived their fall with only minor aches and pains, being cushioned by the flocculence of a manure pile, although Catholics claimed that a divine miracle saved them. Then, with significant chips on their shoulders, Ferdinand’s representatives reported their assault by the bunch of tossers, and the Thirty Years’ War began. 

How strange it must be to know that your life was spared by a large pile of crap?

The vineyards outside Prague castle

Trdelnik, a delicious flaky pastry sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and filled with whatever confectionary your heart desires. This sweet treat isn’t the easiest to eat. I, of course, had it filled with ice cream, whipped cream and a whole lot of chocolate syrup. It didn’t take long for this sweet treat to find its way to my clothes. And that was the last day I was able to wear my jeans on the trip.

Prague was and still is obsessed with John Lennon. Upon hearing of his death the city took to its feet to paint a mural in his honor. The artwork is now mostly covered up by tags and graffiti. I’m not a fun of destroying someone’s artwork for a tag but I know one woman who’s proud her team is represented in the streets of Prague.

The sugar shop! This place smelled like my best dreams. How hard it was for me to walk in and not walk out with half the store. My will power must have been very strong that day.

The Religious Liberty Task Force and the Self-Fulfilling Cycle of the Persecution of the American Christian

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Monday that the Department of Justice will create a new religious liberty task force, "to help the department fully implement our religious guidance."  The goal of the task force will be protecting religious groups from persecution.

This is in addition to the Faith and Opportunity Initiative liaison office announced in May for the Department of Justice, designed to inform the administration of "any failures of the executive branch to comply with religious liberty protections under law."  An office less concerned with "where the church-state barriers are," allowing government-religious partnerships to function "without all these arbitrary concerns as to what is appropriate."

This should be terrifying to anyone who is paying attention.  And yet, far too many are celebrating.

It should be pointed out, other administrations have created and implemented faith based initiatives, notably President Bush and President Obama.  However, those initiatives primarily existed to enable faith based organizations to have greater access to federal funding and support.  A reasonable goal and one that could be implemented in a way that would not favor any one religion or necessarily favor religion at all, rather something that would allow faith based initiatives that are doing work along side federal agencies to receive funding for sharing the load.  Government assisting Faith in assisting Society.

These new developments are approaching a very dangerous reversal.  Faith instructing Government on how to govern Society.  There are reasons why critics are comparing this to theocracies or The Handmaid's Tale.

And we should be completely transparent as to why this is so concerning.  It should be clear these should be more appropriately labeled a Christian Liberty Task Force and Christian Faith and Opportunity Initiative.  Or even more appropriately, an Evangelical Liberty Task Force and Evangelical Faith and Opportunity Initiative.

Sessions makes this clear in his descriptions of the particular religious freedom he is seeking to defend and the particular evil he sees as requiring such a task force.  He describes "a dangerous movement, undetected by many, but real, is now challenging and eroding our great tradition of religious freedom," which "must be confronted and defeated."  And by "great tradition of religious freedom," he expounds and describes American Christianity for several minutes and its fear of a "changing cultural climate."  Nearly every example he discusses centers on some form of American Christian belief, apart from two minor references to prosecuting arson of two mosques, and land disputes involving a Jewish temple and Hindi temple.  He makes several references to the bakery case.

By way of support, Sessions points to the fact that the free exercise of religion is the first right provided in the Bill of Rights.  He again demonstrates his selective reading, as he has done before, by ignoring the actual first words of the First Amendment.  "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." The Establishment Clause.  This has long been interpreted to prevent all government from showing favoritism to any one form of religion or to religion in general.  The Free Exercise Clause is necessarily limited by this Establishment Clause.  In balance, the government can and should make accommodations for religious observances and practices to further Free Exercise, but it cannot prefer any one religion over another.

How would this look if the Religious Task Force was announced by a proponent of Sharia Law?  Would it matter if the Initiative Liaison officers in the DoJ designed to inform on religious liberty failures were Hindu or Buddhist?  Does that mean this office will necessarily require a religious test?  If so, what religion must the person be?  If Christian, what particular variant?

It does not matter that Christianity is nominally the largest religious majority in America.  Pew Research puts America at 70.6% Christian.  That number, though, includes Catholics, Mormons, and Jehova's Witnesses.  There are large pockets of (largely Southern) American Christians that would say one or all of those should not be included.  If removed, "Christianity" is at 47.5%, the largest minority group.  With Unaffiliated/Nones on the rise at 22.8%.  Regardless of the numbers, any religious actions by the federal government must protect them all.

Because the danger of a theocracy, of even favoring Christianity generally since it is the majority and a part of our history (despite us not being a "Christian nation" in the sense everyone wants to believe), lies in one simple question.  What version?  If the government favors Christianity, does it favor Catholicism or Protestantism when it comes to contraception and its availability?  How about on the sale of alcohol?  Does it favor Seventh-Day Adventists on when Blue Laws should be applied?

No one truly wants a theocracy, for no one wants government instructing religion on which version is right and potentially punishing those that do not agree.

These initiatives all come in response to perceived persecution of the American Christian.  Again, Sessions outlines this in his speech.  "Challenging and eroding our great tradition of religious freedom."  This is the strain of Christianity that believes there is a War on Christmas or that there is a Culture War that demands to be fought.  It is persecution of speech or persecution of ideas.  Persecution that affects status or authority in certain fields (generally academic and scientific).  Wrapped up, part and parcel, with the War against Conservative Values.

Nevermind the fact that there are countries where actual persecution against Christians take place.  Places like the portions of the Middle East, where Christians are being beheaded for their faith.  Places like China, where Christians are closely scrutinized.  Places like other Asia countries, where Christians are drug away from their homes and executed for their faith.  This should put anything we face in America into perspective.

Persecution, in many ways, is a self-fulfilling prophecy for the American Christian (or confirmation bias).  It's a validation of belief.  The rest of the world is seen as the godless enemy that will always oppose the believer in everything.  The rest of the world is something to be fought.  There are then verses like 2 Timothy 3:12, which state that all Christians will suffer persecution and are used to justify this viewpoint.  "Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution."   With this verse and other similar passages, certain groups of Christians then see any obstacles or opposition they encounter as proof that they are living godly and that those obstacles are just expected persecution.  Persecution for something about their faith proves they are Christian which proves they will suffer, and so on.

So, if people stop saying Merry Christmas for whatever reason, it's persecution.  If a creche cannot be put on government land, it's persecution.  If a school cannot have a mandatory forced prayer over the loudspeaker anymore, it's persecution.  Anything that shows the world not giving Christianity preferential treatment is persecution.  Because that is what the "world" is designed to do, to oppose Christianity.

It should be plain, but let's state it anyways. Just because you encounter an obstacle or opposition, does not mean you are persecuted or are suffering for your belief.  Sometimes it might just mean you are in the wrong.

Much of the pains that we are feeling as a society in many different areas come from a recognition that there are other people at the table beyond white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant men.  And concessions that we as the majority may have to make in order to ensure that everyone at the table is getting their fair share, that's not necessarily persecution.  It could just be liberty and justice for all.  In particular here, it's the kind of religious liberty this country was founded upon and the kind we should be exhorting.

If the religious task force and the religious liaison officer in the justice department can ensure that every religion, every different segment of the Pew Research findings are well represented and protected; that there is religious liberty and justice for all, then I am all for these agencies.

But if this is what we expect it to be, another way for us to reset the clock back to some bygone time when things were supposedly "better" and Christianity had more social prominence in this nation, then shame on us.

One Last Time

In my daily readings, I moved from Song of Songs to Micah.  Micah acted as a bridge book; I needed something with seven chapters so I could start Proverbs on August 1.  With thirty-one chapters in Proverbs, I thought it would be a great way to finish the lyrical/instructional books of the Bible.  And once I finish Proverbs, I do plan to go to the minor prophets.

So, again, Micah.

In my readings, I recently came across two of my favorite passages in the Bible.

"Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty as spoken."
Micah 4:4

"He has shown you, O mortal what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
Micah 6:8

In reverse order, Micah 6:8 has long been a favorite.  It is a call of all that the Lord is asking of Israel.  In the preceding verses, Micah has been outlining God's case against Israel and their transgressions.  Showing the actions that the Lord has taken in protecting and caring for his people.  And he then hits this final summation.  A synthesis of what the law and the prophets have been trying to get Israel to understand, and by extension what God has been asking of His followers ever since.  Three simple responses.

To live justly - to do right, to be obedient.  An internal marker and measurement.  Note the call is not to see how "just" others are being, but to live justly ourselves.

To love mercy - to seek mercy and to be merciful.  This statement amazes me because it is not to love justice, but to love mercy. "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy."  To Israel, this is a radical statement, for many would still believe and be governed by an "eye for an eye."  It is still radical in our culture today, as far too many of many of us seek justice, but neglect mercy.

To walk humbly with your God - or to walk prudently with your God. A reminder for humility, which is always needed.  And a reminder to stay with God.  Not to wander off, as we all are prone to do.

We over-complicate much of our lives, and still do so with these three callings.   This is still the calling.  Jesus told us to "love God" - to live justly and to walk humbly with your God, and to "love others" - to love mercy.

I came to an appreciation of Micah 4:4 through an unusual pathway - Hamilton. 

Like the scripture says: 
'Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree 
And no one shall make them afraid.'
They'll be safe in the nation we've made
I wanna sit under my own vine and fig tree
A moment alone in the shade
At home in this nation we've made
One last time

This verse was apparently a personal verse to George Washington.  It projected a version of America that Washington believed in.  "Lin and Tommy liked the personal nature of the Biblical verse: Washington wanted badly to return to Mt. Vernon, to depart what he called 'the great theater of action.' But those lines from Scripture had a public meaning for him, too. In 1790, he cited the verse in a letter to a Jewish community that had immigrated to Rhode Island to seek relief from persecution. He was stating the principle that all men and women should find a safe haven in America, no matter who they are or where they come from." - Hamilton The Revolution, 207-208.  The verse then became incorporated in the song One Last Time, a song about Washington's Farewell Address and his departure from office.  In case you are wondering, this would be waterworks moment number one in the second act of Hamilton.  There are at least two more.  (Depending on your politics, if you really want to cry, look up the performance of One Last Time at the Obama White House).

It also projects a version of America I still believe in.  And a personal calling to fulfill Micah 6:8.  We get to Micah 4:4 with everyone under their own vine and fig tree, unafraid, when the Church lives up to living justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God.

Something to strive for again, and again.

"Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors.  I shall also carry with the the hope that my country will view them with indulgence; and that after forty-five years of my life dedicated to its service with an uprights zeal the faults of incompetent abilities will be consigned to oblivion, as I myself must soon be to the mansions of rest.  I anticipate with pleasing expectation that retreat in which I promise myself to realize the sweet enjoyment of partaking in the midst of my fellow-citizens, the benign influence of good laws under a free government, the ever-favorite object of my heart, and the happy reward, as I trust of our mutual cares, labors, and dangers."

One last time.