Tony Baxter

[Mr Wiggins]

Re: Tony Baxter

Wasn't his original idea was to create a westcot? but it was nixed because it was too grand aka exspensive. If he (Tony) has some sort of dislike towards DCA that would probably be the reason. In his mind his concept was shot down for DCA 1.0. Definately can see why that would leave a bad taste.

I suspect that Tony had dislike for DCA for the same reasons many people inside and outside of WDI did: the Eisner-driven philosophy for the project was unbelievably bad, and the ideas he was inspiring and greenlighting were even worse. But the system was so politicized that nobody could tell Michael "no."

Folks forget that the failure of DCA 1.0 was predicted by huge numbers of people inside and outside Disney before the first jackhammer broke asphalt in the parking lot. Pre-construction reactions generally broke three ways: those who were outraged that Disney was even seriously talking about building such a bad joke, those who insisted that it was just a blue sky ego-exercise on the part of Michael that would never be built, and the corps of Disney execs and exec wannabes who competed with each other to be the loudest in praise of Michael's "creative" guidance of the project.

Tony's stance on the project earned him praise from fans and professional creatives, and the black mark of "Waltie" from management.

Dark times.

[Figments Friend]

Re: Tony Baxter

I am happy to hear about Tony being honored the other night.
Was this a special event organized by his friends, co-workers, or Disney themselves?

Quite nice....i am sure he had a nice evening with everyone.

[Tomorrowland_1967]

Re: Tony Baxter

Tony did not want the original job, nor the redesign job. He forcefully opposed the original project during development and purposely separated himself from it when he disagreed with the direction the park was going.

If you get a chance, you might want to go to that other website, and go to post #135. and correct the poster who made an entirely different claim. (Topic: Tony Baxter announced retirement - Section: Disney Business. Website - Hopefully, you figured that out)

On another note - I'd be thrilled if Tony Baxter could lend his talents to Knott's latest resurgence in gravitating back to it's thematic roots. Ghost town has had some work done in the last couple of years. Timber Mountain Mountain Log Ride given a good "scrub". And now the Mission dioramas coming back. I can only imagine if Matt Oimet called Tony into his office ... and come up with some ideas. I want to see a new dark ride where Knott's Berry Tales was. Or, if they redid it ... I'd be thrilled with that. That ride had a lot charm to it. And that seems to be the new motto for Knott's - Adding "charm" back into it.

[disneylandfan95]

Re: Tony Baxter

If you get a chance, you might want to go to that other website, and go to post #135. and correct the poster who made an entirely different claim. (Topic: Tony Baxter announced retirement - Section: Disney Business. Website - Hopefully, you figured that out)

Tony did propose merging Disneyland and DCA into a single "mega-park", but never wanted complete creative control of DCA. He definitely wasn't "bitter" about management not following through with his idea.