Corporate synergy, though by no means a new phenomenon or an objective exclusive to The Walt Disney Company, has been a not exactly covert priority for the House of Mouse in recent years, an ill-concealed endeavor that one doesn’t have to squint for too long to see through. Its overt symbiosis routinely finds new ways to manifest, and though it’s had varying effects on the consumer, Disney’s constant yearning for corporate cohesion has also bred some simply hilarious moments that we otherwise wouldn’t have gotten.
Sure, the Disney+ streaming service, once a streamlined one-stop-shop for cherished Disney content old and new, may now be inundated with programs from Hulu and ESPN as a result of ‘company synergy,’ but the effort also led to us getting an NFL game broadcasted live from Andy’s bedroom. For every vapid Star Wars or Marvel-inspired Simpsons short produced for Disney+, we get a moment like Timothée Chalamet displaying elite ball knowledge on ESPN’s College GameDay as a marketing ploy for Searchlight Pictures’ A Complete Unknown. You win some, you lose some.
And it’s in this age of hyper-obvious corporate synergy that Disney’s reliance on intellectual properties, particularly at its theme parks, has become conspicuous; though the utilization of company-owned IPs at Disney Parks is in no way a new development (Peter Pan’s Flight and Snow White and Her Adventures were opening day attractions at Disneyland in 1955), it does seem that the Disney of today views IPs as dispositive as opposed to discretional. If one were to look at a list of the company’s recently built lands and attractions and the experiences they intend to develop in the near future, they’d notice that the overwhelming majority of them are centered around a recognizable brand; the last large-scale ‘original attraction’ built at a domestic theme park was Expedition Everest, which opened at Animal Kingdom in 2006.
While perhaps discouraging, it’s understandable from a corporate perspective, as a ride based on a beloved film like Frozen or Guardians of the Galaxy will be more effective at attracting the median consumer to a park than one based on a completely original concept. It’s a tried-and-true method of brand synergy that Disney has perfected over the last 70 years — produce media that people fall in love with, and then construct experiences that allow guests to interact with these properties in a tangible way.
And the company now has the opportunity to reverse engineer the strategy.
As Disney continues to “lean” on IPs across its various arms, it may find that its next multimedia behemoth, its next Star Wars or Marvel Cinematic Universe, traces its roots back not to the screen or page, but to the company’s own theme parks. As its perpetual pursuit of brand synergy leaves Disney in continuous search of properties that can be featured prominently across films, television, books, and theme parks, it may find that it’s been sitting on a sleeping giant franchise that presents the company with the opportunity to interweave its offerings in ways previously inconceivable.
The Society of Explorers and Adventurers, though as of now a rather niche property with little mainstream relevance, has the potential, if handled properly, to help Disney evolve the way in which it tells stories across multiple mediums, and it’s now up to the company to act upon the opportunity ahead of it.
What is the S.E.A.?
Walt Disney Imagineering has been long renowned for its technical wizardry and ability to bring to life ideas previously confined to the imagination, but the group’s genius with regard to storytelling sometimes goes comparatively overlooked when giving them their proverbial flowers. Sure, the lifelike audio-animatronics on Pirates of the Caribbean and the optical illusions on The Haunted Mansion are memorable, but it’s the stories at their core that have allowed them to resonate with generations of parkgoers.
This sentiment is true of essentially every successful Disney Parks attraction, as they, on top of being captivating, thrilling, or generally enjoyable experiences, boast endearing stories that audiences want to consistently interact with. That said, these rides are historically independent from a narrative perspective and have little to do with one another aside from residing in the same physical theme park; though both in the New Orleans Square section of Disneyland and just a few hundred feet away from each other at the Magic Kingdom, there’s nothing that narratively unites the worlds of Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion (despite Jean Lafitte’s best efforts).
Imagineering has occasionally flirted with the idea of developing communal worlds and throughline narratives shared by several attractions, the most pertinent example being Disneyland Paris’ version of Frontierland; an opening day land in April of 1992, the European park’s take on the American West transports guests to Thunder Mesa, a picturesque frontier town established by a settler named Henry Ravenswood after he struck gold in the nearby Big Thunder Mountain in the early 1850s. After creating the lucrative Big Thunder Mining Company, he commissioned the construction of a luxurious mansion in the town, a manor he wouldn’t leave upon his untimely (but not unwelcomed) death due to an earthquake.
It’s this bit of backstory, this piece of lore perhaps insignificant to the average parkgoer, that narratively links Disneyland Paris’ renditions of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and The Haunted Mansion (known there as Phantom Manor). Guests walking through the park’s take on Frontierland are experiencing not fragmented stories, but a cohesive narrative that, in addition to the theming and general atmosphere that sets Disney apart from its competitors in the themed entertainment space, allows parkgoers to feel as though they’re experiencing a new part of the world as opposed to a theme park.
And though not its direct inspiration (that distinction belongs to the defunct Adventurers Club at the Walt Disney World Resort), Imagineering would significantly expand on the idea of Disney’s iconic attractions occupying the same world in the form of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers (S.E.A.), a fictional organization comprised of — you guessed it — explorers, adventurers, and various other globetrotters. First mentioned in the Fortress Explorations walkthrough attraction at Tokyo DisneySea in 2001, the S.E.A. narratively connects some of the company’s most cherished experiences around the world, the story manifesting over the years in the form of blink-and-you’ll-miss-it Easter eggs, entire lands, and everything in between.
Now referenced in some capacity at five of Disney’s six theme park resorts across the globe (in addition to the Disney Cruise Line), the S.E.A.’s most significant representation thus far materialized in 2013 with the opening of Mystic Manor and the surrounding Mystic Point area at Hong Kong Disneyland. The company’s first large-scale S.E.A.-oriented attraction, Mystic Manor, a trackless dark ride that serves as its park’s answer to The Haunted Mansion, takes guests through the residence of Henry Mystic, a Society member whose home and nearby Mystic Point colony serve as a headquarters, of sorts, for the S.E.A. The ride is chock-full of S.E.A. references both overt and obscure, the attraction laying the foundation for a throughline parks narrative that Imagineering continues to build out today.
Entire attractions, such as Tokyo DisneySea’s rendition of Tower of Terror, would be retroactively added to the S.E.A. ‘universe’, with elements added to rides like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Jungle Cruise at both domestic parks ultimately folding them into the narrative, as well. The Society’s story would be bolstered with the construction of attractions and restaurants like Miss Adventure Falls at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon, Soaring: Fantastic Flight at Tokyo DisneySea, and the Skipper Canteen table-service dining location at Magic Kingdom, with Imagineering continuing to add layers to the story whenever possible and applicable (the Adventureland Treehouse, which re-opened in its current form at Disneyland in 2023, features several direct references to the S.E.A.).
The Society is today alluded to in countless Disney experiences around the world, with even the aforementioned Thunder Mesa and Ravenswood stories being (partially) retconned into the narrative. Though very rarely overt in its presence, the S.E.A. is a unifying overarching plot that ties together some of Disney’s most iconic attractions; a person looking at the backside of water on the Jungle Cruise at Magic Kingdom is technically residing in the same fictional world as a person plummeting through an elevator shaft on the Tower of Terror at Tokyo DisneySea, just as that person is taking part in the same throughline story as a guest enjoying a HippopotoMai-Tai at Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar.
It’s a storytelling endeavor that’s massive in scale, but subtle in execution; though an engaging narrative unifier that’s (expectedly) garnered a devoted audience over the past several years, no guest is worse off or is receiving a lesser experience by not being well-versed in S.E.A. lore. It’s merely an auxiliary offering, an all-encompassing, though not overbearing concept that does not hamper the impact or appeal of any individual attraction… and it’s by following this blueprint that Disney may uncover its next multimedia franchise.
Why is S.E.A. Ripe for Larger Usage?
The ‘cinematic universe’ has been the preeminent trend in the contemporary era of blockbuster cinema, with Disney’s uber-successful Marvel Cinematic Universe (a franchise that’s earned over $30 billion at the global box office since its 2008 debut) being the foremost example of the craze. Though there’s some indication that audiences may be souring on the idea of communal worlds that stretch across multiple mediums, Disney does not seem all too convinced that the ‘cinematic universe’ is a fad, with new Marvel and Star Wars content mapped out well into the future.
It’s natural for Disney to have interest and confidence in the ‘cinematic universe’ model, as it’s a method of storytelling that masterfully lends itself to the brand synergy techniques that the company often employs. Disney is a goliath of a corporation that has its arms in film, television, publishing, and themed entertainment amongst countless other endeavors; franchises that can be leveraged across several — if not all — of those mediums are as good as gold to the company.
It’s why you see properties that find success in one medium often receive supplementary material in others; 2016’s Moana inspired a walkthrough attraction at EPCOT and was set to receive a Disney+ television series before it was tweaked into a theatrical sequel. The Princess and the Frog received parks representation on both coasts this year in the form of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and will soon get a streaming spin-off series of its own. The unwavering presence of Marvel and Star Wars across Disney’s various offerings does not even bear mentioning.
And though Disney often looks to leverage its successful films and television series across its themed entertainment offerings, the S.E.A. concept provides the company the opportunity to work in reverse, to create a new multimedia world based not only on its own properties, but on IPs that already have significant representation at its parks. The company would not have to scramble to develop an experience based on the media property should it prove successful, as the property itself would not exist sans said experience.
Disney would likely tweak existing attractions in the event of a successful S.E.A. adaptation (à la the addition of Jack Sparrow audio-animatronics to the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction in the mid-oughts), but these would be marginal investments compared to those of entirely new offerings. Is it perhaps a bit cynical to imply that S.E.A. has franchise potential because a significant portion of Disney’s synergizing efforts were executed decades ago and are sunk costs? Sure, but it’s not an egregious suggestion, either.
And though this notion would likely play a significant role in Disney’s motivation to expand S.E.A.’s usage, the company would quickly realize the inherent story-telling potential present. Multimedia universes are at their strongest when their offerings are only tangentially connected and boast their own unique stories and tones; think back to the quote-unquote ‘prime’ years of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, when each new release felt distinct. Captain America: The Winter Solider was a spy-thriller, Guardians of the Galaxy was a spirited space opera, Spider-Man: Homecoming was a coming-of-age film, and the list goes on; audiences resonated with these movies not necessarily because of the Marvel branding, but because of the quality of their stories and characters, making their ultimate crossover in the tentpole Avengers releases all the more meaningful.
The S.E.A., and more specifically the attractions at the narrative’s core, provide Disney with the opportunity to create a similarly distinct multimedia universe based on stories that have demonstrably resonated with audiences, in one form, through generations. Imagine a throwback Western film based on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, a horror semi-anthology based on versions of The Haunted Mansion from across the globe, or an actually good Jungle Cruise movie; the potential for engaging media that can not only satisfy a built-in audience, but broaden the appeal of the property is ample, with the overarching S.E.A. story providing an avenue for significant crossover.
Disney sees value in S.E.A. as a multimedia brand, this notion evidenced by their ongoing attempts to develop the property for both film and television; Outlander and For All Mankind scribe Ron Moore was announced to be developing an S.E.A. series (and larger Magic Kingdom universe) for Disney+ in 2021, but that project was seemingly canceled this past summer upon Moore’s departure for Sony Pictures Television. Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort production company was said to be developing a modern take on the concept in October of 2022, but production updates have been scant since the initial report. Disney has also released a few S.E.A. — centric young reader novels in recent years, proving that it’s at least interested in getting the property in front of new eyes.
While it’s admittedly a bit optimistic to imply that any property has the potential to reach the heights of Marvel or Star Wars, S.E.A. is uniquely positioned to be a pillar franchise for Disney given the seamless way in which it interweaves the iconic offerings of a division paramount to the company’s strength. These are stories that have been some of the most successful in the history of themed entertainment as a medium; with proper care, said stories could be translated to and flourish in different channels, thus enacting the cyclical form of synergy that has allowed Disney to become the behemoth it is today.
In an era in which studios and entertainment companies attempt to monopolize consumer entertainment with individual franchises, there perhaps isn’t a property better positioned than S.E.A. to become a tentpole multimedia brand, and it seems to only be a matter of time before Disney attempts to realize its potential.
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Kyle Silagyi is a columnist for the Boardwalk Times
