You Can’t Top Pigs with Pigs

After   a   tough    opening  day   and   some    negative  reviews, Disneyland turned out to be a smash hit when  it opened in 1955. The park  turned sleepy  Anaheim  into  one  of the  fastest-growing cities  in  the  United  States. The  economic windfall  to  Orange County  was  unimaginable. It seemed that  every city in America wanted a Disneyland.There was only one  problem. Over the years,  it became a well- known  fact  that  Walt Disney  did  not  like to  do  the  same  thing twice. He said, “I’ve never believed in doing sequels. I didn’t want to waste  the  time  I have doing  a sequel. I’d rather be using  that time doing something new and different.” He liked new challenges and he already  had a Disneyland. What was the point  of building another theme park?Walt  said,  “It  goes  back  when  they  wanted me  to  do  more pigs.”  The  Silly  Symphony cartoon Three  Little  Pigs became a huge  success in 1933 due  in part  to Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf, a hit song  that  resonated with Great Depression audiences. Theater  owners were  clamoring for a follow-up. Walt hesitated. He proclaimed, “You can’t top pigs with pigs.”Nevertheless, Walt could  be practical when  necessary, and  he had  ambitious plans  for the  animation studio. Those  ambitions cost  a  lot  of money.  Therefore, he  relented and  produced two follow-up cartoon shorts. Unfortunately, Walt was  right—the follow-up films  did  not  have  nearly  the  impact  or  commercial success as the original.
In 1959, twenty-six years  later,  Walt found  himself  in a similar dilemma. With an opportunity in Palm Beach before  him, he saw that it would be possible to design a new town where people could live, work, and play. His city would function as well as Disneyland and  his Burbank studio. It would  be a suitable neighbor for his theme park. More importantly, this would not be a sequel.