Good or Bad...

[Buzz2001]

we lost another...

Burke To Head PDI/DreamWorks

Patti Burke has been named to head PDI/DreamWorks, the computer animation facility behind such films as Shrek and Antz. Burke will take over the reins from Aron Warner (who is producing the sequel to Shrek).

Burke most recently spent nine years as head of production for Walt Disney Imagineering's theme park division; she oversaw the production of several attractions, including "It’s Tough to Be a Bug," "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience," and "Soarin’ Over California." Before that, Burke was a production executive for Touchstone/Hollywood Pictures on the films V.I. Warshawski and Innocent Man.

"Patti is the ideal leader to drive PDI/DreamWorks’ future, and we are thrilled to have her onboard," said Ann Daly, DreamWorks' head of feature animation. "Her extensive production and management experience are key at a time when we are expanding the company at a very rapid pace as well as planning a move to a brand-new facility in Redwood City."

"PDI/DreamWorks has a tremendous talent base and state-of-the-art technology, and I’m excited… to be a part of it," Burke said.

 

[PKS44]

quoted from Dan Steinberg's piece from December 2000 mouseplanet.com about what happens when you cut Imagineering...
"Even worse, if one of Disney’s competitors has any brains and some deeper pockets, they’ll hire those ex-Imagineers and wind up making attractions that are unique to the competition – and better than Disney’s off-the-shelf rides.

...-snip-...

Any company that guts its research capability is resigning itself to innovative stagnation and eventually slow growth and creative death. Unfortunately, I’ve seen this happen in other companies, first hand.

Or to put it in a historical context, the amusements and boardwalks of the past which all used the same off- the- shelf rides were done in by a highly innovative competitor who ran off with a lot of their business. That’s right, Disneyland."

 

[Luv2Roam]

Awhile back a show on PBS was about Coney Island. And the similarities to that then, and WDW now are there.
Even the cost; Coney Island use to take a month's worth of wages for a vacation there.