Opinion: Why don't Toy Story Lands work?

Toy Story Land opened at Hollywood Studios in Orlando last week but there are already Toy Story lands in other Disney parks. On the whole they aren't very popular. The new land seems to have similar issues.

The lands have one obvious issue that can be easily categorised as not being or feeling very Disney. They certainly come across as cheap with off the shelf rides with minimal themeing. The land in Paris was reported to cost 80 million. The same price as Toy Story Mania cost in total.
These lands contain three rides which have a very low rider rate. It leads to long (time not physical length)  queues which have very basic design and all without a ride building. They also get impacted by the weather.

Themeing is a big issue. The story behind the lands is that you are shrunk to the size of a toy and are in Andy's backyard. This has lead to the land looking like many kids or toy lands found in cheaper built amusement parks but with the odd character models dropped in. It's more obvious when placed next to other well or better themed areas. In Paris it is next to a recreated Paris for Ratatouille which is stunning. By another entrance is a mini Cars area based on a small part of Radiator Springs. It Hollywood Studios it will be next Galaxy's Edge.

Comparing the small Cars area in Paris to the Toy Story land highlights why the basic idea looks so cheap. The Cars area is built from brick with clear recreation of parts of the film, nowhere near the level of Cars land but it does a solid job. Toy Story doesn't clearly look like Andy's backyard, which itself is generic in design anyway. It is also barely seen at all in the films. The other issue is that toys are normally made from plastic and being small, they have minimal detail. Scale that up and you have large plastic structures lacking detail.

Disney have gone down a similar route with other lands as well. The Bugs Life land in California Adventure was built in a similar way but the difference here is that they don't have the same fundamental themeing issue of Toy Story. You are shrunk down but you're in living vegetation which can have immense detail and certainly more variety. Disney had previous design success with the Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area so they knew it would work. Bugs Life land still has significant flaws. These lands don't have a major attraction which is where Hollywood Studios benefits from Toy Story Mania. They are not lands you will travel to go to, you visit them because you are already there.

The final big issue is that these aren't really recreating anything from the film. You can argue Parachute Drop is based on the start of the original Toy Story but that was set in the hallway of Andy's house. As I've said earlier, Andy's backyard barely appears in the films and certainly with little detail. When there are options like Andy's bedroom, Sunnyside Daycare, Pizza Planet, Bonnie's bedroom, Al's Toy Barn or Sid's backyard.

Toy Story lands could have been so much more but instead of taking iconic locations filled with decorations designed by Pixar they've used a bland generic location we've never seen before filled with decorations any other park could have used.