This site is not going to be a "bash Disney" site. It's just not. I enjoy the Walt Disney Company and most of everything they have done in the past fifty plus years of themed entertainment.
This one, though, deserved a special mention.
In the past few posts, we have observed the complications that come from the hard bottom line, from difficult creative relationships and missteps, and we have discussed some of the product that has come from it all-- from Disney's California Adventure to EPCOT Center, we have watched and observed how the branding and experiences have changed.
In a recent interview with a show director at Walt Disney Creative Entertainment, journalist David Iskra asked the following question:
How is this show different than most other rides/shows at the park?
The answer that was given is posted below.
Before I answer how it is different, let me tell you how it is similar. Disney Parks' mission is to make every experience magical, filled with wonderful storytelling that hits on a number of emotions; it also must be great family entertainment that is designed to leave everlasting memories that families can share. "Immersive Entertainment" is a way guests can live out their dreams at Disney Parks. For example, guests also can join the fun of High School Musical at our theme park, and at the Magic Kingdom they can join Sheriff Woody from Toy Story in an interactive and entertaining "roundup."
Now, lets think here for just a minute. Disneyland? Created to be a unique venue in the world. EPCOT Center? Created as a unique project to showcase our world and the people who share it. Disney-MGM Studios? Created to celebrate the movies- something unique that had never been fully explored in any Disney theme park before. Are we seeing a trend develop here?
The entire purpose was to create rides, shows and experiences that were (and continue to be) unique in the world. We don't want guests to visit Animal Kingdom and have the same experience they have at Epcot....do we?
Apparently we do. The Year of a Million Dreams marketing campaign, however fascinating and nifty some of the prizes may be, has effectively stripped each of Walt Disney World's four theme parks of their individual identities. There are things in each that can never be taken away- things that Imagineers placed there that will never be made into anything else besides what they are.
In example, Spaceship Earth itself would have to be removed for Epcot's original vision to become entirely lost to cutesy cartoon visions of the future and Disney characters pretending to educate you about the countries of world showcase. At Disney's "Hollywood" Studios, the entire main street (interestingly built on a similar scale to Disneyland's original Main Street rather than Magic Kingdom's much larger scale version) would have to be removed and re-themed to destroy the classic invocation of 1930s Hollywood. Even though the chinese theatre is no longer visible, it would have to be removed entirely for "Hollywood Studios" to become just another "Magical Experience".
Mind you, its not Walt Disney Imagineering that is the problem. They are the kids, being forced to eat their vegetables by WDW Management; the latter seemingly brainwashed by the corporate juggernauts and the presence of Jay Rasulo, one of the final leftovers of the Eisner era. In turn, we recieve a marketing campaign that is pretensed as cause for a big celebration anchored on the "dream making magic of our cast members." The sun rises everyday, okay? Why don't we plan a marketing campaign around sunrise and sunset, too? That would just be pure "magic".
There is something just a little bit disturbing about the use of that word. Where dreams and magic have always been things that disney's parks embody, each project has been allowed to fluxuate within that form. There was a time when Disney characters were confined to the magic kingdom with the exception of related subject characters (i.e. Space Mickey at Epcot, Safari Mickey at Animal Kingdom), but now it seems guests can meet just about all the characters everywhere they go. Why are Mickey and his friends presented in classic attire in the old Epcot Communicore? Where is director Mickey at the Disney Studios? Indeed, now, magic seems nothing more than a buzz word. Even at Epcot's 25th anniversary, the line was read (and I do mean read, not recited or memorized) directly off a script no doubt prepared by whats left of the Accountaneers and Mike Mendenhall's marketing department:
"I'm absolutely delighted to be here at Epcot today, the place where dreams come true."
Epcot (lower case or not) is many things. It is a place where we can learn about who we are, and what we can do together. It is a place where We've Just Begun to Dream. It is a place where dreams come true, yes, but before those dreams were very specific. They were dreams of a better tomorrow, dreams of a world tour, dreams of harmony on Earth. Now, they are dreams. Better put, they are Disney Dreams with two Capital D's. And it just isn't right.
So, what are we to do? In Casablanca (one of the films represented in the original Disney-MGM Studios' classic thesis attraction, The Great Movie Ride), Rick wanted to hear Sam (his piano playing entertainer at Rick's Cafe American) play "As Time Goes By."
"Play it Sam. For old time's sake. Play, "As Time Goes By."
Again, the following is a quotation from a Show Producer at Walt Disney Creative Entertainment:
"Before I answer how it is different, let me tell you how it is similar. Disney Parks' mission is to make every experience magical, filled with wonderful storytelling that hits on a number of emotions; it also must be great family entertainment that is designed to leave everlasting memories that families can share."
Many of those things are true. The Walt Disney Company does want all its experiences to be fun and to be filled with great memory making moments. The fact is, it has become more important to make every experience "similar". Is it fear? Does the fear of rejection and therefore lack of funds cause this to happen?
Here is what Walt Disney had to say about fear:
"Sometimes I wonder if 'common sense' isn't another way of saying 'fear', and fear, too often, spells failure."
But why would we listen to him?
So play it again, Sam. Eventually this same trick- this dog and pony show of big "dream blue" buzz words and fairy dust- will have to end. Eventually, Sam's hands are going to get tired. Time does go by, and change is a positive thing...
But so is Identity.
