Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
Both
I'd say yes, what other theme park or place in the USA compares? I'll elaborate below...
And that's important because...
But how and where? WS shares one other very important trait with MSUSA that distinguishes it from every other imitation international shopping complex
It's all under one company's control and master planned and expanded by the original designer/operator
It's not a series of brands and companies competing for each other's dollars. Yes, there are stores and merchandise sourced from various vendors, but the clashing, competing noise, scale, lighting, architecture of your typical mall is absent. You don't have spaces altered or removed with no consideration for their surroundings [or at least Disney isn't supposed to do that, results vary, but that's another topic for discussion], you don't have signs or vendors slapped wherever, you don't have confined spaces that are meant to trap or shield your vision from the outside. WS is open and that openness is used to guide visitors and allow breathing room between the exhibits, which themselves are built as layered courtyards to gradually adjust guests to each setting. The scale and coloring of the buildings are used to reinforce that "architecture of reassurance" and that there are outdoor, tree lined streets without cars adds to the atmosphere
Even other malls with faux facades and trolleys don't have the visual variety or understanding of space that WS has. And they still are a series of competing stores that are interchangeable and unrelated to their surroundings. The decor is superficial, and however watered down the experience may be today, there is still a clear understanding of why food or entertainment is specific to one WS pavilion and not found elsewhere in the land
You have the Venetian in Vegas which is much larger than Italy at WS, but also lacks the spatial organization, scale or open sense of organization that coexists harmoniously with the other pavilions. It's another huge building on the Strip that competes with other huge buildings on an allegedly pedestrian street that's also a giant traffic jam of cars.
Other theme parks try and do the same thing, but don't dedicate or use their space as effectively, to say nothing of the quality of their buildings or finishings. There are many impressive recreations of other country's building styles, but is there a place that has 11 of them neatly packaged around a lake as successfully? With staff actually from those countries?
You could argue the buildings and pavilions should be bigger and more impressive by today's standards, but would that look as charming? Isn't the scale of Disneyland often cited as part of its appeal, despite there being bigger Disneylands?
It's a combination of tangible and intangible things that make WS as successful as it is, even 40+ years later
I personally no longer see the value of paying what Disney charges to visit EPCOT just to walk around WS, but that doesn't mean I no longer understand its appeal
Epcot's next Marvel experience turns it into a Marvel corner? I don't get it.
