News Disney Not Renewing Great Movie Ride Sponsorship Deal with TCM ; Attraction to Close

[No Name]

Taking disparate themes and saying they related because they're viewed from a particular point of view is very weak sauce.

The same can be said for any theme park...



They relate because they were built from a contemporary American point of view.

Do you see how weak that is?

It's been sustainable for IoA.

Not going to further argue MK's theme because you are off the mark. If you don't see how past, present, fantasy, and future relate, and relate more than the lands at IoA, I am sorry.

On the second, you say it's been sustainable for IoA. Huh? Yes, it's currently working for a two-park resort, but I don't think it'd work for a four-park resort. Guests wouldn't find four parks without distinct themes very appealing. Universal and Disney are not direct competitors and can't afford to run the same buinesss model.

 

[TROR]

They relate because they were built from a contemporary American point of view.

Do you see how weak that is?

It's weak because it's not the truth.

Epcot is a park celebrating humanity and its achievements. Hollywood Studios is a park about the Hollywood that never was and always will be. Animal Kingdom is a park about animals and nature. Magic Kingdom is a park dedicated to Americana. Not sure where the confusion lies tbh.

 

[Kman101]

Fantasyland is a celebration of Americana?

 

[TROR]

Fantasyland is a celebration of Americana?

Yes, it's a celebration of Walt Disney's animated classics which honor American values and traditions and have been viewed by nations as American as apple pie. That Walt Disney and his products = America mentality is why so many foreign leaders used to come to Disneyland back in the 50's and 60's.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Yes, it's a celebration of Walt Disney's animated classics which honor American values and traditions and have been viewed by nations as American as apple pie. That Walt Disney and his products = America mentality is why so many foreign leaders used to come to Disneyland back in the 50's and 60's.

American values and traditions, such as monarchy.

 

[Kman101]

Yes, it's a celebration of Walt Disney's animated classics which honor American values and traditions and have been viewed by nations as American as apple pie. That Walt Disney and his products = America mentality is why so many foreign leaders used to come to Disneyland back in the 50's and 60's.

Ok

 

[TROR]

American values and traditions, such as monarchy.

No, American values as finding a husband, getting married, and settling down (Snow White, Bambi, Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty). American values as in growing up and maturing (Pinocchio, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan).

 

[MisterPenguin]

No, American values as finding a husband, getting married, and settling down (Snow White, Bambi, Cinderella, Lady and the Tramp, Sleeping Beauty). American values as in growing up and maturing (Pinocchio, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan).

You know, those aren't explicitly American values. Do you know how I know that? Because most of the stories these movies are based on predate the founding of the USA.

I find your theory to be quite... uninformed.

 

[Casper Gutman]

There is a cottage industry of academics attempting to make sense of Disneyland's geography (its the progressive stages of capitalism, for instance). I personally always viewed the lands as the dreams of an American boy, radiating out from his (idealized) home town.

 

[TROR]

You know, those aren't explicitly American values. Do you know how I know that? Because most of the stories these movies are based on predate the founding of the USA.

I find your theory to be quite... uninformed.

Are you really going to tell me that settling down and getting married was not the American expectation of women in the 1950s?

 

[MisterPenguin]

Are you really going to tell me that settling down and getting married was not the American expectation of women in the 1950s?

Are you going to tell me that wasn't an expectation of pre-Colonial Europe?

 

[DisneyDodo]

I have to say, the notion that MK/DL are supposed to be America-themed is coming across as a major stretch.

 

[Mike S]

Walt Disney used the America thing himself. If anyone knows for sure what the castle parks are supposed to be about it would be him.

Move the hell on people.

 

[TROR]

Walt Disney used the America thing himself. If anyone knows for sure what the castle parks are supposed to be about it would be him.

Move the hell on people.

It really is a pointless debate when the creator of these parks said what they are. Amazing that people feel the need to challenge it, honestly.

I have to say, the notion that MK/DL are supposed to be America-themed is coming across as a major stretch.

How so? Let's just look at the opening day lands.

Main Street USA? Undeniably Americana.
Frontierland? Undeniably Americana.
Tomorrowland (in 1955)? Undeniably Americana.
Fantasyland? Debatable.
Adventureland? Debatable.

That's 3/5 lands that are undeniably focusing on Americana. Now let's look at the two new lands that were planned but never added.

Edison Square? Undeniably Americana.
Liberty Street? Undeniably Americana.

So now we're at 5/7 lands that focus on Americana without a doubt.

Let's add the next two lands to be added.

New Orleans Square? Undeniably Americana.
Bear Country (and eventually Critter Country)? Undeniably Americana.

We're at 7/9 lands that have been planned/existed at Disneyland through the 1980's that were undeniably Americana. Not until Toon Town do we get another land that's debatable, and because it is debatable, I'll argue that Mickey Mouse is an American staple. I don't think anyone can disagree on that.

So are we really going to say that Disneyland is not centered around Americana when nine out of the eleven lands that have been planned/built are undeniably Americana? When you have that much of overwhelming evidence, it is more logical to look at these two lands you don't believe are Americana and figure out how they are than to discredit the theme as a whole.

 

[DisneyDodo]

"Dedicated to the ideals... that have created America" does not mean the park is America-themed

 

[Casper Gutman]

"Dedicated to the ideals... that have created America" does not mean the park is America-themed

It does mean that, in Walt Disney's opinion, the park was organized around and themed to what he felt were the key American ideals. His feelings on the matter were a product of his social, economic, and cultural place in mid-century America and should be understood as such.

 

[Jones14]

Islands of Adventure's lands are connected in that each land is derived from literature. Marvel and Toon Lagoon - comics, Jurassic Park and Potter - Novels, Suess - Children's books, and Lost Continent - European, Asian, and Middle Eastern folktales. Kong is a stretch, but the character is partially based off of a gorilla from an 1861 novel, so it sort of fits.

 

[MotherOfBirds]

So.... anything appearing on ebay yet?

 

[RoysCabin]

It's pretty clear that Fantasyland is undeniably an "Americana" product, insofar as it's derived from a thoroughly mid-century Americanized take on European folk literature and fairy tales, just as Adventureland is a mid-century Americanized view of "exotic" locales and colonial spaces of the Southern hemisphere and the Pacific. It takes European storytelling and "exotic" locations and repackages and sanitizes them for an American audience's consumption, much the same way Walt's films did. This is why the original Fantasylands are evocative of quaint German villages or cozy Swiss chalets and not, say, the hustle and bustle of London or Paris or anything resembling a run down serfdom. It's not that "monarchy" is an American value, but regal courts and bold knights and happy villagers are part of the American vision of "Fantasyland Europe" that is inculcated in many of us from childhood, in large part, again, thanks to the films of Walt Disney.

Additionally, the original Disney castle parks are largely spaced out as "progress timelines" with a left-to-right reading taking one from Adventureland's pre-colonial jungles and colonial era forts, toward Frontierland's romanticized 19th century (WDW's version coming complete with a timeline and geographical span that stretches from faux-Dutch patroon architecture at HM through Big Thunder Mountain's mesas), Main Street's thoroughly sanitized early 20th century, and Tomorrowland supposedly bridging to the 21st century, all anchored with the "fantasy castle at the end of the street" containing Fantasyland to the north. This belief in both geographical and chronological "progress" is really at the heart of the original concepts of Manifest Destiny and bits of the American dream myths (even going back to Winthrop's "City on a Hill" speech), and the postwar consensus and cultural/economic hegemony of the United States, and Walt Disney's place therein, thoroughly informed just about everything that went into Disneyland, and eventually the Magic Kingdom.

While all of these things come with rather problematic aspects given their takes on matters like colonialism, culture as consumption product, and America's growth into empire, I'd argue that it's pretty undeniable that they still thoroughly informed the crafting of the original castle parks and informed the entire cultural tone that permeates those parks.

Granted, we're now numerous decades removed from the milieu that birthed Disneyland, and thus the general theming and goals of the park have shifted over time and across management teams, but again, I do have to agree that the original layout of the castle parks revolved almost entirely around Americana or, at the very least, an Americanized take on foreign cultures and folktales that was already well ingrained in the American psyche through movies (like Disney's), pulp novels, and television.

 

[Andsome]

I can't wait to see all the other props end up in other attractions around the resort...

I actually heard that a couple of AAs may be going over to PotC.