Notes from Neverland
Well-Known Member
The rumor, which never had a credible source, has been refuted. No sighing needed.
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Rumor Dropping the "Walt" from "Walt Disney World"
- Thread starter VJ
- Start date
disneyfireman
Well-Known Member
I hope its not true...it takes a special kind of stupid..to come up with the idea of dropping Walts name...like Really really stupid..so stupid..The rumor, which never had a credible source, has been refuted. No sighing needed.
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You don't have to hope that a baseless rumor isn't true.
It's a baseless rumor.
You should have a certainty it's not true.
Don't fall for click-bait, trollish, or incredibly naive rumors. It was a made-up rumor to make a stupid point.
LSLS
Well-Known Member
Maybe I'm naïve, but I don't think it's totally baseless/made-up. I think there was some directive to call it as such at D23 (maybe someone asked his speech be written with it only called Disney World, or certain signs/posters just saying Disney World, something like that) and it got spun WAY too far. You mentioned he doesn't have reliable sources anymore, and you very well may be correct, but I also don't think it's something he just spun up out of nowhere either. I do think there was some mention of it being called just Disney World somewhere for D23, and the telephone game made it sound WAY more than it actually was. That said, I am 100% with the others who have said Jim should know better than to believe this would be an announced thing at D23. I can see running with it a bit if you are told they are doing this under the radar over the next year, but to think they make a formal announcement at a Disney fans conference?
AEfx
Well-Known Member
Well of course he does.
Yet, he threw it at the wall to see if it stuck - and 20 pages later, we are still talking about it.
He knows exactly what he is doing.
Why? What led you to believe that such a thing was ever a reality?
LSLS
Well-Known Member
Because the alternative is that it was 100% made up, and I just can't imagine this was thought up out of thin air and there was no kernel of truth to it anywhere. It just makes more sense to me that something innocuous was said in a meeting, and then it was completely blown out of proportion. I certainly wouldn't stake my life on this being true, but again, I'll give a slight benefit of the doubt that it did come from somewhere.
I proposed above a plausible way in which it was indeed made up:
People mad about "woke Disney" are constantly attacking Disney by pointing out anything remotely un-woke to show that Disney's 'wokeness' is insincere. Such arguments have been made in this thread multiple times.
Since Walt had... purported flaws, then some anti-woker would be bound to point out that Walt should be cancelled. All that leading to someone posting out there on the Internet that Disney is dropping the "Walt" from Walt Disney World to disassociate themselves from Walt himself.
Those who think that there is a radical cabal of wokists within Disney then take that as reality because it 'feels' true to them.
It 'feels' like a bad joke and obvious troll to me.
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LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
I can see such a rumour emerging from the flurry of “They’re trying to cancel Walt!” panic that followed the omission of his opening-day speech at Disneyland’s recent birthday celebration. It’s the kind of thing that can very easily take on a life of its own among those convinced that we’re at the thin end of some unstoppable campaign.
Joel
Well-Known Member
Rich Brownn
Well-Known Member
No one would have thought the studio would put just Disney on their films 15 years ago, And yet here we are.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
Well, the current films have nothing to do with Walt personally, however the parks are his intellectual creation. I even think the should rename Disneyland to Walt Disney Land. All the rest of the worlds Disney Parks are a number of Degrees after him so name them after the company and no one will care. It's not a rule, just a respect thing. Todays generations really have no idea who the hell Walt Disney even is and the following generations will be further distanced from that, but in spite of his faults, he gave us a huge gift and as a single individual accomplished so many impressive things in his short 66 years of existence. He should not be allowed to be forgotten. Especially by those narcissistic, talentless corporate big wigs that are successful because they are still hitching a free ride on a dead legends coattails.
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Smiley/OCD
Well-Known Member
Wait ‘til they start taking all the names off the windows on Main St….you know that era and generation of the company was VERY problematic…
Time to bring Main Street up to date! Add some graffiti, burn down a building, add some “for lease” signs and some homeless people on the sidewalks!
And they're going to drop the name "Magic Kingdom" because 'magic' is associated with paganism and satanism and 'kingdom' evokes autocracy and a lack of egalitarianism, and they won't call it 'Disneyland' because Walt is problematic.
Welcome to Whimsyland!
Now, let the conspiracy theorists run with that...
Smiley/OCD
Well-Known Member
They won’t have to take the names off, just break the windows…
mikejs78
Premium Member
Can't even do that. "Land" evokes private property, which is an outgrowth of evil capitalism, so it too must go. So welcome to WhimsyLocation.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
Let’s be real.
Walt Disney remains a very well-known figure. He is still a household name after all these years, and Disney fans—including young ones—continue to celebrate him enthusiastically.
The less savoury rumours and accusations surrounding him are nothing new. I first became aware of them 30 years ago as a child, and I’m sure they went back further than that. There isn’t some new campaign afoot to defame him.
Walt’s name, image, and role as founder remain central to the way Disney frames and presents itself, including in the parks. For every dropped “Walt”, there is a new statue of him.
“Disney” itself is an indelible reference to the man. How many people by that surname have you ever heard of other than Walt and his immediate family members?
Walt Disney isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. There’s really no need to panic.
Walt Disney remains a very well-known figure. He is still a household name after all these years, and Disney fans—including young ones—continue to celebrate him enthusiastically.
The less savoury rumours and accusations surrounding him are nothing new. I first became aware of them 30 years ago as a child, and I’m sure they went back further than that. There isn’t some new campaign afoot to defame him.
Walt’s name, image, and role as founder remain central to the way Disney frames and presents itself, including in the parks. For every dropped “Walt”, there is a new statue of him.
“Disney” itself is an indelible reference to the man. How many people by that surname have you ever heard of other than Walt and his immediate family members?
Walt Disney isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. There’s really no need to panic.
zombiebbq
Well-Known Member
I think we are approaching the time when Walt will not be a household name. My guess is within 20 years the Walt will be dropped from all Disney products. Ask a kid who Walt Disney was, they'll have no clue unless an adult explained it to them. There is a paradigm shift happening amongst kids and "general knowledge" stuff we all used to know when we were growing up, but I digress.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't call it a paradigm shift: what passes for general knowledge has always changed with each new generation. I'm sure there are figures who were household names fifty years ago who most of us have never even heard of. If, as you predict, "Walt" is dropped from all Disney products within 20 years, then many children will indeed grow up without having heard of him. But that would be an awful lot of de-Walting to achieve in a relatively short space of time: his name and image are currently everywhere. This may well change over time, but I think it'll take a lot longer than a couple of decades, and the causes will be related to branding and marketing rather than to ideology.