lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
To those you like the Hat, have you seen either Fantasia? When was the last time you watched either film? Do you even like either film?
i actually like it, the only problem i have with it is how underwhelming it is once you get to the hat, and all that is there are some cameras and other junk. if there was more substance to it, then it would really create a footprint as the centerpiece of the park.
I consider it a centerpiece because of its presence with hoolywood/disney history. fantasia was mickeys first full length feature, and to have an icon to represent disney in hollywood there is nothing more fitting. thats why blocking the great movie ride is ok with me, a recreation of a hollywood staple is not what the park is all about, its about hollywood and disney as one.
It looks more Disney to me WITH the hat. Maybe it's just because Im so used to it, but it's just as GIANT and iconic as all of the other parks "symbol"....a random plain looking building in the back just makes it look bare.
Again, that could be because the hat is the only way I've ever really known it!
It not only ruins Hollywood Boulevard, it ruins one of the biggest and most awesome hidden mickeys!
I have to agree with this. I find it festive and Disney-esque.
Where was the hidden Mickey in the older photo?
To those you like the Hat, have you seen either Fantasia? When was the last time you watched either film? Do you even like either film?
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It was an aerial hidden Mickey. GCT is the mouth. The hat was build later where the nose is located. Even if they removed the hat, the hidden Mickey is long gone.
I have said as much before. The Hat takes on the same role when it reappears in Mickey's PhilharMagic where it it is now the object of Donald's greed.I have seen both. I think the structure of the hat itself as a "weenie" for the park is much better than the Chinese Theater. Maybe it's because I've gotten used to it, but the hat doesn't annoy me as much as the wand used to on spaceship earth.
That being said though, I don't like the message behind the hat from the original Fantasia. In the sorcerer's apprentice scene, the hat represented a symbol of selfishness, power, and greed. Mickey used the hat to bring a broom to life so that he wouldn't have to carry water like his master asked him to. But Mickey could not control the power of the hat and things went down hill from there.
While I do agree the asthetic structure of the hat at the end of Hollywood Blvd does seem more "Disney-like" than the Chinese Theater, I'm not a fan of the park's icon being represented by a hat that elicits the notion of power and sophomoric behavior. That doesn't seem very "Disney-like" to me. So if we are going to have a big overhaul/expansion of DHS in the near future, the hat has to go, IMO. And then as others have suggested, the water tower, or ToT should be the park's icon into the future.
I still fail to see how a prop from a Disney film makes the area more "Disney." It only works if the baseline for measuring "Disney" is dismissive of themed entertainment as a "real" creative medium. Would the Hat or another film prop be more "Disney" than the Carthay Circle Theater at Disney's California Adventure?
At the Disneylands, the respective Castles take the place of the large civic structure that typically defined the end of American Main Streets, just as another edge was defined by the railroad. Instead of a church or court house, we see the Castle, the civic becoming the romantic and the fantastic. While this was not the case with Hollywood, you're right that Weis were cognizant of Main Street, USA's success and replicated that for the Disney-MGM Studios. But the Disney-MGM Studios were not about creating a self-referential "Disney" experience. Yes, California Crazy could have been a means of presenting the Hat or some other object in the style appropriate to the time and place, but it does not really speak to a romantic notion of Hollywood where the Castle pushes the romantic townscape towards fantasy. The Chinese Theatre is a movie palace, it literally is a castle dedicated to cinema.I compare DHS's layout to that of the Magic Kingdom. Main Street represents a street in a small town. There is no "Disney-like" props or film adaptations associated with it, aside from the gift shops inside. But on the outside, it looks like a regular town in the real world. What separates Main Street from the real world and what makes so great is the icon at the end of it, Cinderella's Castle. That is the Disney presense that makes the park unique and makes Main Street feel like home.
Removing the hat to reveal the Chinese Theater takes away some of that disney magic. Imagine walking down Main Street with the Train Station at the end of it. That's not a weenie, and yes, to me that makes the area feel less "Disney-like" despite the great themes.
But as a hypothetical, would the Carthay Circle Theater have worked better at the Disney-MGM Studios than the Chinese Theatre? If so, why?And DCA has these new attractions that will influence me to go beyond the Carthay Circle Theater, which is why it's not as big of an issue out west, IMO.
I agree with this. I know a lot of people are all about the history of the theatre, but that's not a Disney icon and it's not Disney history. For me Mickey's sorccer hat is a representation of the great Mickey Mouse and the history of the Disney movies not just a hat he wore in a movie once. To me it represents Disney's Hollywood Studios.
How does it fit as an icon? What does it have to do with Hollywood? Production? It is part of a short cartoon included in a feature that even many Disney fans are not too keen on actually watching. Why not a giant Steamboat Willie Hat? Or a giant version of Rosebud? Or a giant Umbrella? Or a giant anything that has appeared in a film of some note?
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