News The Hall of Presidents closing for refurbishment on January 20, 2025

Casper Gutman

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
Quite frankly, this attraction was always flawed. Presidents are servants of the American people, they are not meant to be the manifestations of the state. AA and even CoP are much superior representations of the way Americans traditionally thought about themselves (making no claims for accuracy). Glorifying the chief executives was always a bad idea.

Shut it down and bring in the Muppets.
 
Brian

Brian

Well-Known Member
Casper Gutman said:
Quite frankly, this attraction was always flawed. Presidents are servants of the American people, they are not meant to be the manifestations of the state. AA and even CoP are much superior representations of the way Americans traditionally thought about themselves (making no claims for accuracy). Glorifying the chief executives was always a bad idea.

Shut it down and bring in the Muppets.
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HoP doesn't glorify the chief executives as much as it glorifies the office of the presidency, at least when it comes to the current presentation. Certain presidents are deserving of our's and future generations' gratitude, hence why we build monuments in their honor, name schools, roads and airports after them, and yes, tell their stories through cultural institutions like Walt Disney World.

There are certainly ways to be less congratulatory towards the presidents themselves, and to place less of a focus on the politics of the day and focus more on the more widely respected and admired POTUSes of the past, but I do think that, on balance, the presentation is still appropriate.
 
Dranth

Dranth

Well-Known Member
Brian said:
HoP doesn't glorify the chief executives as much as it glorifies the office of the presidency, at least when it comes to the current presentation. Certain presidents are deserving of our's and future generations' gratitude, hence why we build monuments in their honor, name schools, roads and airports after them, and yes, tell their stories through cultural institutions like Walt Disney World.

There are certainly ways to be less congratulatory towards the presidents themselves, and to place less of a focus on the politics of the day and focus more on the more widely respected and admired POTUSes of the past, but I do think that, on balance, the presentation is still appropriate.
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It shouldn't glorify the office either if we wanted to stick with the real founding principles.

That aside, the company has to deal with the realities of the here and now and in that respect the HoP is a waste of space in the busiest park in the world that is frequented mostly as a nap in the AC by the few people who even bother to walk in. Top it off with it having one of the worst ratings of all attractions in the park that aren't already being replaced and I can't imagine it is long for this world.

Put in the Muppets. Turn it into something more educational on how the government works as a whole. Keep it fun and light so families can enjoy it and it will become a much bigger people eater.
 
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Brian

Brian

Well-Known Member
Dranth said:
That aside, the company has to deal with the realities of the here and now and in that respect the HoP is a waste of space in the busiest park in the world that is frequented mostly as a nap in the AC by the few people who even bother to walk in. Top it off with it having one of the worst ratings of all attractions in the park that aren't already being replaced and I can't imagine it is long for this world.

Shut it down in a few years to avoid the majority of the conspiracy theorists who would try to twist it being changed into some plot and then put in the Muppets. Turn it into something more educational on how the government works as a whole. Keep it fun and light so families can enjoy it and it will become a much bigger people eater.
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I can't argue with that from a business sense. All I'll say is that I very much personally appreciate it, and will miss it when it inevitably is dumbed down into some new "activation" after 47 focus groups tell them which IP to use to sell the most merch and Disney+ subscriptions.
 
Karakasa

Karakasa

Well-Known Member
The whole mythologizing of the presidential office and its previous holders is an interesting facet of American culture. I suppose it can be attributed to the fact the American nation really only developed in a world where secularism and scientific thought was becoming more popular, thus meaning any creation myth of the nation necessarily could not involve actual deities. The founders, humanist believers in the power of Man, would blanche! Hence why they themselves have become, in a way, sort of our creator gods, and by extension, the president a Zeus-like figure, Washington himself literally being depicted as such on the capitol rotunda, attended to by Roman gods and Columbia.

We can see this religion-like (but obviously, not outright religious) reverence in how Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln was initially received by the public before they got to see it. They had no issue with Jungle Cruise as a ride, or Carousel of Progress as a concept. But Lincoln was a step too far. It horrified a lot of people. Some thought it would inherently be a mockery of Lincoln, while others thought it was wrong to try to "play god". It's ironic now that some think taking away the Hall of Presidents may come off as disrespectful to the office, when in the 60s, the very reverence of the presidents meant the idea of creating one was horrible.

Like, seriously, no other nation does this with their modern-era office holders. There'd never be a French or Japanese Hall of Prime Ministers, you know? They have their own larger than life, heavily mythologized-but-real figures... but, they're either ancient history and best understood to most non-historians as on the level of fairy tales, or are as critiqued as they are revered. Any criticisms of presidents pre-1950s, arguably pre-Bush, are still stonewalled by both sides of the aisle.

Politics becoming more contentious is uncomfortable, certainly, even if it's more in line with how the rest of the democratic world works. It also leads to an attraction like Hall of Presidents becoming, frankly, outdated. There are probably as many people now who disrespect literally any national-level American politician as much as those who revere "the Presidency", but either way, see themselves as patriotic or otherwise loving their country or community.

I get why people don't want it to go outside of mere reverence for the post - it's another attraction that was an idea of Walt's. But it's arguably already morphed enough away from that original idea, and the attraction he oversaw is still running over in Disneyland. I agree that AA is a better investigation and celebration of the American identity than the HoP is. An attraction in that vein is a great idea, with or without the Muppets, though having the Muppets would imo make it not just a better fit for Magic Kingdom, but differentiate it from AA. It helps the Muppets along with Mickey and Friends are the IPs I most don't mind being cross-park, given how easy it is to slot both groups of characters into any sort of role or setting. It feels less like "you want the full experience, you gotta go to ALL OUR PARKS" and more "hey, look who's here too!"
 

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