IN DEFENSE OF DISNEY

by Donn B. Murphy

Mickey Mouse is a popular whipping boy! When the Walt Disney Company revealed plans for a patriotic park in Virginia, all hell broke loose: pontifical historian David McCullough rushed to the battlements, proclaiming that an entertainment enterprise in Virginia
would befoul lands anywhere near the battlefields which keep us reminded of this country's unfortunate, ignominious, brutal and bloody Civil War. Michael Eisner caved and the plans were scuttled.

After four days of trooping through the Washington monuments, museums
and halls of Congress, multitudes of school children would surely have mightily enjoyed some inspiring Disney-designed lessons in citizenship, patriotism and pleasure, but that was not to be. I suspect they would remember Disney's Abraham Lincoln as favorably as the Lincoln Monument

Further, they could enjoy a visit with all of the presidents, hearing
Mr. Obama and others speak on the merits of patriotism
and good citizenship. Surely Mr. McCullough would approve of that.

Disney opponents rail constantly against the purported vulgar, expensive and gaudy commercialism of the theme parks and the repetitive music
of It's a Small World (they have a point on the latter complaint - the song's repetition is pretty maddening).

The down-scaled but detailed replicas of such iconic structures as France's Eiffel Tower and Beijing's Temple of Heaven are enjoyed
by many park visitors who will never have the opportunity to visit
the originals, but these attractions are disparaged by some affluent tourists, who are lucky enough to have traveled the world.

Is Disney's 1/10-size replica more offensive than a small model of the Tower, or a painting, photo or etching? It seems selfish for the well-traveled to denigrate these lovely simulacrums which give pleasure to many, many Disney guests.

One father grouses at length on his website about his agony on previous Disney trips and the upcoming visit he must soon endure. One would think his family could leave him happily at home.

Of course there are inevitably long lines, but with increasingly imaginative and themed waiting queues, some with computer interaction devices, plus larger ride capacities and the efficient FastPass, the management is addressing this challenge.

The story that Walt Disney imagined and designed his first park with no focus on profit seems to be valid. He reputedly mortgaged everything including his home to get the project off the ground, and at every turn he opted for the most expensive and luxurious designs and building materials.

His insistence on quality continues to this day, when Disney designers create with virtually unlimited freedom, imagination and resources.
A friend of mine, Ken Dresser, designed the floats for the original Electric Parade. He was later commissioned to make an updated version
for Tokyo Disneyland. He told of a meeting many years ago at which then-Disney-Chair Michael Eisner said that he must design so that the parade would cost "absolutely no more than $50 million." Disney is not cheap.

Quality continues to be a Disney by-word. The same designer told me that in originally seeking a contractor for balloons, Disney solicited bids and samples from a number of suppliers. The samples were taken into
the California desert, inflated, and timed. The supplier of the balloons which lasted the longest in the burning sun got the enormous contract
to supply the parks, "so that no child would be disappointed by a balloon breaking."

Walt saw the theme parks as an adventure - a three-dimensional extension of Disney films. For that reason he called all employees Cast Members
and charged them with being a proactive part of the adventure which guests would experience. A first requirement of Cast Members
is a pleasant, smiling relationship with the guests. For some cast members, this may be a faux pleasantry, but for most, and probably
the great majority, the cast-guest relationship is genuinely friendly
and helpful, and enjoyed by the cast members as well as the guests. Extroverts and "people who like people" would logically gravitate toward these roles, and the most-outgoing would end up in the most intense interaction with the guests. The resort greeters, who spend the day welcoming guests and answering questions, would almost have to "love their jobs" in order to perform them well.

One seemingly indefensible situation involves the abandoned "Treasure Island" resort that Disney built in Baker's Bay, in the Bahamas
on a beautiful Caribbean island. Known to the locals as the "Ghost Town" on one of the Abacos islands, it was used as a Disney cruise-ship stop-over. However, implacable tides which required continuous dredging
of the beach, plus an inadequate supply of indigenous labor, caused Disney eventually to abandon the island.

Decaying theatre seating and a stage await performers, an audience
and a performance.

A bottle is left on a bar, but the cooler isn't cooling.

The buildings and other structures are now trashed and derelict.
One hopes that Disney didn't just sail away, leaving the debris behind, but perhaps thought that a successor would find a use for the $30-million semi-developed infrastructure on the property. Vandals have made that now unlikely.

Disney cruise ships now stop at Castaway Cay.

 

[Treasure Island information is from the I-Mockery website.