Walt Disney
was a dreamer, who found the ways and means to realize his exceptional
creative ideas. From animation he moved easily to television,
and then to theme parks, with great success. The jewel of the
Disney empire, Disney World, is today the world's largest and
most-visited recreational resort.
Building
on mundane amusements such as the "Tunnel of Love"
boat ride, and the "Fun House" with cars running along
tracks, he expanded and sophisticated these experiences. He
went on then to imagine and create wholly different sorts of
amusing experiences, upon which subsequent Imagineers
have continued to expand and develop with new technologies.
But as
he liked to say, it all began with a mouse.
Defining
theatre broadly, I see Disney parks as environmental theatrical
experiences. Guests are immersed in carefully designed spaces
- indoors and outdoors - which create a heightened sense of
reality and an intoxicating environment of unreality. Cast Members
- including every Disney employee on the multiple properties
- are trained in hospitable guest relations.
Ken Dresser,
a Washington friend of mine who was a contract designer for
Disney over many years, said that in creating any space in one
of the parks, a routine practice was to consider in detail exactly
what a guest would see and experience in every direction: north,
south, east and west -- no matter where the guest was standing
at any given time.
Walt
himself conceived of the parks as film sets, carefully constructed,
painted, and furnished down to the smallest prop and detail,
ready for a close-up shot.
The Disneys: Lillian, Walt, Ruth, Roy Edna
Most people
think first of "Disney" as for children. Perhaps it
is the child in me, but I revel in the highly detailed and colorful
spaces which the parks assemble to make a heightened, carefree,
magical world, more attractive, more energetic, cleaner and
happier than "everyday" life.
It's not
reality, but that is the point: it provides a delicious imaginative
escape from the traffic, the cares, and the often colorless
routine of "real" life. We have Walt Disney to thank
for those reinvigorating holidays.
This link
leads to a treasure trove of Disney videos:
Image
- Walt Disney at Desk - Image Not Found 7/2012
Image
- Animated Mickey - Image Not Found - 7/2012
Image - Disney Family - Nerd
Wars
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