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Hahahaha.
I will gladly work on this thread, since for a period of about eight years Disney sunks their hooks into my soft brain tissue and squeeeezed. They really could do no wrong in my mind, and I defended their actions vigorously to others, not because I stood to directly gain by their success but because I hoped that one day I might hitch my wagon to their monolith. That all came to an end when I was 19 or 20 and realized that really, no matter what sort of creative innovations I could deliver to them, I would probably receive minimal credit or compensation for that essential piece of my soul, not to mention that I had ambitions of projects that would be far too coarse or metaphysical for the nearly lowest common denominator they cater to. I still respect the organization in terms of the polish of their products, but whatever spirit I might have once detected in their output has dwindled to a bare minimum.
My stock is also worth shit now. So much for unstoppable juggernauts.
Really, the best of what Disney has brought to market in the last few years has come from without the organization, like the Pixar films and the short happy life of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire.
The upper offices of the Cinderella castle in DIsney World were originally intended to be private quarters for the Disney family, but as Walt expired fairly early in the property's development and his brother Roy apparently had too much of a life to live inside an amusement park (which one cannot say of the residents of Celebration City) they became simply administerial offices. Sort of pointless, I guess, since most of the administration happens underneath the damn parks anyway. I've been privy to some great stories about hosts doing the nasty while still in costume in that subterranean complex (and possibly in some more conspicuous places as well). The whole thing smacks of the grim yet superficially cheery world of the Oompa Loompas, don't it?
As to secret spots in Disneyland, there is of course the notorious Club 33, which lays beyond a plain door in New Orleans Square marked only with the number 33 (degrees of Masonry, anyone?). Now that one Walt *did* visit while alive, and often, as his death at 65 should amply demonstrate. It is supposedly the only place within the Magic Kingdom you can get alcohol; the trick, of course, is getting in in the first place...
Now as to disarming the Disney memes, what exactly are those, and are they necessarily something we want dismantled? Other than those crass ones which serve mainly to line Michael Eisner's pockets, ie Taiwanese sweatshops et al, is there something "bad" in the ways in which they portray hope, family, love and equality? I know they're not especially intellectualized, and may even at times defeat those aims by presenting them in too simple or whimsical light, but is there malice in that end of the beast? Let's not kill what we don't like; let's shape it into our tool. I've got my own ideas, but has anyone got anything more general? |
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