Word: disneyism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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CYBER CYCLONE: It's do-it-yourself coaster thrills on CyberSpace Mountain at DisneyQuest, the huge video arcade in Florida's Walt Disney World. Visitors design their own ride, including broken track and 360[degree] loops, then are strapped into a pitch-and-roll simulator for 90 seconds of disorienting fun. Fret not, coaster geezers: though you don't go far, you can still get motion sickness...
Considering their approach, it's surprising that Disney officials didn't call the place "Utopialand" and be done with it. But in choosing the tamer name of "Celebration," perhaps they sensed that the community would eventually have to make a transition from a town planner's dream to a regular suburban society, with real pitfalls and real problems. But can a place like Celebration, designed by the designers of fantasy worlds, truly succeed as a free-standing community...
...answer, for now, is no. The town government (mostly Disney officials) won't immediately let the residents take charge of certain aspects of their lives-everything from decorating rules to educational policy has been carefully determined by the town's founders. There's something disturbing when such uniformity results from a single corporation's vision. According to a recent New York Times report, one woman in Celebration had to remove red curtains from her window, since the only approved colors for curtains are white and off-white--pure, clean and uninvigorating. Eventually, if the people of Celebration are to establish...
...ideals of community and common values, which, on first thought, might be a comforting environment in which to settle down and raise a family. But it's not real- at least not yet-and at some point the children of Celebration will have to enter the real, non-Disney world, which will most likely seem both strange and scary. Celebration is a more extreme example of what Disney has done to Times Square in New York: it uses its own cultural power and prestige to turn public spaces into cartoonish playgrounds. Disney may have changed sordid Times Square...
These invasions of public spaces show that Disney aspires to dominate more than just the world of entertainment. Their projects are a kind of corporate imperialism, with Mickey Mouse and, especially, Goofy at the helm. And if Disney keeps up its conquests, it may soon prove what a small world it is after...