Word: disneyized
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...absolute center of Florida is the Magic Kingdom of Disney World. In this well-designed universe, built for Carter's new crusade, incongruity is eliminated. Photographers there find it hard to catch anything off-guard, because it is so well-planned. Even J.H. Bigham ("a cripple like yourself") wouldn't have any trouble getting around or getting "the best cuts of meat, etc." In the center of Mouseville is the hall of the American presidents where 38 life-sized electronic dummies nod and fold and unfold arms while the Battle Hymn of the Republic plays on the sound system...
Picture Window. Like Disney, Portman has turned his fantasies into profit. From one of his Atlanta office towers, he rules a series of enterprises. John Portman & Associates is an architectural firm that designs buildings and oversees their construction. Portman Properties acquires land for new projects and finds financing for them. Other smaller companies operate buildings-Portman owns an estimated $250 million worth in Atlanta, Los Angeles and San Francisco-and buy furnishings for them...
Were this carapace the whole story, Turtle Diary could pass as standard Disney scenario: unattached, eccentric adults involved in a quixotic caper because of their love for animals. William himself realizes that the turtle heist is "the sort of situation that would be ever so charming and human in a film with Peter Ustinov and Maggie Smith." But he has a significant cavil: "That sort of film is only charming because they leave out so many details, and real life is all the details they leave...
Still it was not a perfect Traviata. Created nine years ago by Director Alfred Lunt and Designer Cecil Beaton, this production has Violetta's bedroom looking like a barn in winter-something Walt Disney might have conceived in homage to Charles Addams. Because the windows are so high and remote, the poor girl cannot even get to the win dow to watch the revelers in the last act. The current stage director, Fabrizio Melano, has not really resolved all the old problems: the Baron's challenge to Alfredo in Act III, for example, comes off much too tame...
...breathing fire and smoke, minces aggressively across the stage like Milton Berle in the wrong costume, and rolls his eyes soulfully as he is speared by the Queen's three ladies. Later, Tamino and his flute charm a whole stageful of forest creatures who look like plush Walt Disney cartoons. Bergman interpolates respectful self-assertions wherever he can, small tugs on the sleeve to remind us that while we're appreciating Mozart we should be noticing him, too. During the overture he weaves shots of his audience into a vast mosaic of human faces (cutting to the beat...