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| -Short Attention Span Theater- |
| Correspondent Frightened by Micky Mouse |
| 2005-07-30 |
| I have been to Walt Disneyâs first theme park in China and I can report that it is the scariest place I have been since I visited North Korea a few years ago. The US entertainment giant recently threw open the gates of Hong Kong Disneyland to the media, nearly two months ahead of its official opening. The tour, featuring free burgers and fries and a ride on Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, was presumably intended to convert cynical journalists to Disneyâs all-American entertainment philosophy. Instead, it created a slightly uneasy feeling of pervasive control. From the phone calls the day before the visit (âPlease be prompt! The buses will leave for the park at 12:45pm promptly!â) to the marching orders of the impossibly cheerful Disney employees who greeted us at the park, Mickey directed my every move. When I wandered off Main Street, lined with gingerbread-trim shops, a beaming Disney staffer stopped me, raising her arms like a policewoman at a crime scene. Elsewhere, grinning Disney employees formed human blockades to prevent journalists straying to off-limits attractions. It reminded me of being tailed by my minders in Pyongyang. Disneyâs control extended even to language. There were no meals during our tour, only âfood experiencesâ. We did not ride the Astro Blasters, we had an âattraction experienceâ. It was not a photo opportunity, but a âspecial momentâ when Bob Iger, Walt Disneyâs president, Jay Rasulo, president of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, and Angela To, Hong Kong Disneylandâs âambassadorâ, said a few words and posed for the cameras, surrounded by men and women dressed like cartoon characters. That âspecial momentâ felt eerily similar to the cheerful authoritarianism displayed in certain aspects of communist propaganda. Chinaâs rulers know well the value of such staged events, the filmed handshake with an aggrieved peasant, the face-to-face chat with a group of laid-off workers. How far off, I wondered, was Disneyâs script? I am not the first to chafe at Disneyâs rules. A French labour union took Euro Disney, 40 per cent owned by Walt Disney, to court in the early 1990s for requiring its staff to sign up to a dress code that banned beards and moustaches. Nor is Disney alone in its appropriation of language: Starbucks spokesmen in Hong Kong recently referred to âflavour profilesâ and the âbandwithâ of its menu. Iâve got nothing personal against Disney: I wore my Mickey ears as a little girl. Perhaps the companyâs recent boardroom wrangles have made it more sensitive to media criticism. Queried about its heavy-handed approach, Disney insists the visit was ânot really that carefully managedâ and that its employees were only trying to move reporters through the park as efficiently as possible. That statement, however, suggests that Disneyâs new venture will fit in perfectly in China. A stellar example of snide reporting. |
| Posted by:too true |
| #5 I guess being a Mickey Mouse writer distorts your perspective. |
| Posted by: Jackal 2005-07-30 23:27 |
| #4 Barb.... getting a holding page on yur link there. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-07-30 17:10 |
| #3 And a damned fine hobby it is, too, Robert! :-D |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2005-07-30 12:28 |
| #2 A French labour union took Euro Disney, 40 per cent owned by Walt Disney, to court in the early 1990s for requiring its staff to sign up to a dress code that banned beards and moustaches. God forbid anyone require the French to groom. AFAICR, Hong Kong Disney staff are still being trained. At Disney World in early June, there was a group of trainees beginning their orientation -- I wouldn't have known what was going on, but a niece of mine is working there this summer and filled us in. It makes sense to me that, for a press preview, two months before official open, there'd be a smaller than normal staff and restricted access. But, hey, I don't get paid to be an arrogant, snarky bastard. (It's only a hobby.) |
| Posted by: Robert Crawford 2005-07-30 11:41 |
| #1 I have been to Walt Disneyâs first theme park in China and I can report that it is the scariest place I have been since I visited North Korea a few years ago. Oh, were the patrons eating bark off the trees? Or was it all the giant images of the Great Leader Walt in every building [removed upon penalty of death]? Classical trash which underplays the real suffering of millions of people in the left's alternate view of the universe. And the left accuses the non-left at the drop of a hat of being insensitive. |
| Posted by: Sholuth Ulomonter3734 2005-07-30 10:34 |