The Magic of Disney

Your Humble Blogger has had pretty good luck with Disneyland. I first visited the Magic Kingdom at about the right age, with older siblings to help guide the way, and enjoyed the Alice in Wonderland rides, the teacups, the Carousel, the People Mover, and the Adventure Thru Inner Space, along with the incredible Sense of Wonder that is the appropriate and childlike response to Mr. Disney’s incredible and detailed perfectionism. Walking in through Main Street USA and catching sight of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle caught me theatrically as a kid and spoiled me for other theme parks.

Then, later, as I grew older, Disneyland added stuff for older kids, particularly the big E-Ticket rollercoasters, Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain. They also got rid of the lettered tickets, which impoverished our national vocabulary but allowed teenagers with sharp logistical skillz (which in those days were called skills) to ride those rollercoasters a bunch of times in a day. Not that there’s much coasting in Space Mountain.

I went often enough to be familiar with the layout, and to have nostalgic favorites, but not often enough to take the whole thing for granted. And then I stopped going, right about the time they stopped putting in good things and started taking out all the things I liked. Well, not all the things I liked, but the People Mover and the Skyway. Inner Space was long gone. And they took out the old parking lot and put in an abominable anti-Disney park, and they added Mickey’s Toon Town for bairns too wee to go on Dumbo. But I didn’t experience any of that, because I wasn’t there.

Going back, last week, after more than ten years away, I was startled by how powerfully I felt the Sense of Wonder again. Waiting on Main Street USA for the park to officially open (and to head right for Peter Pan), I was giddy again with feeling of being immersed in Disney. And the odd thing, I realized for the first time, is that I never saw the Disney movies as a child, still have never seen most of them, and haven’t been really knocked out by the ones I have seen. The Disney magic works on me without making me feel like I’ve entered the movies; it’s enough that I’ve entered the stories.

Which, of course, brings me to Ghibliland. I was skeptical, as I’m sure my Gentle Readers all were. We’ve grown to accept that when things are Disneyfied they are ruined, and the stretch of bad management of Disneyland was long enough to justify that. And I’m sure that lots of people will hate it, although I suspect that most of those are people who don’t like the Magic Kingdom anyway, and so are missing nothing. For YHB, though, having been charmed once again by Fantasyland and Adventureland (where they are still making Bing Crosby jokes in the Enchanted Tiki Room), stepping into Ghibliland was like, well, like Mr. Disney would have wanted it to be. When I got onto the Catbus to go through the Totoro ride, I was as giddy as I was when I first went on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. I was jumping up and down when I saw the Baron character (he tipped his hat to me!). I went through the Spirited Away bathhouse three times, to make sure I didn’t miss anything (sooties!).

No, it wasn’t perfect. The Irontown ride from Princess Mononoke was too scary, and the Porco Rosso dogfight turned out to be a perfectly ordinary rollercoaster. The broomstick ride from Kiki’s delivery service was clearly copied from the Peter Pan ride over London, and didn’t deliver the Miyazaki flying thing. And I thought having the snack bar be the one from Spirited Away that turned Sen’s parents into pigs was in bad taste. Mmm, pig. I also was a little distracted by the cast members wearing the short-skirted schoolgirl uniforms, but perhaps that was just me.

Anyway, Disney did was Disney does, and what Disney does very well, which is to pay attention to detail, making sure that there isn’t anything in sight to jar you out of the fantasy. The lack of that fantasy is what makes the California Adventure so lame, and what makes Ghibliland fit in perfectly with Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Frontierland, Critter Country (which I still think of as Bear Country), Main Street USA, New Orleans Square, and even Mickey’s Toon Town. Oh, and I was asked: is Small World a part of Fantasyland, what with the dancing dolls, or is it a separate Land of its own?

chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.