Disney's Americana Problem

Comments · 807

• PO

  @PoseidonEntertainment · 2 months ago · pinned

  Quick correction: The American Adventure features Will Rogers, not Roy Rogers.

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• DR

  @Dragonrider1227 · 2 months ago (edited)

  The major problem is that I think modern Disney doesn't care about history or even proper immersive theming. They just want IP attractions that encourage people to buy merchandise of said IP

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• CH

  @ChromaFreude · 2 months ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BDoBMs0wRs&amp;t=1929">32:09</a> Native Americans are very much still present in Virginia and the mid-Atlantic. The Powhatan and other tribes have had to fight (and in many cases are still fighting) for federal and state recognition.

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• GR

  @grilledcheese4696 · 2 months ago

  I feel like if Disney’s America existed today, they’d start out with a recreation of the Alamo, then later put Woody from Toy Story or the cows from Home on the Range into it

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• RI

  @RileyGrossAK · 2 months ago (edited)

  I&apos;d much rather them attempt to teach about American history despite the more problematic elements then glaze over and pretend it never existed. I think the Western River Expedition should be built in a North America/Desert land in Animal Kingdom focusing on the animals of the west. And yes, we do REALLY want to hear your idea for Country Bear Splash Mountain.

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• SC

  @schnitzelmegapixel · 2 months ago

  people hate eisner but he was lowkey the goat. i like how he made everything kinda cheesey or campy and about learning, and i wish disney half attempted to go back to that. as a company theyre just so clearly scared of offending anyone and not being able to print stacks of cash.

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• AL

  @alekaythelion · 2 months ago

  Disney could really benefit for more education on rides. Shoving IP in every corner of the parks feels like a massive Disney+ advertisement.

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• TH

  @TheWaverunners · 2 months ago

  Thinking about the &quot;we won&apos;t put guest in chains&quot; line, I do find it a bit funny that a big part of &quot;Rise of the Resisitance&quot; is pretty much POW Simulator where you&apos;re bossed around by Imperial Officers and herded in to a cell and threatened with torture.

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• JC

  @JCBro-yg8vd · 2 months ago

  Warner Brothers got it right when they allowed their WWII Looney Tunes cartoons to be re-released. They put out a disclaimer and made it clear that the problematic history was being presented so we can learn from it. Trying to erase such history only dooms us to repeat it.

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• ZA

  @zacg_ · 2 months ago

  The issue is that you really can&apos;t blend history with entertainment without at some point choosing which is the priority. If you choose history without any filter then you&apos;ll either ruin the entertainment by bogging it down with the tragic side of history or you&apos;ll look like you&apos;re celebrating the tragic side by presenting it in an appealing way. I mean, think of the disagreement about the auction scene on Pirates. But at the same time, I don&apos;t think most people who wanted to keep the scene would have argued in favor of an African slave auction scene in early New Orleans. Disney is using pirates not as a vehicle to tell the authentic story of the 1700s in the Caribbean but as a fictionalized escapist dream. One could argue that they are therefore &quot;glossing over&quot; the ugly parts or erasing history. But if they went all in on factuality then it would be seen as celebrating brutality. <br><br>The fact is that most history represented in a theme park is in some way fictionalized and cleaned up to focus on the aesthetic. People like the aesthetic of pirates, just as they like the aesthetic of colonial America and the old west. It&apos;s not that they all live the immoral aspects or necessarily want to deny the reality of the tragedy (although some certainly do.) But they just want to enjoy the thing they like without having someone else bring up the down side. So you have to walk a fine line and I think that line is a moving target. <br><br>In 50 years our sensitivities could switch to saying that &quot;it was always unconscionable that there was ever a ride that celebrated robbers burning down a city and pillaging and murdering.&quot; Heck, in 100 years maybe even Darth Vader (a fictional character mind you) could be seen as the genocidal maniac that his character would have to be and people will say that we were monsters for representing him as some kind cool appealing figure in a theme park or on merchandise. To us we&apos;d say that&apos;s deliberately obtuse. But who is to say what the future will hold in terms of perspectives on morality in media representation.

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• KI

  @kirstenc4279 · 2 months ago

  Disney has made itself too much of a &quot;safe&quot; company to properly explore history

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• SA

  @sammagictv · 2 months ago

  &quot;we&apos;re not going to put people in chains&quot; -- Michael Eisner had such a way with words

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