【Disneyland】Disneyland (2/3) - The Secrets of the Attractions-

In a nutshell

1. Walt Disney, who worked tirelessly under his strict father, Elias, entrusted his innocent boyhood to Disneyland's "It's a Small World." Disney's passive folk belief can also be glimpsed in the song "When You Wish Upon a Star," which was written for "Pinocchio."
2. "Pirates of the Caribbean" was the last work that Walt Disney directly supervised. It is an attraction in which Disney's basic structure of "death and rebirth" is comically depicted in a bold composition that begins with the death of a pirate and in the midst of chaotic conversation.
3. Fantasyland, Adventureland, Tomorrowland. Disneyland became "the happiest place on earth," a sacred place for Americans.

Preface

Here is the previous article. It talks about the struggles of fundraising for Disneyland, which was met with a total rejection. 【Disneyland】Disneyland (1/3) - The Muddy Road to the Magic Kingdom-

This time, I would like to reveal the longing for Disney that can be glimpsed in the attractions of Disneyland, and the structure of Disneyland that has become a sacred place for Americans.

The reference book is still "Disneyland as a Sacred Place" (by Masako Notoro/Iwanami Shinsho). The stance of this book is not to praise Disney, but to try to unravel the structure of Disney from a neutral standpoint. It is a masterpiece that is full of discoveries when you read it. Well, it's a book from 1990 and it's being sold off as a used book now, but...

At the age of 10, he delivered newspapers, and Disney wished upon a star

Elias, Disney's father who had given up his farm, moved to Kansas City on the western edge of Missouri when Walt Disney was 10 years old and started a newspaper delivery business. It is said that Walt Disney was forced to help with newspaper delivery every morning and evening in the harsh climate of Kansas City, with its sandstorms and blizzards, and that he was whipped by his father if he made a mistake in his delivery.

Perhaps as a reaction to not being able to play at all during his childhood, Disney is said to have continued to have childish hobbies even as an adult, such as working on model locomotives and developing toys. His longing for an ideal world is clearly expressed as the basic structure of the movie works of Disney Studios.

The famous Disneyland attraction, "It's a Small World," was brought from the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, where it was produced by Disney Studios for the Pepsi-Cola Company. At that time, the first Disneyland was celebrating its 10th anniversary, and Disney, who was planning the second Disneyland, Disney World in Orlando, Florida, seems to have had a plan to work on attractions for various companies at the New York World's Fair and bring the ones that were well-received in test marketing to Disney World in Orlando as they were.

The "It's a Small World" attraction is, in a word, a miniature world tour by boat. The thorough stylization of the world begins from the queue waiting for the attraction. Various buildings and animals are depicted on three-dimensional murals, and electric dolls that pop out of Big Ben in England keep people from getting bored.

When you get on the boat, you are greeted by 300 electric dolls of children representing 100 regions of the world. The children's dolls are each wearing ethnic costumes and are playing instruments and singing as they please.

Initially, Disney had planned to have each doll sing the national anthem, but the plan was abandoned because the tunes were too different, and he commissioned the studio's exclusive composers, the Sherman Brothers, to compose the music. It was a difficult problem.

- A song with a universal theme that can be sung in any language and played on any instrument
- An exceptionally simple and easy-to-remember song

In response to this question, the Sherman Brothers composed the song of the same name, "It's a Small World," which consists of 32 bars. That familiar song is sung repeatedly during the 10-minute boat show.

In the finale, the language is unified to English, and the dolls are unified to a white color scheme, which corresponds to Disney's desire for regression, his longing for an innocent childhood, where nationality, ethnicity, and even parents were unknown. In Disneyland, the image of an ideal world is presented over and over again.

Do you know the song "When You Wish Upon a Star," which was written for the 1940 movie "Pinocchio"? If you excerpt some of the lyrics of this song, you will see a longing for an ideal world that is extremely dependent on others.

When you wish upon a star/Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires/Will come to you
If your heart is in your dream/No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star/As dreamers do
Fate is kind/She brings to those who love/The sweet fulfillment of/Their secret longing
Like a bolt out of the blue/Fate steps in and sees you through
When you wish upon a star/Your dreams come true

His last and strangest work, Pirates of the Caribbean

The New York World's Fair was a great success, and just as the construction plan for Disney World in Florida was about to get into full swing, Walt Disney passed away on December 15, 1966, from acute heart failure caused by lung cancer. He was 65 years old.

"Pirates of the Caribbean," which opened in Disneyland's Adventureland two months after Disney's death, is Disney's last and strangest work.

"Pirates of the Caribbean" was originally scheduled to open as a wax museum in a reproduction of New Orleans from 100 years ago on the banks of the Rivers of America, where the white steamboat Mark Twain sails, but the plan was abandoned at the New York World's Fair, and it was decided to open it as a completely different attraction.

As a result, it was decided to use the same flat-bottomed boat tour method as It's a Small World, and the designer who was immediately put in charge of designing the pirate attraction scoured related literature to create an image of pirates.

However, the reality was far from a dream. There were no pirates who died spectacularly in naval battles as people imagined, and the main cause of death at that time was sexually transmitted diseases contracted in the brothels of port towns. It was not a dream at all. The designers were焦った (flustered).

So they stopped researching the materials and decided to create it from the image of pirates that Americans had in their minds. Disney Studios had also depicted the confrontation between pirates and children in "Treasure Island" in 1950 and "Peter Pan" in 1953, and both were depicted attractively. The scene where Captain Hook, who had his arm torn off by a crocodile, confronts Peter Pan is familiar to children. Disney himself loved Mark Twain's novel "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," and he asked the designers to refer to it as well. The Tom Sawyer attraction still remains firmly in Disneyland today.

As a result, the completed Pirates of the Caribbean became a rare and strange work in the history of Disneyland, while having an orthodox story. The story is simple.

Cruel and ruthless pirates attack a port town

However, the direction and narration are unique (spoiler alert below). At the beginning of the attraction, the audience is in a dark cave and is addressed by a skeleton wearing a pirate's skull hat.

Are you looking for a pirate's adventure? Then this is the entrance. But don't forget that dead men tell no tales.

The inside of the cave is actually a water chute, and you fall into an underground world. There, all the pirates are skeletons, and there are dead skeletons and living skeletons. The reference is from Disney's macabre taste, taken from the 1929 short film "The Skeleton Dance." By the way, the reason it's a water chute right away is that it seems to have been designed because there wasn't enough space at the time because the railroad was above, but it has become a good trigger for the story's direction.

The next scene is a complete change, and it moves to a scene where the pirates attack a port town with a cheerful shout. In the midst of a fierce cannon battle, the pirate boss points his sword at the mayor of the port town and asks, "Where is the treasure?" In response, the mayor, with the encouragement of his wife's voice, "Don't you dare tell him!" confronts him, saying, "I'm not a coward, I'll never tell!"

The next scene moves to the pirates' banquet after they have taken over the port town. The sounds of a banquet can be heard from all over, and in one place, the women of the town, tied together with a rope, are being sold as human trafficking.

Come on, folks. How much will you pay for this beauty? Look at her strong body, fed on plenty of corn.

On the other hand, there is also a pirate who is being chased by a fat maid who is angry with him. Comical and cynical direction is performed everywhere.

The next scene is another cannon battle. Another pirate attacks the port town. The town is engulfed in flames, and while another pirate is making a ruckus, the original pirate is put in jail and begs from his cell for the dog to give him the key it is holding.

The entire attraction is about 15 minutes long. Looking back, you can see that the story structure of the pirates is reversed between the first and next scenes. Normally, the pirates would occupy the port town, make a fuss in the town they have taken, and then be attacked by another pirate and die, but it is depicted from the point where they die.

This strange story structure makes the audience feel uneasy about their understanding. To make matters worse, the scenes in various places are a storm of dialogue, and in reality, you can hardly understand what is being said. The lines I wrote above are actually almost inaudible. Disney was also aiming for that, and he said,

This attraction is like a cocktail party, and it's fine if the guests only hear snippets of dialogue here and there. Besides, if they don't understand what's being said, the customers who come to see the show will come back again and again, right?

It seems he saw right through it.

America's Sacred Place

In the castle where a medieval princess lives, there are witches and dwarves. Fantasyland.

On the Mississippi River, there is a world of western pioneering, with steamboats and Indians, Westernland. The attraction "Splash Mountain," which plummets down from the mountains, is based on the movie "Song of the South," and Critter Country is also included here.

Adventureland, where the jungle spreads out and you are attacked by hippos in the "Jungle Cruise."

Tomorrowland, which depicts the future and space. Space Mountain is famous.

This world, which is packed with all the dreams of a child, is packed with all the dreams that are common to the American public. The reason why Disneyland became a sacred place is not because of Disney's power, but because of the power of the American public itself.

In the 10 years after Disneyland opened in 1955, a quarter of the entire American population visited this place, and the repeat rate was 50% at the time, and has now reached 80%. The dream country that Disney himself dreamed of was, without a doubt, a dream country for everyone.

Aside (Recommended Book)

A recommended design book. It's packed with design tips that you can use forever. I use it often myself.