I know the audience appeal of a take like this might be narrower than normal, but it needs to be said. I grew up admiring the late Walt Disney. In my childhood, I loved the Goofy: How to Ski cartoons and the Disney Halloween Treat television special. The nature programs, Merlin Jones movies, Blackbeard's Ghost, and Flight of the Navigator were a huge part of my elementary years.
I still remember our first trip to Disney World as a family, staying in Fort Wilderness, floating across the Skyride with Grandpa, making my Granny ride Big Thunder Mountain with me at least 10 times in a row. I got two souvenirs from that trip - a small, stuffed Mickey Mouse, and a play musket from the Pirates of the Caribbean store.
Those nostalgic memories are great, but my appreciation for Walt Disney as a visionary, risk-taker, and entrepreneur is more than mere sentimentality. In many ways, the man was a genius. Quirky and odd? Sure, but most of us are in our own way. Yet in a world of corporate conformity, boardroom obsession over the bottom line and profit margins, Disney was an imaginative, creative executive who embodied the George Bernard Shaw quote famously plagiarized by Robert F. Kennedy: "Some men see things as they are and ask, ‘Why?' I dream things that never were and ask, ‘Why not?'"
I have great admiration for people like that. And that's why watching the current state of the Disney company as little more than a corporate behemoth focused on peddling whatever entertainment smut, pandering to whatever depraved demographic, and cutting any corners they must in order to make another dollar is so maddening.
Typically, whenever the state of Disney comes up in conversation, the discussion gravitates towards the company's abandonment of their founder's family friendly approach. "Walt would be turning over in his grave," we say as Disney execs brag about using their new animated features to indoctrinate young kids into the LGBT alphabet cult.
I don't intend to diminish the accuracy of such an observation or downplay the importance of shaming the House of Mouse for their intentional promotion of gender nonsense. I'm just saying the betrayal of Disney values goes beyond morality, and it too deserves condemnation.
For instance, the company recently revealed their long-term construction plans for their theme parks. Part of it is razing over half of the "Frontierland" section of Magic Kingdom and re-theming it … to Cars Land.
Am I the only one that sees the asininity in such a plan? Frontier? Cars? How much more can you signal your contempt for the giants upon whose shoulders you stand? Here was Walt Disney himself at the original opening of Frontierland in Disneyland:
Frontierland: It is here that we experience the story of our country's past -- the color, romance, and drama of frontier America as it developed from wilderness trails to roads, riverboats and civilization; a tribute to the faith, courage, and ingenuity of our hearty pioneers who blazed the trails and made this progress possible.
Yes, and nothing encapsulates such a tribute to pioneer life quite like flashy sports cars ripping around hairpin curves on asphalt-paved roadways. Good grief.
To be sure, there's nothing new about this stupidity. The decision by Disney a few years back to march into their iconic World Showcase, torch a boat ride through Norwegian historical lore, and fill that vacuum with make-believe princess sisters of a fairy-tale land called Arendelle was equally egregious. But hey, Anna and Elsa Frozen dolls sell a lot better than Viking costumes, and that's what marks real success, right?
Gone is imagination, leaving a perfect void for greed to fill.
A few of us still remember how different Disney used to be, and can attest to the fact that yes, Walt is spinning in his grave.
