Rebecca Finnerty Dr.

Guenzel ENC 1102 3/31/14 The Disney Standard: Setting the Bar

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A family trip to Walt Disney World is one of the most cherished memories for an American child. Whether it be a meet and greet with a character or a thrilling ride on one of the many famous attractions, most children will look back on their interactions with Disney with admiration and fondness. The Walt Disney Company spends millions each year in order to maintain the level of authenticity and staged reality that is offered in their many theme parks around the world. In this paper I will be focusing on the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida. I will be looking at how the Walt Disney Company set the bar for fantasy and reality, and constantly makes strides to raise it further. Before looking into how Disney has created the norm for fantasy we must first look at fantasy itself and how children and adults perceive it. It is true that there were fantasy figures existing in the minds of children before Disney was in existence. These figures include such entities as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy. Elizabeth A. Boerger theorizes that the children may hold beliefs in these entities due to the association with a reward when they awake in the morning i.e. Santa Claus delivering presents and the Tooth Fairy leaving money in exchange for a tooth. These such ideas of fantasy were directly given from the prompts of an adult who created these entities. And although children do see and interact with these characters it is not to the level that they interact

Finnerty 2 with the Disney characters. For example when going to meet Santa Claus you are not taken to the North Pole, the home of Santa, to meet him. With the Disney characters the child is literally immersed in the environment of the character reinforcing the reality of their existence. Nathalie Carrick and Jodi A. Quas state children who engage in large amounts of fantasy play may confuse the boundaries between fantasy and reality. These children who are exposed to both the films and the parks could continue to believe that this fantasy is the reality of every day life. Children specifically have fantastical imaginations that reach realms that we cant even comprehend. For example a child fantasy playing as a magic being knows that in reality there is no such thing as magic, however they still will insist that what they are pretending is reality and they are a source of magic. The creation of fantasy within the theme parks must start with the companys main purpose, to make films, and more specifically animated films. These revolutionary films took audiences outside the realm of the reality of the normal world and were the flagship to a whole new manner of story telling. The Disney brands quickly became an integral part of our society taking over the work of entertainment. Alan Bryman defines Disneyization as a process by which the principles of the Disney theme parks dominate more and more sectors of society. Since its inception the Walt Disney Company has been growing exponentially from an animation studio to a leader in the world of entertainment. This Disneyization has transformed ideas of fantasy into realities of fantasy. Disney has created a product were you can not only watch your idea role model

Finnerty 3 on the screen and learn their story, but meet them within their fantasy world. The Disney princess brand its on of the strongest marketing campaigns in the history of the company. Dawn Elizabeth England, Lara Descartes, and Melissa A. Collier-Meek state The advertising campaign aims to attract a wide audience of girls with the ultimate goal of encouraging children to personally identify with the characters so that they will purchase the associated products. Disney presents their idea of the perfect princess and role model for little girls and markets them accordingly. They make millions off this brand and continue to expand it. There have been arguments for years about the messages that these model women leave on young impressionable girls. These children are making these fantasys their realities and many dont want their children to be affected by the accused racism and gender inequality of these princesses.