sockfire wrote:I don't see how adding 20+ new dolls subverts the substance.
I must back off a bit from my "stupid" comment. (I'm going with "intellectually bankrupt", which isn't the same thing at all.)
I was mostly objecting to the America room, as I thought it was over and above a previous interpretation of America. I remembered cowboys and Indians and Mounties, so I thought North America was covered.
I see now that this is in reaction to the omission of the USA, and I don't think adding it modifies the message of the attraction (although there was a clear choice to leave it out initially, and I'd be interested in the reasoning behind that). I have some qualms with the implementation, but the choices they made regarding the structure and flow of the attraction don't make them stupid.
I must say that I always thought the transition room before the finale was a bit sparse and a little tightening up of the "editing" would have benefitted the attraction.
Anyway, the original attraction portrayed all the cultures from a "neutral" standpoint, depicting them all in the same style. Obviously it's not entirely pure, as the style was set by a Western mind, but the effort to be neutral was evident.
The cartoon characters are all filtered through the lens of Disney films, which often abandoned the original intention of the stories. The Pooh of Disney movies is by no means the one Milne envisioned,
The Little Mermaid abandons the original ending, etc.
This is fine for films, where putting your own spin on an existing tale is common, but putting these bastardized characters into a completely different setting with a completely different goal is at best inconsistent and at worst offensive. Regardless of their source material, all of these characters are now considered "American". If you're going to specifically celebrate other cultures, then why pepper them all with Americanism?
But let's say you think the above is mumbo-jumbo. It is, as you say, subjective.
No one has yet answered the question of
why, artistically speaking, these characters were added. What do they add to the message?
We know Disney wanted something "new". OK, they are new. And I understand there is a style and they tried to conform these characters to that style. Fine.
But the attraction wasn't created because Walt wanted something that looked like it was made out of construction paper and pipe cleaners. Those are stylistic choices, yes, but this isn't about a simple expression of style. It's not fundamentally why the attraction exists.
Look, these days Imagineering is always talking about "story". What do these characters add to the story of the attraction?
Seriously, they are going to change stuff.
This isn't a blanket objection to change. Please stop mentioning this. It has nothing to do with this conversation.
...calling them stupid is not helpful, and it's going to get you ignored by the powers that be.
What's not helpful is defending something without thinking about it. TPTB stopped caring about or listening to people who think or care about this kind of thing ages ago, so that's not a significant concern, and it's not the issue on the table.
Maybe we should start from the beginning.
What do you think the message of the attraction is?
Do you feel that the message is now stronger, based on the addition of these characters?