Disney Parks × Authenticity

About Disney Parks

Disneyland was opened in 1955 in Anaheim, California,USA. When the park opened,the park consisted of five areas: Main Street USA, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland.

In 1964,at the New York World Fair,Walt produced four pavilions;General Electric Company “Progressland”, Illinois provided “Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln”, Ford Motor Company provided “Ford’s Magic Skyway”, provided by Pepsi “It’s a Small World”. He developed Audio-Animatronics that combines audio, animation and electronics.  As its name suggests, it is a doll that acts like a living in a system that is electronically controlled to synchronize sound and movement.

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Walt later acquired a large site in Florida and planned to construct The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) as a “Florida Project”,but he passed away, and Magic Kingdom opened as Walt Disney World in Orlando,then  (Theme park) has opened in Orlando.

Disney considered the expansion of theme parks overseas but it was short of funds for EPCOT construction.  At that time,Tokyo Disneyland signed a license agreement with Oriental Land and opened on April 15,1983.  Paris Park in 1992,Tokyo DisneySea in 2001, Hong Kong in 2005,Disney Park in Shanghai in 2016 and currently operates seven resort 12 theme parks.

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Theme Show

Walt built it completely without compromising the Disneyland look.  The entrance, Main Street USA, recreates the town of Mercerine in Missouri, where Walt spent his childhood.  

Next,I will introduce Tokyo DisneySea’s Mediterranean Harbor as an easy-to-understand example.  From the open space where you can enter the park and go through the hotel,the sea spreads out on one side.  Here is Porto Paradiso.  It means “Port of Paradise” in Italian. In these places,greetings, costumes, background music and products are sold according to the theme. This was modeled after the Italian Portofino.

It is a fake that seems more real than the original.  It can be said that the rise of “hyper reality” is true.

However,this is a “crisis of originality of originality”and will lead to “targeted authenticity.”In a post-modern situation,globalization will accelerate and original privileges such as invariant ethnic culture will accelerate.  But it was difficult to be authentic.

Hideki Endo says Disneyland needs to be considered as an imaginary tourist destination.  Disneyland has always been designed to hide our everyday world in places that show us dreams.  In addition,there is always sending out the values ​​that the United States thinks carefully.  It is also necessary to capture the social,institutional and historical nature of the tourist destination of Disneyland.

Emergent Authenticity

Cohen defines “emergent authenticity”,which is the so-called dynamic authenticity associated with Greenwood’s definition of a process that “always builds itself” for emergent.  

For example,ceremonies,performing arts,and arts for visitors and tourists in the past,like “Inti Raymi”,which is a “replay” of ancient Inca customs in South America,Cusco,for example  It can be mentioned that it became a genuine thing of the ethnic group and the area. “The rising authority” is one manifestation of “the creation of tradition” for the wider phenomenon.

 At one point in time,the “tourism for tourists”and the novel new mechanism that had not been considered, under appropriate circumstances as the times went by, “authentic manifestation”of the local culture will be widely recognized as.

As an example of the process of becoming increasingly authentic, Disney Land in the United States is shown, he refers to Disneyland as the “special example of popular entertainment planned,” but artificial theme parks have passed through time. It is an important element of contemporary America, and in the future it has been written by historians and ethnographers that it will be “a genuine American tradition”

Discussion Question

• Do you agree with Disney Philosophy as tourism?
• Which would you like to go to original spot or hyper reality spot?
• Is Disneyland a true American tradition now?

References

• Bob Thomas “Walt Disney An American Original”(1974)
• 遠藤 英樹『ガイドブック的! 観光社会学の歩き方』(2007,春風社)
• 中村 純子『観光文化研究におけるオーセンティシティ論』