The Disney Imagineers have always considered their primary job to be telling a story. They design the guest experience in a method that they refer to as “The Art of the Show.” That principle has led to some techniques used at the parks that were originally intended for film (senior Imagineer John Hench was particularly fond of comparing his profession to moviemaking) and just capturing the magic of the moviegoing experience in general. Amazingly, Disney Imagineers have been able match and in many ways surpass the experience of watching your favorite movies.
1. You get to see your favorite characters
This is a pretty obvious one. When you enter the Disney parks, you spend time with the characters you love from your favorite Disney movies. A child will often find as much delight in meeting Buzz Lightyear at a Disney park as they do watching a movie featuring Buzz for the first time. Buzz’s presence at the Disney parks will warm a children’s hearts as much as when he’s soaring to infinity and beyond on the big screen. In a movie you and your family get to watch a beloved character go on a journey. At the Disney parks you are, in a very real way, a part of those characters’ journeys. If you’re with kids, those children may believe that the cast members dressed as Ariel from The Little Mermaid and Elsa from Frozen are literally on their way to their next adventure, only pausing briefly to take photos with some their biggest fans.
2. Elaborate theming and a rich atmosphere
3. Extreme attention to detail
Many of the best Disney films have some really great easter eggs. If you’re watching Wreck-It Ralph, for example, pausing it for long enough will bring popular host Chris Hardwick to your screen to talk about the many nods the movie gives to its video game roots. That kind of acknowledgement is fun, but I think the Disney parks do an even better job than the most stuffed-with-extras Disney DVDs. The proliferation of Mickey Mouse icons at the Disney parks is probably the most convincing example. Nobody in the world (probably not even any Imagineer!) knows the exact number of Mickey Mouse symbols in the Disney parks, because Disney’s devotion to adding extra joy and mystery for theme park fans outweighs the need to keep an exact tally.
4. Everything feels BIG
When you’re watching a movie it feels like everything is on a huge scale, even when it’s stuff we experience regularly in real life. For example, a simple kiss can resonate widely with an audience, and a basic break-up can break their hearts. That’s part of the magic of movies: their ability to make you connect with events in them as much as or more than you do with events in your real life. That’s hard to match, but I think the Disney parks do a great job at competing with the feeling. All of the emotions that came from viewing your favorite Disney movies comes to a head when children (and adults!) get to meet the characters who went through those exciting trials and tribulations. The Disney parks even make the experience feel big in a technical fashion with something innovative called forced perspective. Many of the castles at the Disney parks feel larger-than-life in part because the design technique with which the Imagineers play with the scale of an objects in order to affect the viewer’s perception of their sizes.
5. You’re immersed in the world
The very best movies absolutely immerse you in the world they’ve formed. Disney park fans have a predisposition to hate everything related to Avatar, for a lot of very valid reasons, but I hope they would admit that, if they saw the movie on the big screen, they found themselves fully enveloped in the three-dimensional CGI world of Avatar. Avatar is a particularly tough movie to compete with in that regard, but considering its director is involved in the World of Pandora at the Animal Kingdom chances are the theme park will measure up. Especially since the rest of Walt Disney World and the other Disney parks offer up such an immersive experience for its guests.
It’s also worth noting that, as cool as 3D can be, you can never actually shake a character’s hand. At the Disney parks, meanwhile, hugs from your favorite character aren’t uncommon. With a movie IMAX you don’t get to actual eat at the restaurants the characters of a movie frequent. At the Disney parks you do that and more. Another thing you don’t get to do at the movies is experience the story with all five senses. The Disney parks capture you with them all, even smell! Main Street, U.S.A. captivates you with fresh-baked cookies. You’re not going to get a sensory experience like that at the movies.
What do you think? How do the Disney parks fare up against the Disney movies? Share your thoughts on Theme Park Tourist’s Facebook page and in the comments below!
