Imagineering Theory: The Disney Animated Canon And Area Themes, Part 3

I'm recovering nicely, thanks for asking.

But I'm still doing the rest of these movies.

Before I forget, Happy (Slightly Belated) Canada Day to my Canadian readers and Happy Independence Day to the Americans!

23. The Rescuers (1977)

Location: New Orleans Square

It takes place mostly in the Louisiana bayou and involves a search for pirate treasure. That's pretty much a slam-dunk in favor of New Orleans Square if you ask me. It's not the best movie for attraction-ifying in the first place, but at least there's a surprisingly good place to put it.

24. The Fox and the Hound (1981)

Location: Grizzly Peak?

I may end up catching flak for this, but my opinion of this film can be summed up as “Bambi, if Bambi were a fox, and also the movie sucked.” You can tell it's going for the same vibe, but there's just no substance and no guts. I literally can't think of anything about it to base an attraction on, even if they wanted to. But I guess if they came up with something, it would best go in Grizzly Peak, the same as Bambi.

25. The Black Cauldron (1985)

Location: Fantasyland

And the less said about this movie, the better, but you can't deny it's a definite match for an area theme. It does have a much darker aesthetic than Fantasyland as we know it, though...which is giving me an idea for a possible future post!

26. The Great Mouse Detective (1986)

Location: Fantasyland?

I'm torn here. On the one hand, the movie is based on an English children's storybook. If Alice and Peter Pan and Mr. Toad all get to be Fantasyland rides, why not this? But on the other hand...it's not really a fantasy. It has its elements of whimsy, to be sure—not least the fact that the characters are mice—but apart from that, it has a weight of realism that isn't present with the stories you usually expect to see replicated in ride form in Fantasyland. There's no magic, no Otherworlds, no toys coming to life. If they weren't mice, there would be little to distinguish this from one of the Sherlock Holmes stories which originally inspired it, though maybe with the grittier elements toned down. I can't say where it would work, if not Fantasyland, but it would be one of the odder choices.

27. Oliver & Company (1988)

Location: ???

This one has me completely stumped. It's another “classic English lit with animals” movie, so you'd think Fantasyland would be the place for it, but they changed the setting from Victorian England to 1980s New York City.* I'm not sure there's anywhere in the Disney theme parks that can support a setting like that. The American Adventure (Epcot) is too history-focused. Disney-MGM Disney-Hollywood Studios used to have a New York Street, but it got changed to Streets of America at some point and I think it might be something else again now? Anyway, I don't know how much New Yorkiness survives.

If only Animal Kingdom had an area focusing on pets and domestic animals. There is so much Disney material that would have a perfect home there.

28. The Little Mermaid (1989)

Location: Fantasyland/Paradise Pier

This Very Important Film clearly belongs in Fantasyland, and Disney knows it. It took them a while to add an Ariel “attraction”** to Disneyland, but when they did, they had the sense to put on a patch of real estate that was counted as part of Fantasyland. Where else would you put something like that?

Apparently...Paradise Pier. Because ocean. I understand that it fits the 1890s seaside amusement park atmosphere to have mermaids (and mermen) as design motifs, but it rather defeats the purpose to make them recognizable animated characters. The Little Mermaid is perhaps the most apt movie of the Disney Renaissance for a dark ride treatment and I'm glad it finally got one...but they really should have found room for it in Fantasyland.

29. The Rescuers Down Under (1990)

Location: Adventureland

I know, right? Australia isn't the sort of place usually associated with Adventureland, but especially in the context of this movie, it definitely works—wild and remote and bursting at the seams with exotic animals. I would be all over a ride that was about combing the Outback in search of Marahute, who is the sort of cryptid we need more of in modern folklore: breathtaking and inspiring and beautiful.

30. Beauty and the Beast (1991)

Location: Fantasyland

Ho-hum. Another Princess fairy tale, another Fantasyland movie. Don't get me wrong, this is an awesome movie—maybe the objectively best one in the entire Disney Animated Canon to date—but there's really not much to say about its best placement for theming, is there? It's too obvious.

31. Aladdin (1992)

Location: Adventureland/Fantasyland

The official big Aladdin...uh, installation? Aladdin's Oasis isn't exactly an attraction and isn't even used as a restaurant anymore...is in Adventureland, and it works well enough because pseudo-Arabia is an exotic setting to American eyes. And there was precedent—the fortunetelling lamp in the Adventureland Bazaar pre-dates the film, which is why it's “Aladdin's (Other) Lamp” and looks so different from the one in the movie. It was just “Aladdin's Lamp” until there was a more iconic one to compare it to.

But! There are also some elaborate Aladdin set pieces in Storybook Land, and while they look a little odd compared to the other villages, they're not inherently ridiculous. The story does qualify as a fairy tale, just not a European one. I could go either way on this one.

32. The Lion King (1994)

Location: Adventureland

This movie, on the other hand, is definitely best suited to Adventureland. It's about megafauna of the African wilderness, which puts it pretty close to being Adventureland: the Movie (no, not that one) to begin with.

33. Pocahontas (1995)

Location: Frontierland

This one seems fairly obvious on the surface, but it's an inexact fit. Frontierland is set in the Westward Expansion period of American history, with the United States already firmly established, while Pocahontas is set near the beginning of British colonization of North America. But it's got Indians and there are precious few movies in this lineup that really work well with Frontierland, so Frontierland it is.

We're well into what I consider the “current epoch” of Disney animation at this point. Right around the release of Pocahontas, two things happened. First, Pixar entered the field of theatrical animation and immediately enjoyed success far beyond what Disney was getting with traditional animation at the time. This threw the older studio into what you might call a crisis of confidence, although it took a few more years to get to the end of their production cycles so that the crisis began to show. Secondly, control of Disneyland was handed over to Paul “Let's Make Everything a Disney Store” Pressler, and innovation at the park took a nosedive.

It's gonna be a rough couple of weeks...

* And it was oh-so-hip at the time, but jeezum crow, this thing looks dated nowadays.

** I dunno. Do permanent themed meet-and-greet areas count as attractions? Should they?