We
can definitely start thinking
about Christmas music now.
Disney
sure loves its holiday overlays. Between Halloween and Christmas, and
counting parades and fireworks shows, there are no fewer than eleven
holiday-specific attractions in the Disneyland Resort.* Likewise,
quite a few music loops throughout the resort are seasonally replaced
with Christmas-y versions.
However,
there is one—attraction? sort of? let's call it an attraction-esque
feature—wherein the music is much of the point, yet it has never
been given this sort of temporary reskin. And this despite the fact
that the feature in question is so modular that creating and
executing a special version for the winter holiday season would be a
snap. I am referring, of course, to the lobby area of Walt Disney
Animation in California Adventure.
I've
gushed about this spot before.
It's just such a pleasant place to pass a half-hour or so until the
display loops around. Given the extent to which my personal enjoyment
of the Christmas season relies on the holiday's unique atmosphere, I
can't help but feel this would only be enhanced if the lobby lined up
with the holidays. The only snag is...is there enough
material?
It's
not that Disney never makes anything specifically for Christmas.
Consider Mickey's Christmas Carol,
or Prep and Landing,
or even Beauty and the Beast: Enchanted Christmas.
The problem from our point of view is that Walt Disney Animation
focuses exclusively on theatrical features,
on the output of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar. And given
that the point is to toot Disney's horn about its best offerings,
things should probably stay that way. So where are we supposed to
come up with a 30-minute loop's worth of Christmas footage when not
a single entry in the Disney Animated Canon or the Pixar filmography
counts as a Christmas movie?
Well,
there are a few things we can do. The main one is that instead of
celebrating an entire movie at a time, we can zero in on particular
scenes, sequences and songs that are Christmas-related. Another is
that we can then broaden our standards to include general winter
imagery, which in American culture is associated almost exclusively
with Christmas. I'll go ahead and say we can venture a little outside
the WDAS/Pixar dyad, as long as we stay within the realm of
theatrical
feature animation.
And finally...as a holiday special, maybe this loop doesn't have to
be as long as the standard one. 15-20 minutes should suffice.
So
what have we got to play with?
