As
long as we're thinking about Christmas music...
This
isn't the first time I've gone off about the area music loops in the
Disneyland Resort and it probably won't be the last. But we're
solidly into the Christmas season now, with all its attendant
responsibilities, and I need to write and post something simple.
Simple...like one of the most basic delights of the holiday season at
Disneyland: the temporary replacement of many area music loops with
holiday versions.
Background
music is a key element in creating themed atmosphere (or atmosphere
at all, really), and this is especially true when the theme involves
Christmas, because the intergenerationally familiar music is such a
big part of the holiday. Disneyland's holiday loops are generally
excellent for their purpose, but only about half of them are much
good for any other purpose—i.e. general seasonal listening. I'll
pull up the New Orleans Square waterfront loop as part of my
Disneyland Christmas lineup, but not when I just feel like getting my
holiday spirit on. Dixieland jazz isn't a normal part of my music
listening habits.
But
there are a handful of these loops from both parks, past and present,
that I absolutely adore on their own merits, not just because they
remind me of Disneyland. Here they are, in reverse order of my
preference, so that the best is saved for last!
We
can start thinking about Christmas shopping now, right?
Once
upon a time, strange as it may seem, Disneyland was considered a
prime shopping destination.
The park was chock-a-block with unique shops selling lines of
merchandise that could be found literally nowhere else. There was a
candle shop on Main Street, an antique shop in New Orleans Square,
and the Guatemalan Weavers operated out of the Adventureland Bazaar.
This all changed in the Nineties, when Archdemon Pressler decided it
would be more efficient
to just stuff the park with the same stuff being sold in every large
mall in the country via the Disney Store. But even the machinations
of a suit-wearing hellfiend couldn't completely eliminate the park's
uniqueness, and to this day, there are quite a few distinctive,
customizable, and surprisingly affordable items available at
Disneyland's specialty shops and kiosks.
Here
are just five that would make awesome holiday gifts for the special
people in your life.
A
short one this time—I'm still working on getting back on track, and
you don't want to waste hours of your Christmas reading my
barely-coherent ramblings.
Last
year, our Christmastime Disneyland visit turned out to be more of
Christmastime California Adventure visit, because the new Festival of
Holidays event proved so engaging. We didn't even visit the food
kiosks due to lack of funds, but I got a
good review of World of Color: Season of Light out of it, so it
wasn't a total loss.
This
year...it happened again. And this time we did
try some of the food offerings. More on that in a bit, but for now, I
want to focus on what a good idea the Festival of Holidays is in
general. Guys? Management guys? This
is how you leverage your California theme to provide quality
entertainment while still pulling in the money you love so much. If
there's one thing we Californians pride ourselves on, it's our
multicultural savvy.* This state boasts an extremely high level of
ethnic and cultural diversity, and by and large we embrace it.
The
Disneyland Resort sure loves to celebrate Christmas. Not only do
thematically specific decorations go up in most areas of both parks,
but a handful of attractions get made over into holiday-specific
versions of themselves.* The most notable might be the shows and live
entertainment offerings, nearly all
of which, from the humble and homey Dapper Dans to the extravagant
fireworks display, are in holiday mode at this time of year.
Disneyland has hosted any number of Christmas
parades over the years. Across the Esplanade, World of Color is
on its secondholiday
version. But there’s one live show that has so far bucked the
trend: Fantasmic!
It’s
not hard to see why—Fantasmic! is possibly the most complex and
intricate performance in theme park history. Not only does it involve
multiple types of live performers and special effects, but it was
designed from start to finish to be a satisfying whole. It tells a
complete story with a three-act structure (something almost never
done in theme park entertainment), and the musical score is as much a
symphony as a medley. It's amazing that something like this was
achieved once;
doing it all over again with
a more specific theme
would be almost unfathomably difficult.
But what is Armchair Imagineering
for, if not indulging in these wild Blue-Sky ideas? Come brainstorm
with me...
(Well,
okay, technically for now you're going to read while I
brainstorm, but I welcome any and all contributions in the comments.)
I
have never been what you’d call a huge fan of World of Color. For
all the massive promotion when it first debuted, it has always struck
me as distinctly inferior to Fantasmic!
The reasons for this are numerous, but among them is that World of
Color has always seemed so very commercial. From the very
first iteration, it has come across as having the primary purpose of
waving popular characters and recent or upcoming films in guests’
faces, spurring the purchase of merchandise and movie tickets. The
previous holiday version, World of Color: Winter Dreams, was
especially blatant about this, betraying its own theme—you know,
winter—with the use
of the song “In Summer” from Frozen.* They tried to pass
it off as an ironic juxtaposition, but not many people were fooled.
They knew a shameless advertisement when they saw one.
Thus
it is with delight that I inform you that the new holiday
version—World of Color: Season of Light—does not give me this
impression at all. Instead of using the show to promote the
characters, it uses characters to illustrate the themes
of the show. There are no Disney songs in this one—just
well-known Christmas tunes as performed by equally well-known singers
(and one absolutely marvelous surprise, about which more later). Each
song is accompanied by appropriate footage from Disney films
and shorts, and the hey-look-at-our-new-movie vibe is kept to a
minimum.
That
said, it’s still fairly one-dimensional as a presentation.
World of Color is by its very nature something of a one-trick pony,
lacking the multiple facets of something like Fantasmic! or even a
parade. So this is gonna be a pretty short post, focusing on some of
the highlights that really stood out to me as making this one
special.
“Baby, It’s Cold
Outside”: The obligatory Princess/romance sequence uses this
fairly infamous song, but there’s a twist—it’s the Idina
Menzel/Michael Bublé
cover, which swaps out some of the dodgier lyrics for more
family-friendly ones. Combined with the footage of Princesses
pulling away from their love interests (when we all know these
stories have fully consensual, mutually fulfilling happy endings),
it does a lot to redeem the song for modern sensibilities.
“Mele Kalikamaka”:
This segment starts with clips from Lilo & Stitch. Then
it continues with clips from Lilo & Stitch, before
concluding with clips from Lilo & Stitch. I fully
expected it to tease Moana at some point, since that film
comes out in just a few days. But it didn’t. That alone speaks
well for its sincerity—it would have been so easy
to throw in a promotional clip or two, but they resisted the urge.
“Wizards in
Winter”: This was the big surprise I mentioned earlier. Everyone
knows who Trans-Siberian Orchestra is these days, but I don’t
think many people are familiar with their work beyond the rock
remixes of “The Nutcracker” and “Carol of the Bells.”**
However, if just one of their original Christmas compositions has
achieved any sort of penetration into public recognition, it surely
must be “Wizards in Winter,” thanks to a YouTube
video of someone’s elaborately synchronized home exterior
Christmas lights that went viral some years back. Accordingly, this
segment—the most over-the-top part of the whole show, making ample
use of the laser grid as well as the fire jets—purports to
be someone’s elaborately synchronized home exterior Christmas
lights. The someone in question is Goofy, who is probably the only
character in the Disney lineup who might believably use fire jets at
Christmas.
Is
there anything I would do differently? Absolutely. Well, maybe.
For
example, there's a segment featuring music from “The Nutcracker”
as sung, a cappella, by the Pentatonix...and illustrated with the
dancing hippos and ostriches from Fantasia.
Except...Fantasiahas
a “Nutcracker” segment, and it's not the one with hippos. (It's
the one with dancing mushrooms and thistles that makes you wonder
what the animators were on when they created it.) I'm being
charitable and assuming they went that route in order to keep the
tone light and portray explicit ballet dancers, but it still creates
the impression that they missed an obvious target at close range.
Another
aspect that seemed kind of odd was the complete absence of any
acknowledgement of Hannukah. The Disneyland Resort's holiday shows
can normally be counted upon to provide at least a token round of
“Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel,” making the lack of such this time
around a pretty glaring omission. I would rather they leave it out
than force it if they couldn't find a natural place for it in the
lineup, and anyway California Adventure has no shortage
of diversity celebration this season, for which I have nothing but
praise.
So
it's not perfect. But it still stands head and shoulders above any
other iteration of World of Color, and I highly recommend it as the
perfect way to cap off a day enjoying California Adventure's Festival
of Holidays.
* Among other songs from
said movie.
** Which are actually
entitled, respectively, “A Mad Russian’s Christmas” and
“Christmas Eve – Sarajevo 12/24.” People don't pay attention.
We
must face it: Haunted Mansion Holiday is something we, as Disneyland
fans, need to reckon with.* Yet in the 21 months this blog has been
active, the only thoughts I have shared on the matter are that a) I
wish it didn't go up so early in the year, and
b) I
adore the thing it temporarily replaces. I
haven't ever given my actual opinion on the thing itself, as a
holiday overlay. So here it is:
Eh,
it's okay.
As a
rule, I am far more forgiving of temporary ride alterations than
permanent ones. The latter have to constitute a definite improvement
on the original for me to approve of them, while the former just have
to be moderately entertaining since, after all, I'll have the
original back soon enough. Even if I can't stand a temporary change,
all I have to do is wait it out.
I'm
happy enough to put Haunted Mansion Holiday in the “moderately
entertaining” pile. I like some of the music, the visuals in the
stretching room are pretty sweet, and I like seeing the new
gingerbread house each year. (Though
this year's is a little...uh...) I even think
the often criticized mismatch between the existing Haunted Mansion
imagery and the Tim Burton additions kind of works with the
concept—the Halloweentown characters are imposing
their style on the Mansion, are they not?
Of course, I am well aware that this is the kind of cheap post-hoc
rationalization for lazy attraction design that Disney's own
Marketing Department apologists like to use: “Of course it sucks.
We were going for suck.” So I don't give it too much weight. And
there's plenty else to criticize about the endeavor.
I
just don't find myself criticizing it on the level of “This is a
travesty against everything Disneyland outght to stand for” like
many commenters do. It's more along the lines of “This could have
and should have been done better.” So what I'll do here is, I'll go
over various aspects of the ride, explain what I do and don't like
about them, and then—as a bonus bit of Armchair Imagineering—sketch
out an alternate way of adding The Nightmare Before
Christmas to the Haunted Mansion
for the holiday season that hopefully makes more sense and is more
engaging.
The
first Mickey's Halloween Party of the year is this Friday. I got to
go to that thing in 2013. It wasn't as mind-blowing as the
advertising (and price tag) would have you believe, but it was fun
enough. There honestly wasn't that
much going on that there wouldn't be on any normal Disneyland
evening, it's just that on this occasion, it was Halloween-themed.
Speaking as a grown-up, the best part was getting to wander around
Disneyland in a costume. (I
was the “it's a small world” Clock Tower.)
The “candy stations” were nothing to write home about and I don't
usually go in for rave dancing.
And then there was the unique live entertainment, which I would
describe as a mixed bag. The “Cadaver Dans”—i.e. The Dapper
Dans with ghoulish makeup and a spooky song repertoire—were a lot
of fun. The “Halloween Screams” fireworks show is fantastic, and
I think it's practically criminal that they only show it at the
party. The parade, though—”Mickey's Costume Party Cavalcade”—was
rather disappointing. It just felt very thrown-together, with cheap
floats, uninspired music and dancing, and an overall lack of
imagination and effort.
Orlando's
Magic Kingdom, by contrast, has a Halloween parade—Mickey's
Boo-To-You Halloween Parade—that's pretty dang slick..but rather
than simply wish to have theirs imported over here,* I thought I'd
Armchair Imagineer a better one from scratch! Inspired by the
wonderful A
Christmas Fantasy Parade,
I would make this parade an elaborate, tightly themed spectacle that
really brings across the spirit of the holiday in all its facets (or
at least all the facets that are family-friendly enough for
Disneyland). Accordingly, rather than spamming the most marketable
characters, I would choose characters and IPs that actually reflect
aspects of Halloween...while still including plenty of crowd-pleasers
so the average guest can still find a favorite!
Disneyland Dilettante readers, I give you...the Hooray For Halloween
Parade!
I
felt conflicted about this one at first. I am well aware that a
significant portion of my regular readership is Canadian (Hi, Cory!),
and there's not really anything here for people outside the United
States. But then I thought, what the heck, it's not like anyone
comments on the themed party ideas anyway. If I'm honest, I have to
admit that posting them at all is pure self-indulgent
self-congratulation on my part, the equivalent of standing on a table
and waving my arms and shouting “I found a thing that's like
another thing!” but with more and fancier words.
Anyway,
it's been a while.
So
tomorrow is Memorial Day in the U.S. It kind of snuck up on us,
didn't it? Or maybe it's just me. If you have some kind of shindig
arranged for your day off, now might be a little late to change those
plans. But if you're reading this in the morning, you do technically
have the entire rest of the day to tweak your decisions! Furthermore,
Memorial Day marks the start of the American cultural summer season,
which features patriotic holidays at regular intervals. One “U-S-A!”
day is pretty much like another when it comes to party decorations
and whatnot—you could apply these ideas to the Fourth of July or
Labor Day or even Flag Day.*
So say you're a Disneyland fan who wants to host a Memorial Day or
other patriotic holiday get-together, and as is your wont, you wish
to mix a little theme park in there. Obviously you're going to go
with some Main Street, USA flavor. Within the berm, Main Street and
American patriotism are practically synonymous. (Although the
thesaurus does list “Frontierland” under Related Words.)
This is no coincidence—unironic patriotism pretty much took its
current form during the time period represented by Main Street—the
last period, maybe, when Americans were still isolated and innocent
enough that they could be loudly patriotic without implied
belligerence or smugness toward any other countries? I don't want
this to get heavy, though, so let's just say that Main Street's brand
of wholesome, matter-of-fact national pride is what most people are
usually going for with these holidays. In short, this sort of theming
for this sort of party is perfectly natural, and if your guests don't
already know you're gaga for Disneyland, this won't necessarily be
what tips them off. (This may or may not be what you're hoping for.)
I
sure do love Disneyland...but I definitely don't
always love the way Management tries to gouge the guests. I'm not
talking about above-standard prices for food or prominently placed
souvenir shops. That's par for the course for any theme park, and at
least at Disneyland, the food is decent and the souvenirs don't fall
apart during the drive home.
I'm
talking about the way they charge you upwards of a hundred bucks a
head just to walk through the front gate...and then
spend the day trying to upsell you all these little “magical”
add-ons. Character Dining. VIP viewing for parades and shows. Disney
Vacation Club memberships, for
Pete's sake. And the advertising all heavily insinuates that if you
don't buy these
things, if you just go to freaking Disneyland
and ride some freaking rides
and meet some freaking characters
after waiting in line like normal humans, then you and/or your kids
are missing out and
your visit isn't truly magical
and I'd better stop before I vomit. Seriously, can you believe these
people?
I've
got news for them...and for any potential guests who might be
suckered in by the marketing copy: It is Disneyland.
It's magical just as it is, without expensive add-ons. Is it fun to
have Goofy come pal around with you during dinner? Sure. But it's not
necessary in order to
have a top-notch visit to the park.
I
think there are two groups of people who fall for the...let's call it
the Extended Warranty model of Disneyland visiting. There are those
who are vacationing from out of state, who have never been before (or
not for many years) and may never get to visit again, and who not
only want to absolutely maximize
their trip, but have little to no idea what do to without help, and
turn to the readiest source of help available: Disneyland's own
website.
I'm
not really talking to them. (They're probably not going to read this
blog anyway.) This is for the second group. These are the people who
visit Disneyland often and know damn well what they're doing...but
maybe visit so often
that a normal, ride-some-rides-and-meet-some-characters kind of day
doesn't always quite do it. So they maybe consider buying some extra
goodies in order to jazz things up. If that's really what you want to do and you will accept no substitutes...I guess I
can't help you. But if you're conflicted—if you need ideas for ways
to spice up your otherwise routine visits to the park without further
enriching those money-grubbing jerks—then I am pleased to introduce
Unauthorized Fun,
a post category for doing just that. In posts with this label, you'll
find ideas for Disneyland-based games, activities, and “quests”
that won't cost you a dime extra...or if they do, it won't be many
dimes, and they won't be funneled directly into Bob Iger's pockets.
Don't
you love New Orleans Square during the holidays? I do. It's totally
gorgeous.
Oooooh!
Aaaaaaaahhhh!
Damn, I miss the Court of Angels.
These days, the lampposts receive
arrays of décor like this:
Originally, though, they were
decorated in a slightly
more restrained fashion with the ornaments on and in a base of
evergreen. That's how it was some years ago when I decided to try my
own version of a New Orleans Square-style Christmas decoration, and
that's what I'm going to instruct you in here. Since very few of us
have 19th-Century vintage wrought-iron lampposts handy to hang things
on, this can go on your wall or door, like a wreath. It's a very
modular project, and no glue is involved so you can disassemble it
after the holidays are over and perhaps try varying it up in years to
come! You can find most of what you need at any big craft store such
as Michael's or Jo-Ann's.
Do
you remember what Christmas was like when you were little? About
seven or so? When snow was only for playing in (and not shoveling),
when you could not imagine ever getting tired of eating cookies, when
new toys were intoxicating? Do you remember when you wrote actual letters to Santa Claus and then lay awake at
night on Christmas Eve to see if you could catch him in the
act?
Do
you remember?
Someone
obviously does...because someone distilled those memories, that
feeling, and used the concentrate as the basis for “A Christmas
Fantasy,” Disneyland's seasonal parade since 1994.
One
of the most distinctive holiday decorating schemes at Disneyland can
be found on the Small World Promenade. While Chester* rocks his Santa
hat and colored lights, fourteen white wreaths themed to different
countries and regions as depicted on the ride line the walkway,
building anticipation via their familiar central insignia and
“supporting casts” of witty ornaments.
I
don't know who in Imagineering is responsible for this...but I like
it! So much so that several years ago, I made a set of tree ornaments
based on the wreaths, using snowflakes as the base (since I couldn't
find white mini-wreaths at an economical price) and variously shaped
sequins for the ornaments. But this is Kidnap the Magic,
and I'm going to offer you a more ambitious project: An actual wreath
decorated the same way as the ones in the park, scaled down just
enough to fit comfortably in the average home.
Thanksgiving*
is only a few days away, if you can believe that. Once the dishes are
cleared away, the Christmas season Officially Begins on a nationwide
scale. Due to the increased prominence of online shopping (and a few
high-profile tragedies engendered by the pressure-cooker atmosphere
of certain “mega-sales”), Black Friday is starting to slide off
its throne as the shopping
day of the season...but a lot of people still like to take advantage
of the day off to do their decorating.
And
perhaps some of those people would like to decorate in the style of
the Happiest
Merriest Place on Earth. They could
just drop a wad of dough on ornaments sold at the parks, but that
wouldn't actually do the trick. Odd as it may seem, the fictional
denizens of Disneyland do not decorate using real Disneyland
merchandise. Our hypothetical people will need some pointers.
Fortunately for those people, they live in a world that includes this
blog.
This
post is going to include general guidelines rather than step-by-step
instructions. Disneyland's Christmas decorations are, as a rule,
magnificent, and it's really inspiring to us crafty types to see how
the various area themes intersect with holiday imagery and
traditions. It would almost
be missing the point to try recreating most of these uniquely
designed items exactly, especially since they evolve over the years.
So peruse, enjoy the photos, and get some awesome ideas for a
Disneyland-flavored Christmas of your own!
I've
snarked about Christmas Creep a couple of times on this blog, but
I'll be honest: I enjoy the Christmas season. And the thing I like
most about it is not getting presents or watching corny Christmas
specials, but the atmosphere. The
weather becomes delightfully chilly (not exactly cold,
here in Southern California), sparkling decorations go up everywhere,
and it seems like the only time of year when mainstream society
accepts the idea of benevolent magic—philosophically, if not in
fact.
And
the music! I know I'm not alone in having familiar Christmas music
wired directly to the nostalgia centers of my brain. Religious or
secular, it doesn't matter (and this is coming from someone who
hasn't identified as Christian for at least twenty years). The highly
specific context in which this music is usually heard is what gives
it its power to enthrall: Because it is Christmas
music, when we hear it we are psychologically transported to that
intersection of time (winter), space (shopping malls, Grandma's
house, a gingerbread village) and attitude (peace on earth and
goodwill toward all) that the holiday represents. They say smell is
the most emotionally charged sense, but in my experience, hearing can
do just fine under the right circumstances.
Disneyland
is awesome with Christmas music.
The
park is awesome with Christmas in general. As
I've mentioned before, it's still a newbie at Halloween, but it's
had a lock on Christmas since...well, since December of 1955.
Christmas parades, Christmas carolers, Christmas character costumes,
Christmas versions of standard attractions. And of course, Christmas
music. Practically every part of the park has at least one music loop
swapped out for a Christmas-themed one at the tail end of the year.
This being a post in the category of The
Second Sense,
it will be my very great pleasure to take you on a tour of all of
them, starting outside
the gates of Disneyland proper.
Disneyland has been in the Halloween business for less than a decade.
Oh, sure, there were bits and pieces. We've gotten a few
jack-o-lanterns on Main Street for as long as I can remember.
Seasonal character plush has a long history, Halloween included.*
Haunted Mansion Holiday—which is treated like a Halloween overlay,
even
though it really isn't one—started in 2001.
But the first big, park-wide Halloween blowout wasn't until 2006.
It's
kind of ironic, because other area theme parks have been doing
Halloween events for a lot longer. Universal Studios' Halloween
Horror Nights and Six Flags Magic Mountain's Fright Fest both date
back to the early Nineties, and the first instance of Knott's Scary
Farm was in 1973. So
why was Disneyland so late to the Dead Man's Party?
Because
of image, basically. Theme parks are entertainment venues.
“Halloween” plus “entertainment” usually amounts to the
horror genre. There are many ways of doing horror, but none of them
are usually considered “family-friendly,” and since that's what
Disney trades on, a typical theme park Halloween experience—strobe
lights and haunted mazes and “scare-acters” leaping out at people
and loud rave music—was right out. It was all part of the dichotomy
that held sway throughout the Eighties and Nineties, in which
Disneyland was considered “tame” and safe for families with young
children, while all the other parks positioned themselves as the hip,
edgy, teen-oriented alternative. Disneyland didn't need a big to-do
for Halloween—in the theme park realm, it had a virtual monopoly on
Christmas.
All this is so much rambling. The upshot is that Disneyland has not
really been doing Halloween in a large-scale way for very long. And
if you ask me (which hopefully you do, since you're reading my blog),
the Powers That Be haven't really mastered it yet. Halloween Time
still has a ways to go before it's really polished to Disney-caliber
perfection. The seasonal decorations and themes are too sporadic
throughout the park. I really think the place could benefit from a
systematic, land-by-land makeover during this time. There are many
dimensions to Halloween in the current era—a park as diverse as
Disneyland could indulge them all.
So without further ado, here is my vision of Halloweenland!
Let's
digress from Disneyland for a bit to talk about Christmas Creep. Even
if you haven't encountered the term before, you're bound to be
familiar with the phenomenon: the tendency for retailers to start
stocking and advertising their Christmas items earlier and earlier in
the year. Is it a new
phenomenon, per se? Hard to say. The Peanuts
had a gag about a Christmas sale in April as far back as 1974, but
when I was a kid in the Eighties, people still rolled their eyes over
the fact that tree displays went up the instant Thanksgiving was
over.* Now, of course, we're shocked
if any store waits that long. The standard is to flip straight from
Halloween to
Christmas, with poor Thanksgiving relegated to an end cap display.
This is understandable, of course. Both Halloween and Christmas are
much bigger moneymaking opportunities than Thanksgiving. For
Halloween, people like to buy costumes, elaborate decorations, and
loads of candy. For Christmas, they buy elaborate decorations,**
candy, occasional costumes, and gifts gifts gifts. Unless you're a
supermarket or an airline, Thanksgiving just isn't that much of a
boost for you...and if you are a supermarket or an airline, Christmas
might still be bigger. On the consumer side of things, Thanksgiving
isn't capital-F Fun the way Halloween and Christmas are, so most
people are content to let it be eclipsed by its feuding calendrical
neighbors.
Halloween
itself wasn't always so prominent, of course. I think my generation
was the one to decisively say “Screw you, adulthood, we'll keep
dressing up if we want,” turning what had previously been thought
of mainly as a children's romp day into an all-ages cultural
phenomenon...and honestly? In light of Christmas Creep, it's a good
thing we did. The prominence of Halloween gives us a stick with which
to draw our line in the sand: “No,
Wal-Mart, we are not
shopping for Christmas yet; we are still celebrating
Halloween.” And since it's become so easy to capitalize on Halloween itself, the retailers of
America aren't too inclined to fight us on the matter. Don't be
fooled by the appearance of fake pine garlands on the shelves in
mid-October—those are just there so the transition can be made as
quickly as possible once November 1 hits.
Now
we can get back to Disneyland, which turns the whole thing
upside-down by installing the Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay in
September.
September
is here at last, bringing with it (hopefully) cooler weather, quieter
households...and on the 19th of the month, the most
beloved holiday that never got its own section in a Hallmark store:
International Talk Like a Pirate Day! It's not hard to see why this
“holiday” took off the way it did—it asks so little of you. You
don't have to buy anyone a gift or a card, or spend hours decorating
your house, or sit through a long church service. All you have to do
is alter your speech patterns in accordance with a well-known
pop-cultural archetype.
But
why stop there? Talking Like a
(Hollywood) Pirate is fun and all, but maybe a little too
easy. The name hasn't changed, but for many people, Talk Like a
Pirate Day is also Dress Like a Pirate Day, Fly the Jolly Roger Like
a Pirate Day, and Watch Pirate Movies* Day.
Even...perhaps...Throw
a Pirate-Themed Party Day! And when it comes to pirate theming,
nobody has more vivid mental images than devotees of Disney parks.
This is probably because the original version of Pirates of the
Caribbean, the ride, installed at Disneyland in 1967, is
the best theme park attraction ever built.
As an iconic fantasy depiction of piracy in the Age of Sail, it's
second only to Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island.
As a first-person experience, it's simply incomparable. It's got its
own specific imagery, its own instantly recognizable soundtrack, its
own unique smell. If
you want your Talk Like a Pirate Day party to take its cues from the
ride—and if you consider yourself a Disneyland fan, then you do,
no two ways about it—then you have plenty of material to work with
that will make your guests go “Hey...this is that ride!”
What
you don't have a lot of is convenient shortcuts.
Make no mistake—“Pirate” is one of the big themes in your
average party store, and you can even find Pirates of the Caribbean
branded items...but naturally it's all to do with the film franchise.
Use it anyway if you like; these days Jack Sparrow is on the ride,
after all. But if you really want to evoke the ride itself,
Party City and its brethren will be of very little help. And nor will
much of anything else in the retail arena. It's just that unique.
So what can you do?
You
can do what brought us the marvels of Pirates of the Caribbean to
begin with. You can Imagineer.
This isn't going to be like my other Disneyland party ideas, where I
take you through all the major facets of party planning including
ideas for food, games, and music. The food should be sumptuous, the
games should revolve around treasure maps, and if you follow this
blog but can't think of any music that reminds you of Pirates of the
Caribbean, then there's simply no help for you. Rather, this post is
going to highlight some specific things you can do to create a
Pirates of the Caribbean-style atmosphere...be it for a party or any
other reason!
“it's
a small world” debuted to the world it celebrated at the New York
World's Fair in 1964 and moved to Disneyland two years later. For
most of its history, changes were minimal—a new color scheme here,
a remastered soundtrack there, a different sponsor*—but starting in
the Paul Pressler era, management decided it was okay to mess with it
to a more significant extent. So how'd all that work out? Well...
Quick! What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think about
New Orleans?
Well,
if you're a Disneyland nut like me (and you probably are, or you
wouldn't be reading this blog), you immediately think “Square”
and then start singing “Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)” and/or
“Grim Grinning Ghosts” until they throw you out of Macy's. But
beyond that...there are still a lot of answers. New Orleans is one of
the most culturally distinctive cities in the United States, if not
the
most. Everyone knows what kind of music (jazz, particularly the
Dixieland variety), food (gumbo and jambalaya, to start with), and
religion (Voodoo) comes from there. But no matter where your
interests lie, there's one thing that's certain to make your New
Orleans Free Association Top Ten, and that's Mardi Gras.
It
wasn't until fairly recently that this holiday caught on anywhere
else in the U.S. I blame Protestant dominance—Protestants don't
observe Lent* and hence have no need for a last-ditch hedonistic bash
before the austerities commence. As general hedonism has become
fashionable in the modern day, Americans of all stripes will take any
excuse they can get for a drinking party, but all the same, Mardi
Gras has been indelibly stamped as a New
Orleans
tradition. Wherever in the country you live, when you decide to throw
a Mardi Gras party, you're sort of committing yourself to serving
shrimp and mint juleps and playing jazz.
But
that doesn't mean you can't put a special spin on it. In this, the
first of (hopefully) many Kidnap
the Magic
project ideas, I'll instruct you, fellow Disneyland fan, in how to
make your Mardi Gras party not just a taste of New Orleans, but a
taste of New Orleans Square.
* An alternate hypothesis is that they observe Lent all year-round.
