Disney on Land and Screen

I will never be too old to love Disneyland, the pioneering theme park that opened in Anaheim, California just over seventy years ago, on July 17, 1955. How well I remember my first visit when the park had been open less than six months. I went with my best friend and her parents; her father liked to set out at the crack of dawn, so we were there when the gates opened, and had to leave—alas—long before all those magical lights came on.

 What I remember best from that first visit was all the attractions of Fantasyland, reflecting the fairytales that were so much a part of the Disney brand. There was the dizzying Alice in Wonderland Mad Tea Party ride, of course: the whirling oversized teacups were great fun for kids but were avoided by queasy grown-ups. And the King Arthur carousel, which turned out to be just an eye-catching merry-go-round. The big scare ride of that early era was, of all things, the Snow White attraction. You waited in a long line for what seemed like hours, in order to be frightened (or attempt to be frightened) by a dark ride that lasted perhaps three minutes. Some of Disneyland’s best attractions—like Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, the Matterhorn bobsleds, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad –were not yet in place, although there was a slow-moving mine train inching through the same basic Southwest landscape that hearty park visitors whizzed past years later. And Tomorrowland, which advertised a trip to the moon, was just a promise of future attractions, both real and Disneyfied.

 In early eras, Disneyland attractions outside of Fantasyland were not tied to Disney movies. The iconic Jungle Riverboat Cruise, for instance, reflected no other Disney creative product: no film, no TV series. The Pirates of the Caribbean ride (perhaps my very favorite) opened to great acclaim at Disneyland’s New Orleans Square in 1967. It took until 2003 for this watery tale of pirates marauding a coastal town to become a movie franchise featuring the roguish Jack Sparrow (memorably played by Johnny Depp). Now of course there are five Pirates of the Caribbean films, as well as a series of video games. And the Disneyland ride has been altered so that sightings of Depp’s character are featured.

 There have also been, over the years, a number of existing movie franchises that have metamorphosed into theme-park rides. Mickey’s Toontown (from 1993) is an adaptation for younger children of the Who Framed Roger Rabbit? film that Disney had distributed back in 1988. Next to the classic Jungle Riverboat ride there’s now an Indiana Jones adventure from 1995, based on characters from the Harrison Ford (and George Lucas) franchise that began in 1981. It’s one of the theme park’s best attractions, because of its use of interactive details to get Disneygoers fully involved.

 Much of Tomorrowland too has been turned into George Lucas territory, with Star Tours sending park-goers on a futuristic space ship ride that turns into a rollicking adventure in the Star Wars universe. And 2019 saw the addition of an entire Star Wars-themed land, Galaxy’s Edge, that has proved so popular that I’ve never made it onto the Rise of the Resistance attraction that apparently combines advanced animatronics and the voices of well-known Star Wars actors with a 28-minute thrill ride.

 All this is a long way from the quaint Main Street U.S.A. entry corridor lovingly designed by Disney himself to reflect his midwestern roots. But now Main Street contains a (well-disguised) Starbucks franchise, so at Disneyland anything is possible.