| 24 May 2010
For thousands of years, the female population has had a love affair with the common storybook "girl with good morals perseveres through life troubles to nab her fairy tale prince". And no one can better interpret that fantasy than Walt Disney.
For dozens of years, Disney has been worshiped for their ability to capture essence of imagination while continually adapting their merchandise, theme parks and entertainment to the child within us all.
For the past couple weeks, I had the unique opportunity to share in this "imagination stranglehold" that Disney seems to have (esp on girls) at the Magic Kingdom, aka Walt Disney's mecca.
I spent a day with two all-girl groups: one group entitled myself and 6 other mid-20ish friends and the other group involved me chaperoning 6 kids. Sometimes the generational gap was extremely evident and at other times was similar in every way. Some were funny, make you "awww" moments and other situations made you wanna punch someone out.
Hit the jump to read the comparisons on each generation when it comes to rides, characters and the all important merchandise at Disney World....
Rides
If you're looking for a place that has incredibly fast rides with crazy drops and upside down twists, you're at the wrong place. Although there are some Disney rides that are fun, the closest time you will come to throwing up is after a ride on the teacups.
Both groups acted the same towards the rides. Thunder & Space Mountain were both treated with "that's fun but where's the drop?" All the girls were incredibly competitive at the Buzz Lightyear shooting game while growing tired of "Its a Small World" very...very...quickly.
The biggest differences came on Splash Mountain. While the ride is probably the best in the park, I couldn't help but laugh when a 10 year old is doing a "jig" to the same music that Brer Fox seems to be "doing a motion" on Brer Bear's but.
Hopefully Disney police will not come after me for posting this, but come on, how is this really supposed to be interpreted?
while the crocodile bites on Brer Fox's tale.
Characters & Stars
Its fair to say that the day of hand-drawn animated movies is dead while CGI continues to become the norm.
Both types of movies have the same great writing and quality of work put into them but I noticed a big change in how the younger generation reacted to the characters at Disney vs my generation.
During the character appearances and parades, the mid-20's generation reacted with a genuine "awwww" and you can clearly see that some of these characters tugged at the hearts of these adults. (myself included-anyone who knows me, knows how much I love Disney and anything about it).
The younger generation could have given a crap about seeing the characters and parades.
Why is this? My only guess is that with the rise of CGI, the characters are less human and more "cartooney". The younger girls knew who the Disney Princesses were, I practically had to drag them to a parade to catch a glimpse. The character playing Alice (from Alice & Wonderland) in the park actually hopped on a neighboring teacup and actually rode the ride with us and the only people who got excited were those in the ride itself or the adults old enough to know who the "Classic Alice" was.
A part of me couldn't blame them; the lame park costumes of Toy Story and The Incredibles are enough to turn any kid away from embracing the "live" characters that formed a line of parents everywhere they went. The classic characters are mostly human, which obviously would bode well for the live characters playing them vs a plastic mask that covers your face.
While both groups hated the idea of waiting in line to take a picture with one of these characters, it was the older girls who were actually excited to see them in the first place.
Something tells me the Cinderella & the Prince pictured stirs up a lot more "awww's" than Woody & Buzz Lightyear.
Merchandise & Experience
When you think of purchasing something at a Disney park, you may assume all you can get are cartooney but that is quite the opposite.
Merchandise ranges from fine art & baseball collectibles to key chains and tea sets. An obvious hit with the younger generation (that still had money left at the end of the day) were the Goofy hats and stuffed animals while the older girls didn't really spend any money on souvenirs.
One hit with souvenirs has been and continues to be the Pin Trading market. For those unaware about pin trading, its basically a form of barter in Disney parks with the employees. You buy pins that are part of a giant set (ala baseball cards) and you trade them with any Disney employee for a pin of your choice. The employee is forced to trade with you no matter what (unless he is wearing a green lanyard in which case they are only allowed to trade with children--dammit) but other than that, you're free to spend $3 on a crappy pin to trade it in for a much cooler one an employee.
And at the sake of already being roasted by a few friends at Disney to completely coming out of the closet; I must admit that I am a Pin Tradin Fool.
I like to think of it as forced stealing. "Yeah you totally like that new pin random Disney employee but you're gona give it to me in exchange for this lame pin I just bought on sale for $2." Take THAT crying kid, go find a "gimmie green lanyard" to trade with.
I surely got raked over the coals for admitting this to my friends while at the park but by the end of the day, they were secretly checking out what the pin world has to offer them. Despite the reaction of my friends, it was completely different from the younger girls in which they thought it was "awesome". It was like I was part of a secret club.....and they wanted in. *acceptance*
Wait, that's not a green lanyard...."Let's get em!"
After badly sore feet, and pure exhaustion from kids and strollers, I have to say that Disney was much more fun with the older girls. Everyone seemed to have an appreciation for the detail and history put behind Magic Kingdom. We are old enough to know what actually attainable (as far as the fairy-tale romance) but still feel secure in our "girly-ness" to embrace the "wow" factor of Cinderalla's castle. The young girls still need some time on this one.
All in all, both Disney trips were amazing due mostly because of how Disney presents itself--never leaving out the details. Besides a few cultural and age differences, Disney seems to have a knack for bringing out the best in us all. Their merchandise, characters, parks and rides may change over time, but they still represent the same morals and values.
That is, also, if the temp at DW is not 100 degrees and you have been waiting in line for a stinkin ride for two hours and someone decides to cut in front of you--in this case no matter the age, someone is getting hit. *Disney Magic*
