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The Search for a Great, Big, Beautiful Tomorrow: Performing Utopia with Non-Human Bodies in the Hall of Presidents

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Abstract

The Magic Kingdom’s Hall of Presidents is steeped in Walt Disney’s vision of a utopian society, a framework that inspired plans for Disney parks worldwide. This patriotic spectacle about the American presidency provides its viewers a vision of a faultless American past using lifelike Audio-Animatronic performers. D’Ambrosi’s essay interrogates the form and function of utopia within the Hall of Presidents through the role of these Audio-Animatronics and the alterations made after the politically divisive 2016 presidential election. Given the behavior of then-candidate Trump during the campaign, many guests protested the inclusion of an Audio-Animatronic Trump in the attraction, citing his “Un-Presidential” behavior. The company’s approach to his script strives to present an inclusive, conflict-free atmosphere that idealizes American identity arguing that Audio-Animatronics can be better model citizens than real people.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    My use of the term “hegemonic” in this project is similar to how Seán J. Harrington uses the word in his exploration of how the Disney Company became an international presence. As Harrington describes, the dominant class (Disney) is “dependent upon the ideological acceptance of the working class” (guests at a Disney theme park) and, therefore, the dominant class creates a process that has the capacity to sway the opinions of more submissive classes. I argue that when in a Disney theme park, the park guest is susceptible to this kind of ideological sway as Disney controls the information and experiences with which guests interact. Harrington, Seán J. 2014. The Disney Fetish, 145. New Barnet: John Libbey Publishing Ltd.

  2. 2.

    Smith, Thomas. 2017 “Latest on Enhancements to The Hall of Presidents at Magic Kingdom Park.” Disney Parks Blog, June 27. http://www.disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2017/06/latest-on-enhancement-to-the-hall-of-presidents-at-magic-kingdom-park/.

  3. 3.

    Ibid.

  4. 4.

    Norman, Jim. 2016. “Ratings of Trump Campaign Worst in Recent Election Years,” Gallup, November 2. http://news.gallup.com/poll/197027/ratings-trump-campaign-worst-recent-election-years.aspx.

  5. 5.

    Jones, Bruce. 2017. “Customer Service 101: Happiness Is a Purple Balloon,” Disney Institute Blog, March 28. http://www.disneyinstitute.com/blog/customer-service-101-happiness-is-a-purple-balloon/.

  6. 6.

    Smith.

  7. 7.

    Fischer-Lichte, Ericka. 2008. The Transformative Power of Performance: A New Aesthetics, 180. Abingdon: Routledge.

  8. 8.

    Dolan, Jill. 2005. Utopia in Performance: Finding Hope at the Theater, 2. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

  9. 9.

    For more on Disney’s desire to create a new theme park, see Thomas, Bob. 2012. Walt Disney: An American Original, 218–19, 241. Glendale: Disney Editions.

  10. 10.

    King, Margaret. 1981. “Disneyland and Walt Disney World: Traditional Values in Futuristic Form,” The Journal of Popular Culture 15, 119.

  11. 11.

    “The Hall of Presidents (Magic Kingdom) – Morgan Freeman/Barack Obama Version (2009-Present),” Disney Parks Script Central, November 30, 2015. http://www.disneyparkscripts.com/thehall-of-presidents-magic-kingdom-morgan-freemanbarack-obama-version-2009-present/.

  12. 12.

    Sargent, Lyman Tower. 2010. Utopianism: A Very Short Introduction, 5. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  13. 13.

    Salamone, Virginia A. and Frank A. Salamone. 1999. “Images of Main Street: Disney World and the American Adventure,” The Journal of American Culture 22, no. 1, 85.

  14. 14.

    Svonkin, Craig. 2011. “A Southern California Boyhood in the Simu-Southland Shadows of Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room,” in Disneyland and Culture: Essays on the Parks and Their Influence, 119. Eds. Kathy Merlock Jackson and Mark I. West. Jefferson: McFarland and Co.

  15. 15.

    The Real, according to Lacanian thought, is that which falls outside the purview of one’s subjective imagination. In other words, according to Lacan, what is Real is not tainted by a human’s subconscious or by subjective symbolism. The Real is reality. For more information on Lacan’s Real, see Harrington, 153.

  16. 16.

    Ibid.

  17. 17.

    Ibid. 145.

  18. 18.

    Marin, Louis. Utopics: Spatial Play, 249. Atlantic Highlands: Humanities Press Inc. To “Disneyfy,” as defined by Alan Bryman and written about at length by the likes of Andrew Ross, Gene Walz, and Janet Wasko, means “to translate or transform an object into something superficial and even simplistic.” See Bryman, Alan. 2004. The Disneyization of Society, 5. London: Sage Publishers. This term should not be confused with Bryman’s own neologism, “Disneyization,” which explores the Disney theme park as a “globalizing force” whose principles and practices spread throughout the world in a variety of means (Bryman, 2). Disneyfication, instead, is the practice of simplifying cultural values within the theme park.

  19. 19.

    Van Wert, William F. 1996. “Disney World and Posthistory,” Cultural Critique 32 (1996–1995), 189.

  20. 20.

    Vagnini, Steven. “The Hall of Presidents Story,” D23, N.d. http://www.d23.com/the-hall-of-presidents-story.

  21. 21.

    “The Hall of Presidents (Magic Kingdom).”

  22. 22.

    Thomas, 306.

  23. 23.

    King, 120.

  24. 24.

    Vagnini.

  25. 25.

    Svonkin, 118.

  26. 26.

    Dolan, 5.

  27. 27.

    Ibid. 6.

  28. 28.

    “The Hall of Presidents (Magic Kingdom).”

  29. 29.

    Smith, Matthew. 2007. The Total Work of Art: From Bayreuth to Cyberspace, 128. New York: Routledge.

  30. 30.

    Craig, Edward Gordon. “The Actor and the Über-Marionette,” in Theatre, Theory, Theatre, 393. Ed. Daniel Gerould. New York: Applause.

  31. 31.

    Johnson, David M. 1981. “Disney World as Structure and Symbol: Re-Creation of the American Experience,” The Journal of Popular Culture 15, no. 1, 163.

  32. 32.

    Rogers, Matthew. 2017. “No Speech from the Donald Trump Animatronic in Walt Disney World’s ‘Hall of Presidents,’” Change.org, January. http://www.change.org/p/the-walt-disney company-no-speech-from-the-donald-trump-animatronic-in-walt-disney-world-s-hall-of- presidents.

  33. 33.

    After a recent visit to the Hall of Presidents in December 2018, I was struck to see security guards still at their posts nearly a year after the attraction’s re-opening. Several officers were in the theatre while guests were entering. Once the attraction’s video portion began, one guard was left to supervise. Surprisingly, the number of officers increased to three while the names of the Audio-Animatronic presidents were being announced. This is an increase in security presence from the re-opening of the attraction in December 2017.

  34. 34.

    Russon, Gabrielle. 2018. “Disney: A Scene from Magic Kingdom’s Hall of Presidents on Presidents Day,” Orlando Sentinel, February 19. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/os-donald-trump-disney-presidents-hall-of-fame-20180216-story.html.

  35. 35.

    Wdwmagic. 2017. “Donald Trump Audio-Animatronic Figure at the New Hall of Presidents.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=150&v=NePlddZpNKs.

  36. 36.

    Ibid.

  37. 37.

    Ibid.

  38. 38.

    Ibid.

  39. 39.

    Ibid.

  40. 40.

    In fact, some critics claim that the Audio-Animatronic looks like anyone but Trump, comparing the robot to figures such as Jon Voight and Hillary Clinton, as “if they were already making a Hillary then heard the news and had to change it to a Trump. For more coverage on the Trump robot, see Garcia, Catherine. 2017. “The Disney World Trump Animatronic Is Here, and It’s Something Else,” The Week—All You Need to Know about Everything That Matters, December 18. http://theweek.com/speedreads/744157/disney-world-trump-animatronic-here-something-else.

  41. 41.

    Harrington, 153.

  42. 42.

    Johnson, 163.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Joseph R. D’Ambrosi

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  1. Joseph R. D’Ambrosi
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Weber State University, Ogden, UT, USA

    Jennifer A. Kokai

  2. School of Theatre & Dance, Millikin University, Decatur, IL, USA

    Tom Robson

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D’Ambrosi, J.R. (2019). The Search for a Great, Big, Beautiful Tomorrow: Performing Utopia with Non-Human Bodies in the Hall of Presidents. In: Kokai, J.A., Robson, T. (eds) Performance and the Disney Theme Park Experience. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29322-2_9

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