"Fantasy and reality often overlap." - Walt Disney

Ever since I can remember, Disney has always been that one constant that kept me moving forward. Whether I was going through a phase where I wanted to be Cinderella or a business executive, it did not matter as long as that company was my home. However, in entering as a critical media student, I have been encouraged and guided to look at Disney, its philosophies, even its parks with a more crucial eye. Currently working on my CMC 200 paper on Disney, I have come across a lot of similar arguments claiming that Walt Disney did not like what the world was becoming. He believed there was a lack of order and structure and that is parks could provide the escape to this.

Reading The City of Robots, I could not help but think of Eco’s view of reality in comparison to what Walt Disney may have thought. Disney always said, “fantasy and reality often overlap,” and I believe it is here that we discover our first problem. Disney wanted to create an escape, a fantasy, but what is the company causing when they do this? They “tell us that technology can give us more reality than nature can” and in fact, I would go as far as enough as they force that concept into your mind the minute you enter the park. It is through technology, yes, that Disney is able to create the atmospheres we all know, but it is through control that this “reality” completely engrosses us. Audio-animatronics, interactive characters (now reaching the point where they can actually have a conversation with the guests), themed-lands - they are all apart of the bigger picture of control. It is true that “visitors must agree to behave like its robots” when they enter into the park, often being herded around though lines, corridors, shows, and sidewalks, but they are agreeing to surrender themselves in the pursuit of a “better reality.” Disney gives us that outward perfection, that ideal society, that clean-cut escape, but we need to take a step back and realize just how much control goes into the business of “reality” and its mask behind the word of “fantasy.”