Page 172 - The Disneyization of Society

IMPLICATIONS OF DISNEYIZATION

engaged in anticipatory localization, but perhaps feels that it has not gone far
enough or feels it has misread the local culture.
163

The Disney theme parks encounter the local

We can see the operation of these two levels of the assertion of the local in con-
nection with the Disney theme parks, though this is not to suggest that this is the
same as Disneyization, since the former serve merely as markers of the latter. This
brief discussion also brings out the difficult balancing act that global companies
must engage in when taking their goods and services abroad.
The Disney theme parks have themselves been forced to adapt to foreign sensi-
bilities when they have been transported abroad to Tokyo and Paris (the Hong
Kong park will be interesting to look at in these terms when it opens). In many
ways, the designers of the two foreign Disney theme parks have been caught in a
pincer movement between, on the one hand recognizing that visitors are likely to
be attracted to a piece of Americana in their own countries and therefore not
wanting to adapt too much, and on the other hand realizing that the American
parks cannot be transplanted wholesale and without consideration of overseas
customs and feelings.
In the case of Tokyo Disneyland, Eisner asserts that Disney were under pressure
not to Japanize the park, 15 so a clear sense of wanting to give visitors the impres-
sion of visiting a park that was clearly American was retained. Similarly, a
spokesperson told one writer on the park: ‘We really tried to avoid creating a
Japanese version of Disneyland. We wanted the Japanese visitors to feel they were
taking a foreign vacation by coming here’. 16 More and more of such ‘foreign’
lands within Japan have been built in the wake of Disneyland. 17 However,
although this sense of taking an American vacation without leaving Japan is often
conveyed in publicity and in public statements about the park (as in Eisner’s and
the spokesperson’s remarks quoted above), there are grounds for thinking that
more adaptation has taken place than such statements acknowledge.
Certain attractions were altered in anticipation of Japanese needs and preoccu-
pations. For example, the Hall of Presidents was dropped because of its extreme
foreignness, but the case for dropping others is less obvious; for example, Main
Street, USA was replaced by World Bazaar. Raz observes that, although Tokyo
Disneyland is invariably claimed to be a copy of the American original, it has in
fact been Japanized. Thus, the Mystery Tour in the castle in Tokyo Disneyland is
a Disney version of the Japanese ghost-house. The Meet the World show is
described by Raz as ‘a show about and for the Japanese’. 18 Changes such as these
would seem to be token anticipatory localization but in addition responsive local-
ization has taken place. This is particularly apparent in connection with food,
with the opening of a Japanese restaurant catering for local tastes and allowing