Brian Sibley visited Disneyland in 1985, during its thirtieth year celebrations and discovered that the Magic Kingdom was created along the lines of a living animated film…
PRE-TITLE SEQUENCE: The air is filled with a confusion of sounds. The clickerty-clack of turnstiles, the excited chatter of children (ranging from perambulated tots to very senior citizens), the dragon-snort of an approaching steam-engine pistoning its way out of nowhere with an eager clanging of its bell, the murmur of muzak: ‘When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true…
ROLL TITLES: ‘A Day in Disneyland’. An aroma of roasting popcorn wafts towards me on the morning breeze. The turnstile clackerty-clicks and, exchanging a friendly wave with Goofy who is busy sweeping an already spotless forecourt, I pass beneath an arch where a burnished brass plaque bears the simple inscripnon: ‘Here you leave today – and visit the worlds of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.’
Disneyland is thirty years old but it is as ageless as its ever-smiling host, Mickey Mouse. It looks as new as if it had been run up overnight and its paint were still wet to the touch. It is as solid an institution as Mount Rushmore, yet as insubstantial as fresh-spun candyfloss.
‘Disneyland,’ Walt once remarked, ‘is like Alice stepping through the Looking-Glass. To step through the portals of Disneyland will be like entering another world.’ More than that, it is like stepping into a living cartoon. Disneyland is a three-dimensional outworking of the techniques and illusions of the animator s art.
[…]
