SABRINA MITTERMEIER

GSNAS 2016

Disney‘s Theme Parks as Nodes of Mobility

Disney Theme Parks Around the World

Disney Transportation

Michael Sorkin

„…the theme park rhapsodizes on the relationship between transportation

and geography.“

(„See You in Disneyland“, 1992)

3 Types of Ride Vehicles

1. simulated/imaginative travel

2. vehicles that look like transportation vehicles but do not actually provide transportation from A to B

3. actual transportation vehicles

Simulated/Imaginative Travel

Ride Vehicles Without Actual Transportation

Actual Transportation Vehicles

Darrin Nordahl

● “Giddiness Index” of people riding Disney’s Main Street Transportation Vehicles vs. Urban Public Transportation

! experience over efficiency (design, scenery, people watching, social contacts)

Tourist Gaze & Experience Economy

● People are getting more and more used to places designed for the “tourist gaze” in urban environments

● Dedifferentiation of tourism and everyday life (Urry & Larsen)

● consequence of the experience economy (Pine & Gilmore)

Utopian Ideas for Transportation

Walt Disney’s EPCOT concept

Historical Connection Between Theme Parks and Urban Transportation

Street Cars and Trolley Parks

American Waterfront, Tokyo DisneySea

Historical Connection Between Theme Parks and Urban Transportation

“Since streetcar companies created many of the parks, they developed rides that mimicked the streetcar’s

technology, whose principles and maintenance they understood.

(…) By transforming the streetcar into a roller coaster, the

racing dips parodied and exaggerated a familiar form of transportation.”

(David Nye, Electrifying America)

Darrin Nordahl – ctd.

● While the street car itself was once a novelty, it was easily surpassed by the more “unusual” roller coaster

● transportation in Disney theme parks is not part of the everyday

● experience is always the main factor, not efficiency ● Once the need for efficiency takes over, the

pleasantry of the experience suffers, even at Disney

Inversion of the Everyday

…but they do blur the lines!

Disney’s Theme Parks as Nodes of Mobility

Nodes of mobility are „distinct social spaces that orchestrate new forms of social life around (…) [them],

for example stations, hotels, motorways, resorts, airports, leisure complexes, cosmopolitan cities,

beaches, galleries and roadside parks.“

(Mimi Sheller & John Urry, The New Mobilities Paradigm, 213)

Disney’s Theme Parks as Nodes of Mobility

Venetian Gondolas, Tokyo DisneySea

Disney’s Theme Parks as Nodes of Mobility

Venetian Gondolas, Tokyo DisneySea

Thanks for Listening!

Sources

Larsen, Jonas and John Urry. The Tourist Gaze 3.0. London: Sage, 2011. Print.

Nordahl, Darrin. My Kind of Transit: Rethinking Public Transportation in America. Washington D.C.:Island Press, 2008. Print.

Nye, David E. Electrifying America. Social Meanings of a New Technology. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992. Print.

Pine, Joseph and James Gilmore. The Experience Economy. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1999. Print.

Sheller, Mimi and John Urry. „The New Mobilities Paradigm“ Environment and Planning A. Vol. 38 (2006): 207-226. Print.

Sorkin, Michael. „See You in Disneyland“ Variations on a Theme Park. Ed. Michael Sorkin. New York: Hill & Wang, 1992. Print.

Pictures

All the photos used in this presentation were taken by Sabrina Mittermeier, except for:

slide 6: bottom left; „Starspeeder 3000 exterior“, Brigante, Ricky, taken from: http://www.insidethemagic.net/2012/02/star-tours-origins-recreates-classic-disneyland-star-wars-ride-in-3-d-cg-ultimate-tribute/; bottom right: Stock photo Star Tours, copyright Walt Disney Company © Disney, taken from: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/attractions/hollywood-studios/star-tours/

slide 7: top left, Autopia logo screenshot taken from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0k_a7DpDKI top right, stock photo Jungle Cruise entrance, copyright Walt Disney Company, © Disney taken from: https://secure.parksandresorts.wdpromedia.com/media/disneyparks/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/jucmar764321.jpg bottom right: Tokyo Disney Jungle Cruise, copyright Walt Disney Company © Disney, taken from: https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2013/07/a-new-version-of-jungle-cruise-to-debut-at-tokyo-disneyland-in-2014/

slide 11, left; Walt Disney with EPCOT concept, copyright Walt Disney Company © Disney, taken from http://sites.psu.edu/nkarafilis/2015/10/02/how-do-we-start-answering-this-great-challenge-epcot-walt-disney-world-orlando-florida/ bottom right, EPCOT concept art, copyright Walt Disney Company, © Disney, taken from: http://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20150712/30417/what-life-would-have-been-city-tomorrow-aka-original-epcot

slide 15, left: Bus Meme, https://collinsrace1.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/bus-2.jpg; right: Magical Express, copyright Walt Disney Company, © Disney, taken from: http://www.orlandovacation.com/planning-help/getting-around/transit-at-the-walt-disney-world-resort/images/disney-world-shuttle-bus.jpg