Cultural Imperialism

Yup, this is France. Or at least, it's IN France.

If you ever want to laugh at the superior attitude of the French, you should read about the uproar from critics when Disney announced the planned building of Disneyland Paris. More importation of American culture! It was called a "cultural Chernobyl." One journalist went so far as to write, "I wish with all my heart that the rebels would set fire to Disney."

Others were more accepting, pointing out that France has started adopting American culture all on their own. English creeps insidiously into French language, and it takes an official government organization (Le Académie francaise) in order to ward of the Anglicization.

From the initial announcement of the park opening to the cries of dismay and accusations of American cultural imperialism, Disneyland has struggled with where it sits on the cultural spectrum. Mostly, the critics have calmed down by now about encroaching American values, 22 years after its opening. The park itself balances precariously between being French and being American, staying mostly American but with occasional nods to its French location through language and over-use of Beauty and the Beast.

Disney itself didn't really seem to know what it should be. In 1992 when Disney finally opened a resort in Europe, it was called Euro Disneyland. In 1994 (maybe in case anyone would be confused where they were) it became Euro Disney Resort Paris. 2002 came Disneyland Resort Paris. And today, it is Disneyland Paris. Or Parc Disneyland. Actually, it's Disneyland Paris the resort, or Parc Disneyland, the park.

Even they don't seem to know. Here are two different entrances to the park, both leading into the same place. True one is French and the other is English, but they don't seem to be able to decide if it's Park or Paris. The Disney fans just refer to it as DLP - simultaneously covering "park" and "Paris" at the same time.

For much of its life DLP seems to have had some identity issues. The audience, however, comes from everywhere. While Disneyland Anaheim draws largely from southern California and Walt Disney World Orlando from all over the US (with some overseas visitors), the guests at DLP seem to come from all over Europe. Standing in line for Peter Pan, you might hear some German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, British, French, Polish, and probably at least a few languages you won't recognize. There's also a bit of Chinese and even Japanese.

The sheer linguistic diversity of the park is staggering, especially on Easter Week when the crowds peak and mill all around you. Disney has done a good job of keeping up with the languages, hiring cast members who speak both French and English and often at least one other language, and providing brochures in six languages.

It also has gone and fitted one of its auditoriums with headphones tunable to five different language channels so that if you can't follow the French narration, perhaps one of these other ones will work.

Every seat has a set of these to let you watch the show.

But translation gets more complex when it's live, and simultaneous translation is both exhausting for the translator and a wildly expensive skill to have working 12 hours a day so Disney doesn't do that in the shows. In the "Stitch Live" show where an escaping Stitch talks live from his spaceship to children in the audience, they alternate between English and French shows.

Which kind of works, except that Stitch doesn't know his Welsh and Scottish names, so when a kid says his name is Carwyn, Stitch asks him to repeat it three times before giving up and saying "Welcome to Carin from Wales!"

Communications also extends beyond language and names.  Humor and spontaneity become incredibly hard to do at DLP with its multicultural audience. Germans, French, and Brits don't really share the same sense of humor.

DLP's saving grace is the shared common culture of Disney mythology. People arrive already knowing the Little Mermaid and Snow White and Rapunzel, whom they've seen on screen at home in their own language. With enough references to these links, the experience holds together for any culture that has been exposed to the Disney stories, allowing people to draw from much more than just what they are seeing during the day in order to build richer experiences.

Nowhere else but at DLP have I seen such a diversity of people from completely different cultures sharing the same experience. They walk through the turnstiles, step onto Main Street, USA, and explore different lands. They eat popcorn and hot dogs, meet Mickey Mouse, ride the Mississippi steam boat through the bayou.

And here I can see the French critic's objection. Disneyland is a slice of not just America but of Americana. It's folklore, history, culture. Plopped into the middle of the French countryside, it not only attracts the French to enjoy it, but invites people from all over Europe to come to France and see America.

Ouch.