WHEN DISNEY WORLD DECIDED TO SWITCH THINGS UP AT ITS CANADIAN PAVILION, WHAT FOLLOWED WAS A TALE OF HATE AND MALICE IN THE HEART OF THE MOST MAGICAL PLACE ON EARTH.
A LOOK AT DISNEY’S LUMBERJACK PROBLEM
T he first sign that something was amiss at Disney World’s Canadian Lumberjacks show was when an anonymous park visitor conspicuously laid a memorial wreath on the stage.
“They were so vicious and mean to us … it was almost like a funeral in front of our show,” said Lee LeCaptain, emcee for the show, which ran for 14 months at the Canada Pavilion in Walt Disney World’s Epcot Centre.
Then came months of boos. Heckling. Letter-writing campaigns to Disney executives. Whenever the Canadian Lumberjacks were so much as mentioned in an online post, it was barraged by abuse.
“This show is horrible and an insult to Walt,” reads a typical post under an amateur video of the group’s performance. “They’re not even ‘real’ lumberjacks,” read another.
And the key perpetrators of this “rabid” anti-lumberjack discord? The super fans for Off Kilter, a Florida rock group who had previously spent 17 years in the lumberjacks’ spot at the Canada Pavilion.
“(Off Kilter) worked in extreme heat, in wool kilts mind you, and smiled, and sweated and made eye contact with the patrons,” read one of the torrent of letters sent to Disney World managers. “That is, until the brilliant decision was made to put in the most annoying and unentertaining act on the planet, the Lumberjacks.”
The Canadian Lumberjacks, which debuted at Epcot in October, 2014, is a state-fair-style lumberjack show: Log rolling, axe throwing and speed sawing — all punctuated with a liberal dose of corny jokes.
There aren’t actually any Canadian citizens in the Canadian Lumberjacks, although LeCaptain insists most of them come from Canadian stock.
“One of our guys’ grandfather played for the Toronto Maple Leafs,” said LeCaptain.
Clad in kilts and sweaters adorned with maple leaves, Off Kilter played “highenergy Celtic rock,” and attracted a loyal cult following in their nearly two-decade residency at the Canada Pavilion.
Fans planned their trips to Disney World around Off Kilter’s performance schedule, and a loyal core of season’s pass holders kept an almost daily vigil at Epcot’s Mill Stage.
When Disney announced last year that they wouldn’t be renewing the band’s contract, a crowd of hundreds came to the park to catch their final show.
“Massive crowd. Some tears,” said a Twitter post by one attendee. After two encores, the show ultimately needed to be forcibly ended by Disney World security.
Since then, more than 2,000 fans have joined Save Off Kilter, an extremely active Facebook page co-ordinating efforts to resurrect the group — as well as maintaining a death watch for the “Jacks.”
“Save Off Kilter is many people fighting for a wonderful cause; change takes time but as an ocean crashes on a rock it will change its formation,” read one rallying cry by one of the group’s most active members.
Another post urged fans to “contact Disney EVERY DAY!” and keep a stream of 2,900 messages per day hitting the inboxes of Walt Disney World executives. News stories featuring the lumberjacks all have comments sections jammed with cries of “BRING BACK OFF KILTER!!”
“It’s not all the fans, it’s just all these stupid, rabid fans,” said LeCaptain. “How do you compete with 17 years?”
Walt Disney World did not respond to requests for comment, but the Canadian Lumberjacks contract recently ended in favour of the Canadian Holiday Voyageurs, a seasonal band including several Off Kilter members.
A post on Save Off Kilter gleefully captured “all that’s left of the Jacks”; a solitary log and a garbage cart labelled “lumberjacks.”
Opened in 1982, the Canadian Pavilion is part of Epcot Centre’s World Showcase.
Located next to the United Kingdom, Canada features totem poles, English garden-style landscaping and a steak restaurant shaped like Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier.
Unlike other pavilions, Canada was built entirely without input or funding from the government of the country depicted, reportedly because Ottawa worried that Disney would pack the pavilion with Canadian stereotypes such as lumberjacks.
THEY WERE SO VICIOUS AND MEAN TO US … IT WAS ALMOST LIKE A FUNERAL IN FRONT OF OUR SHOW. — LEE LECAPTAIN, EMCEE, ON THE RABID FAN BASE OF THE BAND OFF KILTER IT’S NOT ALL THE FANS, IT’S JUST ALL THESE STUPID, RABID FANS.