The ‘Rogers’ challenge: spoof or play it straight?
Top theme parks such as Disneyland spend billions of dollars to create attractions that make people feel like they have stepped into the worlds of their favorite films and television shows. But what happens when those imaginary worlds offer a bad experience?
I am not talking about the evil characters and unfortunate moments that drive the stories in those franchises. Villains are supposed to show up and make life difficult for our heroes. Ultimately, that’s all part of the fun. But sometimes stories include elements that don’t easily translate into an experience that reflects well upon a theme park or entertainment franchise.
Let’s call it the Krusty Burger dilemma. When Universal was designing lands based on “The Simpsons” for its theme parks in Orlando, Florida, and Hollywood, the Krusty Burger had to be on the menu. Duff Beer and Krusty Burgers were iconic food and beverage items in the Fox TV show, and Universal knew that fans wanted the opportunity to taste them as part of their “Simpsons” theme park experience.
Duff Beer was easy, but in the world of “The Simpsons,” Krusty Burgers were supposed to taste horrible. Yet no theme park wants to serve food that makes its customers gag.
Disneyland now faces a similar issue with its announced plans to bring “Rogers: The Musical” to Disney California Adventure this summer. The fake Broadway show from the opening episode of the “Hawkeye” series on Disney+ depicts the Battle of New York from the first “Avengers” movie, but wrapped in a thick layer of corn and cheese.
It’s a satirical comment on the culture of celebrity around the Marvel superheroes, created to be laughed at. That worked within the context of the “Hawkeye” show, but does Disney really want a musical that makes fun of its superheroes, right next to a theme park land it spent many millions of dollars on to celebrate them?
Universal ultimately explained away its Krusty Burger problem with a quip that while Krusty Burgers taste horrible to the two-dimensional characters in “The Simpsons” universe, they were quite tasty to three-dimensional human beings in ours. That allowed Universal to have its burger, while we ate it, too.
Disney has a mixed record when it comes to balancing faithfulness to an intellectual property versus giving guests what they want. In Avengers Campus, Disney has allowed characters from all moments of the Marvel cinematic universe to appear at the same place and time. Yet in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Disney set that experience within a specific moment in the “Star Wars” timeline, which prevents Disney from including characters such as Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi, whom many fans wanted to see as part of their “Star Wars” theme park experience.
Marvel beat its rival DC at the box office in part because Marvel movies embrace humor and snarky fun. But when it’s time to get serious and save the day, Marvel’s superheroes ultimately come through. That’s the lesson I hope Disney remembers when “Rogers: The Musical” premieres, for real, this summer.
Walt Disney would be pleased to see Disneyland reaching out today to tomorrow’s forever fans with the latest round of live entertainment that’s equal parts self-referential, empowering, offbeat, edgy and fresh.
Walt never wanted to see Disneyland turn into a museum, and this promises to be the year when his beloved Anaheim theme park leans forward just as it looks back at the first 100 years of Disney animation.
The returning “Magic Happens” parade joins “World of Color — One,” “Rogers: The Musical” and even the new ride Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway in speaking to the next generation of Disneylanders making memories today that they will eventually pass on to their kids decades from now.
The scheduled return of “Magic Happens” on Feb. 24 was postponed by steady rain — but the parade will run twice daily on most days. “World of Color — One” and Runaway Railway debuted in late January. “Rogers: The Musical” is coming this summer to the Hyperion Theater at Disney California Adventure.
‘Magic Happens’
This is a fresh and unexpected turn for Disneyland, which is known for playing it safe and falling back on tried-and-true formulas.
The returning parade, put on hiatus by the pandemic, turns Main Street, U.S.A. into an attitude-filled, sassy runway catwalk, with fashion-forward dancers in avant-garde costumes striking vogue poses.
Disneyland high rollers with money to burn will soon be able to sleep in a $6,000-per-night, multilevel luxury suite normally reserved for club members that will be available to the general public.
The 12-story Disney Vacation Club Villas, under construction at the Disneyland Hotel, will open in September with studios and suites that are expected to cost $800-$6,000 per night.
Reservations will be available to Disney Vacation Club time share members March 15, Disneyland Magic Key annual passholders March 16 and the general public March 17.
“Most DVC properties don’t focus on the ability of the general public to book them, but almost all of these properties do
The edgy-by-Disney-standards look is by design. Disney teamed on the parade with Emmy-nominated makeup artist David Petruschin, known as Raven on VH1’s “RuPaul’s Drag Race.”
A new song and musical score produced by “American Idol” singer-songwriter Todrick Hall provides the soundtrack for the parade.
‘World of Color — One’
“World of Color — One” sets out to be unexpected and different from previous water shows at Disney California Adventure.
The goal of “One” is to be quiet, subtle and mellow rather than bombastic, bold and over the top like earlier “World of Color” shows.
“One” works from a larger palette and paints a picture audiences haven’t seen before on the massive “World of Color” canvas — delivering a message of empowerment, inspiration, independence and self-discovery.
The show is intended to resonate with a younger audience. The musical choices are filled with deeper cuts and alternative takes. Storytelling choices ultimately dictated that “One” would only draw from films dating back to 1994’s “The Lion King.”
‘Rogers: The Musical’
It would have been easy for Disneyland to reach back to a familiar film like “Toy Story,” “Finding Nemo” or “Hercules” for the next Broadway musical in the Hyperion.
“Rogers: The Musical” is self-referential and campy — drawing from a five-minute scene in an episode of a spin-off Marvel TV show rather than a billion-dollar film franchise. make such reservations available to nonmembers when space is available,” according to MiceChat. “Since DVC members will get first shot at reservations, don’t expect wide availability for Magic Key holders or regular guests — especially at first.”
All of the studios and villas in Disneyland’s new tower will be It feels very meta. It’s a musical about an inside joke that only fans will get, and that will fly over the heads of general audiences sitting in the Hyperion.
The only thing that would be better is if Marvel eventually turns the fake musical playing at a real theme park into an actual Broadway show. Time will tell if the Hyperion is a dress rehearsal for an Avengers takeover of Broadway.
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
The new dark ride speaks to the next generation of Disneylanders even as it’s calling back to the 1928 birth of the mouse that started it all.
The animatronic versions of Mickey and Minnie in the attraction will take some getting used to for fans of “Plane Crazy” and “Steamboat Willie” — but not those tuned in to the latest frenetic and chaotic Mickey Mouse cartoons.
Mickey and Minnie’s half-faces are shown in profile, much like their two-dimensional cartoon characters seen on the latest Disney Channel shorts. The twist: The three-dimensional characters’ animated faces are rearprojected onto half-domed screens sitting on their shoulders. The result: The Mickey and Minnie animatronics look off-putting — even in the off-kilter world of the ride.
The Runaway Railway queue is filled with self-referential in-jokes that turn familiar Disney movie posters into Toontown versions of the films, with titles like “Meeska Mooska” (“Hocus Pocus”), “Toonsies” (“Newsies”) and “Mickey, I Shrunk the Nieces” (“Honey, I Shrunk the Kids”). themed to Walt Disney Animation Studios films.
Disneyland’s two-story Grand Villa will have three rooms inspired by “Bambi,” “Frozen” and “Moana” with enough space to sleep 12, plus a kitchen, dining room, private balcony and insuite washer and dryer.
Disney has not announced