Disneyland Paris: Time Machine and Consumerism

This is my first time visiting any Disneyland. At first, I thought I will be too old for this type of amusement park when you get excited by seeing Mickey Mouse walking around the park, but my friends kept saying that no one is too old for such a thing. So, I decided to give a Disneyland a try.

Disneyland Paris: the entrance

With 6 people at the age of twenty somethings, Disneyland becomes more than just the land of 'endless wonder', but it becomes a "time machine" so that we can reflect and enjoy our childhood experience that we might not think about for a long time. If you think you are too old, just think that you are buying a time machine ticket to fly back to your old memory.

Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant, the resort's icon

Nevertheless, you can still feel a glimpse of a conflict in the Disneyland as you found that there is not much resemble in Disneyland representing France or Paris. In fact, the Walt Disney Studio intentionally makes you feel like you are in Hollywood, California. At first, I feel incredible to become a part of Hollywood, but then I realize that thousands of little kids will experience the same thing that I did. This could be either a good thing or a bad sign because, for me, Disneyland is a victorious symbol of the United State as a superpower of the world and the key to push for capitalism and consumerism. This concept is demonstrated by showing that purely money can make a huge American tourist attraction that had more than a million people visiting every year. Most things in Disneyland are not real (at one point, I'm no longer sure that these trees are real), but it also emphasizes what money and the accumulation of wealth can make in any country including a socialist country like France.

Evening Show in front of the Castle

Disneyland becomes a mirror to reflect how consumerism are integrated into our daily life, and we start to value consumerism without really realizing it. I am not here to decide for you whether you think it is US who invades France by providing a symbol of consumerism or France who embody this symbolic attraction. Or it might be simply a global amusement park business that is doing really well and wanted to expand to Europe as a result from globalization. But I am here to encourage you to realize another side of the park. Behind of this colorful and fantasy fairly tale, there are something more, something more important for anyone to start thinking and discussing.

Lastly, the discussion of Disneyland in Paris might be an outdated topic when we were discussing about the relationship between socialism and capitalism. If so, the new Disneyland in Shanghai, China "Shanghai Disney Resort" will be a beginning of a discussion between communism and capitalism (or even the diplomatic relationship between two current biggest superpowers in the world) and what path that this fantasy park will take us to the future.