Avatar at Disney Parks? Why Not . . . Something Else?

Ever since hearing about the new collaboration of James Cameron and Fox Entertainment to bring AVATAR to Disney Parks, I’ve been moving through the stages of grief. From this week’s Jentasmic! column at Studios Central:

Denial: What? This is crazy, and it’s got to be a rumor. This is simply too far outside the Disney brand. Plus, we’re talking a hit movie here people, with two new sequels expected in the coming years . . . why isn’t this coming to the Studios?

Anger: Noooo! This is too much in one week! I’m still reeling from the latest George Lucas Star Wars re-vamp, and now you expect me to accept AVATAR as a reasonabley addition to Animal Kingdom?

Bargaining: Okay, I can deal with this, I don’t even spend much time at Animal Kingdom anyway. But Disney, if you’re gonna do this, could you also pleeeeeeze fix the Disco Yeti? Enough with the strobe lights, let’s get some audio-animatronic action going.

It looks like I’ll be working through the Bargaining stage for a while, because I’ve got another property in mind that would have been a much smoother fit for a themed land in Animal Kingdom. It’s conservation-oriented, Academy Award-winning, Disney-owned, and would have been an excellent opportunity for expansion of the Living Character Initiative. Plus, if Disney would just take a teeny tiny flight into the ironic, we could be sipping cupcake-in-a-cup.

 

The Joys of Trip Planning

Sometimes I think I enjoy trip planning more than I enjoy the trips themselves. And science backs me up on this! This week in Jentasmic on StudiosCentral: The Joys of Trip Planning.

 

Russia Bans Mickey Mouse Jesus Painting

From Deseret News:

The Kaluga Region court has banned as extremist a painting by Alexander Savko that depicts the Sermon on the Mount with Mickey Mouse sitting on a rock surrounded by halo-clad disciples and admiring onlookers, reports RIA Novosti.

The story’s been covered in Business Insider Europe as well, which provides this handy link to a LiveJournal page which provides the image I’ve displayed above. Plus, a couple years before the image was banned, two prominent Russian intellectuals were found guilty “of inciting religious and ethnic hatred in an exhibition called “Forbidden Art — 2006,” which displayed works that had been banned by Russian museums” including this same painting (New York Times).

Traveling to Germany last month, I was struck by the number and style of irreverent iconic Disney images.

Street art in Heidelberg, photo courtesy of Mr. Broke Hoedown

Unknown gallery in Munich, photo courtesy of Mr. Broke Hoedown

Unknown gallery in Munich, photo courtesy of Mr. Broke Hoedown

So, am I offended by the Mickey Jesus image? As a person who respects many faiths, I do feel a bit tweaked and disconcerted when I look at it.

I believe that one of art’s many roles is to challenge the viewer. And what I’m really offended by is the reality of what it portrays: That consumerism has trumped spiritual life for many people. As Savko told the Huffington Post:

THE PUPROSE OF THIS PAINTING IS NOT ABUSE OF CHRIST AND NOT ABUSE OF CHRISTIANS. THIS IS DISPLAYING OF CURRENT REALITY: THE SUBSTITUTION OF HUMAN SPIRITUAL, MORAL VALUES WITH MASS-CULTURAL VALUES.

Mickey Mouse is a cultural icon (as are some of his buds); his image belongs to the global, visual language of artistic expression.