Disney magic is found in the people, the experiences of feeling as if you are flying over London in a pirate ship, sailing down the Amazon River with a jovial guide, setting out on a “two-week Safari” in Africa, journeying to the very port of imagination, or to 11 different countries without needing a passport. In this author’s experience and humble opinion, throwing sparkles and pixie dust on any and everything does not make Disney Magic™. By the same token, throwing up an over-sized bit of Disney-themed “magic” in the form of a hat, does not equal Disney quality and dedication to a properly themed environment. But as we Disney purists know, lack of Disney branding does not equal some sort of disconnect between the guest and where they are spending their hard-earned vacation dollars. It also conveniently solved that pesky issue of the main “weenie” in this park being a non-Disney entity (Grauman’s Chinese Theatre). It no doubt made loads of money in both merchandise and photo pass sales. As with many things in Disney parks these days, it became easier to leave this store up. The hat was not an icon, it was a pin store in the shape of a hat, and a temporary one at that, created for the “100 Years of Magic” celebration, when special light-up pins were sold which interacted with park elements. One major part of that mishmash was a giant Sorcerer’s hat, which while, yes, related to an animated film from Walt Disney, had no business being at the end of Hollywood Boulevard, a walkway brimming with Hollywood history, homages, and iconic architecture. Destroy the basic essence of a movie-studio-related theme park and over time, it becomes a shell of a park a mishmash of random attractions and unrelated shows which are either outdated or have nothing to do with “The Hollywood that never was and always will be.” Throw a couple of birds from unrelated movies into a classic, original WDW attraction like the Enchanted Tiki Room, and Disney purists will be unhappy. In my, and many others’ opinions, part of the disappointments in park-related decisions made by Disney executives almost always stem from this suspension of theming. Part of what drew me in to the wonders of Walt Disney World as a child were the incredibly themed environments found at each park. I hope we have this uncluttered view again with the removal of the hat. But I was lost in the moment, and just kept typing. I had never before written a blog post on my phone, save for very short updates about new purses being released while I may have been away from my laptop. My thoughts got away from me, and I had soon reached “caption limit” on Instagram, so I copied and pasted what I’d been writing into my “Notes” on my phone. I began writing this as a caption to a photo I had posted before on Instagram, of a hat-free view of Disney’s Hollywood Studios (of course, then known as Disney-MGM Studios).
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