If any of my close friends and family are reading this, they know DISNEY is an obsession of mine. Interestingly enough, I have only been on a Disney Kick since my 16th birthday. As a kid, of course I was exposed to Disney things, such as; Disney cartoons, toys, and going to Disney World at the age of 10.
However Disney wasn’t really an obsession until I became a teenager, and even more in my 20’s. Why? Disney was Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust. But it really and truly made TRUE LOVE real for me. As a young teenager and a young adult, I needed to believe in those kind of things. I loved the idea of having a prince charming, or a knight of my very own. I realized after my first serious boyfriend in college that wasn’t the case. It wasn’t until we were engaged and on a vacation with my family how much of an verbally abusive asshole he was.
Moving on, it took two more FROGS until I found my PRINCE CHARMING. I met my husband late in life ( age 31) but like they say, “better late than never.” He truly is my Knight in Shining Armour. He came out of no where, when I needed him the most and swept me off my feet. 7 years later here we are and we are just as happy as the day we met. He’s my best friend.
Back to Disney. Every year during the summer ( during my birthday) we would go to California and rent a beach house in San Diego with two other families. That was from when I was 6 to 13. Then my parents ( who were doing well at the time) bought a beach house in Newport. We went there every summer, because lets face it Arizona sucks during the summer. LOL. Still during my birthday I was always asked what I wanted to do, and I always wanted to go to a Theme Park. When we stayed in San Diego it was mostly Sea World ( course as I got older, I realized what a cruel joke the whole idea was. Training wild beautiful animals to do tricks) and when we moved up to Newport it was Universal Studios, Knotts Berry Farm, Six Flags, and of course DINSEYLAND.
At my Sweet 16 I wanted to stay at the hotel and get early access to the park. Course that was when we only had the one HOTEL and the one PARK. They were starting to build the other park and hotels, but it was still magical to be at Disneyland Hotel and to go straight into Disneyland. OH and Downtown Disney didn’t exist yet.
So much stuff has changed in and around the park since then. However Disney itself never changed for me.
During college, whenever I got the chance, I would visit my family there and we would go into the park for the day. One time My Cousin and I challenged our day, by seeing how many rides we could get onto within 4 hours. Lucky for us ( hey cuz) that we made it on all the mountains, (space, madahorn, splash, and thunder) and a few other rides. It wasn’t that busy of a day. Lots of fun.
Then came my mid to late 20’s. My sister and I made a packed, because of how much we love Disney, that every year during Halloween ( the most wonderful time of the year) we would go to the park for the day. We would stay with my dad ( who was now working in California, long story) and go to the park on his day off.
OH NOTE: we sold the beach house in 2003, and stayed with my dad. Dad drove to Cali on Sunday and came home to us on Friday. Has been doing that since 2003. Course right now he is thankfully working from home. No one is allowed at the offices.
Back to Disney. So that became our family tradition. We would go to Disneyland every year and spend two days at the park.
THIS IS GOING TO BE A LONG BLOG. HEADS UP.
It was after I met my hubby that I introduced Disneyland to him and also PIN TRADING. He loved it. And then we had LIVI. Her first time at Disneyland was when she was 3 months old. AND IT WAS THE WORST TRIP TO DISNEY IN YEARS. Why?
I was pumping only during those days. She wasn’t latching great but I was still pumping. Every Two hours she would have to eat. So we would have to walk all the way to the PARENT CENTER ( which is located in main street) and I would have to pump behind a curtain, while my hubby would heat up a pre-pumped bottle of milk and feed her. I was pumping the next batch. Every two Hours. We didnt get to do many rides. All we did was walk around and do the other rides we could with an infant. Plus we did a lot of meet and greets with characters.
We made a promise to ourselves and to my family, that we wouldn’t go back to Disneyland until Livi was old enough to enjoy it. Course than we had Will, and we had to wait longer at this point. My family was sad, but they were patient. Plus my sister met her Prince Charming and he ended up being a theme park guy too, and would end up taking her when she wanted to go. I was completely Jealous, but happy for her.
I kept up my Disney stuff by showing Livi and then Will all the Disney classics. Which by the way, Mickey Mouse ( the new cartoon) is their latest obsession. Don’t know why, it reminds me of a 90’s cartoon with Disney Characters. And of course keep up with all the costumes.
Livi became a mermaid / princess ( which I am so proud) and Will became a toy story ( mostly woody) and Mickey buff. Still very proud. When I found out I was going to have a girl, I went straight into the Disney Store and bough like 5 different onesies for her to have her first Halloween. During that day she was Cinderella, Marie ( the cat) and MINNIE. Her next Halloween she was Belle during the day but we went super hero for the night. Wills first Halloween he was Mickey and Livi was Tinkerbell. The next year he was WOODY and she was ARIEL. Course last year we went traditional and they were a Black Cat and a WEREWOLF. This year, so far ( from what LIVI has chosen) she wants to be MINNIE again and wants Will to be MICKEY with her. I think it will be cute.
If you cant tell, they have an arsenal of dress up close at their disposal right now and they choose the one costume they both don’t have yet.
What’s funny is that last year we signed Livi up for dance and the theme for the Recital was DISNEY. She was going to be Ariel for tap and Dumbo for Ballet. Thanks to Covid, they never got to perform.
Okay moving onto what you have all been waiting to read. The Controversies.. Shockingly I agree with some of them, but Disney has learned its lesson since than. Course this is my opinion and if you don’t agree, I am sorry. Just look at Disney’s Past. The biggest controversies is……. IS DISNEY RACIST.
In the past, YES, now NO. From the oldest cartoons to the music, there were a lot of racial things. The Biggest one being SPLASH MOUNTAIN. Zip be du dah, being the most famous song in the entire park. Course for those of you who aren’t familiar with the SONG OF THE SOUTH cartoon ( that has been band) or have read the Cartoon from the Walt Disney’s Treasury of Children’s Classics ( which I still own a copy of the 1978 edition) than you need to understand why.
Lordy the language was so not great. Course it was written in the 1946. So back than, it is my firm belief that Disney was not ahead of its time. Sad but true. They built splash mountain at Disneyland to open in 1989. Then the others in the 90’s. There are two others for those who don’t know.
Flash forward to the year 2009 and Disney comes out with its 1st African American Princess. Now before I go on, let me just say I AM NOT RACIST. I look at people around me and I don’t see their skin tone. I see beautiful human beings. Race doesn’t matter to me. All Lives Matter. I know I might take heat for saying it, but why. God made all of his children equal and beautiful in his eyes, why not mine. So if I offend anyone about saying African American, I apologize. I don’t know the PC for anyone’s Skin Tone these days. So many people are taking offense to everything. I pray for the day for World Peace and Star Trek era where everyone ( including aliens) are at peace with one another. That is my hope for the future.
Anyways back to Splash Mountain and The Princes and the Frog. When they were developing the idea for this movie Hurrican Katrina hit New Orleans. In honor of that, they decided to turn the traditional story into a new modern (set in 1912) take on the fairy tale. Plus ( and they dont mention this unless you ask someone who used to work for Disney) they had been getting a lot of anger from the African American Community for not having a AA princess yet. So they figured WIN WIN. They will turn this next princess into their first AA princess and set it in NEW ORLEANS. Honestly. That is the best they could do. They couldn’t find one of the many African People folk tales, or fairy tales to make into a Princess.
Nope, this is what I found out that is the official reason.
“Also questioned was the film’s setting of New Orleans, which had been heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, resulting in the expulsion of a large number of mostly black residents. Critics claimed the choice of New Orleans as the setting for a Disney film with a black heroine was an affront to the Katrina victims’ plight. In response to these early criticisms, the film’s title was changed in May 2007 from The Frog Princess to The Princess and the Frog. The name “Maddy” was changed to “Tiana”, and the character’s occupation was altered from chambermaid to waitress. Talk show host Oprah was hired as a technical consultant for the film, leading to her taking a voice-acting role in the film as Tiana’s mother, Eudora.”
Oh well, I for one loved the finished product in the end. It was one of my favorite Disney movies of the 3rd Disney princess era. They did the movie justice. Loved the story, the music, everything.
Course the latest news in Disney, which has made a lot of people upset, is that they are finally going to REMAKE Splash Mountain into a The Princess and the Frog ride. I AM 100% FOR IT. Here is why.
- Splash Mountain is a great classic ride, don’t get me wrong, however it is based on a Racist Cartoon that still makes people upset. I get that.
- Splash Mountain is a very old ride, and needs a tune up anyways, so why not re do it completely to another story, but keep the idea of the ride.
- Princess and the Frog don’t have their own place in Disneyland yet, except for New Orleans Square, and she needs her own ride. There is only Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain truly that fits into that land. So why not change it to Tiana’s ride because she is from NEW ORLEANS.
- And Lastly, I think that the restaurant that use to be in BEAR COUNTRY, “The Hungry Bear,” Is also out dated and needs to become TIANAS PLACE.
Disney is always looking to remodel rides to make them more interesting and better. They redid California Adventure, a few times actually. They redid The Tower of Terror and turned that into a Marvel Ride. They Remodeled the entire land Paradise Pier into PIXAR PIER. Which I thought was an awesome idea. Now lets just hope they take out the Monsters Ride and put it over there, but better. (Terrible Ride by the way.) They remade the Yellow Submarine Ride into FINDING NEMO. And so on and so forth. I don’t see why this is such a big deal to people.
Now onto the BOYCOTT of MULAN. Give me a break.
The story of Mulan has always been a huge story, and the second TRUE story that Disney has chosen to make a cartoon about. Pocahontas being the first. However it is a Cartoon, So therefore characters like MUSHU and CRICKET are make believe characters. In a cartoon world, they exist, but I can understand where Disney was coming from and wanting to make the LIVE ACTION more TRADITIONAL. Mushu and Cricket, they were made up to make the cartoon more fun for kids.
As adults, I prefer the Traditional story, more to the truth about who MULAN really was. Now its being Boycotted because of something the LEAD said on INSTAGRAM. Not because of anything Disney did wrong with the movie, but because of her comment. Lordy. Something big is happening in Hong Kong, just like it was happening here. Hong Kong is CHINA. Yes it is a Sovereign State of China, and have different laws and culture. However it is still a Part of CHINA. So when Yifei commented on the riots and got boycotted for her comment, everyone who disagreed with her has put out a BOYCOTT and the movie. UMMM, forget you. Mulan, the live action, is a great movie. Regardless of peoples opinions on Yifei, they cant not watch the movie due to her. I only watched the last 15 min because it was playing at my parents house, who bought the 30.00 fee to watch it and I loved it. I can’t wait until its Free to watch the whole thing. What is going on in China and Hong Kong, is something that is big, but it shouldn’t effect a movie.
Mulan is about a WOMAN in a MANS army. A huge thing, and it teaches girls, my daughter included, that she can be strong and independent. Mulan is a great role modal for my daughter and i am proud of this latest instalment.
Everyone is entitled to their views and opinions. This is mine. I LOVE DISNEY. ALWAYS HAVE AND ALWAYS WILL. Yes they may have been racist in the past, but they are better in the present and will grow to a better future. I am looking forward to going back to the park, hopefully within the next year. COVID GO AWAY. The kids are excited and antsy to get back to the park.
When we were there two Aprils ago, the kids had a great time, going on the kid rides, and Livi’s personal favorite was meeting all of her favorite characters. Will was only 1 almost 2 and was a little freaked out at meeting a life size version of his favorite toy, but when we go back in a year or two, I am excited to see his reaction to Mickey Mouse, Pooh, and all his other favorites.
Have a Magical Day Everyone. Have Faith Trust and Pixie Dust.
The TAWL Mom 