I thought it was the perfect story

Storytelling, no matter the context it partakes in, is at its most effective without a gimmick. Classic stories, films, and attractions all bear this out to be true. Gimmicks are great to draw in an audience once or twice, but their staying power begins to falter quickly. The device I see used more often in Walt Disney World than I would like, or have seen in the past, is celebrity.

We live in a world where the news cycle is twenty-four hours a day seven days a week, and no one captures the lion’s share of public interest more than actors, actresses, and musicians. What Patrick Dempsey had for dinner or who Joe Jonas is dating this week are, whether we like it or not, a part of our everyday lives. Yet, when it comes to Walt Disney World, Walt Disney himself said, “Here in Florida, we have something special we never enjoyed at Disneyland… the blessing of size. There’s enough room here to hold all the ideas and plans we can possibly imagine.” And that size has been a blessing for Florida as Walt Disney World has never had the real world to encroach upon its fantasies, unlike Disneyland.

Yet, step into the Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, or Disney’s Animal Kingdom and you can add celebrity sightings to your vacation To-Do list. From Ellen DeGeneres, Alex Trebek, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Bill Nye the Science Guy in Ellen’s Energy Adventure you can find your way over to Gary Sinise and Mission: SPACE, or Martin Short promoting celebrities and tourism for Canada in O, Canada. Aerosmith have a Rock ‘n’ RollerCoaster and Wallace Langham, Phylicia Rashad, and Bill Nye again brings science to the masses in Dinosaur, and all of these attractions could tell their stories without having special guests co-star in them. Pre-shows, or even main attractions for that matter, lose their effectiveness when you are more interested in who is on the screen rather than what it is they are saying.

All of this is aside from the fact that placing celebrities, who popularity changes almost as quickly as their hair styles, also date attractions. Bill Nye, while a brilliant way to pull in the Under 10 crowd initially, has lost some of his status, and I would venture a guess that he is not as recognizable to his target crowd these days, Ellen’s hair and clothes are clearly the result of the late 1990s, who can see Phylicia Rashad and not think The Cosby Show, and Martin Short seems out of character, and out of his decade, playing the Dean Martin to his own Jerry Lewis. It isn’t that I have anything against any of these actresses and actors, I love to watch them on television and in films when I am at home, but that is just the point, I am in Walt Disney World and do not wish to be abruptly pulled from the story I am becoming immersed in by an outside force.

Some of these celebrities came in as part of a refurbishment of attractions, and I am not going to argue that these attractions did not need some TLC, but an idea can be modernized without paying tribute to the gimmick. The Magic Kingdom’s Haunted Mansion was upgraded a little over a year ago with effects that stunned old-timers like myself and first time guests alike. The story was enhanced without the addition of Eva Longoria Parker as Constance.

If you suppose this means I am against Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean, Rod Serling in the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, or R2-D2 in Star Tours, you’d be wrong. Captain Jack Sparrow was brought to life in a brilliant story that took place within the structure of Pirates of the Caribbean, the addition of Captains Jack and Barbosa to the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction is simply the meshing of the original story with a secondary plot that is in perfect rhythm to the original, over-arching, narrative. As for Rod Serling and R2-D2, these are both themes, or rather established stories, that are being expanded upon. We are truly visiting the Twilight Zone and the moon of Endor, and it would seem like some small detail was just out of view if these celebrities were left on the curb.

Author, speaker, and poet Jim Harrison said that, “The answer is in the entire story, not a piece of it.” If that is true, than distracting an audience with a ‘do you know who that is?’ moment detracts from the most wonderfully crafted story. Walt Disney and his band of storytellers have always strived to find the next way to immerse patrons in their stories. When it comes to Walt Disney World, one sure fire way to involve guests more would be to involve celebrities less.