The Enchanted Neighbourhood

On our upcoming trip, as we have for so many trips, the missus and I will be staying at Pop Century. We don’t tend to spend much time at our resort, opting instead for park or resort hopping time, and it ends up being a place to sleep, shower, and store our belongings. Don’t get me wrong, we’ll decorate the room more than most, but at the end of the day it is a brief pit stop before launching ourselves out into the larger Walt Disney World complex of activities. Since the rooms received their refurbishment, not to mention the proximity to the Skyliner, Pop has once again become a place that I want to stay at, not one that I’m forced to stay at, however there is one piece of the resort that irks me, and it comes from the 1970s section.

For those that are unfamiliar with the layout of Pop Century, the resort is broken up into sections dedicated to the decades of the latter half of the last century. Three buildings represent the 1950s, two for the 1960s, another pair for the 1970s, two for the 1980s, and one for the 1990s. To be fair the 1980s and 1990s tend to comprise one section combined, but given that the resort opened in 2003 and was in development long before that, it almost feels that the 1990s building was more of an afterthought. Each of these sections includes larger than life characters from films of the era along with artifacts common to the representative decade. For instance, the 1960s features Baloo and Mowgli, Play-Doh, and Duncan yo-yos anchoring buildings with very groovy sayings plastered on the banisters.

Here is where I nitpick and find my compulsive desire for everything to match up with one another, which means you can feel free to roll your eyes at me. The 1970s, replete with its Big Wheel, foosball, and 8-track tapes, doesn’t actually feature a character from the decade. Oh sure, there is a Mickey Mouse, but he’s attached to a phone, an item that featured prominently in the 1970s, but not a character unto itself. While there weren’t many animated features released in the decade following the passing of Walt Disney, there were a handful and there are several that would play perfectly into the resort’s overall theme.

In the 1970s there were four major releases: The Aristocats, Robin Hood, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and The Rescuers. I would personally love to see Orville with Miss Bianca and Bernard, but I also understand that The Rescuers is not as commonly recognized as some of the other characters of the decade. Likewise, the same could be said for The Aristocats, but that still leaves us with Robin Hood, his merry band of Little John and Friar Tuck, and Maid Marian, all of whom are fairly recognizable character even to today’s families. Perhaps most famous of all, however, was the honey hungry, red shirt wearing, willy, nilly, silly old bear, Winnie the Pooh.

Now, I can hear some of you out there reminding me that The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is just the repackaging of several Winnie the Pooh shorts from earlier, and I hear you. On the other hand, this was when the tubby cubby was truly becoming a household name and you couldn’t help but see his furry golden face everywhere. To take it one step farther, the 1970s was the decade when Disney cheekily put Winnie the Pooh on the ballot for President of the United States. Pooh has remained one of the most recognizable characters in the Disney catalog since, and he definitely would ring familiar to families staying in the 1970s buildings of Pop Century, and parents would have to explain the rotary dial attached to Mickey’s feet.

Do I suspect there will ever come a time where the iconic Mickey phone is replaced in Pop Century? I absolutely do not ever expect to see that day. It just seems a little off the mark for Disney to have crafted each decade so well, with Roger Rabbit, Baloo, Mowgli, Lady, and Tramp, only to let the theme slip when it came to the decade that saw the opening of Walt Disney World and the rise of Winnie the Pooh, and Tigger too. I’m sure I am just being overly critical, but this is the stuff and fluff that fills my head from time to time.