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As if it thinks it wasn’t getting enough buzz already, Disney World execs are trying to up the hype surrounding the Fantasyland expansion. They’ve launched a website – Finding Fantasyland – to increase both the expansion’s mystique and guests’ interactivity with the wait. The site contains a mysterious poem: “A fantastical land exists, a curse hides it from our view. A hero is needed to break the spell, that hero could be you.”
The only other hint about what is going on is a colorful map of the upcoming Fantasyland. It gives blurbs about each of the new parts – Be Our Guest Restaurant, Belle’s Village, Enchanted Tales with Belle, Storybook Circus, Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid – but doesn’t tell us anything other than what we already know. At the bottom of the page there’s an invitation to join a mailing list for updates (“to break the curse when the time draws near.”)
That’s it. Everything is super cryptic: it’s not clear whether this is going to be the reveal of a fictional back story for the world of Fantasyland, further details about what the expansion will include, or something else.
It all seems a little silly, like a way to dredge up even more hype. However, there’s a bit more to it than that. The official Disney Parks blog post on the topic, which includes a YouTube video with a recorded version of the poem transcribed above, reveals that perhaps at least part of the reason the Finding Fantasyland campaign exists is due to popular request. It says that “some of you” (presumably, Disney World fans commenting on Parks blog posts) have been asking how the story line of the new Fantasyland expansion will fit into the original parts of Fantasyland.
I didn’t realize that there was such a complicated story behind Fantasyland. Walt Disney called it a world dedicated to the young, for anyone who’s ever wanted to fly over London with Peter Pan or fall with Alice into Wonderland. I’d say the new Fantasyland is very much a part of that, for those of us who grew up with Belle and Ariel. If there’s more of a story to Fantasyland I can’t find anything about it.
The comments on the article are humbling. I’m being such a cynic here. It’s my idealist, dreamer side that’s always drawn me to Disney, and I should look at the Finding Fantasyland campaign the same way. People are thanking park staff for keeping the magic alive, and really, why not? Why not have a fun little interactive game or story online, where fans interested in the new Fantasyland can feel like they’re interacting with it even before it opens?
I’ve signed up for the hero’s journey (to get email updates as the story continues). Even if I never make it to the new Fantasyland, for a little while I can pretend that I am part of the magic (and to keep up with any news as soon as it’s released).
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*(The above image by Richo.Fan is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)