Disney Post #5—🎵Feliz Mickey Mouse🎶

NOTE: Last week and this week, I’m blogging my experiences at the anti-worker, pro-corporate mecca Disney World as part of a family trip (which I didn’t want to go on, but was outvoted on), with critiques and a few positive aspects as I go along. Here are my previous posts: Post 1, Post 2, Post 3, Post 4.

While Disney World has a very pro-Christian Christmas service this time of year, which I mentioned in a previous post I was not at all happy about, there were also two secular celebrations in particular on Christmas itself — a parade and a show — that were actually not offensive and actually pretty enjoyable IMO.

The parade just featured Disney characters, plus Santa (which I’m not a fan of because I see it as training for believing in God, which is a bah-humbug view I could talk about some other time). It was what you’d expect.

But the nighttime Christmas show was focused on friendship, family, love, and togetherness, which are values I think should be promoted if you’re going to celebrate Xmas. The jokes were pretty funny for something coming from Disney (centered largely around trying to text Donald, and then waiting for the arrival of other characters).

The songs were all non-religious in nature, and the highlight of the show was a song with rousing rendition of Feliz Navidad, which got the loudest singing and applause from the crowd.

One thing I’ve noticed is just how many Spanish speakers are here at Disney World, so my guess would be they appreciated the nod to their culture — not just the song, but also two Latino Disney characters I’ve read about but never seen in action: Panchito Pistoles and José Carioca, this time sans cigar and absent Latino stereotypes I’ve read about them having in the past.

Feliz Navidad is becoming a perennial Xmas song in the same league as Rudolph, Winter Wonderland, etc. that you now hear everywhere in stores and on the radio. And I’m sure that this, and the fact that there are so many people speaking Spanish here at Disney World, must make some conservatives’ blood boil while others (like me) view it as positive.

Could things have been improved from a sociopolitical standpoint in the parade and show? Is it time to get rid of Disney “princesses” as role models for girls? Could there be better representation of non-white characters, could there be LGBTQIA+ representation (not just the “straight” couples of Mickey and Minnie and Donald and Disney)? Yes, definitely, to all of these.

I’ve made some of my critiques of Disney as a corporation clear in previous posts (Post 1, Post 2, Post 3, Post 4). But for what it was, I think the show actually wasn’t that bad in terms of content. Then again, I was comparing it mentally to what I saw as an unexpected “Disneo-Christian” church service at Disney World the night before, so maybe I would have experienced it differently if it wasn’t for that.

If we’re going to celebrate Xmas as a country — which not everyone agrees we should — we at least need non-religious celebrations to be inclusive of as many people as possible. I think Disney is at least on the right track for this with their show. Let’s hope they continue to improve this and continue, or start, to improve on the other important social, economic, and political issues they are responsible for causing or promoting in the US and abroad.

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