Walt Disney Magic Kingdom

The 21st century may not have time for magic, but it does have time for superheroes - most of who are now part of the Disney stable

For people of my generation (and perhaps yours too), the word 'Disney' had a special connotation. It meant a world populated by Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and other characters, many of which were created by that wonderful cartoonist Walt Disney. Even those characters that originated in somebody else's imagination (such as those in The Jungle Book, which was written by Rudyard Kipling) received such a thorough makeover at the hands of Disney's animators that they became part of the Disney Universe.
Did I say 'Universe'? Well? Perhaps not. According to Disney, the characters it created lived in the Magic Kingdom, a term the company copyrighted and used to describe its theme parks, starting with the original Disneyland in Los Angeles and including the trendsetting Disneyworld in Florida.

Walt Disney, creator of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, and the man with the Disney vision
I don't know if you have ever been to a Disney theme park. I've been to three (Disneyland when I was a child and then Disneyworld and Disneyland Paris - alias EuroDisney - with my son), and they had a certain wholesome quality to them. There was always a castle dominating the park, Disney characters (or, more properly, actors wearing Disney character costumes) wandered all around and there was no nudity, profanity or long hair even (unless it was on some Prince Charming-type character). Some of the rides were fun (Pirates of the Caribbean), some were plain corny (It's A Small World) and some were genuinely scary (Tower of Terror, I think, one was called).

A FRANCHISE FOR EACH:Marvel's troubled characters are the antithesis of the happy world of Walt Disney, but they make for hugely profitable movies
But you could understand how the phrase Magic Kingdom came into being. This was an idealised world based on a kind of 1950s America (before the hippies, before the Vietnam War, before drugs etc) which The Beach Boys celebrated in their classic song Disney Girls (the Art Garfunkel cover is probably better known these days).
Can the world Walt Disney created survive in the 21^st century? Well, the answer is yes and no. Yes, because Disney is doing extremely well and making lots of money. At a press meet last month, the company announced record profits and painted a glorious picture of its future.
And no, because I'm not sure that this is the world that Walt Disney created. Disney's two most successful franchises (as they call them in the business) have nothing to do with Walt's Magic Kingdom. The company bought Marvel Comics some years ago. And though Marvel's troubled characters (a conflicted Bruce Banner, a playboy Tony Stark, a worried Peter Parker, etc) are the antithesis of the happy people who lived in the Magic Kingdom for decades, they are the ones helping Disney roar.
As you probably know, the Marvel purchase has meant that Disney now makes hugely profitable movies about Iron Man, Spider Man, Thor, Captain America and The Avengers. Even minor Marvel characters like the Guardians of the Galaxy and Art Men get their own movies. Disney's projections of its profitable future are based largely on the Marvel characters and the big bucks they earn at the movies and as toys and other movie-linked merchandise.
The other plank of Disney's agenda for the future is Star Wars. We know that Star Wars grew out of the imagination of George Lucas who found it difficult to get studio backing till the first movie became a hit. After that, the saga grew into a mammoth franchise spawning great movies and crap ones (the second lot after the Harrison Ford-Alec Guinness pictures) and a massive merchandising industry. Disney bought George Lucas out some time ago and now owns Star Wars. More movies are in the works and large portions of the theme parks will be dedicated to Star Wars-themed rides.
So yes, Disney will make billions. But it won't make them from Walt Disney's creations. It will make them from shrewd investments in franchises that were already successful when Disney bought them. All Disney has done is to use its global network to squeeze every dollar out of the franchises.
So is there still a Magic Kingdom? Outwardly, at least, there still is. Though the theme parks are being re-modelled to cash in on the Marvel and Star Wars characters, there is still a lot of Mickey Mouse and cartoon-castle about them. But, in the future, all that will change.
In a way, that's sad. Such was the genius of the great Walt Disney that some of the rides he dreamt up back in the Sixties have spawned franchises of their own. The Pirates of the Caribbean movies, for instance, grew out of a slide at the original Los Angeles Disneyland. And the movies continue to rule at the box-office.
On the other hand, I guess nobody cares too much about Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse in this day and age. The world has moved on and we need newer characters to amuse ourselves with. Hence, Disney's investment in Captain America and Han Solo.
A part of me feels sad that the old Disney is dead. Nevertheless, long live the new Disney!