The fantasy of today is the reality of tomorrow

Everything looks real and seems real, yet it isn’t real?

Reality can easily be re-constructed given the right idea, imagination and enough power and control, anyone can create a representation of the world. America is built to symbolise the idea that you can create anything and introduce it to the world as something which can be seen as better than what already exists and better than the real. Disneyland is the epitome of a creation that symbolises real life and merges it with fantasy to escape any origin of reality.

When you enter Disneyland, you leave any form of reality behind and walk into a dream, a simulation of what the world may become, ‘an advert of the real’. It feels as an escapism where you can leave any form of cruelty from the ‘real’ world behind and embark on the fantasy thrill it has to offer. The idea of, ‘if only life was like the movies’ is a common phrase, so if people were able to choose a reality where life imitated art they probably would. This is what Disney has produced, fantasy that imitates reality, which then imitates fantasy.

In agreement with Florian Mayer from the The Disney theme parks: home to the mouse, Hyperreality and consumerism thesis (2007) “it can be said, that postmodern utopias like the Disney parks are idealised spaces of commodification that have emerged to address the needs of individuals who are increasingly marginalised from the means of production and each other.” It can be suggested that, Disney creates the ‘perfect’ family life and society especially within their films and there animated films. The idea of a husband and a wife, with two children, living in there grand house, surrounded by a white picket fence, the ideal suburban lifestyle of a traditional view on society. The problem it possess is the idea that it is taking a traditional way of thinking and placing it into a postmodernist world where the real meets the Hyperreal, that of Disney.

However, this idea of representations and real life according to Disney goes far beyond that of the theme parks. They are a small fragment of the representations America has to offer, once leaving the airport and stepping into the ‘golden coast’ of Los Angeles, the ‘real’ world feels as if it was replaced by a film setting. The areas are surrounded by many shopping malls, located around the city, which in their own sense are part of the fantasy of selling the consumer something which would make them ‘happier’. Los Angeles is only one part of the Hyperreal mix, as Las Vegas is filled with simulations and representations of ‘real’ wonders from around the world. It can be suggested to be the creator of a new culture, a ‘fake’ real. It offers recreations of the Egyptian Pyramids, the Empire State Building and a fantasy like replica of the Grand Canyon, have become popular tourist attractions when visiting Las Vegas.

People visit these attractions as simulated variations of the real places, just like that of the visitor to Disneyland. Whether visiting Main Street or going on safari through Africa in Disneyland, the resemblance of the theme park and that of both Los Angeles and Las Vegas is slowly becoming a less distinguishable factor, each place simulates another. The blending of simulations and authentic objects, and the combining of truth and fantasy conceals that reality exists the same in both the outside and inside spaces of simulation. The real world and the fantasy world.

This disillusionment of separating the artificial elements from the real is seemingly merging into the same bounds, where history nevertheless is being overpowered by ‘Disneyfication.’ The term suggests that history and culture is being replaced by the Disney idea of the real world, as what is portrayed in their films, feature length animated films and their theme parks have all been refashioned.

It can be said that, the more we endure these replicas or artificial creations we would soon start to witness more representations of something that is already a representation. It would become just as important and effective as the figure it represented, and what history has taught us is it could become the only image of the object we know. Thus, the idealistic view Disney has produced and its interpretations of life, society and reality they submerge within their theme parks and full length feature animations is providing a sheltered reality.

The creation of these replicas and representations by placing the fantasy in the world of reality could suggest that too much real cannot be tolerated in our current society. People are not trying to reproduce reality through the replicas, but trying to improve on it.

The blurred lines between Disney and Shakespeare

Everyone has seen a Disney film and everyone knows a Disney story, it is the foundation of our childhood and our childhood memories. However, as we get older there are many elements which begin to make more sense  and for me when i watch a Disney film now i begin to see aspects of a world which begins to resemble our own world, but a fantasy version that we long for in our everyday reality. The  little mermaid, which was released in 1989 and is based on the Hans Christian Anderson fairy tale of the same name and now a popular Disney film is an example of the blurred lines of reality and fantasy. The concept of fantasy merging with reality is evident within this particular animated film. It portrays two very different realities coexisting together, as shown when the mythical figure of the mermaid (Ariel) crosses from her world into that of the human world, and later on in the film is granted a soul, meaning the imaginary meets the real.

There are also suggestive parallels between Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Disney’s The Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid encourages identifying the similarities in not only the theme but also the characters and settings between the two, starting with the distinction of naming its heroine Ariel. In The Tempest, Ariel is a magical spirit, an almost fantasy like character, which coincides with the Ariel in The Little Mermaid which is portrayed as a mythical creature, that of a mermaid. Both the settings are based on either an island or the ocean, both of which can be seen as an escapism from ‘reality’. The idea behind both stories is fantasy, illusion, manipulation, power and magic, which works well when identifying the idea behind Shakespeare’s world. He uses the contradictory worlds of illusion and reality to depict the idea that not everything is as what it seems, which is misleading to the characters of the play and is a reflection on realities current society.

Truth versus reality is made abundant through the illusions of Prospero and the reality of the island which he merges, such as in The Little Mermaid. A world has been created of illusion, and mixed in with these illusions is also the ‘real’; the characters find it hard drawing a line between the aspects of reality alongside that of the illusionary. The creation of these imaginations and placing the fantasy in the world of the reality could suggest that too much reality cannot be tolerated.

 

 

The real imaginary

In many parts of the world people dream of an ideal life, built on imagination, happiness and fantasy. This is essentially the ‘American dream’, an idea created to make people believe anything is possible and this is the desired way of life. The genius that is America is due to the exports of branding, by companies like Coca-Cola, Disney and Mcdonalds and plays a significant role in creating an idealist view of life and spreading to a global level. However, you have to ask yourself, is this the lifestyle we should be living?

We are powered by consumerism and brands that is slowly becoming our whole world. No longer are we viewing adverts but they are becoming what is essentially our ‘perfect world’. We are the advertisement of what life is and should be, it’s almost blurring the notion of what once was.

We are on this pursuit of ‘the passion for the real’ yet we forget that the road we are on is leading us to a fake passion, where although we say we want to understand and experience ‘real life’ we still let the fake appearance of this become our ultimate stratagem to avoid confronting the truth.

We are surrounded by materialism which is the epitome of a ‘superficial reality’. We see, we want, we buy. That is the core of what we have been essentially programmed to need as the foundation of human nature and thus neglects any primitive characteristics of a once pre-modernist view on life. The hyperreal has taken over.

This is evident in everyday life, representations are the new real. Not to forget to mention globalization, we all know what it is and what it has become. But, it is so much deeper than what we are aware of, it has created a world where culture and individualism ceases to exist. Its not just a way to build the economy it can be regarded as a sales pitch. It offers society something that seems better than real in order to sell us something we do not actually need. Our world is starting to represent the ideas of America and their society, which looks nothing more than a theme park in itself. A ride we are all on, an exaggerated variation of what can be argued as ‘reality.’ So when you next turn the TV on, step outside your house, watch a film or go for a walk or shopping, ask yourself; is there any origin or reality left or is it all just an authentic fake?