A Storytelling Mouse

I love Walt Disney World.

No, wait...I am obsessed with Walt Disney World.

It's true; I plan friends' trips to Disney, presenting them with multiple recommended packages from which to choose. The minute our family vacation is over, I'm pricing the next one.  I completely lose it when Eeyore enters the room.  I tutor all summer to fill the "Disney Fund", and once filled, I book and plan our next trip.  Driving through Orlando without visiting Disney is simply not an option.

Why am I so captured by Disney?  Is it the element of escapism?  The irresistible return to childhood?  The pixie dust?

I've given this a lot of thought (too much, perhaps), and I have to say, I believe my Disney adoration is due to the fact that, at the foundation, Disney is about storytellers.  And I love storytellers.  Heck, I am a storyteller.

Disney was founded on a mouse with a story, piloting a steamboat.  It has transformed classic fairy tales and folk stories into icons.  It celebrates the diversity and unity we find in one another.  It imagines how we will interact in the future.  It looks at the ways man and nature need each other.  It pays attention to the details, understands that sometimes it's the little things (like the tiniest mouse) that make the story work.

When I think about the stories that have stayed with me, I realize that Disney is behind many of them.  Sure, I've read the original Grimm stories, and I know that Disney made its tweaks, but I cannot deny that Disney has increased the widespread longevity of these tales.  I remember being terrified of the Evil Queen's transformation in Snow White, going to see The Little Mermaid at my first slumber party, crying the instant the music began in The Lion King because it moved me in such a deep way (okay, my eyes still fill with tears each time I hear the opening cry of "The Circle of Life").

The point is, these stories have really meant something to me, and watching them come alive while being invited to be a part of them moves me in such a fundamental way.

I feel sorry for people who reject the "materialism" of Disney.  They're missing the whole point.  Disney is built on stories.  A trip to the Magic Kingdom is about living those stories.  Stories preserve our history, assist us in expressing our emotions, and capture our creativity and imagination in productive and meaningful ways.  We need to celebrate our stories.

So save your pooh-poohing of Disney and listen...there's a mouse waiting to tell you his story.