ABSTRACT
Baudrillard’s (1995) Simulacra and Simulation advances a wholly original if not hallucinatory speculation on the symbolic world of Disney that commences with the rather moot assertion that Disney functions as a site of simulation, that is, as a reality without referent or actuality. As fans and connoisseurs might very well attest, the magic purveyed by Disney is intimate to its production of fantasy and the ostensible escape from reality that fantasy might afford. Reenchanting the world via simulation, 1 the ‘Disney experience’—from the illusory utopias of Disney’s theme parks to the nostalgic revisionist worlds of the company’s animated productions— aims at the realization of dreams bracketed from the encumbrances and indignities of contemporary life. Such a scenario requires first the division of imagination from reality, or rather, the production of a distance capable of separating Disney’s virtual utopia from the hard truth of actuality. As it did with the 2015 Disneyland measles outbreak, Disney quarantines the invasive character of reality. This is all to suggest that Disney functions as a derealized space predicated on the suspension of reality. In this conceptualization, the difference between Disney as a simulation and reality itself is evident.
