What is the appeal of Mickey Mouse?

[dixiehack]

If Bubbler did a sitcom pilot, I'd take out a second mortgage to back it.

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

I really think they ought to work a cow (as in cash cow) into the Disney World character scheme. At $80 plus a person, it's like they're just printing money on a daily basis in Orlando.

And what amazes me is the number of Europeans who make Disney World a vacation destination. That's a lot of Euros streaming into Fla. Maybe we should consider a deficit reduction strategy to build Disney theme parks in every major metropolis up and down both coasts.

They do have cows ... the people who patronize the parks. There's herds of them.

They're sheep too.

True, it's much better - and cooler - to go to sporting events. Spend a similar amount of money to stand up, sit down, yell, and watch someone else do something.

 

[Bubbler]

I read it all. Awesome rant. I'm with Bubbler. Mickey sucks.

This.

Best line:

Bugs Bunny. I love the shirt out of Bugs Bunny. He's a Hall of Fame shirt-talker, using his wits to cut you to pieces, and failing that, he'll literally fork your shirt up, usually via heavy Acme explosives.

Yeah, but did Bugs ever use Acme explosives?

Did the Road Runner loan them out?

Good question. Depends on how you want to define "use".

I seem to recall in one of the Wile E. Coyote Super Genius spots that Bugs used explosives to blow him up. Wile E. Coyote was in a dynamite shack and was pushed in front of a train. So that's sort of using explosives. Also, didn't Bugs use an Acme magnet to get a rocket to fly into Wile E. Coyote's cave too?

 

[Bubbler]

I really think they ought to work a cow (as in cash cow) into the Disney World character scheme. At $80 plus a person, it's like they're just printing money on a daily basis in Orlando.

And what amazes me is the number of Europeans who make Disney World a vacation destination. That's a lot of Euros streaming into Fla. Maybe we should consider a deficit reduction strategy to build Disney theme parks in every major metropolis up and down both coasts.

They do have cows ... the people who patronize the parks. There's herds of them.

They're sheep too.

True, it's much better - and cooler - to go to sporting events. Spend a similar amount of money to stand up, sit down, yell, and watch someone else do something.

Hey, I don't even disagree. Commercialism in sports is just as bad, which I why I currently write this from the ESPN Wide World Of Sports. You want to compare the throngs that go to World Cup, etc., to those that go to Disney, and call them sheep, I'm not going to argue that point.

But at least a sporting event usually has an outcome that's in doubt. And whether one advocates the practice or not, there's also hometown/state/alumni pride involved in following a sports team. There's usually some personal connection and the competitive part of a sporting event can (usually) be separated from the marketing that surrounds it.

 

[Johnny Dangerously]

There are members of sj who encounter Bubbler in full rant and can't be bothered to read the post because it's long?

When Game 7 goes to extra innings/overtime, do you refuse to watch? If someone gave you a magnum of Dom Perignon, would you dump it?

Bubbler rants are sj gold.

This.

He is quintessentially American. That's usually all it takes.

Who, Bubbler?

 

[Piotr Rasputin]

I really think they ought to work a cow (as in cash cow) into the Disney World character scheme. At $80 plus a person, it's like they're just printing money on a daily basis in Orlando.

And what amazes me is the number of Europeans who make Disney World a vacation destination. That's a lot of Euros streaming into Fla. Maybe we should consider a deficit reduction strategy to build Disney theme parks in every major metropolis up and down both coasts.

They do have cows ... the people who patronize the parks. There's herds of them.

They're sheep too.

True, it's much better - and cooler - to go to sporting events. Spend a similar amount of money to stand up, sit down, yell, and watch someone else do something.

Hey, I don't even disagree. Commercialism in sports is just as bad, which I why I currently write this from the ESPN Wide World Of Sports. You want to compare the throngs that go to World Cup, etc., to those that go to Disney, and call them sheep, I'm not going to argue that point.

But at least a sporting event usually has an outcome that's in doubt. And whether one advocates the practice or not, there's also hometown/state/alumni pride involved in following a sports team. There's usually some personal connection and the competitive part of a sporting event can (usually) be separated from the marketing that surrounds it.

Everyone spends their entertainment dollar how they choose.

A well-done theme park isn't a poor place to spend a day. A bad loss in bad weather by your favorite team, after tailgating for hours before?

Maybe not as easy to justify the price paid, in both money and time.

 

[Bubbler]

Meh. That I don't buy. Going to DisneyWorld is much more expensive than going to a typical sporting event anyway.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

Read Hiaasen's Team Rodent and you'll never spend a buck there again.

 

[HC]

To me, Disney is the Nike of family entertainment ... the brand is more important than the product.

 

[novelist_wannabe]

Dude, he's a mouse. Who made mops and brooms clean on their own. You gotta respect that. Moreover, you have to buy the t-shirt. Now get in there and buy one. Now.

Course, he also changed his name from Steamboat Willie. So there are some identity issues.

Look, I understand the disdain here for blatant commercialism. Disdain for just about everything is an occupational hazard among journalists. But I also know that every time I've been down there, I've had a good time. Spent a bunch of money, to be sure, but I enjoyed myself.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

Bubbler,

My 4 and 5-year old want to cut you.

 

[Bubbler]

The funny thing is that my 9-year-old daughter is fine with Mickey Mouse. Ambivalent, but doesn't love or dislike.

My 8-year-old son HATES Mickey Mouse, with far more invective than I spewed here. He thinks he's too old for it because he associates Mickey Mouse with the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse show on NickJr.

He got in trouble at school last year because he said something to his teacher when she played Mickey Mouse music in class. Something along the lines of, "Why do we have to listen to this? We're in SECOND GRADE!"

The apple doesn't fall far, etc. Though I would've never been so brazen at that age to say something in class like that.