Shanghai Disneyland: A Chinese Fairytale


07/20/2015

Mickey Mouse is going to officially settle in China: after five years of run-up, in the spring of 2016, Shanghai Disneyland finally opens its doors to visitors. Hong Kong Disneyland will celebrate its tenth anniversary in September this year, but the Shanghai park will be the first in mainland China.



On Wednesday at the presentation held at the Shanghai Expo Center, President and CEO of Disney Bob Iger spoke about some features of the future park. According to him, the ultimate goal is to build a place that at the same time "will combine both the quality of the classic Disneyland and features of China" - Disneyland with Chinese characteristics.
 
Shanghai Disneyland will boast two newest and popular Disney acquisitions: Marvel Entertainment (responsible for such famous superhero movies like "Iron Man," "Captain America" ​​and "The Avengers") and Star Wars films («Star Wars").
 
Marvel Films production company are in great demand in China. "The Avengers: Age of Ultron", released this year, took third place at the box office among all films ever released in Chinese theaters (1.5 billion yuan, about $ 240 million). Other Marvel films also gathered a lot of money, especially the "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" ($ 115 million) and "Iron Man 3" ($ 121 million). Shanghai Disneyland will try to take into account these preferences in the Marvel Universe program: fans will be able to meet costumed superheroes and enjoy the various attractions, transferring them to the world of Marvel.
 
Chinese audiences also love another popular Disney brand - "Pirates of the Caribbean" with Johnny Depp in the title role. This film also found a place in the new. In fact, one of the six thematic areas - Treasure Cave - will be fully devoted to pirates, and the attraction "Pirates of the Caribbean" will be the main attraction.
 
Disney animated cartoons (which are most strongly associated with the name of company founder Walt Disney), by contrast, are not very popular. Sensational cartoon "Frozen", the record-breaking highest grossing animated film, has collected only 48 million dollars in the Chinese box office. Apparently, DreamWorks looks more attractive to Chinese as its "Kung Fu Panda" collected $ 96 million. DreamWorks, working on the release of the third cartoon with Chinese partners, is going to open its own park in Shanghai.
 
Nevertheless, the relatively Disney cartoons’ low revenues do not mean that the new park will abandon its global business card - Disney princesses. Shanghai Enchanted Storybook Castle, which will be built at Disneyland, will be the largest and highest of all the Disney World castle.
 
Shanghai Disneyland also will pay tribute to the Chinese culture.
- We want to build here something special here in Shanghai, something that not only takes the best of Disney stories, but also has a room for the rich culture of China", - explained Mr. Iger. According to the news agency "Xinhua", the area of ​​trade and restaurants will reflect the architecture of Shanghai and one of the seven "Gardens of Imagination" will host 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac (shown in the form of cartoon characters of Disney and Pixar).
 
The Shanghai Disneyland is another confirmation for the process that takes place in the last few years: Hollywood companies are adapting to the Chinese public. This way, they want to increase their profits in the rapidly expanding Chinese market. Earlier, Stanley Rosen wrote that as a result of this process, people began to accuse Hollywood of corruption. However, Chinese themselves believe that China is losing the "war" to Hollywood, as Chinese films suffer a crushing defeat by their overseas competitors.

source: thediplomat.com