Walt Disney Studios in Paris opened last year a new section called “Toy Story Playland”, which will also be launched soon in Disneyland Hong Kong. The area features a series of rides designed for children and based on the characters of the Toy Story franchise: RC Racer, Slinky Dog ZigZag Spin and Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop. Why choosing Toy Story for a new section of a theme park instead of the many other Disney franchises? There are many good reasons to pick it up, such as its popularity and the obvious merchandising opportunities of its toys. I would like to speculate here one more reason that might have led to that choice. Disney did consciously or not a very subtle cultural exercise in promoting cars, consumerism and the American army, in a politically correct way of course.
I saw this map in a station of the Berlin’s public transport. I found it very interesting and unusual. Its function is more than to merely provide facts about the S-Bahn ring, but also to influence our mental representation. Every map does so, but it is particularly striking in this case because they made it so symmetrical and ordered!
If you are also interested in subjective cartography, I recommend these strange maps.
I visited Tokyo DisneySea few weeks ago. It is one the best Disney theme park in the world, mainly because of the level of details and invested money. Disney in general is omnipresent in Japan. They successfully responded to the compulsive attractiveness that Japanese people have for cuteness. They even did a better job than local brands and are very consistent in their marketing across the country. While I was queuing to enter the park, I noticed that the Japanese people were already wearing quantities of Disney merchandising. This is probably why the park is of such a high level of execution, Japanese people seem to spend more than any others in Disney products, and shopping is truly part of the magical experience here.
The Hermitage is a massive residential property under construction in Kowloon (Hong Kong). I was living just next to its location, so I could see the progress of its development and I was very intrigued by the inside. Few weeks ago, I was walking in the adjacent Olympian shopping mall and I discovered that The Hermitage opened its showroom to the public. It went beyond all my expectations and was by far the craziest thing I have seen during my stay in Hong Kong, The showroom is completely out of reality, immersing visitors into a manufactured ‘dream’-like experience.
