Originally Posted By gadzuux >> Nothing is ever completely out of place << Pooh's placement in Critter Country seems to qualify as 'completely out of place' in every sense.
Originally Posted By Manfried Pooh's placement in Critter Country seems to qualify as 'completely out of place' in every sense. Oh, and singing geese and talking rabbits aren't? Or that it's also up against Frontierland? Or that both are in the land that also has the entrance to the canoes? Come on...gadzuux.
Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance How could you get anything more in place than woodland animals in Critter County? If you can then you're being way to nit picky and need to stop thinking about it so much.
Originally Posted By capteoyes I stated my point and will not over debate this. However, Pooh not fitting into Critter Country? A land formally inhabited by Country Bears? I very much disagree!
Originally Posted By gadzuux I don't mean to rekindle controversies past, so I'll thumbnail them - Critter Country is themed to the rural southern united states. Singing geese and talking rabbits are right at home in the bayou themed Splash Mountain with it's backdrop of Uncle Remus tales and music from - wait for it - "Song of the South". Davey Crockett's canoes are also cozy and comfy in this environment - Crockett was "born on a mountaintop in Tennessee". Rural and south. 'Bear Country', which preceded 'Critter Country', was a bit different from the park's other lands at the time in that the area's overall theme was created to support it's anchor attraction, rather than the other way around where attractions fleshed out and supported lands with previously conceived themes. With Bear Country, there was only one significant attraction - the 'Country Bears' - which was themed to country music, which in turn is a product of rural southern US culture. Bear Country was where you'd find the Country Bears. See how neatly that wraps around? Critter Country expanded on the theme to encompass all of the characters in the then new Splash Mountain and it's southern bayou flavor. The stories themselves originated from black folklore on southern plantations. It all fit together comfortably, where each component rhymed with it's neighboring elements. Into this mix they dropped Pooh, a character from british childrens stories from 1920s London, and who could give Mary Poppins a run for her money on sheer britishness. There's nothing remotely rural, southern, or american about Pooh and his friends. Add to that the kind of attraction that Pooh is - a ponderously slow and uninvolving dark ride consisting of some vague and murky showscenes that allude to the earlier stories more than depict them. The ride itself and the nearby 'meet n greet' is pitched toward families with small children, yet they're located far far away from anything else families with children would enjoy. Yet because the character is beloved by so many, they'll make the trek to this far-flung corner of the park only to see him. And then they'll turn around and head right back out. This isn't because of any intelligent design - it's because they were repurposing an existing facility for a wholely different kind of attraction. And it's because they sell a LOT of pooh plush and other merch, and this location provided space for not only the attraction, but the all-important retail store. It's a case of budgeting taking precedence over thematic consistency. I'm surprised they didn't retheme the 'Hungry Bear' restaurant to pooh. Or maybe just the restrooms. Come to think of it, 'Pooh' themed restrooms sounds like a good idea! So that's why I say it's out of place 'in every sense'. Not only do the characters not belong in the existing theme of the area - or even timeframe, but the content and style of the attraction itself - a fantasyland type family oriented darkride - seems like an orphan that got separated from the herd.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Pooh and friends are "critters" though. In Critter Country. They're storybook critters, but then so are the critters in Splash Mountain. Since most every corner of the park has been 'tooned up at this point, they're right at home.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>There's nothing remotely rural, southern, or american about Pooh and his friends. << The Disneyfied version is pretty darned American. Pooh even "ran for President" (through ads in the Sears Catalog) back in the early 70's. Their voices have become more Americanized with every featurette and TV program over the decades. Christopher Robin sometimes has an English accent, sometimes not, depending on which film or TV show you're watching. He was voiced by the same actor who played Mowgli in the Jungle Book. Paul Winchell's Tigger doesn't sound British in the least. The 100 Acre Wood, even though it is in a storybook, is about as rural as you can get.
Originally Posted By danyoung >Critter Country is themed to the rural southern united states.< I'm not sure if Disney ever specified that this area was specifically rural southern US. But even if they did, themes adjust. Tomorrowland used to be about real future technologies. Now it's pretty much just about science fiction futuristic stories. In the same way, Critter Country is simply about critters. You know, like bears, and geese, and turtles, and yes, Pooh the bear. Just because he's British doesn't mean he's not a critter.
Originally Posted By Mickeymouseclub Hard to think about Pooh getting lost in Critter Country versus the Hundred Acres Woods. sigh
Originally Posted By capteoyes Gadzux, WAAAAAAY overanalyzing this. Pooh is a Bear, one of the many Critters living in a rustic setting. Fits wonderfully and never even questioned it.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***How could you get anything more in place than woodland animals in Critter County? If you can then you're being way to nit picky and need to stop thinking about it so much.*** CuriouserConstance, I like you, and I appreciate your recent wonderful input on this site, but right now I have to totally destroy you (I hope you don't take it personally). STOP THINKING ABOUT IT SO MUCH!? Are you serious? The whole idea of DISNEYLAND is immersed in the notion that we can, in a single day, traverse many places in one wonderful land...DISNEYLAND. The entire notion of separating the lands SHOULD BE (and used to be, and hopefully still is) a way to make each land visited a unique and special experience. You are CORRECT in assuming that any woodland animals fit nicely in Critter Country (and the surrounding Frontierland zone as well), but that's NOT what they put there. What they put there was ENGLISH STUFFED ANIMALS. No, it does NOT fit, it's ridiculous to imagine they COULD fit, and Disney did it all for the money. Yes, Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox DO fit, they are American woodland folk tales. Do you not see the difference. I do. Maybe I'm wrong (I often am, so it's cool). But it fits into Disneyland like a bowl of rice fits into an all American bar-b-que as far as I'm concerned. Sorry to be so negative. Please forgive my harsh words!
Originally Posted By Mr X ***Gadzux, WAAAAAAY overanalyzing this. Pooh is a Bear, one of the many Critters living in a rustic setting. Fits wonderfully and never even questioned it.*** Yeah, YOU never questioned it because YOU don't care about proper theming. One of many STUFFED ANIMAL critters, living in a rustic AMERICAN setting? Sorry, you fail bigtime. Particularly for your tin-ear as to what Walt Disney created (I know it's unfair to go there, but in this case it works nicely for me).
Originally Posted By Mr X Somehow I equate this "WAAAAAAY overanalyzing this" idea to the fall of the American Way. I'm kinda crazy that way though.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>YOU never questioned it because YOU don't care about proper theming.<< I care about proper theming. But I also realize that the Disney version of Pooh is about as British as Sarah Palin. (Sterling Holloway, the original voice of Winnie, was born in Georgia.) If people can accept Splash Mountain, filled with singing cartoon animals in Critter Country, I don't understand why Winnie the Pooh is so horribly out of place there as well. Sure, if I had my druthers, cartoon character-related rides would be mainly in Fantasyland. But that's spitting in the wind at this point -- characters are EVERYwhere, in every land.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Without looking at the backstory, Pooh doesn't look any more like a plush toy than the SOTS crew. In fact, in their respective attractions, the SOTS animals look a lot more like stuffed animals, due to their soft fur, than the fiberglass Pooh characters.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***I don't understand why Winnie the Pooh is so horribly out of place there as well*** It just IS. It's a visceral thing (same as Monsters, Inc. not belonging in Tomorrowland or Finding Nemo not belonging in FutureWorld).
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <With Bear Country, there was only one significant attraction - the 'Country Bears' - which was themed to country music, which in turn is a product of rural southern US culture. > Strangely enough, though, when Bear Country was called that, Disney's own promo materials from the 70's invariably referred to it NOT as the south, but as the "north woods." Trust me - I have all the souvenir books. And they did theme it as that, at that time. They planted that kind of vegetation/trees, and the Hungry Bear Restaurant and the strip of buildings with the Mile Long Bar etc. fit that too. It looked most like "timber country" Washington/Oregon if anything. Which I always thought it was cool since it was the northwest corner of the park. They only started calling it "southern" when it morphed into Critter Country.
Originally Posted By Manfried Good grief all you over-thinking Disney dweebs. It's a theme park. An escape from reality. You want historical accuracy, buy it and turn it into a museum.
