Tuesday, May 25

In Other News...

Cinderella's Golden Carousel
(The spinning thing to the side is Dumbo)
Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World
by Katy, 2009

Today is the birthday or Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was one of my favorite writers as a child. I know, I was an odd child. When I was eleven years old I decided that when I grew up I would have a dozen children, seven boys and five girls and I would name the oldest boy Emerson and the youngest boy Ralph. To top it off, I vowed to name one of my girls Bea, after Bea Arthur. Like I said, I was odd.
Speaking of odd... today it was announced that effective June 1, 2010 Cinderella's Golden Carousel, the antique carousel ride at the Magic Kingdom, will be renamed Prince Charming Regal Carousel."

I'm not joking folks. Here is the back story as told by Disney Imagineers:

"Following their fairy-tale romance and happily-ever-after wedding, Cinderella and Prince Charming took up residence in Cinderella's Castle. With peace throughout the kingdom, Prince Charming had time to practice for jousting tournaments. In the countryside near the castle, he built a training device of carved horsed on which he could practice the art of ring-spearing, a tournament event in which a knight rides his horse fill speed, lance in hand, toward a small ring hanging from a tree limb, with the object of spearing the ring. This event was known by various names throughout the lands, but generally came to be call 'carousel.'

The carousel device drew the attention of the villagers, who wanted to take a turn on this amazing spinning contraption. So Prince Charming had a second carousel constructed closer to the Castle, where everyone could take a spin on this wondrous invention. Instead of a working knight's training device, however, this new carousel is more befitting its regal location in the Castle Courtyard - its rustic training horses replaced with ornately decorated prancing steeds adorned with golden helmets and shields, flower garlands, feathers and other festoons. Prince Charming invites one and all to test their horsemanship skills and to enjoy their own happy ending."
Ignoring the fact that they moved into Prince Charming's castle and not Cinderella's, am I the only one who finds this back story lame? And who cares about Prince Charming? If they are going to rename it they should have called it Mary Poppins' Carousel, after all she is the one who rides the darn thing every hour on the hour. Squatters rights!

Hat tip to wdwmagic.com.

5 comments:

The Bug said...

As a feminist... Nah - not going to go there. But sheesh!

The Bug said...

Although to be fair, she didn't HAVE a castle :)

Katy said...

Excatly they moved to his parent's place after the wedding otherwise they would have been staying in Cinderlla's attic.

Single and Sane said...

It is pretty lame...and funny at the same time. What were they thinking?

heartinsanfrancisco said...

Maybe this is the Disney backlash to Women's Lib? Which was itself, of course, the backlash to about 79 zillion centuries of male dominance. Equal rights for princes -- what a concept.