Disney aims to construct a world apart. They ask of the visitor to suspend belief and enter into a land far away from the reality of the world outside its gates. It is as though Disney wants us to see only the world how it should be. This is the better, brighter side of life where people and place seem naturally and harmoniously co-existent. Such programmed and experienced optimism is comfortable and psychologically reassuring, thus allowing even greater temptation and desire to become immersed in the experience. For these reasons you cannot see or hear the outside world from within Disney. A high earthen wall, combined with a city ordinance banning high rises, ensures a clear line of sight. And much is made of the entrance into the theme park. It is clear that a new world awaits those who pass through the gates. It is deliberately difficult to leave and return to the theme park in any one day. The visitor is made to leave behind the outside world and find ways to have their needs met only within. Much as in wilderness experience, there is required a certain self-reliance and independence. Beyond the gates a new environment must be embraced and skills specific to that place learned and acquired.
But this place is a nature of a very special kind: "not an ecosystem, but an ego-system one viewed through a self-referential human lens — anthropomorphized, sentimentalized, and moralized" . For example, nothing dies in Disney. There is an ever present youthfulness in the animals, and in the employees. Aging and/or diseased plants are removed when the park is closed, and extensive chemical treatments are used to minimize the numbers of bugs, predators and weeds. Growth retardants are used to keep plants within their designated place. Nature is constantly cajoled to "behave" itself . Other hormones induce flowering out of season to ensure color and vibrance even in fall and winter. The visual monotony of real jungles is broken by interspersed species from other ecosystems. Thus, this harmonious location that is so very attractive to the visitor, can be seen to be a very incomplete view of nature.
However, perhaps more troubling are the expectations that this can then create in the visitors’ mind. Because the construction and experience of nature is so well done at Disney it is difficult for some not to expect the ‘real’ world to also be this way. Indeed, it is not surprising that this creates a level of dissatisfaction with the ‘real’ world. As King suggests, "There is a strong presumption that Disney closely records the real thing out there in mountain meadow, prairie and pound. If our first introduction to the natural world is via ‘Disneyvision’ -- and for virtually all of us, it is -- then we cannot help being disappointed by the real thing. Documentary is a dramatic form. Nature is hard put to compete with art" .