Charles Dickens vs. Walt Disney?
Some people have a strange way to promote something new like in this article where they talk about the new indoor “Dickens World” Theme Park in London that will open in May…
“You can’t Disney-fy Dickens,” managing director Kevin Christie said, “because he was better, and he was first.” (CBS News)
Charles Dickens might be best known for his Oliver Twist book and has now (after numerous films) also a theme park modeled after his creations and life.
Visitors will have the chance to see the Ghost of Christmas Past in Ebeneezer Scrooge’s haunted house, be bullied by a schoolmaster at Dotheboys Hall – the dismal school from “Nicholas Nickleby” – and peer into the fetid cells of notorious Newgate Prison.
Sounds great and eerie to me (I have a weakness for Haunted Houses) and something I would visit on a London trip (Together with a visit to the Disney Store of course).
…But why that silly remark in the article?
Dickens and Disney do have some connection as Disney used the story for one of the best Mickey shorts “Mickey’s Christmas Carol” (1983) and was based on Disney’s prior audio musical “Disney’s A Christmas Carol” from 1972. Even the 101 Dalmatians had a version in their series (A Christmas Cruella 1997).