Beyond the Disney spell, or escape into Pantoland

Folklore, April, 2002 by Justyna Deszcz

Unlike Disneyland, however, Pantoland is governed by chaos, accidents, fluidity, and change. According to the narrator, these effects are caused by the Saturnalia, the Carnival, and the Feast of Fools, all taking place concurrently in Pantoland. The resulting anarchy legitimises the interrogation of the "normal" (Disneyfied) world, undermines the domination of official public institutions, and allows the questioning of accepted truths and norms. Moreover, because Pantoland is pantomime, a stage performance, there is ample opportunity for fashioning counter-discourses and using a "hidden transcript" such as characterises theatre in situations of oppression (totalitarian rule, slavery, colonialism) to develop an alternative representation of reality (see Scott 1990; also Fletcher 1994, 9). In this light, the Bakhtinian carnival, the culture of laughter, and Pantagruelism, as well as such textual strategies as intertextuality or instability of genres, are legitimate means of political expression on stage. As James C. Scott avers, "the [carnivalesque] grotesquerie, profanity, ridicule, aggression and character assassination ... make sense only in the context of the effect of power relations the rest of the year" (quoted in Fletcher 1994, 9). It is only then that the all-pervasive spirit of frankness, inherent in carnival, leads to a disenchantment of the world. This in turn creates new perspectives on the usually clear-cut distinction between the highbrow and lowbrow, the sophisticated and vulgar, the serious and ridiculous, the certain and ambivalent, the right and wrong, or the true and false (but not: Serious, True or Right). Carter's tale seems a spectacular example of this practice.

How then, is the ironical unmasking of the artificial Disneyfied happiness executed? Firstly, Pantoland operates on the principle of unhealthy kitsch opulence: the castle is afflicted by an overabundance of turrets, the friendly cow Daisy has more udders that a typical cow, and the forest is "considerably more impenetrable" than a regular one (Carter 1995, 382). Yet, in spite of this sickly, lavish and extravagant ornamentation, Pantoland is not a profitable enterprise. There are no funds to build a new castle and the inhabitants of fairyland have to do without it. The only thing they can do is to wax the kitchen floor.

Moreover, nobody in Pantoland makes an effort to hide another salient aspect of the amusement park, namely, that its existence depends entirely on stereotypes and archetypes deeply rooted in mass subconsciousness. Naturally, this implies the guests' confinement to those symbols and notions that can be identified automatically, without any meaningful reflection. Therefore, nobody minds the two-dimensionality of the local architecture and the fact that when Marian looks out of the window to listen to Robin's serenade, one can notice behind her back a bed painted on the wall, or that when she slams the door, the whole building makes a hollow sound and trembles as if in an earthquake.