WDW Rated & Reviewed - The American Adventure

[Red Randal]

Hello everyone, I'm back! Sorry to anyone who was looking for new reviews over the past month but I put writing them on hold due to numerous factors, among them a death in the family. But, I'm here now and I am back in the mood to be funny and talk about Disney.

In celebration of the Fourth of July, Independence Day here in America, I figured I'd look at Disney's premier patriotic showcase: The American Adventure.

The American Adventure

Intro: Joining the nice movies and little boat rides representing countries in World Showcase is America’s contribution: a multimedia extravaganza featuring some of the most advanced audio-animatronic characters ever created. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, I’m just saying.

Queue: It’s unlikely that you will ever have to stand in a queue here, as the theatre is simply enormous. The building that houses the theatre also has a gorgeous colonial style atrium where you can wait for the upcoming performance and also view some preshow entertainment.

Preshow: The “Voices of Liberty” singers and other groups sometimes perform in the atrium or outside the building at the United States pavilion. If you have the time and/or desire to see them, they put on an excellent show.

Ride: The show opens up in darkness permeated by the voice of Ben Franklin. He lets us know that America was built on work, bloodshed, loneliness, and fear. Then an audio-animatronic scene rises up onto the stage. Ben Franklin continues talking, joined in the scene by Mark Twain. "Many different people make up America, and over the years we have become more alike than different" we learn. Franklin offers to let Twain know about the beginnings of America. This leads into a video and song about the pilgrims. Thankfully, Ben and Mark do not do the singing; instead they allow a rather talented choir do it. The song is about the Pilgrims’ desire to be free and their endurance through hardship in the New World. Yet, somehow, all this manages to do is make me crave turkey.

The song ends and this leads Franklin to talk about the passion governing the desire to break free from England. A video chronicles the Boston Tea Party and the King sending troops into Boston. This leads us to an audio-animatronics scene featuring Ben Franklin paying Thomas Jefferson a visit as he writes the Declaration of Independence. He reads some of the Declaration and this leads us into another video scene of pictures of the Revolutionary War shown as what sounds to be an old marching song is sung. This leads us to the next AA scene, in Valley Forge. George Washington stands atop his horse as two soldiers bemoan the bitter cold. Then the singing continues. When it is all said and done, 13 colonies become the United States and we are free.

Mark Twain chimes in to let us know that he is proud to be part of the next age in American history as we expanded westward. It’s nice to know that Twain is proud of leading to the extermination of an entire indigenous people. Then Twain delivers the line of the show: “it seems a whole bunch of folks found out that "We the people", didn't yet mean all the people.” It’s “a whole bunch of folks” that makes it gold. Who is he? President Bush?

Fredrick Douglass doesn’t like slavery. And really, who does? Still, he manages to sum up his feelings in a little speech about hope. Nice of him not to get us too melancholy, after all, we ARE at Disney World. Then this leads to a family, presumably from one of the Border States, getting a photograph taken (with a VERY primitive camera). Two brothers argue the cause of the war, one taking the North’s side and one taking that of the South. They actually manage to work “Billy Yank” and “Johnny Reb” into the 4 sentence exchange. This leads to the photograph being taken (and then displayed on the overhead screen) and leads into a beautiful slow song as photographs from the war are shown.

A sample of the lyrics: “one was gentle, one was kind, one came home, one stayed behind; a cannonball don't pay no mind, if you're gentle or if you're kind, it don't think of the folks behind.” I was actually going to make fun of this and now I’m practically tearing up. They may have glazed over the slavery issue but they did an amazing job with the human drama of the brother vs. brother saga. This is why I could never study too much history, it’s just too depressing. Just to drive the point home, after the song ends they show the picture from the beginning of the scene, only now just the one brother appears.

This leads into Ben Franklin talking about the rebuilding of the nation and the influx of immigrants to the country. He calls it "a new dawn" for the American Adventure. Chief Joseph appears on stage in AA form and he’s none too pleased. “Enough! Enough of your words! Let your new dawn lead to the final sunset on my people's suffering. When I think of our condition, my heart is heavy. I see men of my own race treated like outlaws or shot down like animals. I hope that all of us may be brothers with one country around us and one government for all.” Well, he had me up until “one country around us.” Unlike Fredrick Douglass’ soft spoken oratory about slavery, Chief Joseph does a good job actually sounding mad. Of course, because we want this to be a happy show, he claims to want to have one big happy government. Yeah, he actually says “government.” I BET that’s what the Native Americans wanted, one big happy government. ++

Everyone quickly forgets about the Native Americans as we head right into a scene about suffrage at the Centennial expo. Susan B. Anthony wants equality while Alexander Graham Bell wants people to marvel at his telephone. Andrew Carnegie chimes in to brag about his steel company building a new concert hall in New York. What was the point of this scene? Speaking of no point, Theodore Roosevelt is then shown on a cliff marveling at our natural wonders while complaining about the lumber industry. John Muir wants Teddy to spearhead the effort for conservation. Quick, who’s John Muir?

Next we are informed that America was thrust into the job of being a world leader. Yeah, it’s not like we want to bully around all the smaller countries, we were thrust into the job, poor unfortunate souls that we were. Some video of war planes somehow manages to lead into Charles Lindbergh. Then, immediately we hear a news report of the stock market crash leading into the Great Depression. Some down trodden AA people at a gas station sing a song titled “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?” Then they hear FDR delivering a radio broadcast. This leads to an AA Roosevelt giving his “the only thing we have to fear…” speech. The scene switches back to the AA folks at the gas station. They hear Will Rogers on the radio and this leads to an AA Rogers twirling a rope and talking about the nation potentially going to war. We immediately hear FDR’s speech following the attack on Pearl Harbor (with the part about Japan cut out). This leads us to a full stage scene in a shipyard. A woman (representing Rosie the Riveter) works on a ship. Then the AA’s head back under the stage and a full screen displays a video of clips from the 20th century as the attraction’s theme song “Golden Dream” plays. It is all very inspirational. JFK delivers the famous line from his inaugural “ask not what your country can do for you…” and then Martin Luther King delivers a part of his “I Have a Dream” speech. This is followed by the moon landing (“the Eagle has landed”). The song continues and concludes with fireworks over the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor.

This leads to Franklin and Twain appearing on the top of the statue. Franklin says the Founders were visionaries, not dreamers. Ben continues to taut the merits of our constitution. Twain points out that America is still a very young nation. Franklin says that we can all fulfill the promise of America, freedom for all people. “The American Adventure will continue for a long, long time.” “Golden Dream” reprises as the sun rises in glory over Franklin and Twain on the torch of the Statue as the show concludes.

Thoughts: Here’s the problem with a show like this: you can not make it without getting people mad. Think about what the movies and rides in the other countries are about. Norway has Maelstrom, a ride about Norwegian folklore. Canada and France both have movies about the beauty of their countries. But America has to go out and make a huge spectacle about our history. There is simply no way to properly do that in a theme park. To make matters worse, the show does not simply gloss over the negative parts of the country’s history, it trivializes them. “There was this terrible institution of slavery that led to a bloody civil war, but really it was because the South did not understand the North’s love of freedom.” “Sure, we wiped out an entire race of native peoples, but really all the Native Americans wanted was to be part of our government.” Please!

The show does have some very uplifting and powerful moments. The songs are all quite moving and the ending is particularly inspiring, but the history is all cleaned up and “Disneyfied.” If you can go into the show willing to ignore the glossing over of all the bad parts of our history, you will leave with a new sense of patriotism. If you want to see a truly historical show, you’ll have to find one elsewhere. (Thanks Bandman!)

Overall Rating: *** 1/2

[Red Randal]

...because 10,014 characters is too many.

++: Note- I read somewhere that parts of Chief Joseph's dialogue are taken from his actual writing. Until someone can confirm that for me, I'll continue to make fun of how ridiculous it sounds.

Also, I would just like to mention that I lost power at my house while writing this. I'll assume that the ghost of Benjamin Franklin is mad that I only gave it ***1/2.



R.I.P. Nan (1924-2006)

[Red Randal]

...My internet also went out while posting that last message. Ben Franklin is not pleased at all. That, or someone has just been overloading the power grid with their air conditioning. I'm sticking with the former.

[CAS]

This sounds more like liberal talking points than a review. It's funny what makes people mad. If the AA makes you mad then perhaps you need more to focus on in life instead of living in the past.

[Gekko959]

I give the American adventure five stars because I love it. How much history do you expect to be crammed into half an hour anyway? It had a positive spirit that is too often missing from discussion of US History.

I doubt the "blame America crowd" would like it, it seems they only want to think about the 20% of the things this country did wrong, and gloss over the 80% that we get right. But if you're a patriotic American, I think you'll like the show.

Gekko

[Surfer Stitch]

I like the American Adventure and think it very well done. Sure there are some moments that are left out and there are moments that make you think what were we doing but it gives you exactly what you should expect a brief history of America. The show is moving and I've noticed several older people weeping. The preshow is nice especially at Christmas.

[PirateLover]

I don't see anything wrong with this attraction. Every country tends to focus on the things they do right, not the things they do wrong. World Showcase is supposed to celebrate nations, not chastise them or point out all the things they do wrong, why should America's attraction be any different. Besides, Walt himself was a huge patriot who loved America and Americana. Long live the American Adventure

[WEDTOPIA]

Red ,I've got to defend this attraction. It definately does not gloss over the bad parts of our history ...

the Frederick Douglas scene , the Civil War scene , the Chief Joseph scene , the World War II scene ,along with the montage photos of the Kennedy's ,Martin Luther King , Billie Jean King , etc. pretty much disputes your claim. All the bad stuff is there.

It was an almost impossible task for Disney to strike the balance between historical accuracy and entertainment. I think they did an outstanding job. There is a lot of rah , rah U.S.A. ,but it also 'fesses up to our warts.

I've got to give this attraction a 4 star rating all the way. By the way ,this is the attraction I nominated for most creative Disney design.

[prttynpnk]

The Worldshowcase is just that- a showcase! A place to display the best of that nation. All countries have problems and histories I'm sure they wish hadn't occured, but they all have things to be proud of and be inspired by- especially America. Is the Worldshowcase really the place to apologize to everyone, or a place to remind us of where we've been and what we've accomplished? I'd say our forefathers deserve the latter.

[LandFan]

I love the American Adventure! I Never fail to get choked up by the end of the show. Golden Dream is an awesome song too.

[Dulcee]

My Parents constantly roll their eyes for my occasional over the top liberal views but even I love the American Adventure. World showcase is about being proud of your country and I think the American Adventure shows that we are a proud nation...

On that note, the food at America doesn't show any pride for our country.

[disneynarula]

I think this is a fantastic attraction. All the other countries glass over the negatives of their history as well. Epcot was never designed to learn the entire history of the host nations but rather to gather the essence of the country.

[CAS]

I just re-read the originator's post and was even more confused by his findings.

Why, then, didn't the Mexican pavilion showcase their horribly currupt government and law enforcement system? Why doesn't Morocco display it's terrible civil rights policies and it's attitude towards women? Why doesn't China highlight the Tiananmen Square Massacre? If you think the US is tops on your list of evil countries then you'd be rudely awakened to see the rest of the world.

Because Epcot is about what our countries do best. Try to see the world in a little more positive way.

[ThanxForNoticin]

I think AA is an outstanding attraction. As several posters have stated above, EPCOT and the World Showcase are to show off the positives of our world and our countries - a dozen or so countries on display side by side in harmony. And I know that ALL those countries have events in their history that they are not proud of. The World Showcase is not a political forum to debate those events.

So with all that being said, I will enjoy the AA, and all the other countries in WS, every time I get the chance to visit EPCOT. And I will concentrate on all the positives the WS has to offer.

[Grace]

AA it Tops with us! It's a well-thought-out program, and even our kids are inspired by it. Long live the USA!

[Goofyguy2]

I htink American adventure is a great ride with the big sets and the great music I think it is one of the top shows in EPOCT... they really out did themselves with this show

[Brainy Belle]

I'll admit that I sometimes take an overly critical look at American history. I'm in college, and its often expected of me to make the standard critical remarks regarding our history. In any case, I saw AA as a really well done Disney attraction promoting patriotism and American history. Sure it has a feel good "America can overcome anything" message, but it doesn't shy away from presenting some of the negative aspects in our history. It talks about the trail of tears, Frederick Douglass' stirring narrative, and inequality present in the government for women. I wouldn't expect EPCOT to give me a Howard Zinn (a revisionist historian who sometimes rewrites history in an effort to find the negative in America) interpretation of American history, and it doesn't. It does, however, give a more complete look at history than I ever received in grade school and for that I think the American Adventure should be commended.

[frakers]

I guess Japan forgot to mention the sneak attack on the United States in their presentations. And Germany and Italy must have forgotten that whole World War II thing.
Of course you show the positive! Good grief. But the AA also recognizes that there were negatives. I have problems with how some things are presented and many are left out, but the show is a very well done show, especially given the time constraints.
I guess this review was like a movie review. Anyone can do them. It's purely the opinion of the writer. Heck, our local paper gave "Cars" a C-, saying there was too much sexual innuendo and racist stereotyping (idiots), so I guess anyone can write a review of something and hope folks will listen.
See, I just did.

[FenwayGirl]

This is one of my favorite attractions in Epcot. Never miss it! It always chokes me up!

[kakn7294]

We're all entitled to our opinions, and mine on the AA is that it is great! I always get a little choked-up at this one. I think it covers US history about as well as you can in an attraction like this in such a short amount of time. I agree that it does gloss over some of the "bad" parts, but at least they are mentioned. None of the other pavilions talk about the "bad" points of their countries. Yes, Disney is tooting the American horn, but Walt was an American and proud of it and I bet he would have loved AA.