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Speaker 1: Guess what, Mango, what's that Will? I'm going to Dollywood?

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Speaker 1: You're what? I'm going to Dollywood. Our family was at

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Speaker 1: this event last week, and we want a trip to

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Speaker 1: freaking Dollywood. I feel like that Powerball winner from last week.

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Speaker 1: And I do need to warrny about this. I may

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Speaker 1: never come back to work again, so you've got to

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Speaker 1: tell me what happens to Dollywood. I actually have no idea.

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Speaker 1: That's part of why I'm so excited. I mean, of

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Speaker 1: course I've heard of it. I grew up a few

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Speaker 1: hours away from it, but you know, other than knowing

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Speaker 1: that one of the co owners is Dolly Parton and

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Speaker 1: she's great, and and then it's in this really pretty

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Speaker 1: area of Tennessee, I know nothing about it. And I'm

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Speaker 1: actually intentionally avoiding any information about it because I wanted

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Speaker 1: to show up and be completely surprised. Well, I do

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Speaker 1: have one spoiler for you, and this is something I

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Speaker 1: remember from reading about it a a long time ago. And

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Speaker 1: in the Chasing Rainbow section, Uh, they have this autograph

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Speaker 1: picture from Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and I think you read

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Speaker 1: something like you are so very special, how sweet? I know.

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Speaker 1: I love that he gave her that affirmation, but I

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Speaker 1: definitely want you to report back. I want to hear

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Speaker 1: what your kids think about it. I definitely will. But

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Speaker 1: winning this trip felt like a sign to me, you

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Speaker 1: know that it was time to do this episode on

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Speaker 1: the history and philosophy of theme parks. And we've been

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Speaker 1: talking about doing this for a while now, so let's

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Speaker 1: get started. Hey there, podcast listeners, Welcome to Part Time Genius.

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Speaker 1: I'm Will Pearson and as always I'm joined by my

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Speaker 1: good friend Man Guesh Ticketer and the man making funny

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Speaker 1: faces at us through the soundproof glasses, our friend and

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Speaker 1: producer Tristan McNeil. And today we're talking theme parks, all

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Speaker 1: the science and imagination and you know, even the philosophy

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Speaker 1: that goes into designing and building and running theme parks.

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Speaker 1: So we thought it'd be fun to dig into some

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Speaker 1: of the deep thinking behind one of the world's favorite

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Speaker 1: forms of escapism. We've also got some great guests on

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Speaker 1: the line to to help us talk about that. Now,

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Speaker 1: who's joining us today, Meg, Yeah, to Today we'll be

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Speaker 1: talking to David Younger, author of the new book Theme

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Speaker 1: Park Design and the Art of them Entertainment. David's guide

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Speaker 1: covers every aspect of the theme park industry, including interviews

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Speaker 1: with theme park legends and Disney Imagine. Years will also

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Speaker 1: be talking with a couple of theme park enthsists who've

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Speaker 1: made it their life's work to chronicle all the going

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Speaker 1: on at their favorite parks. Very cool. Alright, so we're

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Speaker 1: gonna dive in in just a minute. But before we

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Speaker 1: do that, we've heard from so many of you by

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Speaker 1: email or on Facebook or Twitter, and even on our

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Speaker 1: seven Fact hotline, and many of you have asked if

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Speaker 1: you can play one of our ridiculous quizzes. So here's

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Speaker 1: what we want you to do. Email us at Part

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Speaker 1: Time Genius at how Stuff Works dot com or call

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Speaker 1: us on the Fact hot line one eight four four

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Speaker 1: pt Genius and tell us why we should have you

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Speaker 1: on to play a quiz. Now, be sure to tell

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Speaker 1: us something interesting, of course, a true interesting fact about yourself,

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Speaker 1: and maybe, just maybe we'll have you on the show

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Speaker 1: to play sometime. Alright, so before we get into the

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Speaker 1: exhilarating rides and names of designs and all that good stuff,

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Speaker 1: we probably need to start out by talking a little semantics. Semantics,

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Speaker 1: you want to take this to the least fun place possible, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I know, I know, but there is an important distinction

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Speaker 1: we should make about today's topic. So if you were

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Speaker 1: to ask somebody the difference between an amusement park and

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Speaker 1: a theme park, yeah, they might think it's a trick questions.

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Speaker 1: I mean, you know, both kinds of parks are high energy,

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Speaker 1: their family friendly. You've got all the mechanical rides, the

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Speaker 1: colorful designs, the tasty junk food, which is probably my

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Speaker 1: favorite part, you know, But there's a very real difference

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Speaker 1: between say, a seaside amusement park like a Coney Island,

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Speaker 1: and a full blown theme park like Universal Studios or

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Speaker 1: Lego Land. Sure, and I guess by the same token.

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Speaker 1: Amusement parks can contain individual rides or areas that are

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Speaker 1: themed to something. So if you think about something like

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Speaker 1: Six Flags and their parks, they all have a bunch

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Speaker 1: of unthmed roller coasters and carnival type rides, But then

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Speaker 1: there are all those attractions from like Looney Tunes or

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Speaker 1: d C Comics, So there's some crossover here and there. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's that's that's true. But you know, for the most part,

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Speaker 1: it's enough to know that the goal of an amusement

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Speaker 1: park is to you know, give people a thrill more

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Speaker 1: or less through random assortments of exciting rides. And you know,

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Speaker 1: the aim of a theme park, on the other hand,

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Speaker 1: is to really immerse people in this elaborate storytelling experience,

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Speaker 1: and that just happens to use exciting rides as a

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Speaker 1: way of telling these stories. So it was interesting to

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Speaker 1: me in doing research for this episode that every aspect

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Speaker 1: of a theme park, or at least a really good one,

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Speaker 1: is meticulously crafted to support the parks theme. So not

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Speaker 1: just like the architecture, but things like the smells in

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Speaker 1: the air, the music being played, the characters of course,

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Speaker 1: and employees uniforms, but landscaping, the color of the paint,

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Speaker 1: the style of the benches, even the trash cans. Like

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Speaker 1: everything you see or hear or smell or touch like

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Speaker 1: it's carefully selected, all for the story that's being told,

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Speaker 1: which just seems like such a lofty goal for for

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Speaker 1: someplace where kids are like throwing tantrums and parents are

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Speaker 1: angry that they're spending nine dollars for a soda. Now,

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Speaker 1: I can't wait to be angry at Dollywood. A lot

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Speaker 1: of us tend to associate these with, you know, crass

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Speaker 1: commercialism or think of them as a low brow, more

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Speaker 1: mindless form of entertainment. But that's something we'll see a

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Speaker 1: lot today, is that there's more substance at the core

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Speaker 1: of these theme parks than most of us give them

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Speaker 1: credit for. And speaking of credit, I do want to

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Speaker 1: take a minute upfront to recognize Frederick Thompson, the inventor

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Speaker 1: of the world's first them detraction and a true theme

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Speaker 1: park pioneer. Alright, so just to be sure we're we're

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Speaker 1: not talking the same Fred Thompson who was the politician

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Speaker 1: and the actor right now, but that would have been awesome,

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Speaker 1: like talking about politician Fred Thompson and then dropping the

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Speaker 1: line like, oh yeah, and he was a theme park pioneer.

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Speaker 1: All right, all right, we'll have a separate episode on

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Speaker 1: that Fred Thompson one day, but for this episode, this

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Speaker 1: seems like a good place to start, all right, tell

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Speaker 1: us more about him. Yeah, Thompson designed the first of

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Speaker 1: what we've categorized today as a dark ride, but he

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Speaker 1: hasn't gotten nearly as much attention as some of the

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Speaker 1: other theme park titans we'll talk about today. And for

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Speaker 1: any listeners who aren't up on their theme park lingo

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Speaker 1: we should note that a dark ride is basically just

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Speaker 1: an indoor ride where a vehicle has guided along this

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Speaker 1: track and you know, you go from one set to another.

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Speaker 1: So you know, think Mr Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland,

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Speaker 1: or Haunted Mansion, or you know, even the generic kind

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Speaker 1: of haunted house that you would go through if you

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Speaker 1: were at an amusement park exactly. And Thompson really helped

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Speaker 1: develop this genre of rides. He was an architecture designed

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Speaker 1: buildings for county fairs and public exhibitions, and he really

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Speaker 1: wanted to create a ride that could dazzle the audience's

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Speaker 1: senses and help them forget about their everyday worries. So

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Speaker 1: in nineteen o one, using copious amounts of plaster and

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Speaker 1: modern advances like electric machinery and light bulbs, Thompson premiered

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Speaker 1: his masterpiece, which he dubbed a Trip to the Moon.

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Speaker 1: And you were saying, you know, this was nineteen o one,

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Speaker 1: so you know, if you think about the timing there,

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Speaker 1: not only have we not made it to the moon yet,

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Speaker 1: but even the Right brothers, you know, their first man

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Speaker 1: flight was still a couple of years off, so that

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Speaker 1: this whole premise, this whole thing would have been complete

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Speaker 1: science fiction at that point totally. And Thompson chose his

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Speaker 1: theme wisely, which is why he was fine forking over

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Speaker 1: eight tho dollars to build the attraction, which by the way,

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Speaker 1: is more than two million dollars in today's money. Wow, God,

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Speaker 1: that is so pricey, all right, So what exactly did

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Speaker 1: you get for that kind of cash? Well, the main

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Speaker 1: part of the ride was a thirty passenger airship that

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Speaker 1: was suspended from the ceiling by steel cables, and you

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Speaker 1: can find pictures of it online. It basically looks like

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Speaker 1: a huge canoe with these wide or like wings, and

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Speaker 1: the wings were controlled by this pulley system that let

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Speaker 1: the ship rock back and forth. And they're also these

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Speaker 1: like small fans that provide the sensation of wind rushing by.

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Speaker 1: Like it was great, the feeling of soaring in this

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Speaker 1: flying machine. And it's all enhanced by sound effects and

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Speaker 1: hundreds of tiny lights, and there's like a painted canvas backdrop.

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Speaker 1: It's amazing, especially for the time. And and uh, and

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Speaker 1: it wasn't just that, Like the people rise beyond the

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Speaker 1: Earth's atmosphere all the way to the moon, and and

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Speaker 1: then when the ship reaches its destination, passengers disembark and

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Speaker 1: entered this lunar cavern and it's made of plaster, where,

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Speaker 1: of course they meet a race of moon people called

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Speaker 1: the sell a Knife. And of course, so it's pretty

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Speaker 1: much the world's first flight simulator, right, and it had

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Speaker 1: to of course this added dose of sci fi whimsey.

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Speaker 1: I kind of wish I could go back and ride

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Speaker 1: this kind of thing and see how people would have

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Speaker 1: responded to it initially. Yeah, and more than that, he

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Speaker 1: was a visionary, so he included a gift shop where

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Speaker 1: visitors could eat green moon cheese. Of course, all all right,

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Speaker 1: So Frederick Thompson certainly played a part in the evolution

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Speaker 1: of amusement parks and that transition into the theme parks.

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Speaker 1: And you know, but while we're on the subject of credit,

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Speaker 1: we do have to get this one out of the way.

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Speaker 1: It would it would definitely be impossible to talk about

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Speaker 1: theme parks without referencing their patron saint, and that's Walter

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Speaker 1: Elias Disney, or Uncle Walt, as he's known to those

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Speaker 1: who have drunk the kool aid. You know. But no

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Speaker 1: matter what you think of Disney Parks or the behemoth

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Speaker 1: parent company, that they belonged to. There's really no denying

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Speaker 1: that the man behind the mouse revolutionized the entertainment industry

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Speaker 1: and and of course paved the way for modern theme

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Speaker 1: parks as we know them. Absolutely, Disney was responsible for

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Speaker 1: so many technical innovations that became staples of of the industry.

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Speaker 1: I mean the biggest is the audio animatronics, those life

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Speaker 1: like robot characters that you see at So the Caribbean

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Speaker 1: and the Enchanted Tiki Room. But you know, if we

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Speaker 1: really want to give proper credit, we should also mention

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Speaker 1: the creator of the world's first theme park, which you know,

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Speaker 1: a contrary to popular belief, was not Walt Disney. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I was reading about that too. So this honor actually

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Speaker 1: belongs to a guy named Louis Coke. He was this

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Speaker 1: industrialist and he had made it his retirement project to

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Speaker 1: create the first ever theme park. Now, he lived near

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Speaker 1: a tiny town called Santa Claus, Indiana. I know we've

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Speaker 1: talked about Santa Claus, Indiana before, but as you can imagine,

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Speaker 1: children from all of the world would visit the town

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Speaker 1: in hopes of meeting Santa. Of course, they then only

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Speaker 1: leave disappointed when they discovered old Saint Nick did not,

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Speaker 1: in fact, spend his offseason in the rural Midwest. For

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Speaker 1: some reason, does in vacation in the midst which is

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Speaker 1: you know, that's funny, Like I had heard of Santa

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Speaker 1: claus Land and heard of Santa Claus, Indiana, but I

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Speaker 1: never knew the two were connected. But I'm curious, Like,

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Speaker 1: I don't understand why parents would make that track. It

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Speaker 1: seems crazy. Well either way, Louis Coke was the father

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Speaker 1: of nine, so the thought of all those disappointed kids

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Speaker 1: coming to town it really got to him. He'd always

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Speaker 1: wanted to build an amusement park, and so in nineteen

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Speaker 1: forty six, this was nine years before Disneyland would open

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Speaker 1: to the public, Coke introduced the world to Santa Claus.

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Speaker 1: I love that the first theme park has like the

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Speaker 1: narrowest theme imaginable. I'd say it was pretty on the

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Speaker 1: nose as a theme, but still groundbreaking as a concept.

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Speaker 1: I mean, there had been tons of amusement parks before,

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Speaker 1: but nothing quite like Santa claus Lands, which also seems

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Speaker 1: a little crazy because the concept of like public amusement

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Speaker 1: like that goes back all the way to the Renaissance.

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Speaker 1: That's when a pleasure gardens started popping up on the

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Speaker 1: grounds of English inns and taverns. Yeah, but you know,

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Speaker 1: somehow an amusement park with a dedicated theme had it

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Speaker 1: really had never been done before, and thankfully the idea

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Speaker 1: proved a huge hit with the public, and the Coke

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Speaker 1: family was able to expand the park's theme in the

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Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, and this allowed them to include areas themed

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Speaker 1: around other holidays, so not just Christmas, but Thanksgiving, Halloween,

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Speaker 1: fourth of July. It seems like such a strange place,

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Speaker 1: to be honest with you, But seventy one years later

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Speaker 1: the park is still open for business. Then now it

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Speaker 1: goes by the more inclusive name Holiday World. I like

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Speaker 1: the Holiday World. It's so more smarter than like just

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Speaker 1: hanging out with Santa, which you can do at any

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Speaker 1: local mall. By the way, speaking of holidays, do you

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Speaker 1: know that John D. Rockefeller used to celebrate a personal

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Speaker 1: holiday every year called Job Day. It was the anniversary

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Speaker 1: of the day he got his first job at sixteen,

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Speaker 1: and he considered it way more important than any other

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Speaker 1: day in his calendar. How well, I don't think I've

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Speaker 1: seen any job Day land theme parks, but I agree

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Speaker 1: with you it's it's better to have a broad and

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Speaker 1: more universal concept. And you know, and thinking about all

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Speaker 1: of this, I'm really curious about the decision making that

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Speaker 1: goes into planning a theme park, Like, you know, how

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Speaker 1: do you settle on a theme or decide what kind

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Speaker 1: of attraction to use for for any of these given concepts. Well,

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Speaker 1: how about we got David Younger on the line and

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Speaker 1: see if he can walk us through that. Okay, Bengo. So,

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Speaker 1: a few weeks ago we did an episode on World Records,

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Speaker 1: and I'm not sure if Guinness keeps up with a

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Speaker 1: world record on the person who has interviewed the most

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Speaker 1: theme park designers in the world, but if they did,

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Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure we may be talking to the person

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Speaker 1: who would take that crown. He's the author of really

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Speaker 1: the the Ultimate Guide on designing Theme Parks. He spoke

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Speaker 1: to thousands of designers, engineers, creatives and others during the

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Speaker 1: project and the book is called Theme Park Design and

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Speaker 1: the Art of Themed Entertainment. So, David Younger, welcome to

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Speaker 1: part Time Genius. Thank you very much for having me. So, David,

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Speaker 1: I've read this was a massive project and it took

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Speaker 1: four years to complete. How did theme park design become

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Speaker 1: a passion of yours, well, Rudy. For me, it's been

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Speaker 1: something that I've been interested in ever since I was

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Speaker 1: a kid. And it's like I was the kid that

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Speaker 1: was playing roller coaster Tycoon NonStop, designing all all the

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Speaker 1: different things. And so I knew I wanted to go

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Speaker 1: into team time design. The only trouble was that there

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Speaker 1: aren't design courses or the worms of the time. And

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Speaker 1: so I went into film and said, and I realized

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Speaker 1: that you can get hundreds of books on screenwriting and

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Speaker 1: directing and editing for films, but nothing existed for for

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Speaker 1: theme parks. So I kind of realized if I wanted

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Speaker 1: to learn this myself and I wanted to buy this book,

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Speaker 1: you didn't exist. I thought I'd have to write it myself.

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Speaker 1: Well that's terrific. Now in the book, you talk about

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Speaker 1: three types of theme park guests and describe them as

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Speaker 1: world travelers, character huggers, and thrill seekers. And I was

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Speaker 1: curious to talk first about that that first group. These

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Speaker 1: world travelers. Now, these are the ones that you describe

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Speaker 1: as is liking to be, you know, transported to another world.

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Speaker 1: That that feels so convincing that you almost believe you're

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Speaker 1: really there, and and I'm curious for you. You know

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Speaker 1: what parks stand out as the best in the world

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Speaker 1: are doing exactly that well. If you look at the

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Speaker 1: different theme parks around the world, there are actually a

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Speaker 1: number of different styles of design that the theme parks use.

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Speaker 1: The best way of thinking about this is to compare Epic,

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Speaker 1: for example, to The Magic Kingdom, where the Magic Kingdom,

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Speaker 1: you're asked Tom kind of buy into this idea that

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Speaker 1: you really are in the American West, or you really

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Speaker 1: are in a fairy tale village. Whereas you compare that

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Speaker 1: to Epcot, where you'll go on something alike, uh, the

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Speaker 1: Universe of Energy, which is where you're not really in

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Speaker 1: any time or place. You've just been kind of talked

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Speaker 1: about a talt about energy and these parks like The

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Speaker 1: Magic Kingdom that that try to convince you that you're

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Speaker 1: really in another time, another time and place. It's all

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Speaker 1: new traditional style parks, and really the best of that

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Speaker 1: is definitely going to be Disney. I mean value of

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Speaker 1: the people that invented it back in the nineteen fifties

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Speaker 1: and they're still doing absolutely brilliantly today. But as well

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Speaker 1: as a universal studios um it was kind of going

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Speaker 1: for a postmodern type park in but ever Harry Potter opened,

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Speaker 1: They're going for this place you in the world, convince

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Speaker 1: you you're really their approach. I'm curious to hear you

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Speaker 1: know where you see this this industry going. Obviously, there's

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Speaker 1: been incredible evolution over the past couple of decades. What

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Speaker 1: do you see changing or what do you see emerging

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Speaker 1: in the world of theme parks and theme park design

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Speaker 1: in the next couple of decades. Well, the main thing

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Speaker 1: is how much theme parks are willing to commit to

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Speaker 1: fully immersing you within, particularly intellectual properties like Star Wars

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Speaker 1: and an Avatar and Harry Potter. So, for example, whereas

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Speaker 1: twenty years ago Disney might get the licensed to build

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Speaker 1: a Star Wars to put Star Wars into their theme parks,

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Speaker 1: and they'll build one ride, now twenty years later they'll

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Speaker 1: build an entire land and four attractions all Star Wars

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Speaker 1: themes into it, as well as Star Wars themes, restaurants

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Speaker 1: and Star Wars themes hotels and Stellars them shops. It's

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Speaker 1: also becoming more personal, particularly with video games kind of

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Speaker 1: threatening wity to step into a world. Theme parks have

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Speaker 1: been trying to found ways of immersing yourself more and

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Speaker 1: more um and one of the best ways of doing

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Speaker 1: that is using new technology like the ones at the

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Speaker 1: Whisping World of Harry potter Um where you actually get

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Speaker 1: to cast your and spell within the environment. And that's

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Speaker 1: something that hasn't been done before. So we didn't episode

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Speaker 1: on IKEA a few weeks ago and talked about the

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Speaker 1: thought that goes into the flow of the store, and

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Speaker 1: I was curious if you could talk a little bit

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Speaker 1: about like how that works for theme parks. So we've

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Speaker 1: theme parks before. The theme parks are invented their where's

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Speaker 1: kind of the state fairs and amusement parks like Coney Island.

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Speaker 1: Their typical layout was just a grid layout, so you

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Speaker 1: have intersections with the rides in the middle, and it

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Speaker 1: was a really an interesting layout to walk around. It

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Speaker 1: wasn't the most efficient way of laying things out, and

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Speaker 1: so when dissee Land was designed in they decided, well,

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Speaker 1: Disney decided to try something different and that's what invented

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Speaker 1: the hubband spoke layout. So in the hubband spoke layout,

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Speaker 1: you have a plaza at the middle with the castle

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Speaker 1: and then you have radial walkways spanning out into the

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Speaker 1: different them lands, and by doing that you kind of

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Speaker 1: contain the theme lands into their particular areas, so you

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Speaker 1: can create immersion and everything like that. And also it's

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Speaker 1: a much easier way of finding your your way around

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Speaker 1: around the park. But then within that you also have

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Speaker 1: you've got to get the guests to move around within

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Speaker 1: the park, so you you have the engines of movements

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Speaker 1: that Team park Design is used. And there are two

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Speaker 1: main ones. Okay, the first one is the weenie, which

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Speaker 1: is an odd term, but basically a weenie is a

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Speaker 1: visual magnet. It's something that you see in the descent

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Speaker 1: and you go, wow, that looks interesting. I want to

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Speaker 1: learn more about that, and so you walk towards it.

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Speaker 1: And the best example of that is obviously the Castle

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Speaker 1: on Main Street USA. You go through the gates at Disneyland,

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Speaker 1: you see the castle and you immediately want to walk

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Speaker 1: up to and and and and see what's see what's

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Speaker 1: down there. And similarly at Digital and Paris Dislam Paris

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Speaker 1: is the first part where not only did they use

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Speaker 1: a weenie at the end of the Main Street USA,

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Speaker 1: but they put we need into every single laps, so

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Speaker 1: when you're in the hub, you could look towards Discovery

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Speaker 1: Land and see space mountains, you can look towards Frontier

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Speaker 1: Land and see Biggs under Mantain, and every which everywhere

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Speaker 1: you look, you have this this visual icon pulling you

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Speaker 1: towards it. But then the second term, which is the

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Speaker 1: one that's used in shopping walls, is the anchor h

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Speaker 1: So in shopping malls, you'll kind of typically find that

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Speaker 1: the biggest store to pay at the extremities of the mall,

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Speaker 1: and then all of the smaller shops and the boutiques

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Speaker 1: shops and the independent shops place in between at the

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Speaker 1: anchor stores. So that guests we'll go to an anchor store,

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Speaker 1: then they'll go to the next anchor store, and on

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Speaker 1: the way they'll see these other shops along the way

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Speaker 1: and go, oh, I'll have a look in here. David,

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Speaker 1: this has been fascinating. I don't know about bangsh but

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Speaker 1: I can't wait to get to another theme park. I'm

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Speaker 1: pretty sure we'll have this on our minds when we

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Speaker 1: are walking around the next theme park that we're in.

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Speaker 1: But thanks so much for joining us on part time, genius.

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Speaker 1: You're very welcome. You're listening to part time genius, and

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Speaker 1: today we're talking about the big ideas behind theme parks.

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Speaker 1: All right, Samga, what would you say if I told

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Speaker 1: you that Disneyland was actually more real than the world

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Speaker 1: outside it's gates. I mean, I'd probably say, you've gotten

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Speaker 1: into that Uncle walk cool aid you mentioned earlier. Well,

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Speaker 1: I know it's a pretty wild claim, but it's one

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Speaker 1: that kept coming up and doing the research for this episode,

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Speaker 1: so I started wondering if there was something to the

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Speaker 1: idea of theme parks being you know, this heightened form

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Speaker 1: of reality. And from what I can tell, the first

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Speaker 1: person to suggest this might have actually been Walt Disney himself. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and I'm guessing Walt Disney was not biased at all. No,

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Speaker 1: not at all, no way, no way was he biased. Well,

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Speaker 1: but there is an interesting story here. And then the

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Speaker 1: story goes that in the early days of the park,

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Speaker 1: Walt once gave a private tour to the famous evangelist

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Speaker 1: Billy Graham, and Graham walked around, thought it was nice,

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Speaker 1: and he made some sort of comment that Disneyland was simply,

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Speaker 1: you know, a nice fantasy, which which seems harmless enough, right. Well, well,

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Speaker 1: Walt reportedly took this as this subtle dig against his park,

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Speaker 1: and the implication being that it was somehow false and

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Speaker 1: therefore maybe a waste of time. So Waltz clearly offended.

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Speaker 1: Did he kick him out of the park. Well, not

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Speaker 1: not exactly, but he did fire back with this passionate

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Speaker 1: and honestly pretty shocking claim. So he told Graham, here

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Speaker 1: here's the quote. He said, you know, fantasy isn't here.

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Speaker 1: This is very real. The park is reality. The people

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Speaker 1: are natural here, they're having a good time, they're communicating.

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Speaker 1: This is what people really are. The fantasy is it's

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Speaker 1: out there outside the gates of Disneyland, where people have

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Speaker 1: hatreds and people have prejudices. It's not really real. Disney

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Speaker 1: sounds so, but you said, other people made similar claims

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Speaker 1: to Yeah, and you know one of the most prominent

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Speaker 1: to do so was the Italian novelist and essayist Umberto Echo.

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Speaker 1: It was the mid nineteen seventies and Echo went on

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Speaker 1: what he described as a pilgrimage in search of hyper reality,

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Speaker 1: or the world of the absolute fake is. This basically

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Speaker 1: means he tooled around the US for a year. He

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Speaker 1: was touring and critiquing these popular tourist spots that housed

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Speaker 1: artistic reproductions or historical recreations, and all these other examples

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Speaker 1: of faux reality. So you know, even things like wax

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Speaker 1: museums and the Western theme towns. But of course he

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Speaker 1: also visited America's top two fake cities, being Disneyland and

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Speaker 1: California and Disney World in Florida. So it sounds like

428
00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:06,840
Speaker 1: Echo is sort of skeptical of America's fascination with fantasy.

429
00:21:07,160 --> 00:21:09,080
Speaker 1: How does he bind up concluding our theme parks are

430
00:21:09,119 --> 00:21:11,400
Speaker 1: more real than the real world. Well, it goes back

431
00:21:11,400 --> 00:21:13,800
Speaker 1: to this idea of hyper reality. You know that the

432
00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:17,560
Speaker 1: idea that simulation provides the ultimate expression of the thing

433
00:21:17,680 --> 00:21:20,200
Speaker 1: it represents. And it's a little heavy here, but just

434
00:21:20,560 --> 00:21:23,080
Speaker 1: to explain it, so, so think about the Jungle Cruise

435
00:21:23,160 --> 00:21:25,360
Speaker 1: ride in the adventure Land section of the park. That's

436
00:21:25,359 --> 00:21:27,399
Speaker 1: the one where you take a boat ride down this

437
00:21:27,680 --> 00:21:31,040
Speaker 1: you know, several South American rivers, and the skipper there

438
00:21:31,080 --> 00:21:34,000
Speaker 1: at the helm makes you know all these bad animal puns.

439
00:21:33,800 --> 00:21:37,720
Speaker 1: And Echo writes about the ride and says, when there's

440
00:21:37,720 --> 00:21:41,320
Speaker 1: a fake a hippopotamus, dinosaur, a sea serpent, it's not

441
00:21:41,359 --> 00:21:43,560
Speaker 1: so much because it wouldn't be possible to have the

442
00:21:43,680 --> 00:21:46,880
Speaker 1: real equivalent, but because the public is meant to admire

443
00:21:46,920 --> 00:21:51,240
Speaker 1: the perfection of the fake and its obedience to the program.

444
00:21:51,280 --> 00:21:55,199
Speaker 1: In this sense, Disneyland not only produces illusion, but in confessing,

445
00:21:55,200 --> 00:21:58,959
Speaker 1: it stimulates the desire for it. A real crocodile can

446
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:00,920
Speaker 1: be found in a zoo, and as a rule, it's

447
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:04,320
Speaker 1: you know, dozing or hiding. But Disneyland tells us that

448
00:22:04,400 --> 00:22:08,600
Speaker 1: fake nature corresponds much more to our daydream demands. He

449
00:22:08,680 --> 00:22:11,840
Speaker 1: goes on to say, you risk feeling homesick for Disneyland,

450
00:22:11,840 --> 00:22:15,159
Speaker 1: where the wild animals don't have to be coaxed. Disneyland

451
00:22:15,160 --> 00:22:18,520
Speaker 1: tells us that technology can give us more reality than

452
00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:22,320
Speaker 1: nature can. And that's some deep stuff. And it actually

453
00:22:22,320 --> 00:22:24,680
Speaker 1: reminds me of something I read about how really well

454
00:22:24,720 --> 00:22:27,800
Speaker 1: manning here gardens for once destination spots for tourists, like

455
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:31,400
Speaker 1: long before mechanical attractions caught on. In a weird way,

456
00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:34,520
Speaker 1: they almost seem like precursors to theme parks, at least

457
00:22:34,520 --> 00:22:37,320
Speaker 1: given that idea of hyper reality you're talking about, how

458
00:22:37,359 --> 00:22:40,640
Speaker 1: do you figure that well gardens like a little microcosm.

459
00:22:40,680 --> 00:22:43,560
Speaker 1: It's this idealized take on nature. And and so if

460
00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:46,360
Speaker 1: you think of a Japanese garden where you have rocks

461
00:22:46,400 --> 00:22:51,199
Speaker 1: and water plants, ornaments, miniature pagoda to like, we arranged

462
00:22:51,280 --> 00:22:54,160
Speaker 1: these elements as we please to to create our own

463
00:22:54,160 --> 00:22:56,760
Speaker 1: little oasis, a small piece of land that's meant to

464
00:22:56,800 --> 00:22:59,320
Speaker 1: represent the best parts of the world outside of all right,

465
00:22:59,359 --> 00:23:01,440
Speaker 1: I get that. And just like a theme park, this

466
00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:05,560
Speaker 1: elaborate gardens drives to mimic something about the real world,

467
00:23:05,600 --> 00:23:08,680
Speaker 1: and of course by softening the edges and being really

468
00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:11,960
Speaker 1: selective about what's included, and the result winds up feeling

469
00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:15,520
Speaker 1: like something unique altogether. And it's it's not quite fake,

470
00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:18,840
Speaker 1: but not altogether real either, Yeah, hyper real. But but

471
00:23:19,200 --> 00:23:21,520
Speaker 1: here's the thing that the kinds of gardens people cultivate

472
00:23:21,520 --> 00:23:24,119
Speaker 1: are usually reflections on the cultures to which they belong.

473
00:23:24,240 --> 00:23:27,879
Speaker 1: So for for example, French gardens tend to idealize the

474
00:23:27,960 --> 00:23:31,800
Speaker 1: symmetry and and orally rose to to reflect man's mastery

475
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:34,760
Speaker 1: of nature, while many English gardens do the opposite. So

476
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:37,359
Speaker 1: what exactly do our theme parks say about who we

477
00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:39,840
Speaker 1: are as a people? Well, I mean, I'd kind of

478
00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:41,679
Speaker 1: like to think it says something about us being a

479
00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:44,320
Speaker 1: culture of dreamers. You know that we draw on timeless

480
00:23:44,359 --> 00:23:47,680
Speaker 1: stories to make sense of the world and maybe even

481
00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 1: add meaning to our lives. And you know, although I'm

482
00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:53,920
Speaker 1: sure there's a cynical answer about consumerism that others would

483
00:23:53,960 --> 00:23:56,800
Speaker 1: offer as well, like the idealized version of Land full

484
00:23:56,840 --> 00:24:00,159
Speaker 1: of Santa Claus is right, maybe that, But I'm with you.

485
00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:02,520
Speaker 1: Let's take the high road on this one. After all,

486
00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:05,080
Speaker 1: will be in good company if we do. Um, because

487
00:24:05,119 --> 00:24:08,240
Speaker 1: you know, Ray Bradberry himself leave this all right, Yeah,

488
00:24:08,280 --> 00:24:10,359
Speaker 1: I actually saw this as well. So Bradberry was one

489
00:24:10,400 --> 00:24:14,520
Speaker 1: of Disney's most outspoken fans, right, yeah, definitely so. In fact,

490
00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:18,199
Speaker 1: when a nine article in the Nation denounced Disneyland as

491
00:24:18,280 --> 00:24:21,280
Speaker 1: vulgar entertainment on the same level as like Las Vegas,

492
00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:25,359
Speaker 1: Bradberry basically published a piece and Holiday magazine entitled The

493
00:24:25,440 --> 00:24:28,399
Speaker 1: Machine Tooled Happy Land, and in it he sets the

494
00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:31,760
Speaker 1: record straight on why intellectuals or anyone else for that matter,

495
00:24:31,800 --> 00:24:34,120
Speaker 1: shouldn't be ashamed to visit the happiest place on Earth.

496
00:24:34,400 --> 00:24:38,800
Speaker 1: And in particular, Bradberry praised Disney's breakthrough an audio animatronics,

497
00:24:38,800 --> 00:24:40,679
Speaker 1: which he saw is the next best thing to creating

498
00:24:40,680 --> 00:24:44,040
Speaker 1: life itself. Really wow, he went pretty far with this. Yeah,

499
00:24:44,080 --> 00:24:46,560
Speaker 1: I mean you should hear this quote, So I'm gonna

500
00:24:46,560 --> 00:24:49,440
Speaker 1: read it to you. Only a few hundred years ago,

501
00:24:49,520 --> 00:24:52,560
Speaker 1: all this would have been considered blasphemous. To create man

502
00:24:52,680 --> 00:24:56,200
Speaker 1: is not man's business, but God's. Disney and every technician

503
00:24:56,240 --> 00:24:58,159
Speaker 1: with him would have been bundled and burned at the

504
00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:00,919
Speaker 1: stake in six hundred, which is true, right, But this

505
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:03,960
Speaker 1: is what he continues. But but the fact remains that

506
00:25:04,280 --> 00:25:06,359
Speaker 1: Disney is the first to make a robot that is

507
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:09,360
Speaker 1: convincingly real, that looks, speaks, and acts like a man.

508
00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:12,320
Speaker 1: He has set the history of humanized robots on its

509
00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:16,320
Speaker 1: way towards wider, more fantastic excursions. Wow. So, so you've

510
00:25:16,359 --> 00:25:18,840
Speaker 1: got this science fiction writer who was seeing things he'd

511
00:25:18,920 --> 00:25:21,959
Speaker 1: only dreamed of in his stories taking shape in in

512
00:25:22,000 --> 00:25:25,200
Speaker 1: real life. Right, and and he's just awed by the possibilities.

513
00:25:25,560 --> 00:25:28,160
Speaker 1: He even goes on to describe this future in which

514
00:25:28,520 --> 00:25:31,040
Speaker 1: these robots sort of affirmed the truth of history and

515
00:25:31,400 --> 00:25:33,480
Speaker 1: make it real to people in a way that simply

516
00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:36,680
Speaker 1: reading about it always falls short. It's a really poetic

517
00:25:36,760 --> 00:25:39,639
Speaker 1: notion about these future robot museums where, and I'm going

518
00:25:39,680 --> 00:25:42,280
Speaker 1: to quote again, we may begin to believe in every

519
00:25:42,280 --> 00:25:45,040
Speaker 1: one of men's many million days upon this earth for

520
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:49,000
Speaker 1: these students, it will not be history was, but history is. Well,

521
00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:51,720
Speaker 1: that's definitely an interesting idea, and it's kind of like

522
00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:55,280
Speaker 1: Bradbury also recognized the hyper reality of these theme parks,

523
00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:57,879
Speaker 1: but rather than viewing that as a negative, he you know,

524
00:25:57,920 --> 00:25:59,879
Speaker 1: he saw it as a way to reinforce truths of

525
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:02,760
Speaker 1: about history and the world itself. I guess yeah, you

526
00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:05,480
Speaker 1: can really tell why Bradbury saw a fellow futurist in

527
00:26:05,520 --> 00:26:09,320
Speaker 1: Walt Disney like they were both unceasingly optimistic about what

528
00:26:09,400 --> 00:26:12,280
Speaker 1: mankind could achieve. And I don't want to lean too

529
00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:14,520
Speaker 1: heavily on his essay, but but there's one more section

530
00:26:14,600 --> 00:26:16,760
Speaker 1: that really captures what a theme park can be at

531
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:18,640
Speaker 1: its best, So I'll go ahead and read it here.

532
00:26:19,440 --> 00:26:22,800
Speaker 1: Quote in Disneyland, while has proven again that the first

533
00:26:22,840 --> 00:26:25,920
Speaker 1: function of architecture is to make men over, make them

534
00:26:25,960 --> 00:26:28,960
Speaker 1: wish to go on living, feed them fresh oxygen, grow

535
00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:32,399
Speaker 1: them tall, to light their eyes, make them kind. Disneyland

536
00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:36,280
Speaker 1: liberates men to be their better selves, and he continues,

537
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:39,080
Speaker 1: here you will see the happy faces of people. I

538
00:26:39,119 --> 00:26:42,160
Speaker 1: don't mean dumb cluck happy. I don't mean men's club

539
00:26:42,200 --> 00:26:45,719
Speaker 1: happy or sewing circle. Happy, I mean truly happy, and

540
00:26:45,920 --> 00:26:48,000
Speaker 1: I've got to keep going because it's so good. No

541
00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:51,920
Speaker 1: beat Nix here, No cool people with cool faces pretending

542
00:26:51,960 --> 00:26:55,040
Speaker 1: not to care, thus swindling themselves out of life or

543
00:26:55,080 --> 00:26:58,359
Speaker 1: any chance for life. Disneyland cause you to care all

544
00:26:58,359 --> 00:27:01,760
Speaker 1: over again. You feel it's the first you feel. It's

545
00:27:01,800 --> 00:27:04,000
Speaker 1: the first day in the spring of that special year,

546
00:27:04,080 --> 00:27:07,000
Speaker 1: when when you've discovered you were really alive. No cool

547
00:27:07,040 --> 00:27:09,919
Speaker 1: people with cool faces in Disney World. That's pretty great.

548
00:27:10,320 --> 00:27:13,399
Speaker 1: I'd say that's pretty much the definition of a ringing endorsement.

549
00:27:13,600 --> 00:27:16,560
Speaker 1: I honestly, I'm not even sure how to respond to that. Well,

550
00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:18,359
Speaker 1: the ideal of response would probably be to make a

551
00:27:18,400 --> 00:27:20,520
Speaker 1: bee line for Disneyland. But since we're the middle of

552
00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:22,480
Speaker 1: an episode, how about we just break for a quiz.

553
00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:31,119
Speaker 1: Our next guest is a super fan of theme parks

554
00:27:31,119 --> 00:27:33,439
Speaker 1: and has turned his reporting and trip planning into a

555
00:27:33,480 --> 00:27:36,480
Speaker 1: really successful career as the founder and editor of Theme

556
00:27:36,520 --> 00:27:40,600
Speaker 1: Park Insider. Robert Niles. Welcome to part time Genius. Thanks

557
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:42,800
Speaker 1: for having me. It's great to be here. Great. Well, so, Robert,

558
00:27:42,800 --> 00:27:45,399
Speaker 1: I was curious, was there a theme park experience or

559
00:27:45,480 --> 00:27:48,680
Speaker 1: just some specific theme park that really sparked this passion

560
00:27:48,720 --> 00:27:52,679
Speaker 1: of yours. Well, I'm a Los Angeles native, so my

561
00:27:52,760 --> 00:27:56,600
Speaker 1: kids hauled me down to Annaheim to visit Disneyland a

562
00:27:56,600 --> 00:27:58,920
Speaker 1: lot when I was a kid. But really maybe the

563
00:27:59,040 --> 00:28:02,520
Speaker 1: thing that turned me onto this was when we visited

564
00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:05,880
Speaker 1: Universal Studios Hollywood back when it was just the Universal

565
00:28:05,920 --> 00:28:08,919
Speaker 1: Studio Tour and I was about six years old or something,

566
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:12,440
Speaker 1: but I got picked to be one of those audience volunteers,

567
00:28:12,440 --> 00:28:14,439
Speaker 1: and so I was the freckle faced little kid in

568
00:28:14,480 --> 00:28:17,760
Speaker 1: the Rice the Fake Race Rice Serroni commercial that they

569
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:20,280
Speaker 1: taped on the back lot back then. I'm just like, well,

570
00:28:20,359 --> 00:28:22,520
Speaker 1: this is kind of cool. I could be part of

571
00:28:22,520 --> 00:28:26,199
Speaker 1: the show. So um. That always kind of stuck with me.

572
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:28,320
Speaker 1: And then when I was in college, I started working

573
00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:31,000
Speaker 1: at Walt disney World during the summers, and that just

574
00:28:31,040 --> 00:28:33,640
Speaker 1: really cemented it. So I've been a just a huge

575
00:28:33,640 --> 00:28:35,679
Speaker 1: theme park fan ever since. Do you have a favorite

576
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:40,760
Speaker 1: weird theme park or just a favorite theme park overall? Oh? Wow,

577
00:28:40,840 --> 00:28:43,360
Speaker 1: I mean I think my favorite theme park would be

578
00:28:43,600 --> 00:28:48,000
Speaker 1: Tokyo Disney Sea in Japan. Just an absolutely lovely parket

579
00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:49,840
Speaker 1: shows to what you can do with a budget of

580
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:53,480
Speaker 1: several billion dollars. Um. But in terms of like a

581
00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:56,680
Speaker 1: little fun, quirky parks, I'm a real fan of Holiday World,

582
00:28:56,720 --> 00:28:59,560
Speaker 1: which is located in the tiny town of Santa Claus

583
00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:04,960
Speaker 1: in the Anna. Um. It's just this wonderful points uh park,

584
00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:07,640
Speaker 1: really out in the middle of the cornfield someplace. But

585
00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:11,120
Speaker 1: it's got some really great World Clash roller coasters there,

586
00:29:11,160 --> 00:29:14,560
Speaker 1: and you've got a really fun crew of sands the

587
00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:16,520
Speaker 1: show up at this place. It's not like this is

588
00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:18,800
Speaker 1: just a park out in the suburbs and everybody who

589
00:29:18,800 --> 00:29:21,320
Speaker 1: live there comes in. If you're going to Santa Claus, Indiana,

590
00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:24,680
Speaker 1: you're a dedicated theme park fan. It's just nice to

591
00:29:24,760 --> 00:29:27,200
Speaker 1: be around a bunch of other theme park geeks like

592
00:29:27,280 --> 00:29:29,560
Speaker 1: me whenever I visit. That's so nice to hear because

593
00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:31,840
Speaker 1: we we've actually read about it and and talked about

594
00:29:31,840 --> 00:29:33,160
Speaker 1: it a little on the show, but to hear that

595
00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:36,200
Speaker 1: it's like a real park for enthusiasts is pretty great. Yeah.

596
00:29:36,280 --> 00:29:40,200
Speaker 1: That's uh, that's great. Well, what about some favorite attractions,

597
00:29:40,240 --> 00:29:45,320
Speaker 1: just favorite oddball attractions you've seen, you know, at different parks. Um. Actually,

598
00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:47,880
Speaker 1: I'll talk about one that I haven't seen yet, but

599
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:52,200
Speaker 1: one of our writers just just went on it's at

600
00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:57,680
Speaker 1: this park in Glenwood Canyon, Colorado, This Glenwood Canyon Adventure Park,

601
00:29:58,400 --> 00:30:01,560
Speaker 1: and they've built a rock ride, except that when you

602
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:03,680
Speaker 1: typically think of drop ride, it's a big tower where

603
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:05,320
Speaker 1: you go up a couple hundred feet in the air

604
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:07,880
Speaker 1: and when you drop back to the ground. This is

605
00:30:08,440 --> 00:30:11,480
Speaker 1: seemed to be a mind drop ride, and it's actually

606
00:30:11,520 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 1: in a mind so you enter on the ground and

607
00:30:13,800 --> 00:30:20,320
Speaker 1: then you drop down into a hole, which just sounds

608
00:30:20,400 --> 00:30:22,880
Speaker 1: like that could be a huge phobia trigger for a

609
00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:25,080
Speaker 1: lot of which of course makes it that much more

610
00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:28,480
Speaker 1: fun for everybody else. Um, but that's a that's a

611
00:30:28,560 --> 00:30:30,760
Speaker 1: quirky little park that it doesn't mean it's not like

612
00:30:30,800 --> 00:30:34,080
Speaker 1: a Disney park or anything. You didn't tiny attendance. But

613
00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:37,200
Speaker 1: they've got stuff like a roller coaster that's perched on

614
00:30:37,240 --> 00:30:39,640
Speaker 1: the edge of a thousand foot cliffs and all of

615
00:30:39,680 --> 00:30:42,200
Speaker 1: these things that are a little bit extreme for a

616
00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 1: theme park attraction. So that's that's moved up high on

617
00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:48,320
Speaker 1: my two new Bucket list of places to go visit.

618
00:30:48,720 --> 00:30:50,840
Speaker 1: Are there any pet teams you'd love to see developed

619
00:30:50,880 --> 00:30:54,320
Speaker 1: into a park? Oh wow? Um? Yeah, I mean the

620
00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:57,800
Speaker 1: first thing everybody always says is that everybody want Lord

621
00:30:57,800 --> 00:30:59,680
Speaker 1: of the Rings of the Park because you know, just

622
00:30:59,760 --> 00:31:03,240
Speaker 1: a huge ike. But um, you know, a lot of

623
00:31:03,240 --> 00:31:05,760
Speaker 1: parks have developed these kind of video game based shooter

624
00:31:05,880 --> 00:31:07,760
Speaker 1: rides now like you see it, it does light You're

625
00:31:07,760 --> 00:31:11,280
Speaker 1: at Disney and Men in Black, Universal and Justice League

626
00:31:11,360 --> 00:31:14,720
Speaker 1: at six Flags. But so there's a desire to do

627
00:31:14,800 --> 00:31:18,240
Speaker 1: something that's interactive. So I think, um, one thing, I'd

628
00:31:18,280 --> 00:31:20,040
Speaker 1: really like to see some type of thing where it's

629
00:31:20,320 --> 00:31:22,520
Speaker 1: it's almost like you're in the Game of Blue or something.

630
00:31:22,600 --> 00:31:25,800
Speaker 1: You have to solve some sort of mystery in order

631
00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:29,840
Speaker 1: to advance into the attraction of that sort of gameplay

632
00:31:29,920 --> 00:31:33,680
Speaker 1: could be a lot of fun in a team park attraction. Definitely. Yeah,

633
00:31:33,680 --> 00:31:36,800
Speaker 1: that's that's pretty great. Well, we we we appreciate you're

634
00:31:36,840 --> 00:31:38,959
Speaker 1: telling us all about these parks, but we can't let

635
00:31:38,960 --> 00:31:41,120
Speaker 1: you go without putting you to the test. So, so

636
00:31:41,160 --> 00:31:43,360
Speaker 1: what game are we playing with Robert today, Mango, We're

637
00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:47,000
Speaker 1: playing a little game called roller Coaster or Discontinued Superhero?

638
00:31:47,240 --> 00:31:49,680
Speaker 1: All right, that's right, So this is simple. We're going

639
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:51,240
Speaker 1: to give you a name and you tell us whether

640
00:31:51,280 --> 00:31:55,840
Speaker 1: it's a roller coaster or a discontinued Superhero. Are you ready?

641
00:31:56,560 --> 00:32:01,040
Speaker 1: Why not? Both maybe should be here we go. Number one,

642
00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:07,000
Speaker 1: Bouncing Boy. I'm going to guess that's a discontinued superhero. Yeah,

643
00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:10,920
Speaker 1: it's a really dumb discontinued superhero. Bouncing boys. Big skill

644
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,000
Speaker 1: was that he turned into a bouncing ball. I don't

645
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:16,320
Speaker 1: know I would have wanted to do that as a kid. Alright.

646
00:32:16,440 --> 00:32:20,360
Speaker 1: Number two, he's one for one. Number two Steal Vengeance. Oh,

647
00:32:20,400 --> 00:32:22,959
Speaker 1: that's definitely a roller coup. Actually going to be a

648
00:32:23,080 --> 00:32:25,840
Speaker 1: roller coaster. Wow, well done if bonus points if you

649
00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:28,480
Speaker 1: happen to know where this is going to be, that's

650
00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:31,520
Speaker 1: a cedar point. Fantastic. Ohile, nicely done. He is an

651
00:32:31,520 --> 00:32:35,760
Speaker 1: expert here. Okay, he's three for two. That's right. Number

652
00:32:35,800 --> 00:32:40,360
Speaker 1: three Yank and Doodle. That's just awful. No matter what,

653
00:32:41,480 --> 00:32:45,720
Speaker 1: I'm going to get superhero. Yeah. According to rancor dot

654
00:32:45,720 --> 00:32:49,040
Speaker 1: COM's description, when they're together, they have superhero strength. When

655
00:32:49,080 --> 00:32:56,800
Speaker 1: they're a part, they're just dude. Alright, alright. Number four

656
00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:02,280
Speaker 1: King Dakah definitely roller coaster. Alright, bonus points for where

657
00:33:02,280 --> 00:33:07,040
Speaker 1: it is. That would be at six Flags Trade Adventure

658
00:33:07,160 --> 00:33:11,160
Speaker 1: in New Jersey. Nicely done. Number five The red Bee.

659
00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:18,440
Speaker 1: The red Bee. That could go either way. Uh, but

660
00:33:18,480 --> 00:33:21,360
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say just continued superhero again. Yeah, you're right.

661
00:33:21,480 --> 00:33:23,640
Speaker 1: The red Be's power was that he was powerless, but

662
00:33:23,680 --> 00:33:25,960
Speaker 1: he had to train b that he attacked people with.

663
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:31,160
Speaker 1: And that trained bee's name was Michael. Actually, you know what,

664
00:33:31,200 --> 00:33:33,920
Speaker 1: there was one here for for for an even an

665
00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:36,880
Speaker 1: additional bonus point. I thought this one was interesting. All right,

666
00:33:36,880 --> 00:33:42,000
Speaker 1: here we go thunder Dolphin. Oh that's another one that's

667
00:33:42,880 --> 00:33:45,880
Speaker 1: could go either way. Could be a roller coaster to

668
00:33:45,920 --> 00:33:49,600
Speaker 1: SeaWorld Parks. Not familiar with which one, but let's say

669
00:33:49,640 --> 00:33:53,680
Speaker 1: Woller Coaster. Yeah. So this is a Tokyo Dome city

670
00:33:53,840 --> 00:33:57,040
Speaker 1: and this agile coaster dodges buildings and threads the needle

671
00:33:57,120 --> 00:34:00,080
Speaker 1: through a giant ferris wheel. All right, nicely done. So

672
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:02,960
Speaker 1: how's Robert done today? Mango? He's got an incredible seven

673
00:34:03,040 --> 00:34:05,520
Speaker 1: for six, which has never happened on a show before.

674
00:34:06,440 --> 00:34:09,760
Speaker 1: It's a record. So what is Robert? Yeah, he earns

675
00:34:10,040 --> 00:34:12,520
Speaker 1: a note to his mom or boss singing his praises,

676
00:34:12,560 --> 00:34:15,319
Speaker 1: So congratulations Robert. All right, Well, if you guys are

677
00:34:15,320 --> 00:34:18,319
Speaker 1: thinking about attending a theme park, you should check out

678
00:34:18,400 --> 00:34:20,879
Speaker 1: theme Park Insider. Robert. Thanks for joining us on part

679
00:34:20,920 --> 00:34:35,200
Speaker 1: time genius. Thanks for having me. Okay, so we had

680
00:34:35,239 --> 00:34:38,680
Speaker 1: a pretty heavy discussion earlier about hyper reality and theme

681
00:34:38,719 --> 00:34:41,880
Speaker 1: parks and you know, even Disneyland's role as this you

682
00:34:41,960 --> 00:34:45,040
Speaker 1: might say, a technological steward of history. But but what

683
00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:46,600
Speaker 1: do you say we could keep things a little bit

684
00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:49,080
Speaker 1: lighter in this last segment, Mango all, I'm all for it.

685
00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:50,799
Speaker 1: I was actually thinking we could just go back and

686
00:34:50,840 --> 00:34:53,120
Speaker 1: forth with some of the lesser known theme parks we

687
00:34:53,160 --> 00:34:55,480
Speaker 1: came across during our research. I don't know about you,

688
00:34:55,520 --> 00:34:58,440
Speaker 1: but the ones that really grabbed my attention where these random,

689
00:34:58,440 --> 00:35:01,520
Speaker 1: like oddball parks with with all these themes that are

690
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:04,239
Speaker 1: definitely not Disney. All right, sure, I'm up for that, soap.

691
00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:06,239
Speaker 1: So what are you thinking of? First? Well, some of

692
00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:08,480
Speaker 1: the weirdest theme parks I came across, where where these

693
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:12,920
Speaker 1: kids Zania Family Entertainment centers. They're they're basically indoor kids

694
00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:16,440
Speaker 1: sized replica cities, complete with miniature of vehicles and buildings

695
00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:20,760
Speaker 1: like hospitals, shops, banks, restaurants, and even a tiny airport.

696
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:24,040
Speaker 1: And the ideas that kids can gain valuable life experience

697
00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:27,040
Speaker 1: by taking part in twenty five minute career based role playing.

698
00:35:27,360 --> 00:35:30,759
Speaker 1: Oh god, yeah, it gets worse. So, so kids get

699
00:35:30,760 --> 00:35:33,239
Speaker 1: a chance to try their hand at lofty job assignments

700
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,520
Speaker 1: such as performing surgery or piloting an aircraft, as well

701
00:35:36,520 --> 00:35:39,279
Speaker 1: as more menial tasks like that you find them, like

702
00:35:39,360 --> 00:35:42,120
Speaker 1: changing attire or working in a Coca Cola bottling plan.

703
00:35:42,360 --> 00:35:45,200
Speaker 1: It's like the worst theme park ever, man, what is

704
00:35:45,320 --> 00:35:47,880
Speaker 1: what exactly is the theme? Is it adulthood or just

705
00:35:48,040 --> 00:35:50,879
Speaker 1: monotony or what? Well, you haven't even heard the best

706
00:35:50,880 --> 00:35:53,040
Speaker 1: part yet. So kids learned the value of their labor

707
00:35:53,080 --> 00:35:56,400
Speaker 1: by earning kids. Those the official currency of kids Zania,

708
00:35:56,880 --> 00:35:59,520
Speaker 1: and they can accrue interest when deposited in the kids

709
00:35:59,560 --> 00:36:03,239
Speaker 1: Zanian Bank. Gosh, oh wow, All right, well that that's

710
00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:05,719
Speaker 1: pretty bleak, but I actually still think I can top that.

711
00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:08,680
Speaker 1: So last fall, the UK was home to a theme

712
00:36:08,719 --> 00:36:12,040
Speaker 1: park based entirely on the literary works of Charles Dickens.

713
00:36:12,320 --> 00:36:14,960
Speaker 1: It was called Dickens World, and the park offered this

714
00:36:15,040 --> 00:36:19,040
Speaker 1: interactive tour through the drab buildings and grimy cobblestone streets

715
00:36:19,040 --> 00:36:22,280
Speaker 1: of old Victorian London. They even boasted about this Greater

716
00:36:22,360 --> 00:36:26,239
Speaker 1: Expectations themed water run, and sadly the whole thing went

717
00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:29,240
Speaker 1: belly up. Though this was last October because the company

718
00:36:29,280 --> 00:36:32,960
Speaker 1: behind the park declared itself insolvent and talking about the

719
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:37,280
Speaker 1: worst of times. Oh man, that should have been job. Still,

720
00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:39,480
Speaker 1: if we're going for bleak, you'll want to check out

721
00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:43,600
Speaker 1: Survival Drama in Lithuania. And while not a park, per say,

722
00:36:43,719 --> 00:36:46,360
Speaker 1: it's the world's premier themed attraction for those looking to

723
00:36:46,400 --> 00:36:48,600
Speaker 1: experience what life was like for a citizen of the

724
00:36:48,719 --> 00:36:53,760
Speaker 1: USSR during the nineteen eighties. So the whole ordeal starts

725
00:36:53,760 --> 00:36:55,960
Speaker 1: when guests are ambushed by the Red Army in the

726
00:36:56,000 --> 00:36:58,759
Speaker 1: middle of a forest, and and and then they're transported

727
00:36:58,760 --> 00:37:01,120
Speaker 1: to a former Soviet bunk here in the eastern European

728
00:37:01,160 --> 00:37:04,160
Speaker 1: country side, and it only gets worse like from there.

729
00:37:04,200 --> 00:37:07,200
Speaker 1: It's a brisk three hours of underground tunnels, barking dogs,

730
00:37:07,320 --> 00:37:13,000
Speaker 1: verbal abuse, humiliation, coercion, and even propaganda screening sproadly, And

731
00:37:13,080 --> 00:37:16,239
Speaker 1: it's all followed by a celebratory tin of beef and

732
00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:18,600
Speaker 1: a shot of vodka to to wash the taste of

733
00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:22,760
Speaker 1: totalitarian regime from your mouth. For the kids, right, it's horrible.

734
00:37:22,880 --> 00:37:25,440
Speaker 1: I honestly don't know what's worse that something like this

735
00:37:25,520 --> 00:37:27,799
Speaker 1: is legal, or that people actually pay to be a

736
00:37:27,840 --> 00:37:29,799
Speaker 1: part of it. I know, it sounds like the worst

737
00:37:29,880 --> 00:37:33,080
Speaker 1: vacation ever. But but according to the theater producer behind

738
00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:36,080
Speaker 1: the attraction, that's kind of the point. Like in an

739
00:37:36,080 --> 00:37:39,000
Speaker 1: interview with The Daily Mail, she said, quote, it's not

740
00:37:39,120 --> 00:37:41,680
Speaker 1: for everyone, but these days children must learn that it's

741
00:37:41,760 --> 00:37:44,560
Speaker 1: not a laughing matter. Many understand what it was like.

742
00:37:44,680 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 1: They should realize how much progress there's been over the

743
00:37:47,120 --> 00:37:50,000
Speaker 1: past seventeen years, Like how they have vacation time to

744
00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:53,279
Speaker 1: learn these lessons. But I guess in a way that's

745
00:37:53,320 --> 00:37:55,920
Speaker 1: kind of admirable. But but we're supposed to be keeping

746
00:37:55,920 --> 00:37:58,480
Speaker 1: things light in this last section. So did you you know,

747
00:37:58,480 --> 00:38:00,800
Speaker 1: did you come across any lesser known parks that aren't

748
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:04,160
Speaker 1: completely mortifying? Yeah? So one of the coolest parks I

749
00:38:04,160 --> 00:38:07,800
Speaker 1: found is called Efteling World of Wonders. It's this amazing

750
00:38:07,840 --> 00:38:11,200
Speaker 1: a hundred eight a theme park in Amsterdam, and it's

751
00:38:11,200 --> 00:38:13,640
Speaker 1: consistently ranked one of the best in all of Europe.

752
00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:17,680
Speaker 1: And in fact, Efteling is unbelievably popular. It's one of

753
00:38:17,719 --> 00:38:20,960
Speaker 1: the few non Disney, non universal parks to crack the

754
00:38:20,960 --> 00:38:23,760
Speaker 1: top twenty five highest attended theme parks in the world. Wow,

755
00:38:23,800 --> 00:38:26,080
Speaker 1: that's pretty impressive. So what's the theme for the park.

756
00:38:26,320 --> 00:38:28,200
Speaker 1: I mean that that's the cool thing. Though the whole

757
00:38:28,239 --> 00:38:32,640
Speaker 1: park is based on classic fairy tales and folklore, so elves, gnomes,

758
00:38:32,719 --> 00:38:35,560
Speaker 1: fairies and like and and even though there's some thematic

759
00:38:35,560 --> 00:38:38,359
Speaker 1: crossover between this one and the Disney parks there, there's

760
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:41,360
Speaker 1: a much tighter focus on tradition and storytelling at Efteling.

761
00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:44,120
Speaker 1: So it's I don't know, kind of a less commercialized

762
00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:47,200
Speaker 1: theme park. Maybe, yeah, kind of. I mean there are shops,

763
00:38:47,239 --> 00:38:49,520
Speaker 1: to be sure, but but they aren't as central a

764
00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:51,879
Speaker 1: focus as they would be in any American theme park,

765
00:38:51,960 --> 00:38:54,360
Speaker 1: which is all the more impressive when you consider the

766
00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:58,200
Speaker 1: cutting edge ride technology and and the lavishly detailed theming

767
00:38:58,239 --> 00:39:01,240
Speaker 1: found throughout the park. You get the feeling the designers

768
00:39:01,239 --> 00:39:03,239
Speaker 1: didn't have to make a whole lot of compromises in

769
00:39:03,320 --> 00:39:06,040
Speaker 1: order to save a few pennies or squeezing another storefront,

770
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:09,719
Speaker 1: and the results this really classy theme park. You know,

771
00:39:10,000 --> 00:39:12,760
Speaker 1: before the episode, I probably would have considered a classy

772
00:39:12,800 --> 00:39:15,480
Speaker 1: theme park to be an oxy moron, But you know,

773
00:39:15,560 --> 00:39:18,400
Speaker 1: looking into all the philosophy at the root of these experiences,

774
00:39:18,719 --> 00:39:21,439
Speaker 1: I guess I feel kind of differently now. Yeah, it's

775
00:39:21,440 --> 00:39:24,040
Speaker 1: all fun and games until someone has an existential crisis

776
00:39:24,080 --> 00:39:27,839
Speaker 1: on Space Mountain. Right, I'll try to hold yourself together, man,

777
00:39:27,880 --> 00:39:39,360
Speaker 1: go at least long enough for this episode's fact off. Okay,

778
00:39:39,400 --> 00:39:41,719
Speaker 1: so why don't you pick this one off? All right?

779
00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:43,920
Speaker 1: I can do that. So, um, did you know that

780
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:47,960
Speaker 1: Freud and Young visited Dreamland and Coney Island together? It's

781
00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:50,600
Speaker 1: it's actually true. And when they did, supposedly, Freud told

782
00:39:50,640 --> 00:39:53,280
Speaker 1: Young that Coney Island was the only part of America

783
00:39:53,440 --> 00:39:57,080
Speaker 1: that interesting. So this is about Walt Disney, and it's

784
00:39:57,120 --> 00:39:59,359
Speaker 1: the fact I always think about whenever I hear his name.

785
00:39:59,719 --> 00:40:02,200
Speaker 1: If visitors came to visit Walt Disney, he'd serve them

786
00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:05,080
Speaker 1: tomato juice, and he'd be furious if they refused to

787
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:07,839
Speaker 1: drink it. In fact, a secretary would even warn people

788
00:40:07,880 --> 00:40:09,520
Speaker 1: that it was best to just accept it before they

789
00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:13,359
Speaker 1: walked in. I had actually heard that fact before. But

790
00:40:13,360 --> 00:40:16,120
Speaker 1: but speaking of Disney, one of my favorite parks. And

791
00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:17,640
Speaker 1: I don't know why I included this fact because I

792
00:40:17,640 --> 00:40:19,920
Speaker 1: have the hardest time saying this word. But it's the

793
00:40:20,080 --> 00:40:24,239
Speaker 1: Beijing jing Shan Amusement Park. It sounds fun to say,

794
00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:27,280
Speaker 1: it is so hard to say, And and mental flaws

795
00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:30,719
Speaker 1: dubbed this the copyright and fringiest place on Earth. And

796
00:40:30,719 --> 00:40:33,279
Speaker 1: although park has been sued several times and often had

797
00:40:33,320 --> 00:40:36,640
Speaker 1: to take down statues, it's happily filled with rip off

798
00:40:36,680 --> 00:40:40,319
Speaker 1: animated characters and landmarks that looks so much like these

799
00:40:40,320 --> 00:40:43,680
Speaker 1: Disney characters. And oddly enough, this is something they've embraced

800
00:40:43,680 --> 00:40:46,400
Speaker 1: in their advertising. You know what their old slogan was,

801
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:49,520
Speaker 1: It was Disney is too far to go, Please come

802
00:40:49,520 --> 00:40:55,640
Speaker 1: to she Jing Shan. I think I said so. One

803
00:40:55,680 --> 00:40:57,960
Speaker 1: of my favorite theme park thrills to read about was

804
00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:01,680
Speaker 1: this park called crocoss Us Cove in Darwin, Australia, and

805
00:41:01,880 --> 00:41:04,640
Speaker 1: they have something that's way scarier than any roller coaster.

806
00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:07,680
Speaker 1: It's called the Cage of Death, and so you're getting

807
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:10,640
Speaker 1: this little acrylic tank wuity which they then submerge in

808
00:41:10,680 --> 00:41:12,920
Speaker 1: water and you end up right next to the sixteen

809
00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:17,520
Speaker 1: foot crocodile. It sounds terrifying, but Crocostaurs Cove isn't a

810
00:41:17,520 --> 00:41:19,960
Speaker 1: one trick pony, and it also has the largest display

811
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:23,279
Speaker 1: of Australian rough piles anywhere. Wow, that is crazy. All right. Well,

812
00:41:23,280 --> 00:41:26,240
Speaker 1: while we're on the topic of our favorite weird theme parks,

813
00:41:26,239 --> 00:41:27,920
Speaker 1: one of these days I really want to go to

814
00:41:27,960 --> 00:41:30,440
Speaker 1: a place called bon Bon Land, which is just an

815
00:41:30,440 --> 00:41:33,239
Speaker 1: hour or so away from Copenhagen and Denmark. And so

816
00:41:33,680 --> 00:41:35,600
Speaker 1: you know, you know, we like to credit Harry Potter

817
00:41:35,680 --> 00:41:39,680
Speaker 1: with popularizing all those nasty flavored jelly beans, from toe

818
00:41:39,800 --> 00:41:42,640
Speaker 1: jam to stinky cheese and all that kind of stuff.

819
00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:44,880
Speaker 1: But this park is the home of a candy factory

820
00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:50,040
Speaker 1: that's been making disgusting confections like ear wax, seagull droppings,

821
00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:53,200
Speaker 1: and dog farts since the eighties. And in the early

822
00:41:53,280 --> 00:41:56,120
Speaker 1: nineties they decided to open a theme park there. And

823
00:41:56,120 --> 00:41:58,000
Speaker 1: and I know my son would die to go to

824
00:41:58,040 --> 00:41:59,920
Speaker 1: this place because they have one ride that's called the

825
00:42:00,080 --> 00:42:03,040
Speaker 1: dog Farting roller Coaster. Do you get to travel through

826
00:42:03,080 --> 00:42:06,920
Speaker 1: lots of poop and enjoy the accompanying soundtrack. Yeah. So,

827
00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:08,839
Speaker 1: as we always say on the show, no matter how

828
00:42:08,880 --> 00:42:11,479
Speaker 1: old you get, dog farts are always funny. It's true.

829
00:42:11,600 --> 00:42:13,640
Speaker 1: I can't beat that. I'm gonna give you this week's trophy.

830
00:42:13,640 --> 00:42:15,799
Speaker 1: You congrats, well, thanks so much, and don't forget to

831
00:42:15,800 --> 00:42:17,800
Speaker 1: write to us at part time genius at how stuff

832
00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:21,040
Speaker 1: Works dot com or call us on the seven Fact hotline.

833
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:23,839
Speaker 1: That's one eight four four pt Genius. You can share

834
00:42:23,840 --> 00:42:25,480
Speaker 1: a fact or tell us why we should have you

835
00:42:25,480 --> 00:42:41,080
Speaker 1: on to play a quiz sometime. Thanks for listening, Thanks

836
00:42:41,120 --> 00:42:43,440
Speaker 1: again for listening. Part Time Genius is a production of

837
00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:46,240
Speaker 1: how stuff works and wouldn't be possible without several brilliant

838
00:42:46,239 --> 00:42:48,680
Speaker 1: people who do the important things we couldn't even begin

839
00:42:48,719 --> 00:42:52,000
Speaker 1: to understand. Tristan McNeil does the editing thing. Noel Brown

840
00:42:52,040 --> 00:42:54,279
Speaker 1: made the theme song and does the MIXI mixy sound thing.

841
00:42:54,719 --> 00:42:57,920
Speaker 1: Jerry Rowland does the exact producer thing. Gay Bluesier is

842
00:42:57,960 --> 00:43:00,680
Speaker 1: our lead researcher, with support from the Research Army including

843
00:43:00,680 --> 00:43:03,520
Speaker 1: Austin Thompson, Nolan Brown and Lucas Adams and Eves Jeff

844
00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:05,720
Speaker 1: Coo gets the show to your ears. Good job, Eves.

845
00:43:05,960 --> 00:43:07,880
Speaker 1: If you like what you heard, we hope you'll subscribe,

846
00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:09,759
Speaker 1: And if you really really like what you've heard, maybe

847
00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:11,759
Speaker 1: you could leave a good review for us. Do we do?

848
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:13,560
Speaker 1: We forget Jason? Jason who