WallE Success and the Trickery of Disney

For the 4th of July, the Harris-Curtis cousins (we LOVE them--I need to get pictures so I can sing their praises in a post) and our family saw Wall-E. I went into the theatre with my usual sinking feeling--neither of our kids has made it through an entire movie in a theater, and we've been fortunate to discover AMC has a generous refund policy for such disasters.

But, Asher was mezmerized by Wall-E. When we had to change a poopy diaper during it, he had me run out to change the diaper and run back in. He keeps asking about his friend, Wall-E. Every time we get in the car, he hopes it's to go see Wall-E.

Nate, on the other hand, isn't a fan of the movie. He can't get over the irony that Disney, one of the giant trans-national corporations of the world, has made a movie about a giant trans-national corporation that takes over the world and then destroys it with garbage.

I wasn't as annoyed since I knew the plot beforehand. The irony hit me, eventually--when I went to iTunes to download the Michael Crawford song that Wall-E (and Asher and I) loves. But, the Michael Crawford song (have I mentioned that I was a member of the Michael Crawford fan club when I was 14?) is only available if you download the whole Wall-E album.

Tricky Broadway-musical-loving-me thought I would outsmart Big Brother. So, I went to download the song off the Hello, Dolly soundtrack, which is another Disney production (surprise).

But, well, Disney didn't get to be Disney without cunning and ingenuity. And, they must have known there were cheapskates like me, so I had to buy the whole album there, too.

Just for one cute little 3 minute song. (an update: I've had this post sitting in my draft section since July 6th. Asher has made me listen to it about a bazillion times. I don't think it's a cute little 3 minute song anymore)

So, Disney makes this movie about people consuming too much, being wasteful and careless all because of the evil BnL corporation that forces their products into humanity's unsuspecting hands. And then, instead of letting me pay $.99 for the one song I want, I have to pay $9.99 for one song and a bunch of crap I'll never listen to (another update: I have been caught belting out a little Barbara Streisand once) (maybe twice) (ok, every night as I make dinner)*.

In college, some friends and I went to Disneyland. Snotty kids that we were, we would yell "Destruction of illusion!" every time we saw something broken or worn out on a ride (I know, you wish you were such a cool teenager, too)*.

Well, "Destruction of illusion" indeed.

*Like the ()'s? Stole it from Heather O. (a fabulous writer w/o the parenthetical comments, btw), who stole it from Sue. Wish I could write like they do. (who knew blogging could make me jealous of people I don't even know?)