Florida's Walt Disney World has updated its Magic Kingdom fireworks greeting to honor inclusivity. Throughout the years, the nightly fireworks show welcomed guests with an announcer saying, "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, dreamers of all ages..." However, upon the return of the fireworks show on Tuesday following its break during the pandemic, the announcer refrained from saying those words and instead went on to address the crowd as simply, "Dreams of all ages."
A Twitter account by the name of @ShowcaseWishes, which dedicates itself to "showcasing the best of Disney from around the world," shared a video clip showing the greeting from 2020 and the greeting as it is today, with the caption, "Disney removes "Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls" from Happily Ever After pre show announcement. Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls FOREVER!"
According to Faithwire, the Orlando park's revision of the popular and widely recognized greeting comes months after Tokyo Disneyland also made changes for inclusivity. The change in the Japanese park however, was not sparked by Disney but from the Oriental Land Company which licenses the Disney brand for the Tokyo park. The Japanese greeting welcomes "everyone," a change that went into effect on March 18.
A spokesperson for the Oriental Land Company said that such changes to language and messaging was made to make people of all gender identities "feel comfortable in the park." The spokesperson said, "It is a comprehensive judgment considering the current social situation, such as diversity."
But not everyone is welcoming of the new "woke" Disney. In May, a disgruntled Disney fan of the Walt Disney World wrote an op-ed that criticized the company for making changes to popular attractions for inclusivity.
According to MarketWatch, a Disney fan by the name of Jonathan VanBoskerck from Nevada wrote the op-ed in response to Disney's revamped gender-inclusive rules that allowed its employees to wear a wider range of hairstyles, clothes, and accessories regardless of their gender identity. It also allowed employees to grow facial hair and enabled "cast members" to have visible tattoos as long as they were small and not on or above their necks.
"I am strongly rethinking our commitment to Disney and, thus, Orlando," VanBoskerck wrote for the Orlando Sentinel. "The more Disney moves away from the values and vision of Walt Disney, the less Disney World means to me."
VanBoskerck, who considers himself a "Christian and a conservative Republican," argued that "I'm not traveling across the country and paying thousands of dollars to watch someone I do not know express themselves."
VanBoskerck also expressed his disapproval of several of Disney's changes to its theme parks' most popular rides, such as the log-flume ride Splash Mountain, which was based on the now-controversial 1946 film "Song of the South," a song that is believed to have racist roots. They changed up the ride to feature characters from "The Princess and the Frog" instead to showcase a Black princess. Disney also committed to removing "outdated depictions" of people of color in their rides and attractions.
"The parks are less fun because immersion and thus the joy is taking a back seat to politics," VanBoskerck argued, saying that one's Disney experience "should not be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness and appeasing the Twitter mob."
