Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today’s entry spotlights a parody of the Walt Disney World re-opening trailer.
In what can only be described as a wildly dystopic move, Walt Disney World has reopened its gates despite the rising cases of COVID-19. And what better way to announce the re-opening of the happiest place on Earth in the midst of a global pandemic than with a chilling announcement trailer?
The optimism foundational to the Disney experience hits different when Florida is breaking state-wide records with one-hundred and fifty-thousand cases in a single day. The video shows upbeat, masked Disney employees welcoming the public “home” with open arms. This is the kind of dark, corporate satire that would make Paul Verhoeven proud. Even if it was accidental. The company has since deleted the video from Twitter but not before the internet did its thing and mocked the hell out of it.
One of the more inspired send-ups the Disney World re-opening trailer is the video below. The parody replaces the audio from the re-opening announcement with the main title music for Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind’s iconic, dread-filled drones underpin the implicit terror and haunting ambiance of the announcement. We do not want to come play with you, Disney.
You can watch “The Shining Walt Disney World Reopens” here:
Who made this?
Two-time Webby Award-nominated video artist, television producer, and editor Nelson Carvajal created this edit. Carvajal has made video essays for Fandor, Indiewire, No Film School, and RogerEbert.com. You can look through Carvajal’s work on Vimeo here. And you can follow him on Twitter here.
More Videos Like This
- Carvajal has a video exploring the relationship between Beyoncé’s Lemonade and iconic shots from cinema
- He’s also made a video essay on the importance and urgency of Spike Lee’s Chi-Raq
- One of the more inspired mashups I’ve ever seen, from Carvajal: “Gaspar Noe’s ENTER THE CATS“
- Speaking of terror, here’s one of my all-time favorite videos on the internet: a breakdown of the engineering behind Disney’s iconic Tower of Terror attraction
- For another horror-themed parody of the Disney World re-opening trailer, here’s one from Buzzfeed’s Christopher Hudspeth turning it into an A24 release