An attitude that can’t be Disneyfied

France

Dom Joly

Independent on Sunday (U.K.)

Building Eurodisney in France was a huge mistake, said Dom Joly in the London Independent on Sunday. The French simply cannot master the breezy, cheery, “have a nice day” Disney outlook that comes so naturally to Americans. In France, service is not something you do with a smile, but something you resent having to do, with all the bitter contempt of bourgeois excess you can muster. Forcing French people to don silly costumes and chirp at tourists, therefore, is tantamount to creating a hostile work environment. “You can see the strain in their eyes as they try to rein in their natural instincts to insult Americans and scowl while smoking a foul-smelling, untipped cigarette.” It’s no wonder that the first incarnation of Eurodisney, opened in 1992, was a miserable failure. The current version, Disneyland Resort Paris, is finally turning a profit, after the company expanded it to twice the size of the California Disneyland. But the French staff seems as miserable as ever.

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