PARK CITY, Utah — Is Randy Moore’s new movie about a father going insane at Walt Disney World simply cinematic art? Or is Mickey Mouse about to get very, very mad at Mr. Moore?
A betting person would put some chips on anger after his movie’s premiere at the Sundance Film Festival here over the weekend.
Mr. Moore, without permission from Disney, filmed “Escape From Tomorrow” inside its theme parks and hotels in Florida and California. If that wasn’t gutsy enough, his film is a horror fantasy that harshly critiques Disney’s style of mass entertainment. It’s not the Happiest Place on Earth in his movie. Not by a long shot.
The movie, while careful to leave out certain copyrighted material (like the “It’s a Small World” song), would seem to test the limits of fair use in copyright law. It has a lot of Disney iconography: Mr. Moore, a first-time director and the movie’s screenwriter, filmed inside at least eight rides, and a lengthy sequence involves the line for a Buzz Lightyear attraction.
How did Mr. Moore get away with it? After all, his cast and crew went on the It’s a Small World ride at least 12 times, filming all the way with high-tech (albeit small) video recorders. “I was surprised the ride operators weren’t a little more savvy,” he said.
“Escape From Tomorrow” underscores the difficulties confronting Disney, intensely vigilant about its intellectual property, as it tries to control the imagery flowing from its parks as people are shooting increasing amounts of video with their smartphones. Disney has followed an increasingly patient approach, allowing video taken inside its rides, for instance, to be uploaded to YouTube. But that video is usually extremely positive.
A spokeswoman for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts had no comment.
The company undoubtedly knows it is in a sticky position. A strong reaction could only play into Mr. Moore’s hand, giving the movie free publicity and helping it find a larger audience. “How are you going to release this?” a reporter (not this one) asked after the premiere to John Sloss, a lawyer and longtime sales agent seeking a distributor for the movie. “Disney is one of the most litigious companies on earth.”
Mr. Sloss responded, “Bring it on,” saying later he was joking.
“Escape From Tomorrow” is about a family of four setting out to spend a day of fun at Walt Disney World. They ride the teacups and pose for pictures at Cinderella Castle, but Dad (Roy Abramsohn) starts to go bonkers after receiving a phone call from his boss. He drools over under-age girls, thinks animatronic figures are evil and coming to life, and pretends to shoot himself with a fake Frontierland rifle.
There is a gruesome vomiting scene, a creepy obese guy on a motorized scooter and a sequence at Disney’s Epcot theme park in which Mr. Abramsohn’s character is Tasered. He is then taken to a secret room underneath Epcot’s Spaceship Earth sphere — referred to in the film as “the giant testicle” — and brainwashed. Ultimately he suffers a bloody death at Disney’s Contemporary Resort hotel.
“You can’t be happy all the time,” one character says near the film’s end. “It’s just not possible.”
Is Mr. Moore worried about Disney’s reaction? “Yes,” he said.
This kind of tiny, arty Sundance movie used to have little chance of exposure beyond the festival, which attracts about 47,000 people. But the rise of video-on-demand services, on the Web and through cable and satellite providers, means that independent film audiences around the world will likely have a chance to see “Escape From Tomorrow.” Social media and instant online reviews are already spreading the word.
“A daring attempt to literally assail Disney World from the inside out,” IndieWire.com said in its review.
Introducing “Escape From Tomorrow” before its premiere Trevor Groth, the festival’s programming chief, called the film “wildly imaginative” and labeled Mr. Moore a “visionary.” Mr. Groth, in an interview later, compared Mr. Moore to the avant-garde director David Lynch.
“ ‘Escape From Tomorrow’ perfectly embodies what we try to celebrate here, which is a truly distinctive singular vision,” Mr. Groth said.
Mr. Moore made the film for less than $1 million with an inheritance from his grandparents. His cast and crew spent about 10 days filming at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla., and two weeks at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif., he said. The credits mention over 200 people, although only small groups entered the Disney parks at any one time to avoid attracting attention.
Still, there were moments during filming that Disney clearly knew something was up, Mr. Moore said. “I think they probably just thought we were crazy fans making a YouTube video, which is something that happens a fair amount,” he said. He added: “Look, I have amazing memories as a kid from going to the parks. I think Walt Disney was a genius. I just wish his vision hadn’t grown into something quite so corporate.”
It may be cold comfort, but Disney’s is not the only theme park operation on which Sundance films are casting a harsh spotlight. “Blackfish,” a documentary by Gabriela Cowperthwaite, looks at the 2010 killing of a trainer by an orca at SeaWorld in Orlando. It had its premiere on Saturday and is billed by Sundance in a catalog as exposing “the species’s cruel treatment in captivity” and the “growing disillusionment of workers who were misled and endangered by the highly profitable sea-park industry.”
Fred Jacobs, a SeaWorld spokesman, said in an e-mail: “Until we see the film for ourselves, we won’t be able to comment. I will say, however, that we set the highest standards for the care of our animals.”
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/movies/escape-from-tomorrow-at-sundance-scrutinizes-disney.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
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