Disney Drama at Sundance

It's amazing the sort of things you can find on the internet these days. So many media rarities and obscurities have found their way to Youtube and filesharing programs, sometimes it seems like everything makes its way out there eventually. However, there's one title that hasn't appeared yet, though I've been keeping an eye out for it. This is "Mickey Mouse in Vietnam," the famous underground anti-war short produced back in 1968. In the 90 second, black-and-white short, Mickey joins the army, gets shipped off to Vietnam, and is then immediately shot and dies. The End.

Now there are far more extreme, outrageous, and obscure pieces that have emerged from the ether, but this short presents a special case because of its subject matter. Disney is, after all, notorious for its protection of its intellectual property, often going to absurd lengths to enforce copyright and trademark restrictions, and Mickey is the company's most recognizable mascot. The company has literally gone and rewritten U.S. copyright law in order to keep the earliest Mickey Mouse shorts out of the public domain. A short like "Mickey Mouse in Vietnam" is clearly in the realm of parody, but what chance could the creators have had in court against Disney's armies of lawyers?

However, Disney is synonymous in the American culture with a particular brand of family-friendly consumerism that just demands commenting on. Its brand is so potent, so universally recognized, that the spoofs and the parodies are inevitable. And in the internet age it's harder and harder to police all the amateur videos and fanart mash-ups and memes. The number of content creators has shot up with the prevalence of cheaper filmmaking technology, and guerrilla filmmaking has become a feasible option for enterprising young directors working on a budget. And this brings us, inevitably to the point of this post, which is the improbable existence of "Escape From Tomorrow," a new unauthorized Disney-themed project perhaps destined to become the next "Mickey Mouse in Vietnam."

It seems like everyone on the internet is in an uproar over this movie. "Escape From Tomorrow," which screened at the Sundance Film Festival on Friday, is the brainchild of first time filmmaker Randy Moore, who filmed it entirely on location at Walt Disney World in Florida without Disney's permission. This includes shots of characters, rides, and plenty of other Disneyana that seem certain to create legal hurdles for any would-be distributors. Then there's the very family-unfriendly plot, which concerns a father on vacation with his family, who learns that he has been fired from his job, becomes obsessed with two teenage French girls he meets in the park, and then experiences what has been described as a David Lynch-ian descent into madness with Disney iconography.

Most of the chatter so far has been about the extraordinary lengths Moore went to in order to create the film, but everyone's waiting to see how Disney is going to react. They have a variety of options. They could ask for an injunction to keep the film from being shown while they ready lawsuits for a long list of offenses. They could acquire the rights to the film themselves to keep the movie from being shown to the public. However, I'm not so sure that in this day and age they can keep "Escape From Tomorrow" from getting out eventually. When a film has this much attention, burying it becomes much more difficult. Disney may want to take the path of least resistance and demand a cut of the profits instead of pitting themselves against its release. A big fight is just going to raise the film's profile and add to the growing buzz.

On the other hand, the Disney brand could take a hit from simply being associated with the film. The biggest problem I see here is the subject matter of "Escaping Tomorrow," which shows a man at Disneyland engaging in very un-Disney behavior. I don't think that there's any likelihood of anyone being confused that Disney would have produced a movie like this themselves, but it still might leave a bad impression on potential them park-goers. The Disneyland experience is supposed to be about good wholesome family fun, and Disney has spent untold millions over the years promoting that image. "Escaping Tomorrow" amounts to an anti-commercial, suddenly associating "It's a Small World" with creepy stalking behavior and bad parenting.

And the last thing Disney wants is to encourage more of these guerrilla filmmakers running around on their property, potentially upsetting their paying guests. If Randy Moore sets a precedent with "Escaping Tomorrow," who knows what the next would-be auteur is going to try to achieve? Disney must be worried about how Moore managed to create an entire feature film under their noses using a few tiny cameras and a very discreet cast and crew. Then again, who doesn't bring cameras to Disney World?

I don't see how Disney can afford not to act, which means it's going to be a long while before you or I can see "Escape From Tomorrow" for ourselves – at least through legal means. The final wrinkle to consider here is that if "Escape" were an underground film, simply let loose on the internet, billed as somebody's avant garde home videos, this would be a very different situation. The fact that Randy Moore submitted it to Sundance as a legitimate film with real commercial prospects, suggests he was ready for a fight.

And oh what a fight it will be.

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