You've got 20 minutes to tell the entire story of a nation. Blow any details, and an unholy alliance of ethnic activists and theme park fans will bombard the media with complaints, embarrassing your theme park client. Fail to hold your viewers' attention, and the park will close your movie and turn the theater into a holding queue for a souped-up tram ride.
So you play it safe, right? Hire or create an audience-friendly narrator, find some mild conflict to drive the plot (nothing that's spilling blood these days, of course) and commission a hook-laden pop tune for the uplifting finale.
But it never really works. The twenty minutes that most theme park films get simply isn't enough time to tell a nation's story. So you're left with a simplistic, overly earnest work that tries to charm like a puppy in a pet store cage.
Epcot's Impressions de France wins by refusing to play this game. No traveler ever really learns the story of a nation. At best, he or she absorbs a few instructive impressions about the land he or she has visited. And that's what Impressions de France offers -- impressions.
Impressionism, of course, is France's gift to art. By eschewing narrative for impressionism, director Rick Harper played on France's home turf. And he also created a work that would not grow stale after a few viewings. Effective impressionism reflects the viewer as well as the artist, allowing a work to change and develop in a viewer's eyes over the years, as that viewer brings something different to each encounter with the work.
Even outside the travel genre, theme park films often fail on this account. Lacking the immersive environment of a dark ride, or even a roller coaster, the short films that screen in theme parks too often offer too little to engage a audience after three, five or ten viewings. You've seen Shrek go over the waterfall or Prof. Szalinski's mice crawl over your lap a few times and... meh. What's the wait time for Pirates again?
When I first watched Impressions de France as a perpetually hungry teen-ager more than two decades ago, I couldn't get enough of the marketplace scene, as the kids rushed toward the shelves of pastries and sweets. Today, married and with children of my own, other scenes capture my eye and imagination. I notice the father in the red jacket whom the waiting mother and child wave to as he arrives in the train station. When a newly-married couple emerges from the church in Brittany, my heart soars with hope as the scene melts into a vision of an elderly couple, in the same evening twilight, walking alone atop the cliffs of Normandy. Could it be the same couple, still together after many decades?
All these details, emerging from my impressions, rewarding me with something fresh upon every visit. How can you not love this film?
And the music. Buddy Baker's score envelops Harper's film with luscious French melodies, from Debussey's "Claire de Lune" to Saint Saens' soaring Organ Symphony no. 3. Walt Disney understood the power of classical music, drawing upon it to power works from Fantasia to Sleeping Beauty. Here, Baker extends Disney's vision, selecting the best of French classical works to enliven Harper's engaging visual images.
No, this is a not a complete picture of France. You won't find mention of labor trouble or ethnic conflict here. Its impressions of the nation are not made randomly, but instead draw from moments of France at leisure.
As it should for an audience that is, itself, on vacation.
By ignoring the story of France to share impressions of France, Harper's film scorns the brain to engage the heart. And, with the power of its music, it succeeds.
That is why Impressions de France is the best film ever made for a theme park.
Please visit Theme Park Insider's Impressions de France listing page for a complete list of the classical selections played during the film.
Though the music is breathtaking and probably the real star of the movie.
I am not trying to hate on Impressions de France. I like it alot, but I am more of a Reflections of China.
Talk about the whole package: cinematography, music, narrative, in-theater experience, etc. Remember, CircleVision, IMAX and 4D films count in this discussion, too. Just so long as they're shown in a theme park.
Either way, couldn't agree more, Robert - this is the best film in Epcot and possibly in the industry, though Terminator 2: 3D blows my mind every time, as well (although it cheats by incorporating live action). It's Tough to be a Bug is great, too.
I suppose that prints and projection could explain that. But I've also wondered if part of the reason might be that Spider-Man is primarily live action, with 3D elements added in, and Terminator is primarily a 3D screen, with some live action elements in a lesser role. I wonder if my eyes can process the the first arrangement better than the second. Don't know enough about how the eyes and brain work to say for certain, but I've wondered about it.
Anyway, Terminator, like Shrek, is a movie I loved the first time I saw it, and about the next 10 times. Then, well... meh. I guess I'm over it. Yet I've seen "Impressions" about, what, 30 times? And never gotten tired of it.
Honestly, the theme park film I like best is Mickey's Philharmagic. I never tire of it with repeated viewings and it always brings a smile to my face. However, if we are including Spider-Man at IOA in the mix, then it gets my vote hands down just because the thrill factor exceeds anything offered at the other attractions mentioned.
A comment and a question.
The Comment: I posted the following under the blog related to the question "What is the best theme park travel film?"
From TH Creative on December 13, 2008 at 3:54 PM: My fave is still 'Impressions de France' -- if only because of its sound track.
My question: Does it scare you to find out that you and I have similar tastes?
:o)
(No comment on who's the blind squirrel, of course! Maybe both of us.)
And, thank you, of course, for helping make such a delightful film.
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Perhaps it's the subject matter that's influencing my judgement. The diversity of landscapes and the immense scope of China is so jaw droppingly breathtaking.It's enlightening too because I'm sure that many viewers would previously had no concept of that Country's enormity.
But it's not just that. It's very well presented too. The photography is of such high quality that it makes you feel like you're there and it's well paced too.
"Impressions of France" is excellent but "Reflections of China" is better.