Monsieur Mickey

By Barbara Rudolph

No people can match the French when it comes to fierce protection of their * culture -- except perhaps the people from the Walt Disney Co. Children everywhere know Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and the dozens of other goofy characters that make up the Disney pantheon. With a meticulosity that is a hallmark of their success, Disney executives protect and promote their patented image. But as construction proceeds on Euro Disneyland, which is scheduled to open outside Paris next spring, the French have begun to ask themselves how the presence of Disney's irresistibly American village will affect French culture. Many fear that the theme park will corrupt France's prized national identity by creating what one Parisian theater director predicts will be a "cultural Chernobyl."

To allay those fears, some language purists in the French government have been going all out in recent weeks to make the project seem as French as it can be. As a result, Mickey and Donald are developing French accents. Paris, for example, is lobbying for French names on attractions and rides, "pommes frites" instead of "French fries" on restaurant menus. Thus the centerpiece of every Disney park -- the fairy tale castle -- will be known at Euro Disneyland as Le Chateau de la Belle au Bois Dormant (although a hot dog will still be a hot dog).

The skirmishes are instructive examples of the resistance that American pop culture meets from intellectuals in some of the countries where it is consumed most avidly by mass audiences, but in the overall scheme of things, they are minor. Euro Disneyland is a $4.2 billion project, now nearly six years in the making. No one doubts that Mickey Mouse and his clan will claim their new home on the Continent, probably close to the April 1992 target date. Disney executives predict 11 million visits a year to the theme park, which is being built on former beet and sunflower fields in the suburban development of Marne-La-Vallee, 20 miles east of the capital. Last year 50 million tourists visited France, spending more than $21 billion; many of those tourists are likely to stop by the new Disneyland.

For its latest venture, Disney is orchestrating its usual mix of hoopla and down-home family fun. Euro Disneyland will feature an amusement park with 29 attractions, and six hotels with 5,200 rooms designed by such top architects as Michael Graves and Robert A.M. Stern. There will also be a 138-acre Davy Crockett campground and an 18-hole golf course, not to mention 150,000 trees sprinkled over the Disneyscape. Construction is more than halfway along. Among the park's highlights: a 60-ft.-high Swiss Family Tree House and Disney's trademark Big Thunder Mountain, a roller-coaster ride with Gold Rush-era motifs.

While it does not rain much at the Disney parks in California and Florida, it certainly does in northern France. Euro Disneyland's designers are building special covered waiting areas for the comfort of visitors standing in line to buy tickets, and will provide a variety of audiovisual entertainment to help them pass the time.

By 1995, Disney expects to spend an additional $3 billion to build a convention center, a second golf course and several more hotels with 13,000 rooms. The company also plans a Disney-MGM movie studio and possibly a European science park like Florida's Epcot Center.

This is Disney's second venture outside the U.S. Eight years ago, Japan's Disneyland opened in the Tokyo suburb of Urayasu; for the fiscal year that ends this month, it should post revenues of more than $1 billion. The Japanese Disneyland was meant to be thoroughly American, though: most signs are in English, and only one of the 30 restaurants serves Japanese food.

But for the French, injecting at least some European flavor into the enterprise has become a cause celebre. Among the European accommodations, signs will be bilingual, and possibly multilingual, and plenty of French cuisine will accompany American fast food. Disney officials like to point out that one attraction, Discoveryland, is inspired in part by the works of French science-fiction writer Jules Verne. Disney also agreed that only its major attractions, such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Adventureland, will be called by their English name.

The 500-page pact between the French government and the Walt Disney Co. stipulates a 49% ownership stake in Euro Disneyland for the U.S. firm, with the remaining 51% of the shares held by investors. Euro Disneyland shares will be traded on the Paris Bourse. Disney will retain operational control of the facility. As part of the deal, the government is lending Disney $920 million at a remarkably low 7.85% interest rate. Disney has agreed to use European firms for 90% of its goods and services, and will pay for various roads to be built near the complex.

For France, the payoff is plain: as many as 30,000 new jobs will be created by Disney, and tourists will spend millions of francs on French businesses as part of their travels to Euro Disneyland. In the neighborhood of Marne-La- Vallee, 12,000 houses and apartments will be built, along with new schools and stores. The tiny (pop. 925) village of Serris, many of whose resident are elderly or retired, is bracing itself for the arrival of Euro Disneyland nearby. Says Mayor Philippe Mancel: "One realizes it's a lost cause to be against Euro Disneyland. Once Disney starts paying taxes, on a per capita basis, Serris will be one of the richest villages in France."

Disney executives can expect to whistle while they work, since the deal is already showing handsome returns. The firm is putting up only $160 million in equity. Investors stepped forward with an additional $1.2 billion, and banks and the government lent $2.6 billion. When the gates open, Disney will take 10% of admission revenues and 5% of food and merchandise receipts. It will also receive 49% of all profits. Estimated annual gross receipts for the first year: about $1.12 billion.

On the subject of the French bureaucracy, Disney executives sound decidedly less bullish. For example, when Disney executives requested an extension of local water service to their park area, they had to seek about a dozen official approvals and clearances. To help navigate this sensitive thicket, Disney hired local consultants familiar with the rules of the game. Says Euro Disneyland president Robert Fitzpatrick: "Form is very important in France, much more so than in the U.S. You have to be sure you contact the right person and don't overlook someone."

For the moment, curiosity seekers at Euro Disneyland must confine themselves to a preview center, where displays and models of the coming attractions are on view, along with a brief promotional film. At the souvenir shop next door, a simple sweatshirt, silk-screened with a ring of European flags encircling Mickey Mouse's face, sells for $39. A fast-food restaurant specializes in Texas-style chili.

In the coming months, Disney will be hiring more and more employees, known in the corporate lingo as "cast members." They will have to abide by the company's strict appearance codes: men cannot have mustaches, beards or exposed tattoos, nor can they wear jeans. Women cannot wear any obtrusive jewelry or have "unusually colored" hair or long fingernails. "We're after a conservative, professional look," says Disney vice president Thorolf Degelmann. The company is looking for multilingual men and women from all over Europe who will be able to communicate with the non-French Europeans who are expected to visit the park.

French applicants will most likely oblige Disney's notions of a clean-cut appearance. But will their acquiescence spell the beginning of the end of French culture as we know it? Only the most virulent cultural chauvinists think so. Says Christian Cardon, head of the interministerial government delegation that is supervising the Disney project: "French culture cannot be threatened by Disney. Just because an amusement park will open, university students are not going to stop studying Sartre."

With reporting by Edward M. Gomez/Paris