Imagine, for a minute, that you're in charge of Epcot. In this scenario there's an empty spot in World Showcase's France pavilion and you have the chance to fill it with a new restaurant. Thanks to the success of Pixar's newest film someone suggests opening a restaurant called "Ratatouille," just like the one in the movie. Great idea, right?
Or is it? Let's forget for a second the idea that people might assume that the place is overrun with rats and instead focus on whether the idea is appropriate in another sense: would opening this restaurant completely change what World Showcase is supposed to be about?
Remember, the restaurant in the film doesn't really exist in Paris. The film wasn't made by Frenchmen. In fact, nothing about the film is truly French at all, a charge that even the filmmakers wouldn't deny. Yet you're going to put this fake French restaurant smack dab in the middle of something that is supposed to be a replica of "real" France?
Is the France pavilion a replica of France? Or is it "Franceland," a place like any other imaginary Disney place, where characters frolic and anything can happen? Originally, Disney positioned it as the former: Epcot's Germany, for example, was supposed to be worlds apart from German-inspired architecture one saw in Fantasyland. The latter was a dream; Epcot was "real," staffed by real people flown in from the countries being represented, with real food, real shops…you get the idea.
I'm a little torn, personally: part of me would like to relieve Epcot from the shackles of trying to be real, an ambition it's never been able to live up to. (And an ambition one could easily argue had already been broken in dozens of ways, including the addition of attractions like Norway's Maelstrom and the new and improved Rio del Tiempo.) But the other part of me loves the idea of Disney theme parks that don't have anything to do with Disney characters. There's so much that can be done in the realm of themed architecture and entertainment that doesn't involve reproducing the latest hit movie, and it saddens–though never surprises–me when Disney executives march in Mickey Mouse (or in this case, Remy) at the first sign of sliding attendance.
What would you do? Does a Ratatouille restaurant in France undermine what Epcot's supposed to be about…or am I overreacting?