Knott’s is throwing shade at Disney again, and I love it.
Knott’s Berry Farm last week announced its new haunted mazes for this year’s Knott’s Scary Farm, which starts Sept. 17. One of them is “Inked,” and its story about an animator whose work comes to life surely is raising the eyebrows of many Disney fans.
Inked brings visitors into the world of Mortimer Morbid, an animator whose studio, founded in 1933, has failed. But when he bleeds onto the page where he has been drawing a very Mickey-looking cat, the character comes to life. One thing leads to another, and we get a “legion of murderous toons hellbent on pulling viewers into their twisted world,” according to Knott’s description of the maze.
This is not a haunted maze. It’s an Easter egg hunt. At Knott’s Nightmares Revealed event last week, the park even brought out Silly Symphony-style dancing skeletons to introduce the maze. I don’t think that any villain in a Knott’s maze has ever hit a victim over the head harder than the park has been doing to fans with all these Disney references.
I have not seen the maze yet, so who knows how well it will deliver? But the concept is brilliant. It’s not some hateful insult. Like all good satire, the idea behind Inked takes a truth and runs with it in an absurd direction. What if an artist poured their literal blood into their work? What if that work literally took on a life on its own, destroying anything that stood in its way?
Walt Disney certainly put everything he had into his work, from his first Oswald cartoons with Ub Iwerks to building Disneyland with his brother Roy. Mickey and Friends certainly are not murderous, but they undoubtedly have pulled millions of people into their world.
Between Inked and Knott’s announced partnership with Magic Castle on Scary Farm’s new Bird Cage Theatre show, I am more excited for this year’s event than I have been for any Knott’s Scary Farm since before the pandemic.
Knott’s is not the only competing theme park that takes its shots at Disney. Universal Studios Hollywood’s The Simpsons Ride satirizes the entire amusement park industry, with Disneyland its primary target. For the first time this year, Universal will be featuring The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror” during its Halloween Horror Nights, with themed food on sale during the after-hours haunt event.
Ironically, that was announced not by Universal, but by Disney at its recent D23 event in Anaheim. Disney now owns the animated franchise, thanks to its 2019 purchase of 21st Century Fox, which had licensed the character to Universal for its theme parks in California and Florida.
Responsible comedy punches up, not down. It takes on the powerful, and there are few companies more famous and powerful in the entertainment business than Disney. Knott’s and Universal might throw shade, but that only shines light on the fact that they live in the shadow of Disney.