Niles: ‘What you see is what you get’ in Disney’s new Villains show

A good theme park attraction delivers a solid hit of dopamine. A great attraction does that while also getting you to think, too.

Walt Disney World debuted an intriguing new show at its Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park last week. “Disney Villains: Unfairly Ever After” follows what appears to be a standard formula for its indoor stage shows. Some character sets up an excuse for other Disney characters to come on stage, accompanied by songs from their movies or TV shows.

Disneyland has not had one of these productions since “Mickey and the Magical Map” closed during the pandemic lockdown. That’s too bad. These shows provide a reliable and convenient way for Disney fans to see some of their favorite characters in a comfortable environment. The format allows viewers to spend more time with each character than they would get in a parade. The music and the staging help bring beloved moments from Disney films to life, delivering that dopamine hit that so many people come to the Disney parks to experience.

Yet this specific production had me thinking even before the house lights dimmed. How would Disney handle making villains the stars of its show? Some people love villains, and that’s fun. Exploring the dark in fiction helps many people unlock joy and comfort in their lives.

But there’s a risk for storytellers in making villains too sympathetic. You don’t want to undercut the value of the heroes who defeated them. Sure enough, the set-up here is that the audience is to decide which of the featured villains is most “misunderstood,” so the Magic Mirror won’t have to keep answering such pesky questions. There’s even an applause contest to pick the “winning” villain.

By that point, I was thinking that Unfairly Ever After might be Disney’s most misguided, canon-wrecking theme park show since Hyperspace Hoopla’s dance-off between Star Wars characters. But then the Unfairly Ever After came through with a delicious twist — the winning villain betrays the Magic Mirror, as villains do.

If all you want from a Disney show is to see familiar characters performing beloved songs in a dark, air-conditioned theater, Unfairly Ever After delivers. There’s no need to think any more deeply about the show than that. But if you are open to the idea that a theme park attraction can have something to say about the world around us, Disney once again has offered that opportunity.

Disney has given Magic Mirror one of the more clever original songs that I have heard from the parks in years. Whoever wrote the Magic Mirror’s lyric, “I can’t judge; I just reflect” deserves a raise and a lifetime of sleeping on the cool side of the pillow. What a perfect illustration of the useful idiot that villains need to obtain and maintain their power.

Of course, it is often the villains’ most loyal servants who end up their most abused victims. Unfairly Ever After drives that point home with another delightful Magic Mirror lyric, “what you see is what you get.”

Now there is something to think about.