So, typically, Disney memorabilia, while higher quality than most theme park souveneirs, is still largely of the knick-knack crapola variety. Things that I would actually want with a Disney label on them are few and far between. (Mostly soundtracks, like the excellent Haunted Mansion - the ride, not the movie - soundtrack, and the Animal Kingdom world music soundtrack.)However, it looks like a new line of Disney merchandising is breaking out of that mold. Faithful reproductions of the spectacular wall sconces from the Haunted Mansion are what I'm drooling over, but there appear to also be the paintings from the stretching gallery, the talking skull from Pirates of the Caribbean, and detailed replicas of the birds from the Enchanted Tiki Room.
Tellingly, all these replicas appear to be based on the older rides, hearkening back to the days when the Imagineers were really breaking ground with courageous, visionary design, rather than optimizing things to tweak the most dollars out of an attraction and cross-market their movies and television shows. If these are the rides that people will shell out the big bucks for in order to revisit cherished memories, what does that say about the new crop of rides?
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