Earlier yesterday, we wrote a report on the state of Malacca announcing that it was planning on opening both Disneyland and Disney City and skepticism cast about the whole project, for a number of reasons. Turns out, our suspicions were confirmed with an official statement from Disney itself, saying that it is nothing more than a load of bunk.
The confirmation came from Heather Chen, a reporter working at CNN, who confirmed with the House of Mouse that no such plan was underway in Malacca. Specifically, it simply told her that whatever was coming out of from the state about a Disneyland being built Jasin was categorically untrue and that it is “fake news and purely speculative.”
https://twitter.com/heatherchen_/status/1593051236361998336
As we pointed out in the initial article, there were multiple discrepancies with the state of Malacca’s announcement of opening a Disneyland on its land. Firstly, the official signing ceremony neither introduced any representative from Disney, nor could they be seen among the lineup of other ministers present. You would think for an announcement this important, there would be at least one official from the House of Mouse there.
The second glaring error was the visual assets that were being used on the YouTube channel, Melaka Hari Ini. Instead of the usual Disney characters that you would see in Disneyland – Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, and Goofy, to state blatantly and painfully obvious few – it used what can only be described as a cheap render of a Minion. Once again, and for the uninitiated, the Minions IP and its stumpy, yellow characters belong to Illumination Entertainment, a studio that is co-owned by Universal Pictures.
tbh I think this is where the confusion arose. A theme park **will** be built, as was said. But not like there's a contract with Disney. Jailani just wants it to be big enough to attract Disney attention pic.twitter.com/OtJrP7Z7PG
— heather chen (@heatherchen_) November 17, 2022
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the castle shown in the same video didn’t have Western European architecture like the ones you see at Disneyland. Rather, it looked like the Onion Dome Orthodox Churches that you’d normally see in Eastern European countries.
Heather points out that the confusion over the Disneyland issue may have arisen from the fact that Jailani Khamis, Exco for Tourism, Heritage, and Culture of the state of Malacca, that a theme park “will” be built, and one big enough that it would “live up” to the Disneyland name. However, that part of his statement is clearly very misleading, as it both alludes to and implies that he had worked out a deal with the owners of the Happiest Place on Earth.
However the state of Malacca goes about its damage control, one thing is now clear: its alleged Disneyland project well and truly belongs under the sea. And while the hopes of many have been dashed, the best thing to do for now is to just let it go.
