As you all know, in “National Lampoon’s Vacation,” the Griswold family visits “Wally World,” founded by animator Roy Wally, the creator of Marty Moose.
However, in the original National LAmpoon piece, on which the movie was based, the authors didn’t bother to fictionalize the theme park or the animator! The family is explicitly going to Disneyland (or Disney World… it’s been DECADES since I saw the issue, so forgive my hazy memories). And when things go wrong, the father tracks down Walt Disney, and menaces him with a gun.
So, if National Lampoon got away with that, MAYBE you could, too.
Still, I find the premise of the OP a bit hard to swallow. I am NOT naive enough to believe there’s no crime at Disney World: there are probably pickpockets and pursesnatchers there; cameras and other valuables left unattended might well be swiped; fights probably break out from time to time, etc. Even so, a crowded theme park is a TERRIBLE place for a rapist or murderer to seek out victims. COme now, if you were a rapoist, would YOU shell out $50 (or whatever the admission rate is) to go into a park filled with tens of thousands of people, and then try to assault a woman without anyone noticing or hearing her cries?
A rapist MIGHT be able to stalk and/or assault women in one of the many hotels/motels around Disneyland or DIsney World, but the theme park itself seems a ridiculously unlikely place for a rapist to work.
Damn, astorian, you beat me to it. Halfway down the thread “Wallyworld” popped into my head. I think the original story, Vacation '58, was much better than the movie.
carl hiaasen has already gotten away with it. native tongue depicts a shoot-out, with injuries and death that happens in an amusement park in florida. the park in his book was as close to disney as you could get with out the name. of course he wrote about murder in the park, not rape in the park.
Absolutely! Want to help me get the money together to publish it?
Well, the idea, as Jeremy’s Evil Twin mentioned, was placing a rather horrific event in the most “innocent” of all places. And we also thought it would be interesting to have a chase scene going through the Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Mind’s Eye ride… having a chase scene through an amazingly dangerous scene that’s actually a ride simulating an amazingly dangerous scene seemed like an interesting juxtoposition as well. But that would bring up a whole other trademark concern.
And what’s reality got to do with good fiction anyway??
According to Amazon, he did get away with calling the place Wonderland. However, it sounds more like a comedy a la Alice In Wonderland than a dark, disturbing crime novel.
Just to give you some idea of what you’re dealing with here…
When Tom Clancy wrote about a terrorist incident in a European theme park (IN Rainbow Six) he called it ‘World Park’ and didn’t draw any actual parallels.
And if he’s scared of the mouse, even with his power in the publishing industry, I’d be as timid as a mouse in a cat show, if I were you.
Two, IANAL (but I vet a LOT of stuff in my job) but everyone here is right: if you can back it up with facts, it can’t be slander. By definition, the truth cannot harm someone’s reputation.
