Anna Daniels
The cold may not bother the Frozen franchise’s frost queen Elsa, but the coronavirus certainly is bothering Disney. Throughout the week of Monday, March 9, Disney and its many subsidiaries including Marvel Studios and Walt Disney Television confirmed that they had halted production on a number of movies and television shows. The Mouse House even pushed back the releases of its live-action Mulan remake (originally set for a March 27 launch) and the troubled New Mutants (delayed for a fourth time to an unspecified date).
In addition to bringing its entertainment divisions to a standstill amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Walt Disney Company has carried out an order it’s done only three times before: closed its Disneyland Resort theme park in Anaheim, California. Previous unscheduled closures happened in 1963 (after the assassination of John F. Kennedy), 1994 (after the Northridge Earthquake), and 2001 (in response to the September 11 terrorist attacks).
COVID-19 — the novel coronavirus strain that originated in Wuhan, China in December 2019 — is highly contagious and spreads through “small droplets from the nose or mouth” that are expelled when an infected person coughs, sneezes, or exhales. When those droplets land on things around the person with COVID-19, others can pick up the illness if they touch said surfaces and/or objects and then put their hands on their face. COVID-19 can also be transmitted by breathing in droplets from an infected individual.
The World Health Organization advises keeping a three-foot distance between yourself and anyone who is or could be sick. A theme park is a place where a ton of people, usually from all over the world, congregate in close quarters, so Disney was wise in closing down its Disneyland Resort until the coronavirus pandemic deescalates. In the meantime, Disney+ subscribers can stream Frozen 2 from the safety of their homes as early as Sunday, March 15.
Written by: Looper
