theme park

Amusement park devised around a central theme or themes. The first theme park, Disneyland, opened in 1955 in Anaheim, California, and features Walt Disney's cartoon characters; there are other Disney parks in Florida, Japan, and France.

Disneyland covers 30 hectares/74 acres. Walt Disney World (approximately 11,000 hectares/27,000 acres) opened in 1971 near Orlando, Florida; it was later enhanced by the creation of an adjacent Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) centre (1982), featuring displays of advanced technology and re-creations of historical landmarks, and the Animal Kingdom (1998), one of the world's largest live-animal theme parks. Other ventures continuing the Disney theme include the Tokyo Disneyland (1983) and Disneyland, Paris (1992), which covers an area one-fifth the size of Paris. Features to be found in most theme parks include animatronics, robots which look like animals and people, all of which are programmed to perform lifelike movements and gestures to the accompaniment of a soundtrack (a technique developed by Walt Disney in the 1960s and first used at the 1964 World's Fair in New York). In February 2001, Disney's California Adventure opened adjacent to the original Disneyland. The 22-hectare/55-acre park has fewer rides and more educational features than other Disney parks.