Italian scene of the ride
Carnaval Festival is a dark ride at the Efteling, a theme park located in the Netherlands. The ride takes visitors on a joyful and humourous voyage past colourful scenes that depict a selection of nations around the world, accompanied by a recognizable Theme Tune that is a genuine Ear Worm. The combination of these elements make the concept of the ride a clear Expy of Disney's "it's a small world", although Carnaval Festival has its own style, tone and unique features that are different to those of its model, such as cartoony character that all have big red noses and much more reliance on National Stereotypes for comical effect than the message of world peace that "it's a small world" is known for. Carnaval Festival was opened in 1984 and designed by television producer Joop Geesink, with the music being created by well-known Dutch comedian Toon Hermans.Leading character of the ride is the character of Jokie de Prretneus, a small, jester-like figure that appears in most of the scenes. In 2004, the ride got a new lead in Loekie the lion an his companion Guusje, both characters created by Joop Geesink that originated on Dutch television. Their presence in the ride continued until 2012, when Jokie got a revamp as the true lead of Carnaval Festival, accompanied by the little bird Jet as new sidekick.
In 2012, an animated preschool series based on the attraction was created Jokie which aired on Nick Jr. (Nickelodeon's Dutch branch) in the Netherlands. The series stars Jokie and Jet learning about different cultures around the world accompanied by a female narrator. The show also included music video segments based on different cultures and traditions. All episodes and songs from the series are available to view on the official Jokie Youtube Channel
.
Tropes shown in Carnaval Festival include:
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Many animals seen in the ride wear accessories of some sorts. Famous examples are the birds with stripy shirts, the a walrus dressed as an ice cream man and the giant ape with a red bowler hat.
- Africa Is a Country: Only one scene in the ride takes place on the African continent, but it's mostly a generic jungle setting that isn't meant to represent a specific African country. This trope has been averted at one point to placing the flag of the country of South Africa in the scene, but this flag was later changed for the flag of Uganda without any other changes to the scene itself. Currently there isn't a country flag present in the scene anymore.
- All There in the Manual: The ride has a few scenes in which it is not very clear which country is being depicted there, it only being known from hints and promotional materials:
- The scene representing Belgium depicts almost no clichés commonly attributed to that country (the fries which are present were later additions). The only elements inside the ride that are unambiguously Belgian are Manneken Pis and a character wearing clothes in the colours of the Belgian flag, but both are located in other scenes than the one depicting Belgium.
- The scene right next to the Belgian one represents the French riviera, according to promotial material, but the only thing that is clear from the scene is that it depicts a sunny place in Southern Europe that could also be interpreted as Monaco or a coastal city in Spain.
- The left part of the German scene was originally meant as a representation of Austria, but this is commonly misregarded because both German-speaking countries share much of the same stereotypes anyway.
- Animated Adaptation: The attraction was turned into a CGI preschool series called Jokie which stars Jokie and Jet traveling across the world to learn about different cultures. The show itself would also spawn a series of non-verbal animated shorts on Efteling's official Jokie Youtube channel. Both animated featured a female narrator since the characters only made noises and grunts.
- Britain Is Only London: The depiction of Great Britain in the ride is almost only filled by London, featuring the London Underground and the gates of Buckingham Palace. The entire rest of the United Kingdom is represented by a single Scotsman with bagpipes.
- Canon Foreigner: 2004 saw the introduction of Loeki the lion and his companion Guusje as recurring characters in the ride. Both are creations of the ride's creator Joop Geesink that originated in short stop motion pictures between the commercial blocks on Dutch public television, but as they had been retired since 2004, the Efteling offered to give the characters a new life inside Carnaval Festival. Loeki and Guusje were subsequently taken out of the Efteling in early 2012.
- Civilized Animal: Zig-zagged. While all animals have anthropromorphic features, some animals in the ride are shown as being bepidal and taking part in human activities (such as the singing frogs, the dancing polar bears and the ice cream-selling walrus), while others are seen with poses and behaviour that are considered normal for animals of their kind, such as the chickens at the farm and the ibex in the Swiss mountains.
- Darkest Africa: Africa was originally depicted as being this trope. The scene was originally shown as a dark, mysterious jungle with stereotypical Hollywood Natives, white explorers and a giant ape. Since 2019, all characters in the scene have been replaced by more accurate and culturally appropriate depictions of African people, but elements of the large jungle setting including the ape are still present.
- Dressed to Plunder: The Alaskan scene features some (supposedly stranded) pirates dressed in their typical fashion. The end scene once also featured a typical pirate, that has been removed during the 2019 renovation.
- Eiffel Tower Effect: Some scenes depict well-known landmarks as a way to represent certain locations. Interestingly, the Eiffel Tower is nowhere to be seen in the scene depicting Paris (which has the Moulin Rouge as main landmark instead). Other examples include the gates of Buckingham Palace to represent London, and the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Rialto Bridge to represent Italy.
- Eskimo Land: Alaska is mostly depicted as this, including iglos and dancing Inuit.
- Everything Dances: The ride features many scenes with dancing couples.
- The Face of the Sun: The Riviera scene features characters dancing around a big yellow sun with a face.
- Facial Profiling: Characters depicting Chinese and Japanese people have different eyes when compared to other characters. Originally, the African characters also had stereotypical features distinguishing them from other race groups, but these have been removed since 2019.
- Far East: The section of the ride depicting Japan and China are somewhat mixed together. The first part of the section has typical Japanese elements in it including geishas and sumo wrestlers, but those elements unnoticingly transgresse into more Chinese clichés such as shadow plays and dragons.
- Gay Paree: The depiction of Paris in the ride features a romantic evening alongside the Moulin Rouge, with painters, can can dansers and lovely terraces.
- Giant Spider: The ape in the jungle scene has one in its hand.
- Hula and Luaus: Hawaii is represented by three stereotypical hula girls and a few musicians wearing Polynesian masks.
- King Kong Copy: The giant ape in the African jungle scene can be considered one.
- Land of Dragons: The entire scene depicting China is situated around a giant red dragon.
- Land of Tulips and Windmills: The Netherlands are the most elaborately depicted country in all of the ride, and the whole country is depicted as this trope, despite that the ride is situated in the Netherlands itself.
- Inside the Dutch scenes, there's a giant who functions as a windmill with tulips as sails.
- National Animal Stereotypes: The ride features several animals commonly associated with the countries in whose scene they appear, such as frogs in the Netherlands (possibly due to the Dutch proverb "Nederland Kikkerland"), a Saint-Bernhard's dog and an ibex in Switzerland, dragons in China and donkeys in Mexico.
- Oktoberfest: The German scene only features clichés commonly associated with Bavaria, including a lot of enormous beer glasses.
- Polar Bears and Penguins: The Alaskan scene features both polar bears and penguins even though penguins aren't native to that area.
- Regional Riff: The most well-known feature of the ride's soundtrack is that most of the represented countries feature an original arrangement of the theme tune with instruments that are typical for that country:
- The musical arrangement in the French scenes is played by an accordion.
- Scotland features -of course- a bagpipe player.
- Germany, Austria and Switzerland are represented by an Tirolean oompah-sounding tune, even featuring hand claps.
- The Italian music theme is played by a mandolin.
- The theme representing China and Japan has gong sounds in it, and even features the stereotypical Oriental Riff.
- Africa was originally represented by generic drums and jungle sounds. This was later replaced by more up-beat drum music.
- Mexico and Hawaii share a musical theme, which features both Mexican trumpets and a Hawaiian ukelele. It also features samples of La Cucaracha.
- South of the Border: Mexico is represented by a few guitar players wearing sombreros who ride on donkeys around a giant maraca player, who also wears a sombrero.
- Spaghetti and Gondolas: The Italian scene features, among other stereotypical elements, the leaning tower of Pisa, the gondolas and Rialto Bridge of Venice, a Catholic cardinal representing the Vatican, the Carabinieri and a statue of a singing Roman.
- Spectacular Spinning: Every single scene contains at least one element, character or whole set piece that is endlessly spinning around.
- Tilting Tower of Pisa: One character in the Italian scene is busy preventing the eponymous tower to tilt over.
- Tipis and Totem Poles: The Mexican scene has a weirdly-placed totem pole alongside it. The Chinese scene once featured a native American as a tourist, but this character has been removed.
- World Tour: The main concept of the ride.
- With Lyrics: The attraction's theme song was given lyrics for the 2012 Jokie preschool series as the show's theme song.
- Yodel Land: Switzerland is represented by its snowy mountains and also features skiers, an ibex, a Saint Bernhard's dog and Swiss cheese.
