Pleasantville: Not So Pleasant

In the 1998 film Pleasantville, the citizens of the town live perfect lives. They all have their cookie cutter homes with two kids and a dog. Everyone gets along with one another, there isn't any crime, and no one is unhappy. That is until the status quo is changed by the protagonists of the film, then everything is turned upside down. The fictitious town of Pleasantville was loosely based on classic television programs such as Leave it to Beaver and the Andy Griffith Show. In these shows the main characters live in towns very similar to Pleasantville. These tv programs were and still are popular to television audiences around the world. There is something about how perfect the characters' lives are that give us a sense of comfort and easiness; a way to escape our own real world problems, even if it is for only 30 minutes in our day. 

Going off of this notion, Disney tried to recreate the perfect town by creating Celebration, FL. The town was designed by Disney from the ground up, complete with post office and library. Once the town was completed it was met with a sense of negativity from the general public. People didn't want to live a place that was perfect, one person even commented that the town was too "Stepford Wives" like to live in. The town was seen as being almost creepy in how perfect it was. I find this very interesting, because I agree with the idea that the town makes me uncomfortable. It is intriguing and I am fascinated by it, but I would never want to live there. It made me come to the question: if we enjoy this idea of escapism so much, then why is it when someone tries to recreate this environment in the real world we get creeped out? We pine for normalcy in our lives, but not perfection. Also, how can we as architects balance the need for individuality for the user and creating a building that lives alongside its inhabitants while still satisfying our own desires to create the "perfect" piece of architecture?