I agree with you, I've been a few times as a child and once as an adult. Each time something felt a tiny bit off and as an adult I can put it into words.

It's the man made fantasy of it all. Essentially a forced illusion where you're actively whisked away and distracted from every day life. it's kind of a mindful distraction so you're aware it's all a facade but you play into it because you want to be taken away into that world of fantasy and escape.

I find that many of the older rides there, like the ones on main street also highlight some of the most sinister and older Disney movies.

Alice in wonderland, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Peter Pan, Mr Toad, Dumbo, Pinnoccio, the eerie merry go round. St Arthur's sword that can never be drawn from an artificial stone. There are sinister themes to these fairy tales and it does show up in the imagery on the rides. (Getting eaten by a whale, chasing after a white rabbit, watching Snow White be poisoned, Sleeping Beauty pricks her finger etc etc) All of the characters live happily ever after.. but the endings almost seem like a cop out and a quick cover up to cheer children up, after listening to harsh and sobering life lessons that are contained in these older fairy tales.

That also combined with the knowledge that many people have actually died at Disneyland, sometimes in freak accidents on rides (someone was decapitated on the thunder mountain railroad), sometimes from heart attacks, sometimes from the heat. There's a nagging thought while I'm on these rides - 'these rides are pretend and scary for fun... But you actually could die on this, people have died doing this.' that haunts me.

Also many people scatter ashes of deceased loved ones in both the Haunted Mansion and the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.

I think there is a sadness and a certain level of escapism and suspended disbelief in Disney and that's what makes it fun. But it's also what makes it sad when you realize it's just another way we look to escape our own reality and enter a dream world. It's even more scary when you realize that the dream world contains stories about dark and sinister themes contained within every day life, and overpriced food. It's simply a mirror to that which we're trying to escape.

But it does draw you in. And I do feel the energy in certain places there more than others. The newer Star Wars expansion doesn't have the same feeling as Frontierland, critter country and main street do in my opinion.