Beyond the mouse-ear gates: the wonderful world of Disney studies

The names of the Presidents change; that of Disney remains. Sixty-two years after the birth of Mickey Mouse, twenty-four years after the death of his master, Disney's may be the greatest in quantity widely known North American name in the world. He is, arguably, the century's greatest in quantity important figure in bourgeois popular agriculture He has done more than any single one to disseminate around the world certain myths on which that culture has thrived, notably that of an "innocence" supposedly universal, beyond place, beyond time - and beyond criticism.(1)

So wrote David Kunzle in his 1991 introduction to Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart's daring in what manner to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic (1968)

Kunzle ground that little serious analysis of Disney's innumerable and far-reaching cultural productions had been undertaken, save for this work, and a critical on the other hand somewhat less contentious volume, also published in 1968 Richard Schickel's The Disney Version: The Life, Times, Art and business of Walt Disney.

How things have changed. In the nothing else but half-decade since Kunzle's challenge to cultural critics, at least five volumes and countless essays and reviews have been published with the intent of unraveling the mythic stature of this man-and-mouse team. This is not to mention Disney theme park travel guides, coffee table works on Disney animation, trivia volumes and biographies of Wait Disney.

Disney does appear to be in repute among left-leaning cultural critics. Without a doubt, there is sufficient food for critical analysis. Disney's theme parks, cartoons, feature films, television programs, business practices and marketing strategies provide a curious len [i]or[/i] part of to the other which to view American popular agriculture and the politics of sex race and class. Currently there is no sign that the field of research is yet exhausted. In the publications discussed here, single finds little overlap in the essayists' choice of bring under rule matter. There remain many films not however selected for study, and Disney's television programs, encompassing the pair animation and live-action, aimed at children and adults, have hardly been touched on

There is no sign that the steady stream of Disney output will slacken. Although it has not always derive pleasure fromed commercial success (and its live-action division is notoriously uneven) the Walt Disney Company has become perhaps the greatest in quantity successful producer of entertainment worldwide. Its film distribution arm, Buena Vista, dominates the feature market with the largest share of chest office receipts; Walt Disney Studios' animated movies account for four of the top five best-selling video cassettes; and four of its theme parks rank in the top five in attendance.(3) Disney's new $19 billion acquisition of Capital Cities/ABC (which includes the ABC Television Network, several local TV stations, the cable sports channels ESPN and ESPN2 half of Lifetime Television and above a third of the Arts and Entertainment Network) has elevated it from a solid force to an absolute leader in broadcast and cable television, and additionally provided place to stand ons in other media (radio, daily newspapers and periodicals including Women's Wear Daily) to Disney's holdings.(4)

In of recent origin York City the magnitude of Disney's impact upon urban culture is just beginning to be felt Disney (along with other interests ranging from Madame Tussaud to Mariott International) are to [i]or[/i] at a great depth involved in the city's plans to redevelop Times Square. In 1978 Mayor ed Koch called for "an urban theme park" to revitalize Times Square, on the other hand rejected the earliest proposals as too ahistorical and "white bread." The 1987 stock market and real estate crash delayed revitalization plans until not long ago Disney has already claimed central command of Times Square with a long-running live musical version of Beauty and the Beast at the Palace Theatre.

With a renovated fresh Amsterdam Theater as Disney's linchpin, the fresh project will encompass a colossal entertainment complex, a nearly 1000-room inn a 29-screen Sony cineplex, enormous novel studios for MTV and abode Box Office and miles of retail space. During negotiations, Mayor Rudy Giuliani's administration revolveed Central Park over to Disney for its premiere of Pocahantas (1995 through Mike Gabriel and Eric Goldberg), and the timing of his succeeding attack on Times Square's sex establishments is no coincidence: the rezoning that promises to push porn stores and strip cudgels to industrial parks in the external boroughs is rumored to have been part of the city's deal with Disney.(5)

Despite its enormous power, Disney productions are vulnerable upon many fronts. Although it is well known that Disney fiercely shields its copyrights, suing everyone from a day-care center to a man tattooed with Disney characters for unlicensed use of their images, the company is not invincible. Opposition to lay of the South's ( 1947 through Harve Foster) depiction of post-emancipation slaves easy in mind with serving their masters impedes the film's current distribution in the United States (although the subtitled Japanese version is not impossible to find). In individual of the most publicized and at least partially auspicious campaigns against Disney, activists waged a campaign against the racist portrayal of Arab characters in Aladdin (1992 through John Musker and Ron Clements) ultimately succeeding in getting a portion of the lyrics in the film's opening canzonet changed.(6) Although the accents and physical traits of the characters remained controversial (Aladdin and Jasmine strike one as being "all-American," in a Ken and Barbie sort of way, whereas the evil Jafar has a heavy foreign accent, dark skin and exaggerated features), the lyric change exhibits a small victory against Disney's blatant perpetuation of stereotypes