Deconstructing Disney HUM 3085: Florida Culture Fall 2010 Dr. Perdigao September 22, 2010

Mickey’s Beginnings

Steamboat Willie (1928):Golden Age of Animation

Disneyfication

“Disney’s Folly”: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Pinocchio (1940)

Bambi (1942)

Incorporating Michael Eisner appointed Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Disney in 1984, was president and Chief Operating Officer of Paramount Pictures Jeffrey Katzenberg acquires Miramax Films in 1993 With death of president Frank Wells in 1994, Jeffrey Katzenberg passed over for promotion, leaves, establishes Dreamworks SKG with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen 1995 acquires Capital Cities, ABC, gains ESPN, The History Channel, Lifetime, A&E, E! Roy E. Disney resigns as vice president in 2003, leads to Eisner resigning as Chairman of Board of Directors, resigns as CEO in 2005, replaced by Robert Iger who had been president and COO Disney buys Pixar in 2006 in $7.4 billion deal John Lasseter, had worked for Disney, then with Pixar, back to Disney as chief creative officer Steve Jobs became biggest shareholder

The Mickey Mouse Club circa 1955

The Mickey Mouse Club circa 1992

Not so Mickey Mouse Club

Another Disney product

Not so Disney

New Disney generation

The Miley Factor

Disney films in Walt’s lifetime Pinocchio (1940) Dumbo (1941) Bambi (1942) Song of the South (1946) Cinderella (1950) Alice in Wonderland (1951) Peter Pan (1953) Sleeping Beauty (1959) One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) The Sword in the Stone (1963) Mary Poppins (1964)

AW (After Walt) The Jungle Book (1967) The Aristocats (1970) Robin Hood (1973) The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977) The Rescuers (1977) The Fox and the Hound (1981) The Great Mouse Detective (1986) Oliver & Company (1988) The Little Mermaid (1989) Beauty and the Beast (1991) Aladdin (1992) The Lion King (1994) Pocahontas (1995) Toy Story (1995) The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)

AW (After Walt) Hercules (1997) Mulan (1998) Tarzan (1999) Toy Story 2 (1999) The Tigger Movie (2000) The Emperor’s New Groove (2000) Monsters, Inc. (2001) Lilo & Stitch (2002) Piglet’s Big Movie (2003) Finding Nemo (2003) Brother Bear (2003) The Incredibles (2004) Cars (2006) Ratatouille (2007) Wall-E (2008) Tinker Bell (2008) Bolt (2008) Up (2009) The Princess and the Frog (2009) Toy Story 3 (2010)

Dissections “We make pictures and then let the professors tell us what they mean.”-Walt Disney (Wasko 108) Disney studies—textual analysis, literary and film studies, cultural studies and feminist perspectives (109) First period of film criticism—artistic merits; second (1960s-1970s) academic studies, race, class, gender, and language; third new approaches from linguistics, cultural anthropology, Marxism, Freudian psychoanalysis (109) “Classic Disney”—animated features and cartoons First cartoons, open-ended, no fixed, logical order; after 1932, “more closed fantasies with distinct beginnings and usually happy endings” (111). Silly symphonies as example (The Skeleton Dance [1928-9], Flowers and Trees [1932], The Three Little Pigs [1933]) (111) Depression era— “keeping one’s house in order” (112) Disneyfication—sanitization and Americanization (113); individualism and optimism (117) “Disney formula” (115)

Vivisections Themes: individualism and optimism; escape, fantasy, magic, imagination; innocence; romance and happiness; good triumphing over evil ( ) Walt Disney as auteur (119) High art versus low art—1970s studies of animation “Mickey Mouse”—accounting, construction, discipline Different Mickeys (123) Post World War II critiques (125), problems with Disneyfication Women—“symbolic annihilation” (132) information-photos (thanks, Jill!) information-photos

Disney Culture "From the beginning, starting with Walt Disney, we have had five things that make me proud to be part of this Company: high-quality products, optimism for the future, great storytelling, an emphasis on family entertainment and great talent, passion and dedication from our Cast Members." - Marty Sklar, Vice Chairman and Principal Creative Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering Imagineering—from parks to lifestyle; Disney universe, Disney vision, Disney culture (112)

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