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

Afterimage, Nov-Dec, 1995 by Cynthia Chris

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

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

How things have changed. In the mere half-decade since Kunzle's challenge to cultural critics, at least five books 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 books on Disney animation, trivia books and biographies of Wait Disney.

Disney does appear to be in vogue among left-leaning cultural critics. Without a doubt, there is sufficient fodder for critical analysis. Disney's theme parks, cartoons, feature films, television programs, business practices and marketing strategies provide a curious lens through which to view American popular culture and the politics of gender, race and class. Currently there is no sign that the field of study is yet exhausted. In the publications discussed here, one finds little overlap in the essayists' choice of subject matter. There remain many films not yet selected for study, and Disney's television programs, encompassing both 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 enjoyed commercial success (and its live-action division is notoriously uneven), the Walt Disney Company has become perhaps the most successful producer of entertainment worldwide. Its film distribution arm, Buena Vista, dominates the feature market with the largest share of box 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 recent $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 over 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 footholds in other media (radio, daily newspapers and periodicals including Women's Wear Daily) to Disney's holdings.(4)

In New York City the magnitude of Disney's impact on urban culture is just beginning to be felt. Disney (along with other interests ranging from Madame Tussaud to Mariott International) are deeply 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, but rejected the earliest proposals as too ahistorical and "white bread." The 1987 stock market and real estate crash delayed revitalization plans until recently. Disney has already claimed central control of Times Square with a long-running live musical version of Beauty and the Beast at the Palace Theatre.

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

Despite its enormous power, Disney productions are vulnerable on many fronts. Although it is well known that Disney fiercely protects 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 Song of the South's ( 1947, by Harve Foster) depiction of post-emancipation slaves content with serving their masters prevents the film's current distribution in the United States (although the subtitled Japanese version is not impossible to find). In one of the most publicized and at least partially successful campaigns against Disney, activists waged a campaign against the racist portrayal of Arab characters in Aladdin (1992, by John Musker and Ron Clements) ultimately succeeding in getting a portion of the lyrics in the film's opening song changed.(6) Although the accents and physical traits of the characters remained controversial (Aladdin and Jasmine seem "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 represents a small victory against Disney's blatant perpetuation of stereotypes.