From Walt to Woodstock
Title | From Walt to Woodstock PDF eBook |
Author | Douglas Brode |
Publisher | University of Texas Press |
Pages | 292 |
Release | 2014-05-02 |
Genre | Performing Arts |
ISBN | 0292768079 |
With his thumbprint on the most ubiquitous films of childhood, Walt Disney is widely considered to be the most conventional of all major American moviemakers. The adjective "Disneyfied" has become shorthand for a creative work that has abandoned any controversial or substantial content to find commercial success. But does Disney deserve that reputation? Douglas Brode overturns the idea of Disney as a middlebrow filmmaker by detailing how Disney movies played a key role in transforming children of the Eisenhower era into the radical youth of the Age of Aquarius. Using close readings of Disney projects, Brode shows that Disney's films were frequently ahead of their time thematically. Long before the cultural tumult of the sixties, Disney films preached pacifism, introduced a generation to the notion of feminism, offered the screen's first drug-trip imagery, encouraged young people to become runaways, insisted on the need for integration, advanced the notion of a sexual revolution, created the concept of multiculturalism, called for a return to nature, nourished the cult of the righteous outlaw, justified violent radicalism in defense of individual rights, argued in favor of communal living, and encouraged antiauthoritarian attitudes. Brode argues that Disney, more than any other influence in popular culture, should be considered the primary creator of the sixties counterculture—a reality that couldn't be further from his "conventional" reputation.
Multiculturalism and the Mouse
Title | Multiculturalism and the Mouse PDF eBook |
Author | Douglas Brode |
Publisher | University of Texas Press |
Pages | 321 |
Release | 2005 |
Genre | Performing Arts |
ISBN | 0292709609 |
Douglas Brode's spirited defence of Disney entertainment argues that Disney paved the way for today's multicultural values through its positive portrayal of women, ethnic minorities, gays, and non-Christian spirituality and it was this portrayal of difference that promoted diversity decades before the 1990s.
Walt Disney
Title | Walt Disney PDF eBook |
Author | Marc Eliot |
Publisher | |
Pages | 358 |
Release | 1995 |
Genre | Performing Arts |
ISBN |
This biography of the man behind the magic reconciles the private 'monster' with the artistic genius of popular culture by showing that the disturbing problems of his own life provided the rich, dark side of the animated movies.
Dream West
Title | Dream West PDF eBook |
Author | Douglas Brode |
Publisher | University of Texas Press |
Pages | 391 |
Release | 2013-08-01 |
Genre | Performing Arts |
ISBN | 0292748280 |
"Overturns conventional thinking that the Western genre is essentially conservative. Instead, Brode demonstrates that Hollywood liberals used Westerns to espouse a progressive agenda on a range of issues, including gun control, environmental protection, respect for non-Christian belief systems, and community cohesion versus rugged individualism. Doug Brode takes a new look at dozens of Westerns, including Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Red River, 3:10 to Yuma (old and new), The Wild Ones, High Noon, My Darling Clementine, The Alamo, and No Country for Old Men"--
Emerson Goes to the Movies
Title | Emerson Goes to the Movies PDF eBook |
Author | Justyna Fruzińska |
Publisher | Cambridge Scholars Publishing |
Pages | 198 |
Release | 2014-10-16 |
Genre | Performing Arts |
ISBN | 1443869155 |
Emerson Goes to the Movies: Individualism in Walt Disney Company's Post-1989 Animated Films traces the theme of Emersonian individualism in the Walt Disney Company’s post-1989 animated films, to reveal that the philosopher’s influence extends not only over American literature, but also over American popular culture, in this case Disney cartoons. It proves that individualism in its Emersonian formulation of self-reliance, even if questionable in late 20th and 21st century literature, is still very much alive in popular culture. Disney films are heavy with ideology and American national myths, and, because of their educational role, it seems relevant to acknowledge this dimension and discuss the sources of the Disney worldview. This book, instead of focusing on Disney’s influence upon its audience, concerns rather what influences Disney, how Disney reflects the American mentality, and how the idea of individualism is depicted in the Company’s particular films. The principal way of reading particular Disney films is the Cultural Studies approach. Thus, the book presents Romantic individualism with reference to such categories as race, gender, class, and imperialism. The idea behind such an approach is to see how various cultural fields intersect with individualism: whether individualism means the same for men and women; whether, as an American ideology, it succeeds at erasing differences when applied to exotic and non-individualist cultures; whether the individual turns out to be stronger than all social divides; and whether individualism can be seen as informing the American mentality on a national scale.
Forgotten Disney
Title | Forgotten Disney PDF eBook |
Author | Kathy Merlock Jackson |
Publisher | McFarland |
Pages | 263 |
Release | 2023-06-19 |
Genre | Performing Arts |
ISBN | 1476650128 |
This work demonstrates that not everything that Disney touched turned to gold. In its first 100 years, the company had major successes that transformed filmmaking and culture, but it also had its share of unfinished projects, unmet expectations, and box-office misses. Some works failed but nevertheless led to other more stunning and lucrative ones; others shed light on periods when the Disney Company was struggling to establish or re-establish its brand. In addition, many Disney properties, popular in their time but lost to modern audiences, emerge as forgotten gems. By exploring the studio's missteps, this book provides a more complex portrayal of the history of the company than one would gain from a simple recounting of its many hits. With essays by writers from across the globe, it also asserts that what endures or is forgotten varies from person to person, place to place, or generation to generation. What one dismisses, someone else recalls with deep fondness as a magical Disney memory.
The Disney Middle Ages
Title | The Disney Middle Ages PDF eBook |
Author | T. Pugh |
Publisher | Springer |
Pages | 473 |
Release | 2012-12-10 |
Genre | Performing Arts |
ISBN | 113706692X |
For many, the middle ages depicted in Walt Disney movies have come to figure as the middle ages, forming the earliest visions of the medieval past for much of the contemporary Western (and increasingly Eastern) imagination. The essayists of The Disney Middle Ages explore Disney's mediation and re-creation of a fairy-tale and fantasy past, not to lament its exploitation of the middle ages for corporate ends, but to examine how and why these medieval visions prove so readily adaptable to themed entertainments many centuries after their creation. What results is a scrupulous and comprehensive examination of the intersection between the products of the Disney Corporation and popular culture's fascination with the middle ages.