Although historians have begun to recognize the accomplishments of Disney Studio’s female animators, the women who contributed to the early success of Disneyland remain, for the most part, unacknowledged. Indeed, in celebrating the park’s ten-year anniversary in 1965, Walt Disney thanked “all the boys . . . who’ve been a part of this thing,” even though hundreds of women had also been instrumental in designing, building and operating Disneyland since before its grand opening in July 1955. Seeking to reclaim women’s place in the early history of Disneyland, The Women Who Made Early Disneyland highlights the female Disney employees and contract workers who helped make the park one of the most popular U.S. destinations during its first ten years. Some, like artist Mary Blair, Imagineers Harriet Burns and Alice Davis, “Slue Foot Sue” Betty Taylor, and Disneyland’s first “ambassador,” Julie Reihm, eventually became Disney “legends.” Others remain less well known, including landscape architect Ruth Shellhorn, parade choreographer Miriam Nelson, Aunt Jemima’s Kitchen hostess Alyene Lewis, and Tiny Kline, who at age seventy-one became the first Tinker Bell to fly over Disneyland. This one-of-a-kind book examines the lives and achievements of the women who made early Disneyland.

Between 2001–2011, Disney Channel produced several sitcoms aimed at tweens that featured female protagonists with extraordinary abilities (e.g., celebrity and super/magical powers). In this book, Christina H. Hodel argues that, while male counterparts in similar programs openly displayed their extraordinariness, the female characters in these programs were often forced into hiding and secrecy, which significantly diminished their agency. She analyzes sitcom episodes, commentary in magazine articles, and web-based discussions of these series to examine how they portrayed female youths and the impact it had on its adolescent viewers. Combining close readings of dialogue and action with socioeconomic and historical contextual insights, Hodel sheds new light on the attitudes of the creators of these programs (mostly white, middle-aged, Western, heterosexual males) and the long-term impact on women today. Ultimately, her analysis shows, these blockbuster sitcoms reveal that despite Disney’s progress toward creating empowered girls, the network was—and still is—locked into tradition. This book is of interest to scholars of Disney studies, cultural studies, television studies, and gender studies.

This book critically engages with the Walt Disney Company as a global media conglomerate as they mark their 100th year of business. It reflects on and looks forward to the past, present and future of the company and the scholarly engagement surrounding it through three key areas: Disney as a Company, Disney’s Representations, and Relating to Disney. ‘Disney as a Company’ identifies the corporate and management cultural changes over Disney’s 100-year history, with contributors examining Disney’s transnational media influence, changes in management strategy, and Disney’s recent transmedia venture: Disney+. ‘Disney’s Representations’ features chapters critically engaging with gender, disability, and iconic characters that imply cultural change. ‘Relating to Disney’ embodies the crucial work examining how audiences engage with Disney, with contributors exploring fashion, Disney Fandom and identity, and how people engage with the space of the Parks. This edited collection explores the newer additions to the company, but also reflects on the company’s past over its 100 years. The chapters provide a diverse examination of the many facets of one of the most successful global media conglomerates, providing scholars, students, and interested audiences a global and interdisciplinary snapshot of the Walt Disney Company at 100 years.

Writing in a time of heightened political anxiety–and when accusations of nationalism, authoritarianism, and proto-fascism have increasingly divided Americans into factions– the authors use their influential performance studies-based ‘tourist as actor’ framework to unpack the ways that Disney parks and their guests co-create performance of implicit Americanness in the 21st century. This book argues that the roles that guests choose to perform-- accepting, declining, negotiating, or overwriting scripts offered to them by the Disney theme park experience-- ultimately reveals much about the nature of the contemporary United States. Focusing primarily on Walt Disney World in Florida, and using case studies on music, geography and ecology, sports, families, and politics, these chapters illuminate the always complicated and often contradictory presentations and performances of America within Disney parks in the deeply contested twenty-first century.

From the bestselling author of Rise of the Rocket Girls, the untold, "richly detailed" story of the women of Walt Disney Studios, who shaped the iconic films that have enthralled generations (Margot Lee Shetterly, New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Figures). From Snow White to Moana, from Pinocchio to Frozen, the animated films of Walt Disney Studios have moved and entertained millions. But few fans know that behind these groundbreaking features was an incredibly influential group of women who fought for respect in an often ruthless male-dominated industry and who have slipped under the radar for decades. In The Queens of Animation, bestselling author Nathalia Holt tells their dramatic stories for the first time, showing how these women infiltrated the boys' club of Disney's story and animation departments and used early technologies to create the rich artwork and unforgettable narratives that have become part of the American canon. As the influence of Walt Disney Studios grew -- and while battling sexism, domestic abuse, and workplace intimidation -- these women also fought to transform the way female characters are depicted to young audiences. With gripping storytelling, and based on extensive interviews and exclusive access to archival and personal documents, The Queens of Animation reveals the vital contributions these women made to Disney's Golden Age and their continued impact on animated filmmaking, culminating in the record-shattering Frozen, Disney's first female-directed full-length feature film. A Best Book of 2019: Library Journal, Christian Science Monitor, and Financial Times

Disney Princesses and Tween Identity: The Franchise in Illiberal Hungary examines how tweens in illiberal Hungary construct verbal and visual identities through engagement with Disney princess animations. Presenting and analyzing ethnographic research in the form of interviews with Hungarian tweens around the time of the populist government’s winning the general elections in 2018, Anna Zsubori reveals the importance of social and cultural context in establishing the Disney princess phenomenon as a heterogeneous cultural force. The ambivalent and sometimes even contradictory ideas of identity expressed by the tweens highlight the role that diverse audiences, local negotiations, and dynamic discourses play in the reception of the Disney princess animations. Combining thematic and semiotic textual analyses of the conversations, tweens’ drawings and building blocks, and broader contextual examinations of the sessions with Hungarian children, this book offers original contributions on both theoretical and methodological levels.

Social Order and Authority in Disney and Pixar Films contributes to an essential, ongoing conversation about how power dynamics are questioned, reinforced, and disrupted in the stories Disney tells. Whether these films challenge or perpetuate traditional structures (or do both), their considerable influence warrants careful examination. This collection addresses the vast reach of the Disneyverse, contextualizing its films within larger conversations about power relations. The depictions of surveillance, racial segregation, othering, and ableism represent real issues that impact people and their lived experiences. Unfortunately, storytellers often oversimplify or mischaracterize complex matters on screen. To counter this, contributors investigate these unspoken and sometimes unintended meanings. By applying the lenses of various theoretical approaches, including ecofeminism, critiques of exceptionalism, and gender, queer, and disability studies, authors uncover underlying ideologies. These discussions help readers understand how Disney’s output both reflects and impacts contemporary cultural conditions.