Disney Culture

Quick Takes: Movies and Popular Culture

by John Wills

Over the past century, Disney has grown from a small American animation studio into a multipronged global media giant. Today, the company’s annual revenue exceeds the GDP of over 100 countries, and its portfolio has grown to include Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm, ABC, and ESPN. With a company so diversified, is it still possible to identify a coherent Disney vision or message?

Disney Culture proposes that there is still a unifying Disney ethos, one that can be traced back to the corporate philosophy that Walt Disney himself developed back in the 1920s. Yet, as cultural historian John Wills demonstrates, Disney’s values have also adapted to changing social climates. At the same time, the world of Disney has profoundly shaped how Americans view the world.

Wills offers a nuanced take on the corporate ideologies running through animated and live-action Disney movies from Frozen to Fantasia , from Mary Poppins to S tar Wars: The Force Awakens . But Disney Culture encompasses much more than just movies as it explores the intersections between Disney’s business practices and its cultural mythmaking.  Welcome to “the Disney Way.”
 

Genres: Nonfiction

140 pages, Paperback

Published March 17, 2017

About the author

Professor of American Media & Culture at the University of Kent

Reviews

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tinha lido este livro há alguns meses e tinha esquecido de avaliar e escrever uma miniresenha, mas aqui vai ela. Gosto muito dessa coleção de livros de bolso Quick Takes: Movies and Popular Culture, já li alguns deles por PDF e tenho mais dois em casa. Este Disney Culture, que é um livro recente, mas não tão recente assim, tem um escopo estranho. Embora fale muito de Mickey, Donald e princesas, bem como a grandiloquência do estilo Disney que se perpetua na Disney World de Orlando, ele deixa de lado o fato de a Disney ter se tornado uma corporação cada vez mais capitalista tubarônica, como aquelas industrias que vemos em filmes e produções artísticas com um futuro distópico. Embora cite, o autor, John Wills, pouco fala da influência das aquisições de Marvel e de Star Wars pela Disney, que depois que esse livro ficou pronto, ainda iria abocanhar a 20th Century Fox e outras empresas de entretenimento. Pra mim, faltou um pouco de crítica pós-colonial e até mesmo de crítica decolonial antimperialista no livro. Mas o autor é estadunidense, o que poderia explicar muita coisa que falta neste livro e que os latino-americanos fazem tão bem.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting and well-sourced, but obviously not nearly as in-depth as this topic would allow given that it is a quick take. Four stars because some of the sections Wills chooses to be extraordinarily brief (race gets a page and a half) should have been prioritized in exploring contemporary culture. Great primer dissecting the capitalism of it all, though.

[Kamilla Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read for my MA thesis.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

The works cited and the further reading are more useful than the text itself which avoids scholarly criticism and at times works too hard to walk a center line that it undercuts its own points in the service of 'balance'. A sign of the times it was published in, perhaps.

[Brandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting examination of Disney’s missteps and triumphs over the years. It’s always nice to brush up on my Disney history.

[Darya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely quick, incisive read on Disney’s Culture — both internally and with its effects on the world. Very comprehensive and dense for its size.