"Disney bought the fantasies and piles of eyes."
on the commodification of innocence
Disneyland's 50th anniversary is this year. Watching a FoxNews report on the anniversary, I began thinking about the effects of Disney on our culture.
Disney commodified innocence. Plain and simple: they turned childhood into a product to be bought and sold. Some people think Disney has become a monster today as they control such a large percentage of mass media outlets and therefore public opinion, but I contend Disney was a monster all along. Their earliest films were based upon stories not under copyrights which, after used by Disney, Disney got copyrights for all those stories and now works with copyrights held by Disney are among the best-protected works in our culture. Let me restate that: Disney's movies, which they originally stole, are now heavily guarded against being used by others and the families of their original creators get nothing. And then there's the manipulative advertising to children and just last summer their reluctance to release and eventually dropping of 'Fahrenheit 911.' Think about some of that when your kids want to go to the new Disney movie, and get all the new Disney toys, and get the special edition re-re-release of the classic Disney film on DVD...I'm sure the list goes on, what with synergy within that beast.
TheJobey Poll
Who the hell am I? Where the fuck do I belong?
Disneyland's 50th anniversary is this year. Watching a FoxNews report on the anniversary, I began thinking about the effects of Disney on our culture.
Disney commodified innocence. Plain and simple: they turned childhood into a product to be bought and sold. Some people think Disney has become a monster today as they control such a large percentage of mass media outlets and therefore public opinion, but I contend Disney was a monster all along. Their earliest films were based upon stories not under copyrights which, after used by Disney, Disney got copyrights for all those stories and now works with copyrights held by Disney are among the best-protected works in our culture. Let me restate that: Disney's movies, which they originally stole, are now heavily guarded against being used by others and the families of their original creators get nothing. And then there's the manipulative advertising to children and just last summer their reluctance to release and eventually dropping of 'Fahrenheit 911.' Think about some of that when your kids want to go to the new Disney movie, and get all the new Disney toys, and get the special edition re-re-release of the classic Disney film on DVD...I'm sure the list goes on, what with synergy within that beast.
TheJobey Poll
Who the hell am I? Where the fuck do I belong?
posted by TheJobey @ 5/04/2005 01:33:00 PM
2 Comments:
At 5/05/2005 06:59:00 PM,
Anonymous said…
john nobles!!! I love disney! you can't ruin my fairy tales! oh my john..i feel like beauty and the beast is tainted now..i think i'm going to cry now
At 5/06/2005 12:40:00 AM,
TheJobey said…
Don't cry, Tricia, you can still watch awesome movies like the Godfather, Scarface, and The Godfather Part II.
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