Walt Disney
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[[File:Walt Disney 1935.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Walt in 1935, looking less like your favorite uncle and more like a man who'll make you an offer you can't refuse.]] | [[File:Walt Disney 1935.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Walt in 1935, looking less like your favorite uncle and more like a man who'll make you an offer you can't refuse.]] | ||
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'''The Walt Disney Company''' is a large publicly traded American multinational media conglomerate. The company owns ABC, ESPN, A+E, Marvel Entertainment, and runs several studios such as Lucasfilm and Pixar. '''Walt Disney''' created what became the eponymous conglomerate in 1923, and created the well known "Mickey Mouse" character in 1927.<ref>[http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about-disney/disney-history] Disney History, The Walt Disney Company</ref> Walt Disney personally won a total of 32 Academy Awards and received 59 nominations.<ref>[http://www.waltdisney.org/blog/walt-disneys-oscars%C2%AE] "Walt Disney's Oscars®:, The Walt Disney Family Museum. </ref> | '''The Walt Disney Company''' is a large publicly traded American multinational media conglomerate. The company owns ABC, ESPN, A+E, Marvel Entertainment, and runs several studios such as Lucasfilm and Pixar. '''Walt Disney''' created what became the eponymous conglomerate in 1923, and created the well known "Mickey Mouse" character in 1927.<ref>[http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/about-disney/disney-history] Disney History, The Walt Disney Company</ref> Walt Disney personally won a total of 32 Academy Awards and received 59 nominations.<ref>[http://www.waltdisney.org/blog/walt-disneys-oscars%C2%AE] "Walt Disney's Oscars®:, The Walt Disney Family Museum. </ref> | ||
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The Walt Disney Company is a large publicly traded American multinational media conglomerate. The company owns ABC, ESPN, A+E, Marvel Entertainment, and runs several studios such as Lucasfilm and Pixar. Walt Disney created what became the eponymous conglomerate in 1923, and created the well known "Mickey Mouse" character in 1927.[1] Walt Disney personally won a total of 32 Academy Awards and received 59 nominations.[2]
Both the Walt Disney Company and Walt Disney himself have been controversial. Many films produced by the Disney company are cited as classic examples of fakelore, in creating manufactured folklore out of traditional stories or characters. Walt Disney was a staunch conservative and opposed trade unions[3], while being an enthusiastic supporter of Barry Goldwater in 1964.[4]
Many conspiracy theories feature the Walt Disney Company, such as subliminal messages in films and other media. Walt Disney has been the subject of several different conspiracies and urban legends.
Contents |
The man himself
Disney was born 1901 in Chicago and was an ambulance driver during World War I. In animation, Disney became successful after the creation Silly Symphonies,[5] and became famous after the creation of the first full length animated feature film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.[6]
Nazism
One of the most popular conspiracy theories surrounding Disney is that Disney was an active Nazi sympathizer. This is despite the fact that Disney would go on to create several different propaganda cartoons attacking Nazism for the United States during World War II.
Art Babbitt accused Disney of meeting frequently with the German American Bund,[7] which fanatically supported Adolf Hitler.[8] Disney was also accused of being a Nazi for seeing Leni Riefenstahl when she was promoting her movie Olympia about the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
The idea of Disney being a Nazi has been promoted mostly by the television shows Family Guy and Robot Chicken. In Family Guy it is used as a recurring gag[9], such as in the episode "Road to the Multiverse" where Stewie and Brian travel to a Disney themed universe where a Jewish character is viciously attacked.[10] Not surprisingly, the appearance of the conspiracy on Family Guy has done a lot to introduce it to people, and has given it a new lease on life since being published by Babbitt. [11]
On YouTube, there are several creepypastas about either a Nazi Donald Duck or a Nazi Disney movie. The videos are made using scenes from one of two short films: Education for Death and Der Fuehrer's Face. Both are vehemently anti-Nazi World War II films, and both features images of swastikas.
Frozen (cryonics)
A persistent urban legend is that Walt Disney was frozen in 1966 after dying of lung cancer. This may stem from a interview of cryonics advocate Robert Nelson in a attempt to show that Disney supported the idea of cryonics, and who himself has said multiple times that he did not freeze Disney. There is little for the Nelson's claim outside of his own interview.[12][13]
Disney's family members have repeatedly stated that he was in fact cremated.[14] This is also what appears on his death certificate.[15]
The Disney businesses
After Walt's death, the Walt Disney company became a media empire. It continued to make animated and live action movies, and operate its theme parks. It also branched out into family friendly children's entertainment, featuring teenage stars.
Disney films in folklore and literature
Walt Disney and his company made many films based on traditional folktales. Films based on folktales include:
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- Sleeping Beauty
- Cinderella
- Beauty and the Beast
- Aladdin
- Mulan
- Hercules
Other folk figures appropriated by Disney include Davy Crockett, Pocohontas, and Johnny Appleseed. Disney animated or live action entertainments are also very popular representations of literary figures such as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, the Little Mermaid, and the Snow Queen (Frozen).[16]
The deep penetration and popularity of the Disney representations of these traditional stories and figures tends to turn the Disney version into the canonical one in the public eye. This has been called the "Disney effect" and is regretted by some folklorists. They also accuse Disney of bowdlerizing the source materials, removing disturbing or tragic elements.[17]
Disney princesses
One stock character that has emerged from the Disney animated film series is the "Disney princess". Princesses figure prominently as the protagonists of Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella, while non-royal characters such as Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Ariel from The Little Mermaid, and Megara from Hercules also fit many aspects of the stereotype.
The Disney princess stock character has been criticized by feminists for enforcing received cultural ideas about beauty, body type, and femininity. Disney princesses have coy but exaggerated sexuality. They are frequently cast in the damsel in distress role. Snow White cleans the cottage to ingratiate herself with the dwarfs. Ariel gives up her singing voice for a man. Belle endures an abusive and violent Beast, whom she redeems with love. Mulan returns home from victorious war, only to be romanced.[18]
Former child stars
It's been frequently noted that former Disney child stars, especially from its children's oriented live TV programming, often grow up to have erratic careers as adults, with drug issues, stints in rehabilitation, legal problems, and other sorts of public scandal.[19] Lindsey Lohan[wp], Britney Spears[wp], Miley Cyrus[wp], Demi Lovato[wp], Shia LaBeouf[wp], Mischa Barton[wp], and Brian Bonsall[wp] have all contributed to this impression. Former child stars have blamed the Disney business and its control over all aspects of their lives, including the manufacture of relationships for publicity purposes, as a part of the cause of this phenomenon.[20][21]
Footnotes
- ↑ [1] Disney History, The Walt Disney Company
- ↑ [2] "Walt Disney's Oscars®:, The Walt Disney Family Museum.
- ↑ [3] "'We Must Keep the Labor Unions Clean'" History Matters, George Mason University
- ↑ Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination, Neal Gabler, Vintage Books. p. 612
- ↑ Silly Symphonies was the first appearance of many recognizable Disney characters, such as Donald Duck and Pluto.
- ↑ [4] "Walt Disney" Biography.com'
- ↑ [5] "Was Walt Disney a Fascist?", The Straight Dope,April 12, 2005
- ↑ Even though Hitler considered the Bund a nuisance interfering in his plan to keep the US neutral.
- ↑ http://familyguy.wikia.com/wiki/Walt_Disney
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlk36vgygh4
- ↑ http://www.cartoonbrew.com/disney/why-walt-disney-is-a-jew-hating-hitler-loving-racist-37185.html
- ↑ http://mentalfloss.com/article/54196/disney-ice-truth-about-walt-disney-and-cryogenics
- ↑ http://www.lamag.com/askchris/walt-disney-is-still-not-frozen/
- ↑ http://www.snopes.com/disney/info/wd-ice.htm
- ↑ http://www.snopes.com/disney/info/wd-death.htm
- ↑ "Disney, Walter Elias", in Linda S. Watts, Encyclopedia of American Folklore (Infobase, 2006; ISBN 1438129793), pp. 110-111
- ↑ Mikel J. Koven, Film, Folklore, and Urban Legends. (Scarecrow, 2008; ISBN 0810860252), pp. 10-11.
- ↑ Chyng Sun and Miguel Picker, Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood, and Corporate Power (Media Education Foundation, 2001); study guide for the film.
- ↑ Celebs Who Went from Disney to the Dark Side, Fox News Magazine, 03/27/13
- ↑ Dodai Stewart, Joe Jonas Reveals How Disney Puppet Masters Control Their Teen Stars. Jezebel, 12/02/13
- ↑ Mara Wilson On Why Child Stars Go Crazy: Former Child Actor Offers An Insider's Perspective, Huffington Post, 05/28/13