Response to “Why Disney Scares Us,” by Kevin Shortsleeve

The first part of this article that really stood out to me was, on page 3, when Shortsleeve describes how several different “villains” in popular culture were modeled after Walt Disney.  These include the cartoonist who designs monsters for the developers of “World Children’s Land” amusement park in Godzilla on Monster Island (1972), and the theme park developer in Jurassic Park (1993).  In both examples, there is a tie to theme parks that are supposed to be “fun” and “happy,” but end up being scary and disastrous.  This shows that there was an overall trend after the death of Disney (and maybe before as well) towards criticism of his works and his ways of practicing business.

I can see how Shortsleeve, who wrote this article in 2004, does not see much of a difference between the Disney corporation in the 1930’s, and the Disney corporation in 2004.  That was before movies like Frozen (2013), Tangled (2010), and The Princess and the Frog (2009) were released, highlighting a change in the messages Disney was trying to promote in their films.  At that time, movies like The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), Mulan (1998), fit the sexist and/or racist undertones that were evident in earlier Disney films, even though they may have deviated from the original script of only having Caucasians as important characters.  Many of the newer films have shown that Disney animators have started to change their ways by incorporating their first black princess, and making female characters more independent and self-sufficient.

One major criticism that Shortsleeve has of Disney, that I do not agree with, is that Disney has somehow tricked America into believing that the Great Depression was “the Golden Age of America (pg. 10),” and that we have started to forget just how terrible the time period was for many Americans.  I do not agree with this, since I believe a majority of people are taught about how hard this era was for many, and we have all seen pictures of the awful droughts and conditions Americans were living in.  Instead, I think Disney, quite openly, used his films as a way to make people forget about how bad their lives were at the time.  By watching these films where stories ended happily every after, Americans were given hope that things would work out at a time when many had little hope left. Disney used what he knew best to find a way to give Americans a break from the harsh realities of the time.  As a result, it’s no wonder that the Disney Corporation is so set on keeping this time period relevant, since it is when Disney had much success in giving hope to so many people.