"The Mouse That Roared": How Disney Instills Greed and Consumerism - Starting at Three Months

[Donnachaidh]

http://truthout.com/se-mouse-roared-how-disney-instills-greed-and-consumerism-starting-three-months/1310572322

In American culture, Disney has become synonymous with childhood. Present-day grandparents grew up watching the animated films, wearing Mickey Mouse pajamas and begging to go to Disneyland. But while it all seems innocent, few people have considered the hold that the Disney Corporation has not only on their own lives, but on the world as a whole.

Henry Giroux and Grace Pollock explore this relationship between consumer and industry in their book "The Mouse that Roared: Disney and the End of Innocence."

Cuddly cartoon animals and whimsical fairy-tale stories are merely Disney's public face. The expansive conglomerate is not limited to Disney film and theme parks. It also owns six motion picture studios, ABC television network and its 226 affiliated stations, multiple cable television networks, 227 radio stations, four music companies, three cruise lines, theatrical production companies, publishing houses, 15 magazine titles and five video game development studios. This media and culture monopoly goes unnoticed by most Americans, who just want to indulge their childhood fantasies as Disney so deftly enables with its movies, theme parks and merchandise.

Giroux and Pollock's peerless scholarship exposes Disney through essential, hard-hitting information that America needs to face. The authors' dedication to thorough research and the book's trove of facts and statistics make this an indispensable reference work, as well as a passionately engaged and engaging investigation of Disney and its place in consumerist America.

More at the link --

[Fumesucker]

1. Or as they are known in the trade, Mauschwitz

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Mauschwitz

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. When I grew up with Disney, they weren't yet out of control

There was an animated cartoon feature every couple of years, the Mickey Mouse Club, and Walt Disney Presents on Sunday nights.

But I attended a convention in Orlando a couple of years ago, and stayed in a hotel near "Downtown Disney."

Gag.

Everything was either Disney or advertised other Disney attractions. I'd peek into a store selling Mickey Mouse kitsch and would see an ad for another store selling Mickey Mouse kitsch.

Gag.

[Bozita]

3. You won't believe this post from an hour or so ago

Two unrelated posts, yet...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=439&topic_id=1807551&mesg_id=1808261

[muntrv]

4. I grew up with Warner Bros. cartoons. The tv stations didn't show disney toons

when I was a kid.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

5. Is there any form of ammusement that doesn't have to be pedantically over-analyzed

Disney is a business, so what?

[Odin2005]

6. Simba and Aladdin taught me to be a consumerist drone? LOL, whatever.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

7. If you play Hakuna Matata backwards it says

Buy a Ford Bronco and a Laserdisc Player

[hfojvt]

11. yeah, unfortunately, I don't see a strong argument for that thesis in the title

This is just kinda thrown out there with nothing to support it "Disney is creating an army of consumers out of children, which is a frightening thought. Giroux suggests that Disney is saying our "civic responsibilities are limited to the act of consuming.""

I guess I could buy the book, but that seems so consumerist.

[hifiguy]

8. Henry Giroux is one of the more interesting social critics

out there. This could be a really good read.

And scoffers please note the gargantuan media holdings under the Diznee umbrella noted in the link:

"The expansive conglomerate is not limited to Disney film and theme parks. It also owns six motion picture studios, ABC television network and its 226 affiliated stations, multiple cable television networks, 227 radio stations, four music companies, three cruise lines, theatrical production companies, publishing houses, 15 magazine titles and five video game development studios."

That is more than a little frightening.

[gratuitous]

9. SPY magazine did occasional pieces on the Holy Rodent Empire

One Spy article was titled, "M-I-C - See my memo on that! - R-O-M-A-N-A-G-E" and had a caricature of "Picky Mouse." The lengths Disney goes to in protecting its copyrights and to further its brand are staggering. It seems there is nothing too small to escape the notice of its lawyers, and Disney comes down with both feet on any transgressors. "But wait," you might say, "don't copyrights expire after a certain number of years and creative output passes into the public domain?" Yes, as a rule. But Disney is a rule unto itself. Disney has at least twice gotten Congress to pass legislation protecting its character copyrights well past the usual and ordinary date of mere mortals, as the creative output of Walt Disney continues to generate enormous revenues for the company that survives him.

After detailing some of the more egregious instances of Disney lawyers bullying people for real or imagined violations of their "property," Spy wondered just when it was that "Disneyesque" meant cute and cuddly.

[hfojvt]

10. Mooby, the golden cow

looks interesting. I grew up watching "wonderful world of Disney" every Sunday after "Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom" for many years, although 60 Minutes was also "must see TV" as I got older.

[Karenina]

12. I'm THRILLED they managed a black princess before my death!

IMAGINE IT! A black president and a black Disney princess! Ah yes, things certainly have... whatever. Can I get an AMEN for "morphed?" :rofl:

http://movsharing.com/tmovie.php?id=3990&part=1&nblink=10&movie=The%20Princess%20and%20the%20Frog