Breaking the Disney Spell

Walt Disney over the years has impacted the lives of millions of children with his animated films. His Disney movies have evolved in the last years and have moved from the traditional damsel in distress theme. Specifically, the classic movie Cinderella gives the wrong idea about what it is to be a woman for young girls. The movie portrays a young woman facing emotional, mental, and physical abuse by her evil stepmother and later falls in love with a charming prince. However, if viewers take a closer look, Disney’s anti feminist message is firmly emphasized. The story of Cinderella is sexist due to it’s lesson to girls that beauty and submission will award them a rich bachelor. This is seen through Cinderella’s submissive behavior, Prince

Using different opinions and perspectives in her analysis proved that she is not biased for or against Disney. While there were many aspects of the novel that I agreed with, there were also some that I did not. I did not fully agree with the chapter “Analyzing the World According to Disney”. Wasko talks about how Frances Clarke Sayers, children’s literature expert, claims that “ Disney falsifies life and is not really related to the greater truths of life” (Wasko 126). I think that statement is being too harsh as Disney does teaches kids some good life lessons. Without a doubt, children deserve some fantasy and excitement in their lives. Regardless of what other people believe, I see Disney films as a way to escape and teach lessons to not only children, but also adults as well. Our society today is constantly being exposed to the harsh realities of life, and many can tell that the world of Disney is a utopia. In addition, Sayers explained that Disney’s adaptions of classic fairy tales make it so that there is nothing to make a child think or feel or imagine (Wasko 128). I completely disagree with this statement. After talking to many people, everyone claimed that after watching a Disney movie, they wanted to be one of the

Zipes states that he is very disappointed in the fact that Disney took credits and benefited from the literary genre of the fairy tale. Well, his “modified genre of the fairy tale” (page 40) and put his names on merchandise and made his profit enormous. As long as Disney got the profits he did not really care to improve about communal aspects on narrative.

How many little girls dream of being Snow White? How much money did Disney’s Tangled make? What little girl hasn’t dressed up as Cinderella or dreamed of meeting her very own prince charming? These popular fairy tales were created by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Their primary motivation when starting their collection of fairy tales was to preserve culture rather than entertain, but entertain is what they did. These fairy tales, and versions of them, have remained popular for a very long time, outlasting most other works of literature. The Brothers Grimm adapted these well-known stories from around Europe to reflect their own personal views, Germanize them and remove some of the more disturbing details of the original stories. In the same way, these fairy tales have been altered again and again to be acceptable to society. Fairy tales similar in theme can be found across the world. The Brothers Grimm versions are the most familiar because their emphasis on German culture and Christian morals is very similar to American culture and values. The adaptability and skillful incorporation of morals and issues considered socially unacceptable in an entertaining story, has allowed the Brother’s fairy tales to last throughout the ages.

The story of Cinderella is well-known by most people, however, there are several versions of this beloved tale. There is the one told by the Grimm Brothers, depicting a world where moral choices can affect your life in extreme ways, but it is Walt Disney’s 1950 cartoon version of Cinderella that most children think of when the story is mentioned. This version leaves behind both the question of morality and the bloody punishments, allowing children to enjoy an eye-catching, G-rated film. Both of these versions use their respective mediums to emphasize what the creator deems to be most important: a lesson about piety and goodness in the Grimm tale and the entertainment factor in the Disney cartoon. These are each shown in different ways, according to the medium used.

“Breaking the Disney Spell” by Jack Zipes talks about Walt Disney’s early adaptations of folk and fairy tales. Zipes talks about even after Disney’s death “the man’s spell over the fairy tale seems to live” (333). This to me has a double meaning which is, that Disney is so know that he literally has a spell on people or how even though the the man figure in the fairy tales never do much they are still very important. Zipes talks about how the oral folktale went from and oral to written, then to film. He describes the written tales as being a violation of the folk tale because it was based on separation of social classes. Even though printed versions “enabled the tales to be preserved and cultivated,” they violated forms and concerns of those that could not read (336). Then he goes on to say that the images of film were a violation to the written versions “for the images imposed themselves on the text” (338). The essay talks about how Disney first started and even how he was at a point of his life in bankruptcy. Zipes states, “He cast a spell over this German tale and transformed it into something peculiarly American” (347). He says how Disney changed the written tales to fit his life and based then on himself and society. Disney is so big with Americans because of the “male myth,” which is about perseverance, hard work, dedication, loyalty, and justice. “Disney always wanted to do something

Walt Disney shows us how his strong feelings and or values shown in his films were all meant in a good way. “Our heritage and ideals, our codes and standards - the things we live by and teach our children - are preserved or diminished by how freely we exchange ideas and feelings”. Disney uses language predominately as means to imply the race of a character. Language has the ability to signal race and has been influenced to exploit racial stereotypes, which are displayed in Disney films. The problem arises when movies do not portray these values. Disney Classics that our generation adored as children are now thought to showcase many questionable values in their storylines. There is a clear representation of stereotypes through the use of language in many of these classics. An example of sexist stereotypes can be seen in Cinderella, where the young girl is helpless until the Prince falls in love with her. Most Disney movies exhibit lessons not desirable for children as this sets a precedent

negative media coverage both before and after the launch. The park suffered a major blow

When you first meet someone, what are the first things that you notice? Sex? Race? Or maybe the brands of clothing that indicate social status? Human beings as a society judge and categorize others, labeling those who stray from social norm as weird or strange. Who are we to make these judgments and where did these ideas of right and wrong come from? The Walt Disney Company plays an important role in depicting who and what people should and shouldn’t be. Every aspect of Disney, including movies, TV shows, and products, are supported by most of the world for entertainment and seemingly honest messages of innocence and magic. Beneath the image of innocence, Disney is also a media empire, a global conglomerate consisting of

I chose to research fairytales, specifically fairytales by the Grimm brothers. Fairytales are short stories that tend to consist of fantasy people, places, and objects. Many of these consist of fairies or magical creatures. Most fairy tales start off with “Once upon a time”, or “In a faraway land”. Many times in fairytales objects are enchanted and can talk or move. The most common characters in a fairy tale are prince and princess. A lot of fairy tales are retold throughout generations. As a child I was told fairy tales as bedtime stories. I grew to love Disney movies which are popular for remaking fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. To this day I still enjoy remade fairy tales such as “Rapunzel” which was

Fairy tales have existed for years, some starting as oral stories for decades before ever being recorded on paper. These tales continue to hold an importance in the present such that they reflect the changes in time and progression of thought and ideas. Over time, many fairy tales are retold for various reasons including reforming them to be used for new audiences to make the story more relatable or to convey a different point of view to various specific audiences. This can be seen in various renditions; Andrew Anderson’s Shrek can be compared to Steig’s “Shrek!” and Perrault’s “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” and evaluated as a retelling of either based on specific criteria. Although some may argue that William Steig’s “Shrek!” appears more closely similar to Anderson’s Shrek, as evaluated from the presence of similar characters, general plot structure, and targeted audience, the movie Shrek is more closely a retelling of Charles Perrault’s “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.”

The Walt Disney Company is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world. Disney is able to create sustainable profits due to its heterogeneity, inimitability, co-specialization and immense foresight. During the late twentieth century, Michael Eisner founded and gave a rebirth to Walt Disney Company. Eisner revitalize TV and movies, Themes Park and new businesses. Eisner's takeover for fifteen years had climbed the revenues and net earnings of the company. It also successfully uses synergy to create value across its many business units. After its founder Walter Disney's death, the company started to lose its ground and performance declined. Michael Eisner became CEO

“When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable.”

Fairy tales are timeless entities that will always be relevant in people’s lives. Fairy tales and stories offer entertainment, advice, and moral examples. The creation of fairy tales is important in the development of social norms. Children everywhere would read fairy tales and learn from them. As a result, these fairy tales are translated into multiple languages and allows people with different backgrounds to understand and relate to the story. People take these stories and adapt them to life around them. Within these adaptations of the same story, it is normal to observe slight differences that contribute as evidence in identifying the culture or societies in which these stories come from. Whether it is the slang of the dialogue or the change of location, modern producers and writers are known to take these classic stories and adding a significant twist to adjust to their cultural agenda. The movie, The Princess and the Frog, is a modern example of writers and directors creating a modern twist to the popular story of the Brother Grimm’s The Frog King. The Princess and the Frog and The Frog King both encode the mores, values, and beliefs of the cultures of the societies from which they come because, even though they both have similar plot ideas, the differences of the location and the differences of the overall specific plotlines attribute to understanding how their own specific cultures influence the adaptation and the actual story.

     When examining adaptations of fairytales you must look at the original source. This can be a very difficult task because with fairytales we never really know where the original came from. I will base my paper on the theory that the original tale of Cinderella comes from the Grimm Brothers version of Ashputtle. In comparison we will examine two movies. First there is the Disney version Cinderella. Secondly we will look at the movie 'Ever After'.