Just as the Disney management finds it profitable to use a systems approach to sell its products, the best way to understand the message it is selling is to adopt a systems analysis approach to the product – that is, to take the Disney machine as an entity, and to examine its many outputs as elements in a totality with some common features.6
Schiller’s call for a “systems approach” echoes the aim of this book, which is to present an integrated approach to understanding Disney. In other words, the analysis of production, distribution, and consumption of Disney texts is necessary to understand their significance. An integrated approach is especially relevant in considering the Disney theme parks, which present Disney ideologies in material form, providing sites of pleasure, fun, and family entertainment but also serving as highly successful businesses.
In 1997, David Buckingham discussed several books on the Disney phenomenon, pointing out how the studies included economic, textual, and (sometimes) audience research, albeit rarely integrating these forms of analysis. He noted: “Of course, it would be asking too much to expect any single book to incorporate all these dimensions.”7 It is even more of a challenge to examine the “whole” of Disney since the turn of the century, with the extensive expansion of the Disney corporation and the continuous academic and popular attention it receives. However, this book still represents an attempt to look at the Disney Multiverse from a systems perspective and contribute to further understanding its significance. Although every detail cannot be discussed thoroughly, an integrated, interdisciplinary approach can help us to further understand the popularity of Disney over the years, as well as Disney’s role as a major contributor to consumer culture in the United States and around the world.
In chapter 2, different versions of Disney’s history will be discussed, as well as the issue of Walt Disney’s contribution to the company’s development. A political economic analysis of the different sectors of the current Disney empire will be presented in chapter 3, followed by a discussion of the company’s strategies and policies in chapter 4. Chapter 5 will review examples of the analysis of Disney content, and chapter 6 will consider how some of the same techniques have been applied to the Disney theme parks. Chapter 7 will discuss the reception of Disney by different types of audiences or Disney fans, as well as presenting examples of how individuals respond to Disney.
Notes
1 Michael Real, Mass-Mediated Culture (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1973). 2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_to_the_Multiverse 3 Kathy Merlock Jackson, Walt Disney: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1993); Lynn Gartley and Elizabeth Leebron, Walt Disney: A Guide to References and Resources (Boston, MA: G. K. Hall, 1979). 4 Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart, How to Read Donald Duck (New York: International General, 1975); Herbert I. Schiller, The Mind Managers (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1973). 5 David Buckingham, “Dissin’ Disney: Critical Perspectives on Children’s Media Culture,” Media, Culture and Society 19(2) (April 1997): 285–93. 6 Schiller, The Mind Managers, p. 99. 7 Buckingham, “Dissin’ Disney,” p. 291.
Figure 2.1: Walt and Mickey statue at Disneyland. Photo by Travis Gergen.
2 Disney History(ies)
In the truest American Tradition, Walt Disney rose from virtual obscurity to become, through his beloved character creations, film-land’s greatest success. . . . by virtue of his unsurpassed imagination, native genius, determination, and resourcefulness, he has utilized all so effectively as to become a world renowned, self-made pioneer in creating highly entertaining, thoroughly delightful, colorful, and educative motion picture spectacles.
Wisdom, 19591
As indicated in the epigraph above, the history of the Disney company has almost always been the story of Walt Disney. From the early 1930s until his death in 1966, Disney received an enormous amount of public attention – probably more than the movie moguls who distributed his cartoons. But the fascination has continued, with numerous biographies appearing since his death, as well as the more expected glorification by the Disney corporation itself. As William McReynolds has observed, there is a “pseudo-religious aura that has come to surround his name before and since his death.”2
Much of the story was deliberately constructed by Walt Disney himself and was carefully repeated over the years by Disney, his family, and the Disney company.3 In fact, the family has created a museum dedicated to Disney, where many of the awards and mementos of his success are on display.4 Another monument to Disney is the Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, designed by Frank Gehry and built with a gift from Walt’s wife, Lillian Disney.5
In 1968, Richard Schickel concluded that “Walt Disney’s greatest creation was Walt Disney.”6 Joel Taxel echoed these sentiments: “His success in building an empire based on the animated film and in making his name one of the best known in the world was, to most, far more intriguing than any of the products he created.”7
It may not be surprising that the story of Walt Disney seems to have special, almost sacred, meaning for many Americans, as well as fans and admirers in other countries. Not only does the Disney company actively present him in this special, sacred way, but the legends of Walt and Mickey Mouse have been picked up and repeated endlessly by journalists, historians, and biographers.8 Even the more critically oriented biographies sometimes attempt to psychoanalyze the man and connect that analysis to Disney products but inevitably conclude with consummate praise for Disney’s genius.9
Not only does this perpetuate the “great man” version of history, but this ongoing fascination with Disney and his accomplishments tends to deflect attention away from the corporate nature of his enterprise. For example, Leonard Maltin, one of Disney’s well-known chroniclers, asks: “Why and how did Walt Disney get to the top of the heap and stay there? Most of the answers are to be found in the man himself.”10
To establish a foundation for understanding the Disney phenomenon, it is necessary to sort through the hagiographies of Walt Disney that rely heavily on this “great man” approach and attempt to discover his actual impact on the company and its products. Disney obviously owned and clearly controlled the company during his life, as well as playing a very strong leadership role in the company’s management for most of that time. Thus it is sometimes difficult to separate the history of Disney the man from that of Disney the company. Nevertheless, understanding both these Disney histories is essential.
It is also necessary to establish the social context in which Disney and his company developed. It is thus crucial to study the history of the Disney company through the interweaving of instrumental and structural analysis. In brief, instrumental approaches have been used to understand corporations by focusing on individual capitalists, while structural analysis considers corporate activities within the context of more general economic and political contexts. As Graham Murdock has argued, to understand the full dynamics of media corporations, it is essential to use both approaches, examining “the complex interplay between intentional action and structural constraint at every level of the production process.”11
Drawing on the many biographies and the few corporate histories, this chapter will present an overview of the Disney company during Walt Disney’s life, thus establishing a foundation for understanding the Disney Multiverse in the twenty-first