Waubonsee Community College

Debating Disney, pedagogical perspectives on commercial cinema, edited by Douglas Brode and Shea T. Brode

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

index present

non fiction

Debating Disney

bibliography

931860508

edited by Douglas Brode and Shea T. Brode

pedagogical perspectives on commercial cinema

"With stakes in film, television, theme parks, and merchandising, Disney continues to be one of the most dominant forces of popular culture around the globe. Films produced by the studio are usually blockbusters in nearly every country where they are released. However, despite their box office success, these films often generate as much disdain as admiration. While appreciated for their visual aesthetics, many of these same films are criticized for their cultural insensitivity or lack of historical fidelity. In Debating Disney: Pedagogical Perspectives on Commercial Cinema, Douglas Brode and Shea T. Brode have assembled a collection of essays that examine Disney's output from the 1930s through the present day. Each chapter in this volume represents the conflicting viewpoints of contributors who look at Disney culture from a variety of perspectives. Covering both animated and live-action films as well as television programs, these essays discuss how the studio handles social issues such as race, gender, and culture, as well as its depictions of science and history. Though some of the essays in this volume are critical of individual films or television shows, they also acknowledge the studio's capacity to engage audiences with the quality of their work. These essays encourage readers to draw their own conclusions about Disney productions, allowing them to consider the studio as the hero--as much as the villain--in the cultural deliberation. Debating Disney will be of interest to scholars and students of film as well as those with an interest in popular culture"--Provided by publisher

Introduction : Pedagogy, the pleasure principle, and American popular culture / Douglas Brode -- A less than wonderful "world": challenging Disney myths / Janet Wasko -- Gender and genre: brains, brawn, and masculine desire in Walt Disney's classic science-fiction film / James W. Maertens -- The past as product in the present: Disney and the imagineering of history / Scott Schaeffer -- Changing people, altering places: Disney's two Japans / Cynthia J. Miller & A. Bowdoin Van Riper -- "With a smile and a song": Walt Disney and the birth of the American fairytale / Tracy Mollet -- Seeing white: children of color and the Disney fairy tale princess / Dorothy L. Hurley -- Seeing black: critical reactions to The princess and the frog (a brief survey) / Shea T. Brode -- Objectivism versus altruism: a choice of heroes for the 1950s: Stanley Kramer's High noon (1952) and Walt Disney's Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier (1954-1955) / Douglas Brode -- "Savages, savages, barely even human": Native American representations in Disney films / Myles Russell-Cook -- "ROAR!": representations of gender, sexuailty, and race in Walt Disney's The lion king (1994) / Georgia Vraketta -- "A family of wolves I knew": Disney's wonderful world of nature / David Haworth -- "Who's watching the kids?": caregiving and parenting in Disney films / Jeanne Holcomb, Daniel Fernandez-Baca, and Kenzie Latham -- Cinematic existentialism, political agendas: Walt Disney's Aladdin / Samantha Heydt -- The ambiguous Captain Jack Sparrow: destabilizing gender, politics, and religion in Pirates of the Caribbean / Jennifer E. Porter -- "Death be not proud": the "final curtain" in Disney Entertainment / Gary Laderman -- Fantasy worlds and Disney girls: Frozen, Brave, and re-imagined 21st century romance / Victoria Amador -- Upon a dream once more: beauty redacted in Disney's readapted classics / Allison Craven -- Deviance in Disney: of crime and the magic kingdom / Rebecca Rabison -- Anti-semitism American style and a man named Disney / Douglas Brode