From Mouse to Mermaid

Description

The first critical study of Disney films.

From Mouse to Mermaid, an interdisciplinary collection of original essays, is the first comprehensive, critical treatment of Disney cinema. Addressing children's classics as well as the Disney affiliates' more recent attempts to capture adult audiences, the contributors respond to the Disney film legacy from feminist, marxist, poststructuralist, and cultural studies perspectives. The volume contemplates Disney's duality as an American icon and as an industry of cultural production, created in and through fifty years of filmmaking. The contributors treat a range of topics at issue in contemporary cultural studies: the performance of gender, race, and class; the engendered images of science, nature, technology, family, and business. The compilation of voices in From Mouse to Mermaid creates a persuasive cultural critique of Disney's ideology.

The contributors are Bryan Attebery, Elizabeth Bell, Claudia Card, Chris Cuomo, Ramona Fernandez, Henry A. Giroux, Robert Haas, Lynda Haas, Susan Jeffords, N. Soyini Madison, Susan Miller, Patrick Murphy, David Payne, Greg Rode, Laura Sells, and Jack Zipes.

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Walt's in the Movies—Elizabeth Bell, Lynda Haas, and Laura Sells

Section I: Sanitizations/Disney Film as Cultural Pedagogy
Breaking the Disney Spell—Jack Zipes
Memory and Pedagogy in the "Wonderful World of Disney": Beyond the Politics of Innocence—Henry A. Giroux
Pinocchio—Claudia Card
Disney Does Dutch: Billy Bathgate and the Disneyficationof the Gangster Genre—Robert Haas
The Movie You See, The Movie Don't: How Disney Do's That Old Time Derision—Susan Miller and Greg Rode

Section II: Contestations/Disney Film as Gender Construction
Somatexts at the Disney Shop: Constructing the Pentimentos of Women's Animated Bodies—Elizabeth Bell
"The Whole Wide World was Scribbed Clean": The Androcentric Animation of Denatured Disney—Patrick D. Murphy
Bambi—David Payne
Beyond Captain Nemo: Disney's Science Fiction—Brian Attebery
The Curse of Masculinity: Disney's Beauty and the Beast—Susan Jeffords

Section III: Erasures/Disney Film as Identity Politics
"Where Do The Mermaids Stand?"Voice and Body in The Little Mermaid—Laura Sells
"Eighty-Six the Mother": Murder, Matricide, and Good Mothers—Lynda Haas
Spinsters in Sensible Shoes: Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks—Chris Cuomo
Pretty Woman Through the Triple Lens of Black Feminist Spectatorship—D.Soyini Madison
Pachuco Mickey—Ramona Fernancez

Contributors
Index

Sujets

• Women's Studies
• Social Science
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Película fotográfica
• General officer
• Documentary film
• General
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: Indiana University Press
• Date de parution: 01 novembre 1995
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9780253116161
• Langue: English

Extrait

From Mouse to Mermaid
From Mouse
The Politics of Film, Gender, and Culture
to Mermaid
Elizabeth Bell, Lynda Haas, Laura Sells EDITORS
Indiana University Press
BLOOMINGTON AND INDIANAPOLIS
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
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Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
http://www.indiana.edu/~iupress
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1995 by Indiana University Press
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. The Association of American University Presses Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
From mouse to mermaid : the politics of film, gender, and culture / Elizabeth Bell, Lynda Haas, Laura Sells, editors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-253-32905-1 (cl : alk. paper). -
ISBN 0-253-20978-1 (pa : alk. paper)
1. Walt Disney Company.2. Disney, Walt, 1901-1966-Criticism and interpretation.3. Children s films-Political aspects.I. Bell, Elizabeth, date.II. Haas, Lynda.III. Sells, Laura.
PN1999.W27F76 1995
791.43 75 0973-dc20 94-49374
ISBN 978-0-253-32905-9 (cl : alk. paper). -
ISBN 978-0-253-20978-8 (pa : alk. paper)
10 11 13 12
For the children in our lives who showed us Disney again (and again and again):
Miranda, Meredith, Will, Duncan, Bethan, Danny, and Willow
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Walt s in the Movies
Elizabeth Bell, Lynda Haas, and Laura Sells
I. Sanitizations/Disney Film as Cultural Pedagogy
One
Breaking the Disney Spell
Jack Zipes
Two
Memory and Pedagogy in the Wonderful World of Disney
Beyond the Politics of Innocence Henry A. Giroux
Three
Pinocchio
Claudia Card
Four
Disney Does Dutch
Billy Bathgate and the Disneyfication of the Gangster Genre Robert Haas
Five
The Movie You See, The Movie You Don t
How Disney Do s That Old Time Derision Susan Miller and Greg Rode
II. Contestations /Disney Film as Gender Construction
Six
Somatexts at the Disney Shop
Constructing the Pentimentos of Women s Animated Bodies Elizabeth Bell
Seven
The Whole Wide World Was Scrubbed Clean
The Androcentric Animation of Denatured Disney Patrick D. Murphy
Eight
Bambi
David Payne
Nine
Beyond Captain Nemo
Disney s Science Fiction Brian Attebery
Ten
The Curse of Masculinity
Disney s Beauty and the Beast Susan Jeffords
III. Erasures/Disney Film as Identity Politics
Eleven
Where Do the Mermaids Stand?
Voice and Body in The Little Mermaid Laura Sells
Twelve
Eighty-Six the Mother
Murder, Matricide, and Good Mothers Lynda Haas
Thirteen
Spinsters in Sensible Shoes
Mary Poppins and Bedknobs and Broomsticks Chris Cuomo
Fourteen
Pretty Woman through the Triple Lens of Black Feminist Spectatorship
D. Soyini Madison
Fifteen
Pachuco Mickey
Ramona Fernandez
Contributors
Index
Acknowledgments
F rom the conception of this project three years ago, we frequently envisioned the task of acknowledging the people who helped shape this book. Now, finally, at its culmination, our words on paper in no way match the eloquence of our daydreams.
A number of people contributed to this project from the beginning with their support, encouragement, and inspiration. Constance Penley and Ava Collins gave us a place to start, pointing out the need for Disney film scholarship; David Bleich, Henry Giroux, and Jack Zipes lent us their prominent names and the courage to pursue the book; and Linda Lopez McAlister and Gary Olson showed us the way to publish.
Three organizations provided us with forums and receptive audiences for our initial analyses of Disney film: the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts (IAFA), the Southeast Women s Studies Association (SEWSA), and the Southern States Communication Association (SSCA). Each conference bolstered our confidence in this project.
The people of the Department of Communication at the University of South Florida deserve our special acknowledgment. Terrence Albrecht and Kenneth Cissna created a graduate level course in analysis of Disney film-a space and place to field test many of the essays and ideas in this book. We are especially indebted to the students in this class; they always kept us honest. Sue Viens, Connie Hackworth, and T. J. Couch provided clerical and technical support, always graciously and always under deadlines.
Joan Catapano and LuAnne Holladay of Indiana University Press contributed, much more than they know, to making this book a reality.
Our friends and families come last, even though they have endured, more than anyone, the Disneyfication of our friendships and of our lives. Our thanks to June Casagrande for reminding us of our audience, to Mary Pharr for her wit and wisdom, to Tonja Olive for her joyful participation in the early stages of the project, and to Linda Forbes for her very presence. David Payne, Robert Haas, and Teresa Patriarco made room for Disney in their lives-and in ours.
And, of course, no acknowledgment would be complete without thanking our wives who typed the manuscript.
Introduction
Walt s in the Movies
Elizabeth Bell, Lynda Haas, and Laura Sells
We just make the pictures, and let the professors tell us what they mean.
-Walt Disney
As you know, all of our valuable properties, characters, and marks are protected under copyright and trademark law and any unauthorized use of our protected material would constitute infringements of our rights under said law.
-Editors correspondence with the Walt Disney Company
T he original animator of Mickey Mouse, Ub Iwerks, first met Walt Disney in 1919 at the Kansas City Film Ad Company. Iwerks relates that the seventeen-year-old Disney was seated at a drawing board, practicing variations on his signature (Schickel 1968, 59). For all the achievements-good or ill-attributed to Walt Disney, perhaps none so well typifies the Disney empire s cultural capital as this prophetic act of creating, coding, and owning the Disney name. Indeed, this book treats Disney film as cultural capital-its production, its semiotics, its audiences, its ideologies. But this book does not bear the Disney name.
The working title for this book was Doing Disney: Critical Dialogues in Film, Gender, and Culture. When we corresponded with Disney personnel to gain access to the Disney archives in Buena Vista, California, we were informed that Disney does not allow third-party books to use the name Disney in their titles-this implies endorsement or sponsorship by the Disney organization. Our authors responded to this news with academic wrath and ideas for subversive publishing strategies. 1 Because we were denied his patriarchal nomenclature, we considered following the Old Testament Hebrew practice of referring to God by some other name. Our favorite suggestion was made by Kenneth Payne (the Oklahoma native described in David Payne s Bambi essay): Well, he offered, you just write them back. Tell them every time you d write Walt Disney in the book, you ll write Ole Chickenshit. Doing Chickenshit, The Mousing of America, Call Me Walt/Don t Call Me Walt, From Mickeywood to Minnie s World, Thoroughly Postmodern Minnie, Critical Essays on the Films of You-Know-Who, are all attempts to name a collection of essays on the films of Walt Disney, while enjoying none of the symbolic and real power of ownership that Disney holds in its litigious grip.
Yet the authors in this volume all own the name Disney, despite the Disney Corporation s denial of permission for its use. And the Disney name is used in the essays collected here in a variety of ways. First, Disney is Walt: the seventeen-year-old who practiced his signature and subsequently wrote it on the title frame of each film his company created; the kindly Uncle Walt who addressed us on Sunday evenings as host of The Wonderful World of Color; the FBI informant who gave J. Edgar Hoover access to film scripts; the man who died on December 15, 1966, in St. Joseph s Hospital across the street from his Burbank studio; the cryogenically frozen body of urban legend that sleeps somewhere deep in the bowels of Disneyland. Second, Disney is a Studio: a production facility that grew from one camera in Disney s Uncle Bob s garage in 1923 to its 1990s multiple incarnations as Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone, Hollywood, Caravan, the many subsidiaries of Buena Vista Television and the Disney Channel, as well as the recent studio acquisitions Miramax and Merchant/Ivory. Third, Disney is a canon of popular film. Between 1939 and 1992, the feature-length productions alone number 245, only seventy-seven of which were produced while Walt was alive. Fourth, Disney is a multinational corporation: in 1940, public stock in the Disney Company sold for 5 a share and today Disney is an entertainment and media conglomerate worth an estimated 4.7 billion. And fifth, Disney is an ideology: a sign whose