Disney Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom (Afi Film Readers)

Disney Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom (Afi Film Readers)
Hirohito and his Mickey Mouse watch, Goofy and Donald as our "Goodwill Ambassadors": Disney Discourse is an interdisciplinary examination of the founder and his empire. These essays use an interdisciplinary approach to read through Disney's domestic cultural production\M"innocent" national icons, as well as theme parks, cartoons and television\Mto analyze the global impact of American popular culture, the politics of Disney, and the complex reception Disney productions have received around the world.

The Disney corporation's ever-increasing visibility\Mthe opening of Euro Disney and new stores in malls\Mand vast influence over global culture demands critical attention not only in film and television studies, but in international diplomacy, architecture, economics and other related fields. Disney Discourse consolidates the best of the current work on Disney and provides a representative sample of past analyses of the Disney empire.

Contributors: Julianne Burton-Carvajal, Lisa Cartwright, Brian Goldfarb, Richard deCordova, Douglas Gomery, David Kunzle, Jon Lewis, Moya Luckett, Richard Neupert, Susan Ohmer, JosCCCCe Piedra, Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, Alexander Wilson.
Customer Review: Complicates Assumptions about Disney
Disney Discourse is a substantial contribution to the field of Disney Studies. Smoodin's collection offers a range of reactions to the different Disneys that exist: television and film, theme parks, retail, and so forth. Furthermore, this interdisciplinary work is structured in three useful ways. First, it offers some representative materials from Disney's "golden age" that tend to praise Disney (both the man and the corporation). Second, many of the essays consider the reception to Disney. Three, the book is divided into four separate categories that provide an overview of possible approaches to the study of Disney. As with any collection, not all the essays are of equal analytic strength. There are many good essays, however, particularl in the the sections entitled Cultural Production and Reception. Smoodin's own essay, "How to Read Walt Disney" is, in my opinion, worth the price of the book alone. Even essays which seem more grounded in personal reaction than critique have their worth; they demonstrate the investment individuals have in Disney as a site of debate. Overall, the result of the book's conscientious structure is to complicate any easy binaries--taken as a collection, Disney Discourse refuses to unreflectively praise Disney or, equally problematic, simply critique Disney. Instead, Smoodin's book offers Disney as a site of investigation, of exploration, and of analysis. Indeed, Disney Discourse might be better renamed Disney Discourses in order to reflect the multiple ways people have approached Disney. Though not all the essays are equally strong, the book is a "must-have" for both serious scholars and Disney enthusiasts alike.
Customer Review: A collection of essays about Walt Disney and Disney Corp.
The essays included in this book cover many different aspects of Walt Disney and his Corporation. Some of the essays written are very negative. The editor appears to have a person adgenda in compiling the essays he included