Response to Robert W. Brockway

Overall, Brockway did a very good job explaining Mickey Mouse's history and progression through time. However, I feel that Brockway does not understand the significant impact Mickey Mouse has on all generations. Brockway claims that "Mickey Mouse Generation is the Depression Generation" (33). He is arguing that Mickey Mouse will go out of style because only the older generations can relate to the character because Mickey Mouse was an important symbol during the Great Depression and the World Wards. However, I still think even individuals in my generation and younger than us see a great value in Mickey Mouse. Mickey Mouse is the symbol for Disney, and as children we would beg our parents to go to Disneyland or Disneyworld, and we would get the iconic Disney Mickey ears hats and take pictures next to Mickey and Minnie.  Young individuals see Mickey Mouse everywhere really in our daily lives, so I believe that Mickey Mouse will be around for a long time despite what Brockway has to say. One of my favorite parts of this article was when he talked about the qualities of Mickey's character. Mickey is so relatable to anyone because all of his characteristics are human attributes, and because he tries to overcome his difficulties and challenges in his life. We can relate so much to Mickey because each one of us has hardships and challenges that we need to overcome, and Mickey is a proponent that illustrates that we can overcome anything that life throws at us and succeed. I felt like that part of the article was a really good summarization of how Mickey can still impact everyone's lives today. Another part of article which I found fascinating was the quote "act out impulses which as adults we suppress" (Brockway 28). As an adult, there are many expectations on maturity and how you are suppose to act in society. We have to suppress our childlike qualities and impulses we wish was still acceptable at our age. Cartoons like Mickey Mouse, lets us relive our childhood that we so cherished and for awhile be able to act out those childlike impulses. I feel that despite any age, Mickey Mouse is a relatable character and such a huge impact on everyone's lives and will probably be around for the rest of time.

Disney Dinner

So today, Marketplace held a themed dinner about Disney. Before going in, I was definitely curious to see how they would incorporate Disney into the food they were making. All of their other themed dinners, Thanksgiving dinner, Midnight Breakfast, etc., it was very easy to know what was expected of the dinner, but today I had no idea. After going, I felt that food was very delicious, especially the crab legs, and there were  individuals who dressed up as Buzz Lightyear, Woody, Micky, and Minnie. Marketplace using a Disney theme to motivate students to try illustrates the popular appeal of Disney to many individuals. So many students were taking pictures with the individuals who had dressed up and the marketplace staff gave us stickers from Finding Nemo. There were also several cardboard cutouts of different Disney princesses like Jasmine and Cinderella. However, other than these decoration aspects the Disney theme was really not felt. I was kind of disappointed that they did not make the typical food you would find only in a Disneyland park such as churros. I felt other than trying to make food to certain characters, if the brought the food ideas from the theme parks, I felt the whole Disney theme would really be unified.

Other than the Disney dinner today, I definitely saw a lot of Buzzed quizzes about Disney. I am pretty sure I took one quiz per day. One of them being what Frozen song defines you, which was of course "Let it Go". I also saw some news articles about Disney. Elizabeth Kaltman, the former PR at Walt Disney had passed away. I have a Yahoo email so I occasionally brush through the news to see if anything interesting had happened, and this article was the very first one that popped up at Yahoo. Because so many individuals adore Disney and many individuals rather hear news about Entertainment rather than what is happening around the world, sites like Yahoo try to make these types of articles the first ones individuals see when entering their website. Disney has taken a huge presence in everyone's lives, that Disney items, news, and information are found everywhere on websites and in stores. To not have some form of Disney, even if it is a small part, involved in your store, then it would probably cause more harm than good.

Until now I have never realized how integrated Disney is into our lives. On Facebook, we see buzzed quizzes about Disney all the time, stores always have Disney items in them, websites somehow have a mention of something relating to Disney in them. Disney has invaded into everyone's lives that we cannot really live a part from it. Disney has become the norm in the culture and to take it away, is taking away a part of our identity.

Wasko's Disney Argument

Janet Wasko, in her article Challenging Disney Myths, presented some interesting findings and theories, some that I never knew about before, and some that seem very outrageous and far-fetched. The myths that I felt Wasko was spot on in challenging are that “Walt Disney was a creative genius who was responsible for the company’s success” and that “Disney’s products are harmless, safe, and unbiased” (Wasko 1).  We really do not hear a lot about Walt Disney’s life growing up; we as children rather focus on all the magical things that Disney has to offer and really forget that someone actually created this extensive company from scratch. To the public he was known as Uncle Walt, the kind-hearted man who was full-heartedly for family values. Walt Disney was really an elusive man who changed his life story to appeal to the American public in proving that the American Dream exists and can be attained. Many facts that Wasko presented in her article about Walt Disney’s life I never knew before, then again I really never gave a thought about the life that Walt Disney led. I also agree with Wasko in the fact that all of Walt Disney’s initial creations were mainly attributed to Disney himself. I have always heard that Walt Disney was responsible in creating Mickey Mouse and creating some of the major early characters in Disney movies. However, as a public we forget how much effort goes into making an animation. You have the animators, filmmakers, the actors, managers, artists, and technical crew all working together to put together these Disney movies, and yet it seems like initially that these talented people never got the credit that they deserve. Some other interesting facts about Walt that I never knew before that many individuals saw Walt Disney as authoritative, moody, and demanding, a far contrast in what the public really knows about Walt Disney’s life.

One of the major points that she makes about Walt Disney’s life which also ties into the point that “Disney’s products are harmless, safe, and unbiased” is about Walt Disney’s conservative ideology made its way into the Disney films. Many of these films have the similar set of values, which portray women as helpless individuals who need a “prince” or a man to protect them and save them from harm. Disney’s earlier films embrace the idea of the ideal American family where the mother stays at home to raise the children and take of the house and the father goes out to work and raise the money. Wasko brings up very great points with these two arguments.

However, the rest of her arguments tend to be far-fetched and quite outlandish that no one would think of these ideas as arguments. One of the ideas that Wasko argues against is the fact that “Disney is universally adored” (1). No one would argue with her that she was wrong because no one likes something universally. There are always some individuals who hate on something just to hate it, and Disney is no exception to the fact. I feel that Wasko has the workings of ideas that she wants to argue but does not fully explain why she is bringing up this point or why is it necessary. Take for example the argument that Walt Disney based his ideas for the Disney films and ideas based on a couple years of his life in a small town. Wasko brings this fact up in her argument but never explains why it is essential to her argument that Walt Disney was not a creative genius. There are also some outlandish ideas and arguments brought into this argument such as Disney’s body being laid on ice and will be resurrected one day. I feel that Wasko is trying to grasp at straws in her argument against Disney and does not focus on her real credible arguments enough to illustrate the ill-effects of Disney.

Intro to Disney

My magical childhood was composed of watching Disney movies all the time, pretending with my sister that we would Disney princesses living in our magical castles, getting as much Disney paraphernalia that my parents would allow, and of course countless trips to Disneyland to get my pictures with all the Disney princesses and ride the attractions. Every time I watched any Disney movie, I would know all the lyrics to all the songs in the movies and sing along. Also growing up I would say, I want to be just like Belle, Mulan, Ariel, or Cinderella, but the conception that I do not remotely resemble any of the Disney princesses was a fact that occurred to me when I was a child. I was disappointed that I would never grow up to look like any of these princesses who got their happy ending and found their true love. As I grew older, I realized how much gender, race, and culture bias there is in the Disney films. Even though I love these stories, they are not as perfect as I remember them when I watched them as a child.

One of the main reasons I took Decoding Disney is to discuss and learn about these biases about gender, race, and culture because many young girls such as myself have their hopes and dreams crushed because we do not resemble Disney princesses. In the later years, recent films have been made to diversify the characteristics and races of Disney princesses. Disney has had a huge impact on so many young children's lives and enraptures these susceptible minds to ideas of fantasy and magic. But these children by watching these movies define many characteristics and what they should value by Disney's standards. For example to be beautiful for a child may mean having blonde hair, blues eyes, and is white because so many of the earlier princesses had blonde hair, blue eyes, and was white. I really am excited to analyze this Disney world, which I still love despite its flaws, in a new light.