It would be difficult to go through life without ever encountering a Disney product. Since the first Mickey Mouse cartoon premiered in 1928, Disney has played a central role in shaping American popular culture, and it has expanded to the global market. The company positioned itself as a titan of family entertainment, and many of its offerings, from films to consumable products, have become embedded in the minds of children and adults, woven into many of our life experiences. Fans of Disney build connections with their favorite characters and franchises, fueled by Disney’s marketing practices. Others have developed a near-cult-like relationship with the brand, equating its products with religious icons and theme park visits with pilgrimages.
This edited volume looks beyond the movies and merchandise to peer into the very heart of the Disney phenomenon: how the fan response drives the corporation’s massive marketing machine and how the corporate response, in turn, shapes the fan experience.
250 pages | 3 halftones | 6 3/4 x 9 1/2
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Table of Contents
Introduction
Part 1: Interpreting Disney
Abbreviating Mickey Mouse: The Art of Remediation in Disney Cartoons
‘You Grow Up to Be A Duck Fan In Your Mother’s Womb’: The Bond Between Finnish People And Donald Duck
Toad, Alice, and Peter: From England to Disneyland and Back Again
Egalitarian or Stereotypical?: Gender Representation in Disney Feature Fairy tales of the Twenty-First Century
Father Still Knows Best: Exploring the Construction of Traditional Masculinity as Depicted in Portrayals of Fatherhood in Disney Princess Movies
Poisoned Apples: Womanhood in Disney’s Snow Whit
A Rhetoric of Classism and Reading Cultures in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast
Part 2: Experiencing Disney
‘Our Cartoon City Upon a Hill’: Disneyland, Disney World, and American Identity
Can Small World Ever Be Politically Correct?
Reading the Disney Princess Attractions: Narrative Adaptation, Immersion, and Control in the Magic Kingdom’s Expanded Fantasyland
Online Brand Communities: A Case Study of Disney
I’m Disney Bound: Costuming as Psycho-Spiritual Practice
A Journey From Girl to Womanhood: The Influence of Disney Princess Fashion on the Female Gender