I’m not talking about the dreck that is being cranked out by the Disney studios today. I’m talking about the classic films that Disney himself was directly involved in: Bambi, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs, Alice In Wonderland, etc. They were ground breakers in many, many ways. And they were imaginative, very well done, and fun! And yet almost every reference to Disney and his films which appears on the SDMB belittles him and them. I’m tempted to think such an attitude is a form of snobbery by those who think that anything that is popular with the masses must be suspect and that one way to show your superiority is to put down Disney and his work. Am I wrong?
Who’s disparaging classic Disney? If anything, I think most of our members who do participate in threads about classic Disney think they actually ARE classics?
Link to a thread where the situation you described happens, please?
I love classic Disney films.
Walt certainly had faults, but I’m certainly a fan of his work.
Seconded.
I apologize because I do not know how to construct a link, but the 9th poster on the current Cafe Society thread “Movies in the fork of a road” curses Walt Disney for making a good movie. It’s as if the poster has to say something nasty about Disney to counteract the good things he has just said. I see this all the time. (This posting is what prompted my original question. I could have directed my question at the poster but since I see such remarks quite often, I wanted a more general response.)
Fuckin Walt Disney and his stupid fuckin whimsy and stuff. 
I think you severely misinterpreted the tone of that post. (Link) It reads to me as very much tongue in cheek, because Disney set the bar so high that later efforts just can’t compare. That is definitely not a disparagement against Disney at all.
Here is the original post. Just put your cursor over the post number and you can open it in a new window or tab and then just cut and paste the URL.
An entire thread based on a whoosh. :smack:
On preview, beaten by a moment.
What made me laugh is that as pretty as it is, I can never watch it again. Snow White’s voice sounds like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. I wish it didn’t affect me that way, as it’s a lovely movie.
I’ve never seen it here but I think that some people have a knee-jerk negative response to anything that seems kid-oriented like Disney movies. Most of us go through this phase around adolescence but eventually get over it. However, some people don’t.
As for more valid reasons for disliking Disney, I think many of his critics hate the way he bowdlerlized and sanitized fairy tales to make them more child-friendly. Conversely, you also have those who hate Disney for having too many things in his movies that are too frightening and disturbing for children.
Additionally, there are those who attack the whole Disney-hype machine that started with the founder and grew exponentially larger since the resurgence of the company’s fortunes in the 1980’s. It all reeks of a cult of personality that’s continued long after Disney’s death in 1966 (hence the urban legend about Disney not really being dead but cryogenically frozen). After all, when you think about it, what other movie mogul that was among Disney’s conemporaries would have had an ego large enough that he would create theme-parks (and also planned communities) with his name on it? There’s no “Harry Cohn-Land” or “Selznick City.” Nobody in Hollywood is interested in using the name and reputation of a long-deceased studio executive or independent producer like Louis B. Mayer or Samuel Goldwyn to sell a movie today.
Another factor may be that the Disney company, post-Walt, has somewhat of a reputation for treating its non-celebrity employees badly, even by Hollywood standards. A friend of mine used to work there – he and his fellow drones referred to the company as “Mauschwitz” or “Duckau”.
I was going to mention this in my previous post but this seems to be a continuation of an unfortunate tradition. During the 1940’s, Disney became notorious for his attempts at union-busting and chintzy treatment of his workers.
I remember Jane Yolen complaining about The Little Mermaid, saying that the Disney version would overwhelm the Hans Christian Anderson version (which was much darker). And she was right. But that’s not the reason for any mainstream dislike of Disney.
There a lot of hatred due the belief that Disney was responsible for the extension of the copyright term from death plus 50 to death plus 70. But that’s a misinterpretation. Though Disney was certainly in favor of it, the real reason was to put the US in line with the Berne Convention (which seems to have made the change in order that the copyright on Mein Kampf didn’t expire).
But Disney’s hard line on protecting its copyrights has galled some.
There’s also a certain amount of dislike for the commercialization of Disney, and of Disneyland and Disney World.
Disney made some great movies. The only complaint I’d make is that his movies were so good that they closed off an entire genre. Animated feature films all became imitations of his style (including subsequent Disney films) and are still trying to shake his influence off.
A friend of mine has worked for the Maus for nearly 20 years and is increasingly unhappy. From all the things she’s told me, I wouldn’t take a job there if you paid me to.
Good riddance, I say. The original was a terrible story. 
An interesting thing I’ve noticed in Disney animated movies is that the bad guy almost always dies, usually violently (though technically offscreen), but never at the hand of the hero. Normally it’s a twist of fate or bad luck, and only occasionally something that is a consequence of their own evil-doing.
Hm. The ones I can remember:
Sleeping Beauty - killed by prince
Snow White - falls off cliff
Peter Pan - eaten by crocodile, presumably
Jungle Book - caught on fire
Little Mermaid - killed by prince
Beauty and the Beast - falls off cliff
Aladdin - trapped in a lamp
The Lion King - eaten by hyenas
I guess the prince has only directly killed the bad guy twice. In retrospect, the way Ursula died was kind of violent.
His cartoons aren’t mean-spirited enough. Give me the Wile E Coyote running off the cliff while holding dynamite, while the boulder falls right after. Gimme Bugs Bunny making Elmer blow his own head off with a shotgun, AGAIN! Gimme Itchy running Scratchy through a bread slicer!
Disney was a pussy.
Don’t forget Daffy Duck getting his beak blown off. 
Perhaps it’s because I haven’t really seen enough of Disney’s short cartoons but you’re right about that. On the whole, the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodie cartoons made for Warner Brothers are a lot funnier than Disney’s. They mostly seem too reserved–like they’re afraid to cut loose to do something outrageous.