Anyone know of any good treatises on the transmogrification of Disney as a sorta family-friendly conglomeration of tv shows, comics and cartoons aimed at daily/weekly entertainment to its current incarnation as omnivorous colossus?
Maybe its always been this way? Inspired by last night’s SNL where a couple of kids were surprised that Mickey was supposed to be funny in TV Funhouse.
The book Disney War might have what you’re interested in. I listen to the audio version of it and it seems to cover what you’re looking for.
And even after previewing, I screwed up: of course that should be “listened”.
sigh.
The Disney Touch is 15 years old, written when Eisner could do nothing wrong:
I second DisneyWar by James B. Patterson. Very interesting book about the Michael Eisner era and Eisner himself.
I saw that SNL skit about Disney’s missteps and Walt’s sordid past online. Very funny.
Great skit. Those animated bits are worth waiting for. I’m also sending a copy of it on videotape to a friend who works at Disney in the legal area. No worries; she won’t try to shut it down, since it’s a parody–and besides, the folks in her dept. will get a big kick out of it.
You might also try Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World by Carl Hiassen. It’s a bit older too, but probably a very entertaining read!
I would think one would do better to look at the society in which Disney lives in, not the Company itself. The company is doing what it has always done - taken other peoples public-domain property, watered it down for the kiddie set, and placed a copyright on that. They have always lobbied Congress for extensions in copyright law, they have always been “ruthless” in protecting their assets (remember the Peggy Lee case back in the 1980s?), and they have always been “aggressive” in aiming for children.
None of this is new. What is new is how people perceive these actions. That’s what you need to study, not the company itself.
[Emphasis added.]
Now THAT charge was the biggest burn of all against the Walt Disney corporate empire.
(Mainly because it’s true.)
Or you could read Walt Disney: Hollywood’s Dark Prince.
Disney isn’t that much different than its ever been. In some ways its now better than when Walt was alive. Its a company traditionally run by egomanics (Walt, Eisner) or incompetents for profit.
That’s true. They’ve also gotten in trouble in the past for the copyrighted properties that they have licensed- they have refused to pay royalties to the British children’s hospital which owns the rights to Peter Pan, and although Disney owns the rights to the Winnie-the-Pooh characters, there was a case recently in which the family from which they bought the rights from sued for not being paid royalties on DVDs, etc.
Disney’s pretty much always been that way. Early on, they pretty much invented the idea of synergy with the marketing of Snow White merchandise; less than twenty years later Disney was into TV, theme parks, publishing, film distribution, and soundtracks. By the mid-60s, they had gone even further, into resorts and eventually urban planning (EPCOT). Throughout it’s history, the company has had its fingers in many pies.
Viva: I fairly regularly teach classes on Disney and might be interested in a copy as well–any way to finagle one from you?
Oh yeah, there was an OP up there too, huh?
I’ve got 100+ books on Disney on my shelves, and most of the ones mentioned would do the trick. In addition, check out Hollis and Sibley’s *The Disney Studio Story * for a good history of the early years and expansion and Watts’s The Magic Kingdom: Walt Disney and the American Way of Life for something that seems to be exactly what you’re looking for.
My friend will send it back when she’s finished with it. I’ll remind her to do it ASAP. She can be notoriously slow about sending mail otherwise.
I think all of the major Hollywood studios are parts of huge conglomerates. I don’t think it is anything special to Disney.
Except that Disney is atop the conglomerate, as opposed to, say, Paramount, which is part of Viacom or Universal, which is part of GE, or MGM which is part of Sony.
All good stuff, thanks fellows!