I did not know where to put this...enjoy
BOOK REVIEW
It's Walt's world and we just live in it
Book suggests Disney set the stage for America's counterculture era.
By Tom Lassiter | Special to the Sentinel
Posted June 27, 2004
Few baby boomers would dispute that some of their most vivid childhood images came from time spent with Walt Disney, in movie theaters and on television.
Gathered around the TV set with the family or seated in a dark theater, we sat enraptured by tales of frontier adventurer Davy Crockett; followed the escapades of that headstrong girl, Pollyanna; watched twins manage their divorced parents in The Parent Trap; romped with animated characters; and learned to appreciate the natural world by watching creatures live and die in far-away forests and deserts.
Disney entertainment was wholesome, and the generations often watched together. We saw families who loved one another, worked out their differences and overcame hard times. We learned that young people were important, that animals and nature mattered, and that there was value in standing up for individual rights and speaking out against injustice. Walt Disney was good stuff.
Little did we realize that Disney's entertainment was setting the stage for the countercultural revolution. Author Douglas Brode credits genial Walt with laying the foundation for the youth culture and rock 'n' roll, modern women's rights, civil disobedience, contemporary disdain of wealth for wealth's sake, music videos, explorations into expanded consciousness, animal rights, environmentalism, New Age spirituality and even multicultural diversity. The list goes on and on, and pop-culture specialist Brode -- who teaches cinema studies at Syracuse University and lives part of the year in Central Florida -- makes a convincing case.
From Walt to Woodstock critically examines the themes and characterizations presented in Disney cartoons, movies and television programs from the 1920s through the 1960s. Walt Disney's role in creating any single entertainment after the earliest years was minimal. But the stable of creative talent that developed the stories and delivered the finished products was largely of one mind with the boss. The egalitarian approach to work, demonstrated in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as well as Davy Crockett's penchant for disobeying orders and contempt for establishment figures, can be traced to Disney's personal philosophy.
Brode reinforces his arguments that Disney's entertainment mirrored his progressive leanings with citations and references to influential personalities including Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King Jr., Rachel Carson, Lenin, Joseph Campbell and Albert Camus. Could it be that Walt was a closet intellectual?
One wonders if Disney, who died in 1966, was fully aware of the influential power of his entertainments. Could he have predicted that so many of his personal attitudes and viewpoints would become deeply ingrained in America and continue to stir debate 40 years later?
In Brode's view, a pet project Walt Disney created for the 1964 World's Fair started America on its course toward the acceptance of multiculturalism. The project, which lives on in Disney theme parks, is "it's a small world." Some remain unconvinced of multiculturalism's value and have turned "diversity" into a pejorative. Disney, however, no doubt would be pleased at how far we have come, even if "small world" is one of the most loathsome earworms of all time.
Those who grew up when Walt Disney had iconic status will find Brode's arguments authoritative and insightful. From Walt to Woodstock helps explain how the America of today came to be, and how Disney's creations shaped this long, strange trip.
Tom Lassiter writes frequently about Florida and pop culture.
BOOK REVIEW
It's Walt's world and we just live in it
Book suggests Disney set the stage for America's counterculture era.
By Tom Lassiter | Special to the Sentinel
Posted June 27, 2004
Few baby boomers would dispute that some of their most vivid childhood images came from time spent with Walt Disney, in movie theaters and on television.
Gathered around the TV set with the family or seated in a dark theater, we sat enraptured by tales of frontier adventurer Davy Crockett; followed the escapades of that headstrong girl, Pollyanna; watched twins manage their divorced parents in The Parent Trap; romped with animated characters; and learned to appreciate the natural world by watching creatures live and die in far-away forests and deserts.
Disney entertainment was wholesome, and the generations often watched together. We saw families who loved one another, worked out their differences and overcame hard times. We learned that young people were important, that animals and nature mattered, and that there was value in standing up for individual rights and speaking out against injustice. Walt Disney was good stuff.
Little did we realize that Disney's entertainment was setting the stage for the countercultural revolution. Author Douglas Brode credits genial Walt with laying the foundation for the youth culture and rock 'n' roll, modern women's rights, civil disobedience, contemporary disdain of wealth for wealth's sake, music videos, explorations into expanded consciousness, animal rights, environmentalism, New Age spirituality and even multicultural diversity. The list goes on and on, and pop-culture specialist Brode -- who teaches cinema studies at Syracuse University and lives part of the year in Central Florida -- makes a convincing case.
From Walt to Woodstock critically examines the themes and characterizations presented in Disney cartoons, movies and television programs from the 1920s through the 1960s. Walt Disney's role in creating any single entertainment after the earliest years was minimal. But the stable of creative talent that developed the stories and delivered the finished products was largely of one mind with the boss. The egalitarian approach to work, demonstrated in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, as well as Davy Crockett's penchant for disobeying orders and contempt for establishment figures, can be traced to Disney's personal philosophy.
Brode reinforces his arguments that Disney's entertainment mirrored his progressive leanings with citations and references to influential personalities including Henry David Thoreau, Martin Luther King Jr., Rachel Carson, Lenin, Joseph Campbell and Albert Camus. Could it be that Walt was a closet intellectual?
One wonders if Disney, who died in 1966, was fully aware of the influential power of his entertainments. Could he have predicted that so many of his personal attitudes and viewpoints would become deeply ingrained in America and continue to stir debate 40 years later?
In Brode's view, a pet project Walt Disney created for the 1964 World's Fair started America on its course toward the acceptance of multiculturalism. The project, which lives on in Disney theme parks, is "it's a small world." Some remain unconvinced of multiculturalism's value and have turned "diversity" into a pejorative. Disney, however, no doubt would be pleased at how far we have come, even if "small world" is one of the most loathsome earworms of all time.
Those who grew up when Walt Disney had iconic status will find Brode's arguments authoritative and insightful. From Walt to Woodstock helps explain how the America of today came to be, and how Disney's creations shaped this long, strange trip.
Tom Lassiter writes frequently about Florida and pop culture.