Mickey Mouse Monopoly

[Rcoaster809]

I watched a movie called "Mickey Mouse Monopoly" in my film class today, and I was wondering if anyone else has seen it. Basically, it is a documentary where people slam some of the greatest animated Disney films made. It was so frustrating, because most of their arguments did not look at the whole picture (or even film). I am interested to read some thoughts if anyone has seen it.

 

[clarksfan95]

I've never seen it, but I just listened to an interview with the legendary Milt Kahl who slammed Disney films on his own...this interview was done a couple months before he left the stuido and he made some points about characters that could've great and that Disney in their infinite wisdow thought would be better as funny characters. He was very unhappy.....

Sounds like an interesting film tho'...I'd be willing to watch it. Most major Disney fans would probably have your reaction of not liking it....I'm a huge Disney fan, but I also have an animation background and I'm willing and open to criticism of films if people can defend their position. If you can't.....then you shouldn't be talking about it.

What films were mentioned..by the way...I'm going to look into it now, but just looking for fast insight.

 

[Rcoaster809]

I would be very interested to hear what you thought think about the film if you see it.

There were many movies that were discussed, and most of their arguments about a specific scene were fixed by the end of the film. The best example of this was Beauty and the Beast. The film argued that it portrayed females badly because Belle always returned to the Beast even though he was abusive. I think that the whole point of BatB is that she sees the good in him and wants to turn him, which eventually happens.

Other films included were
The Little Mermaid, Bambi, Mulan, and Snow White for the portrayal of females. The Jungle Book, Tarzan, Aladdin, The Lion King, Lady and the Tramp, and Pocahontas for racism, and Hercules for the fake commercial scene.

Finally, one point that I laughed about was that one writer wanted to put a picture of Mickey in a mouse trap on the cover of his book, but the publisher would not let him becasue they did not want to be sued. The author argued that we are living in a police state becasue of Disney. I think that Disney is just protecting its image, becasue we all know Disney does closely monitor its creations, and there is nothing wrong with that.

 

[clarksfan95]

I'm having a difficult time locating a copy...but will continue to look. The author would've needed permission to use a Mickey on the cover and the only way to get that woulda been through Disney who would've probably turned him down.

From what you say, he/she seems to have some kind of issue that they are masking behind this book/movie. Apparently they were sold out of something when the author went and man....is he P.O.'d...haha....

Will continue the search.....

 

[clarksfan95]

Oh my gosh...I just found the website that distributes that video.....hahaha

I don't know if you are in High School or College - but your school must be run by morons....haha....$125 for a DVD for a HS - $250 for a college...what are they smoking!!!!??? HAHAHAHA!!! For god's sake...no DVD should cost that much....

It did have a little clip...probably 5 minutes at that and I actually laughed at some of the stuff. The whole abuse thing with Beauty and the Beast was in there....what a crock....perhaps they forget that this wasn't originally a "Disney" story.....and then they showed an image of the dancers during "Friend Like Me" song from Aladdin and mentioned how all of Disneys cartoon women have big - I thought....Belle doesn't have big ones....Mulans were small enough to hide from a bunch a men, Pocahontas may have had something extra, but even Jasmine wasn't that well endowed...hahaha....and what about Penny from the Rescuers.....haha....

The other great part they showed was the oriental lady talking about the lack of oriental characters (and they show the siamese cats) - what about Mulan? Not only is it a woman, but she's an oriental woman taking charge and being the main character. Oh brother....haha.

The white supremacy was kinda funny....I couldn't think of too many black Disney characters...I know that the one guy in Atlantis was black, John Henry....(he's a folk tail...can't remember his name)...Mowgli was Indian (not Amercian Indian) or whatever...a dog is............a dog (not any race).

Okay, I will definitely agree that this movie is way over the edge and I only saw 5 minutes. HAHA. What a hoot. I probably would've laughed out loud in the class.....

What class was this for? and under what context was the video used for? Did you guys get to discuss it at all as a class? and WHY ON EARTH DID YOUR SCHOOL WASTE ALL OF THAT MONEY ON A DVD (OR VHS)!!!!!!????

If you could please answer these last questions, I'd really appreciate it....I've actually thrown myself back into school to become an art teacher and this just facsinates me.......

 

[Rcoaster809]

There were many people laughing out loud. It is a 650 person "The Art of Cinema" Class at Penn State. We basically watch one movie a week, and do some readings, and she lectures about how Hollywood and the films fit into our culture. She said it is a documentary, but stressed that it is one sided. Since it is a huge class and we ran out of time, we did not discuss it. I hope she mentions something about it next week, but I dont know if she will. I had no idea how much the thing cost, but it is definitly a waste of money. probably the biggest thing the film ignored was the fact that most of the stories were based on fairytales. What website did you find the clip at? If you have any other questions just let me know.

 

[clarksfan95]

http://www.mediaed.org/videos/CommercialismPoliticsAndMedia/MickeyMouseMonopoly

There's the website that distributes the video. It's kinda funny because I was going to ask if you went to Penn State....I noticed the guy was a professor or something there. (I coincidentally go to IUP).

It's definitely a one sided account of things...it's too bad your class is so large, the conversation that could had over this movie would be tremendous.

I noticed that almost all of the videos for sell on that site are ridiculously priced and seem to have the same kinda theme...for the ones I noticed. Sheesh.

 

[Rcoaster809]

I just checked the website and watched a little of the clip, and stopped where they introduced the guy from Penn State. I did a member directory search on the PSU website and got nothing, so I googled his name and found out he left here May or 2004, and he was a Secondary Education professor. I guess I am very lucky becasue I came here in Fall 2004, and I am a Secondary Education major, and I think I die if I had to sit through a semester of him talking. Also, I don't why a professor of education would do a film on a more media studies topic. I think that goes with my initial theory where the producers searched hard for the people who hold a grudge against Disney films. Anyway, my professor did not say anything about Henry Giroux being from PSU, so I dont know whether or not that influenced her decision to show the film. It is an interesting film if you can get your hands on a copy of it, but it is not worth what the site is charging.