"Thou hast shaken hands with reputation...and made him invisible."

[badgerpup]

I don't know how many other D.U.ers grew up thinking Walt Disney, Disneyland, and the animated movies were something REALLY SUPER SPECIAL.
I'll admit I did. BIG time.
The very name of the place; DISNEYLAND had kind of a magic breathed about it, and evoked a host of memories and anticipations and excitment...for a lot of us, a trip to DISNEYLAND was about as close to going to Heaven without actually having to die...with Christmas and your birthday thrown in.
(Didn't care about the mouse, for me it was Peter Pan and Tinkerbell that were really special.)

The image of kind, funny ol' WALT DISNEY...one of the few 'grownups' who seemed to have a sense of fun and imagination, from what I saw on those grainy film clips...from a kid's point of view, he actually 'got it'. Fun, I mean, what it was, could be, should be.

Going to see the movies as they were released was another high treat, almost as good as a visit to DISNEYLAND...and remember, this was from a child's point of view.
Forget the fact that the heroines were all wussy Barbie-clones who couldn't cross the street without turning an ankle and having to be rescued, or that a lot of the stories had been re-worked and 'Disney-fied' and bore little resemblance to the actual story from which it was taken (anyone ever read Mary Poppins in the original? Bit of a shrew, she was, and not a bit like Julie Andrews).
It was the richness of the colors, the incredible grace and believability of the animation (and remember, this was waaay before CG. All of the drawings were done BY HAND), the shimmer of the water, the sheer MAGIC of the films...not to mention the funny little details you caught as you got older and were able to do so.
And the songs...still get sung today, a lot of them, don't they...

For me, those were some of my most treasured, bright memories...
and they've been fucked over royally...like finding out a beloved and respected ancestor was a murderer, or a horse thief, or a child molester.
They're ruined. Oh,the colors are still there, but the context is fouled, and something sad and rather shameful now.

That was something called REPUTATION, guys...you can't touch it, you can't buy it...and now, you've lost it.
Hope the money you got was worth it, because there are a lot of people who will never see disney the same way again.

[rubberducky]

1. Disney has lost it`s magic for me too.

Like finding out there is no Santa Claus.

[Warpy]

2. My pop was impressed with them in 1974

when Disney World had been open for about a year. He dragged me there when I visited, and to Epcot when it opened.

However, their business practices over the decades inspired a deep hatred of all things Disney.

I guess some of it rubbed off on me. I was not a bit surprised at their undocumented and unapproved forth million dollar campaign donation to the RNC.

[WinkyDink]

3. Ummm.., "heroines were all wussy clones..."???

I think you mis-remember. Hayley Mills, Janet Munro, Dorothy Maguire---tomboys, pioneer women, intrepid types of all sorts.

[badgerpup]

5. I was thinking more of the animated girls...but you are right.

Cinderella, Snow White, Briar Rose...
it wasn't until they got to Pocohontas, Beauty and the Beast, and Mu Lan that the animated ladies got some actual 'nads...
IMHO, at least.

[Montagnard]

4. Ever since VN I have felt Disney

was nothing more than a bunch of right wing bigots.

[Jawja]

6. I will say something

positive about Disney. Don't get me wrong, I am as disgusted with "The Path to 9/11" and anyone and frothing at the mouth in anger; but, Disney did not gave to the religious fanatic nutjobs who tried to shutdown "Gay day" at Disney World in Orlando.

[Jed Dilligan]

7. Naw, never a Disney guy myself

Warner Bros. had all the spirit. Disney stuff--too preachy.

Celebration, FL (famous as the set of the Truman Show) is a pretty good blueprint of Disney's vision for the world--and it's not a place I would ever want to live.

[Sydnie]

8. How do you think * I * feel?

I have a mickey mouse tatoo on my ass. I can't afford to have it removed or changed.

I did it to myself many years ago when I was hopeful and a bit drunk. Now, I will be reminded of what they became everytime I pull down my pants. :blush:

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. Please remember that the Disney Corporation and Walt Disney

are two very different critters.

Everything that has gone wrong with Disney has been since Walt Disney died.

IIRC, Walt Disney proudly kept his dishonorable discharge papers framed on his office wall. He was a complicated man, and not at all a freeper freak.

Yeah, I remember when the police were called to Disneyland when the Yippies staged a takeover. But Disney was also one of the first companies to offer benefits to partners of gay employees (do I recall correctly that the corporation rescinded those benefits in the past few years?).

I sometimes wonder if those in charge today ever watch any of the old movies. They don't seem to know what they are about. There were the cute, furry animals, OK, but also some of the most terrifying scenes a kid could see - the pursuit of the wicked queen by the vengeful dwarfs in Snow White, the fight between the Tramp and the rat in Lady and the Tramp, the forest fire in Bambi - all of them guaranteed to bring a 4 year old to tears. Disney very skillfully juxtaposed calm with terror, beauty with horror, blending the good and evil to emphasize that the divisions between them were amorphous and that the world could be a terribly dangerous place.

The problem is, Disney was an artist, and art cannot be corporatized. Even the more recent animations, Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, et al, which were hailed for saving Disney had something calculated about them in a way the pre-70s films did not - playing to PC, keep everybody happy, don't be scary.

Certainly, the Disney Corporation deserves all the disapprobation we can muster, but their vileness stands out particularly in contrast to what Disney once was. I suggest that what we see is a close parallel to what has happened to America in general over the past 40 years.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

10. Oh, I still love Disneyland.

The fact that it's owned by a large corporation that happens to owe the majority shares of a network that aired an infomercial paid for by some clandestine republican group's not going to keep me from going.

As for Disney himself, interesting character. I think he may have actually been a closet homosexual, personally. I really liked his passion for fun and entertainment, and not just cheap thrills either, but it was always the biggest and the best with Disney. Unfortunately, he was also a cutthroat bastard of a business man. He was into union-busting, took credit for other people's work (e.g. Mickey Mouse), etc.

As for the heroines, sure you could say that about some of the early stuff. But then again, it was the thirties. They changed a lot of stuff from the books, sure, but the stuff they changed works. Would you really want a different Mary Poppins? I wouldn't.