Rethinking Disney: Private Control, Public Dimensions

Wide-ranging interdisciplinary essays look at the Disney empire.

In recent years, the Walt Disney Company has grown far beyond its beginnings in animated films and theme parks to become a major multinational corporation with global reach. As the company's activities have grown more complex and its influence more ubiquitous, both its internal practices and its attempts to control its now global public environment have generated conflicts that contradict the classic Disney publicity image. The 11 wide-ranging, interdisciplinary essays in this collection cover topics including Animal Kingdom; Gay Days at the theme parks; Disney's connection to sweatshops; commodification of The Lion King on Broadway; the transformation of Winnie the Pooh; Disney's experience in urban planning in Times Square and Celebration, Florida; and Disney's America. A comprehensive introduction contextualizes the essays and relates them to earlier Disney studies.

CONTRIBUTORS include Lee Artz, Sean Griffin, Dick Hebdige, Radha Jhappan, Daiva Stasiulis, and Susan Willis.

MIKE BUDD is Professor of Communication at Florida Atlantic University, co-author of Consuming Environments (1999) and editor of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1990). MAX KIRSCH is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Florida Atlantic University, and UNESCO Chair of Human and Cultural Rights. He is the author of In the Wake of the Giant (1998) and Queer Theory and Social Change (2000).