Revisiting Disney's corporate ideology through stories past and present

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to examine Disney's corporate ideology through film texts that reflect their respective cultural scenarios. The Disney Company has become an influential cultural phenomenon that produces cultural and artistic narratives that influence the lifestyles and thinking of an ever-growing audience. The question that arises and that I seek to analyse is the cultural politics embedded in these narratives, in other words, the cultural message that is presented through the company's products. Disney has re-used and adapted the genre of the fairy tale for its film texts which reveals the enduring appeal of the fairy tale. Critics have attacked Disney's versions of fairy tales as they are a part of the controlling influence of storytellers, such as Disney. The texts selected for this discussion will expand this argument and will enable us to see whether these adaptations of fairy tales are producing docile and submissive minds or critical and curious thinkers. This also asks questions on the character of the modern-day audience in a growing media culture. Using the works of cultural theorists such as Frederic Jameson and Jean Baudrillard, I will analyse how media corporations, in their race for novelty and control over the market, manipulate the public's desire. Their products are no longer defined by their use value but by their value in the market. The main priority becomes giving the audience what it wants rather than what is meaningful and beneficial. The first chapter will introduce the critical works that will form the basis of this discussion. In the second chapter I will then focus on how the genre of the fairy tale adapted to the changing cultural scenarios and whether change and novelty come at the price of value and meaning. In the third chapter I will concentrate on four case studies by Disney in order to understand better the company's corporate ideology and to show that it is not simply based on sensationalism and spectacle but also on critical curiousity and questioning.