This thesis examines the four transitional Disney animated features of the 1980s The Fox and the Hound (1981), The Black Cauldron (1985), The Great Mouse Detective (1986), and Oliver and Company (1988)— in order to reassess the significance of this period in Disney history. The Walt Disney Studio is internationally hailed for its animated features produced over the last eight decades, however, the animated films released in the 1980s have been ignored and neglected due to the negative evaluations of scholars and historians who favor Walt’s era and the 1990s renaissance period. A closer examination of the films reveals that Disney was not in a dark age but one of experimentation, excisement, and exploration in contrast to the perceived notions. Each film contributed to Disney animation’s return including a generational shift in creativity, application of computer animation, casting a celebrity as a voice-artist, and the use of theme songs and popular singers. These contributions were technically, thematically, and aesthetically important in reframing Disney’s animated products for future audiences leading to the 1990s successes beginning with The Little Mermaid.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

The purpose of this research project was to examine representations of male characters and masculinity in Disney animated feature films. Social learning theory, gender and hegemonic masculinity were used to theoretically frame this study. Twenty-two movies were examined; a total of ninety-one characters were included in the analysis. The movies included in the sample were produced between 1930 and 2007. This study sought to examine the dimensions of character descriptions, physical descriptions, socioeconomic status, sexuality, family structures and practices, and aggression as well as to understand how constructions of masculinity in Disney films changed over time. The results of the present study regarding character role indicate that good characters were most often middle aged, slender and fit but not muscular, single, royalty, and had community as family. They were most often heterosexual, equally likely to be romantically involved as to be not romantically involved, were sexual in nature, and were most often the victims of physical aggression. Evil characters were most often middle aged, slender and fit but not muscular, single, royalty, had community as family, and were well dressed. Evil characters were most likely to trap other characters and to steal. Neutral characters were most often old/elderly, overweight and not muscular, and were most often employed as inventors, royalty, and diamond miners. They were also most often single and to have community as family. The results regarding character centrality indicated that central characters were most often white, slender and fit but not muscular, single, middle aged, showed physical strength, and were well dressed compared to peripheral characters. Central characters were heterosexual, romantically involved, sexual in nature, engaged in hand to hand fighting, and engaged in social isolation and name calling. Peripheral characters were most often white, slender and fit but not muscular, single, and also more likely than central characters to be old/elderly. For the analysis of masculinity across time, it was found that the types of masculinity shown in Disney films did not match with hegemonic masculinity historically. Overall, the most common theme of masculinity that was observed throughout all decades was the fatherhood movement.

This text seeks to provide an account of the subject as a consumer of mass-media. As such, the contemporary consumer must interact with corporate entities as socio-cultural institutions that enable a self-administration of gratification. The case under discussion is that of the Walt Disney Company, which is perhaps the most iconic purveyor of consumable media in the world. It is argued that the Walt Disney Company is structurally perverse, that the gratification of the Disney consumer is achieved at their expense, and that this expense is to the benefit of Disney commercially and structurally as a major socio-cultural institution. This text makes use of Lacanian psychoanalytic theory, film and cultural studies, and the industrial-organisational history of the Walt Disney Company to create an account of the subject's interactions within the apparatus of Disney media. The account of consumerism constructed within this text is organised by a synthesis of several theoretical constructs: the animated homunculus, the regressive cinematic apparatus and the Disney consumerist utopia. The homunculus refers to a point of contact for the subject's gratification. It is a fetishistic device used in animated films to create a focal point for the viewer's desire and identifications. This operates within the subject's relation to the screen as apparatus, which in the case of Disney is demonstrated to be regressive in its narrative structure and stylistic content. The regressive pleasures of Disney media support a system and economy of gratification that crystallizes in Disney as a commercial entity. The ideological and structural core of the Disney entity is demonstrated to be a utopian vision of consumerism and self-administration of gratification. The creation of socio-cultural structures that enable the subject to self-administrate their gratification is shown to be related to the problem of addiction; a dependency on consumables and consumption itself. Together these concepts create a holistic account of Disney as an object of study, as both commercial entity, visual medium and cultural institution.

My dissertation, "The Princess Production: Locating Pocahontas in Time and Place," critically evaluates the succession of representations of Pocahontas since her death in 1617. Pocahontas has become the prototypical "Indian Princess," through which the indigenous "other" is mapped onto Eurocentric constructions of gender and race, and subsequently transformed into the object of desire to be colonized. Chapter One begins with an introduction to the Pocahontas myth, and continues with an overview of the representation of Native Americans in cinema. Given that Native Americans have been the subject of the romanticization of the passing frontier, then the image of Pocahontas, standing in for the gendered "virgin" frontier, has been problematically used to represent American nationhood. In the second chapter, I investigate the commodification of the image of Pocahontas, by way of a critical assessment of Disney's Pocahontas (1995). Due to its extreme popularity and plethora of commercial tie-ins, this animated film was able to cement mainstream attitudes of Native Americans and especially of indigenous women. Critical discussion, however, was ameliorated through "politically correct" associations of Indians with ecological balance and moral purity versus European decadence. I analyze the symbolic association of Pocahontas with nature in Chapter Three, particularly in Terence Malick's recent film The New World (2005), where this association is most blatant. Malick has been heavily influenced by such philosophers as Martin Heidegger, and his resulting romantic and pantheistic vision clouds gender difference and racial antagonism. The image of Pocahontas in The New World, therefore, simply becomes a signifier for the grand impersonal workings of Nature. Finally, in Chapter Four, I discuss attempts by indigenous writers and groups to reappropriate Pocahontas for Native Americans, and I conclude that this is of strategic importance for transforming Indian identity. Since the image of Pocahontas has played such a large role in the shaping of mainstream attitudes and government policy toward Native Americans, then retrieving it from its colonial legacy will go a long way toward preserving Indian culture and identity in the future.

Today there are several generations who have grown up watching Disney’s films. Disney has become a central storyteller in our society with children and their families as their main audience. Disney's storytelling is often with the children from an early age and they get to learn about right and wrong, good and evil through the films. A picture of how the world looks and how you should and should not behave is presented in Disney's films. Our aim with this study is to analyze the villains in Disney's animated films, how the female and male villains are presented in relation to each other from a gender perspective. The study's goal is to understand if the gender roles and stereotypes are enhanced or weakened by how male and female villains communicates through Disney’s films. With support from the theories of Giddens, Foucault and Jung, as well as theories of gender and stereotypes we have through a qualitative narrative and semiotic analysis studied twelve animated Disney-films. This has led to the discovery that female and male villains are produced in a gender-stereotypical way, the female villains are presented as more passive, emotional and nurturing, and that the male villains are presented as more active, ambitious and confident. We also found that there were similarities between the two genders, especially when it comes to how the antagonists exert his or her power and the atmosphere that is presented around the antagonists.

Syfte: Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka hur genus representeras och hur feministisk kritik syns i Disneyfilmerna Mulan och Frost. Arbetet behandlar kopplingen till tidigare Disneyfilmer och stereotypa framställningar av manligt och kvinnligt. Det utgår från ett genusperspektiv som tar hänsyn till könsroller som är resultatet av sociala konstruktioner. Metod: Filmerna har studerats i sin helhet och sedan har specifika scener och sekvenser valts ut för närmare studie. De har analyserats utifrån Selby och Cowderys modell för narrativ analys i boken How to Study Television (1995). Analysen för bägge filmerna är uppdelad i tre delar som behandlar både sekvenser som sträcker sig över hela filmerna och enskilda scener. Teori: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwicks (1999) och Halls (1997) definitioner av genus har legat som grund för arbetet, men även Halls (1997) beskrivning av representation, Gills (2007) redogörelse för feminism och Davis (2006) genomgång av tidigare framställningar av manligt och kvinnligt i Disneyfilmer samt annan relevant litteratur tas upp. Resultat och slutsats: Jag fann att filmerna försökte vara nyskapande i sin framställning av kvinnor, men att teman som exempelvis vikten av att hitta en man fortfarande var grundläggande. Trots att de kvinnliga karaktärerna i bägge filmerna är huvudpersoner kan deras självständighet ifrågasättas. I Mulan agerar exempelvis huvudkaraktären efter hennes inställning till sin far och i Frost får huvudkaraktären berättat för sig vad kärlek är uteslutande av manliga karaktärer. Det visade sig att Disneys historia av stereotypa framställningar av manligt och kvinnligt i hög grad syntes i filmerna, både genom en vilja att gå ifrån stereotyper men också som en bekräftelse på att Disney ibland fastnar i gamla hjulspår. Filmerna symboliserar dock en strävan efter att diskutera genus och framställa kvinnor på nya sätt. Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Mulan skulle kunna undersökas ur ett etnicitetsperspektiv, eftersom det är en amerikansk skildring av ett kinesiskt folk. Därför skulle det kunna vara relevant för ytterligare forskning. När det gäller Frost skulle det vara intressant att jämföra den ur ett genusperspektiv med mer samtida Disneyfilmer för att studera huruvida de senaste fem årens filmer är tecken på en ny era av Disneyfilmer och vad som kännetecknar den.

Vi lever i ett samhälle som präglas av tydligt uttalade och outtalade föreställningar kring hur män och kvinnor ska vara och se ut. Dessa föreställningar lär vi oss redan som små barn, genom såväl föräldrar som vänner och även den media som ständigt omger oss. I tv och film presenteras ständigt stereotypiserade bilder av män och kvinnor, ofta i miljöer som ytterligare förstärker det stereotypa budskapet; till exempel starka män i mörka och farliga miljöer och vackra kvinnor i ljusa och varma miljöer. Eftersom media är en så stor del av elevernas vardag valde vi att genom en kvalitativ textanalys undersöka hur genus skapas i två filmer för barn där mänskliga karaktärer saknas, samt undersöka huruvida olika miljöer används för att förstärka intryck. Utifrån ett genus- och ekokritiskt perspektiv analyserade vi sedan filmerna Bilar (2006) och Wall-E (2008). Genom vår analys har vi kunnat dra slutsatsen att genus skapas tydligt även i kontexter där mänskliga karaktärer saknas, ofta med hjälp av olika miljöer som används för att förstärka olika stereotypa budskap. Hur genus görs skiljer sig dock tydligt åt mellan de två filmerna, som båda två uppvisar såväl normförstärkande som normbrytande kvaliteter. Bilar (2006) präglas dock främst av det förstnämnda, och förstärker traditionella könsroller och upprätthåller genussystemet med hjälp av olika miljöer genom hela filmen. Wall-E (2008) bryter desto mer mot traditionella normer genom att låta huvudkaraktärerna uppvisa både traditionellt manliga och kvinnliga egenskaper, vilket i teorin skulle kunnat resultera i könsneutralitet. Däremot utgör den heteronormativa kärleken kärnan i såväl Wall-E som Bilar vilket även präglar huvudkaraktärerna och hur de förhåller sig till varandra utifrån traditionella könsroller. Vår förhoppning är att lärare ska börja ta in elevernas mediekultur i klassrummet och tillsammans med dem våga diskutera och ifrågasätta vilka normer som presenteras och varför. Precis som Hirdman (1988) tror vi, att genom medvetandegörandet av genussystemet, eventuellt skulle kunna undvika att bidra till att själva reproducera systemet och på så sätt uppnå jämställdhet.

This thesis chronicles an attempt to delve into the murky world of image and semblance, illusion and contrivance. The examination and especially the celebration of image and style--of simulation--throughout recent cultural debate is incisively expressed through the framework of popular culture. Walt Disney World, as a cultural artifact and profit-making commodity, is the consummate model of all the entangled processes of popular culture: a turbulent melange of aesthetic, ethical, and sociological concerns. / America is Disney World; borne of fantasy and ubiquitous iconism. Our cultural atlas reverberates with the energy of cinematic, pulsating and seductive imagery; restrained and unfulfilled by the voyeuristic stance of the pseudo-event. / This study registers a pilgrimage into the shadows of our own creative aspirations: how can we engage in exploring new possibilities for architectural making, addressing imaginatively and ethically the rupture of the fabric symbolically connecting the actor and the drama?

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