Th.--Sci. de l'éduc. et de la communication--Paris 13, 1986.

This paper explores how ethnic character representations in Disney films have changed in response to changing cultural attitudes and historical context over time in response to variations in the broader American sensitivity to race and ethnicity. When we today look at instances of African American representation from the 1940s, such as in the Film Dumbo (1941), we are shocked at how overtly stereotypical these representation are. According to today’s standards, it would be unacceptable to show such caricatured racial representations. But at the time in America such standards, and the attitudes that inform them, did not exist. In view of the progress made in the intervening 70 years in thinking about race and the extent to which attitudes to racial representations have changed, we should now see the representation of African Americans being dealt with very differently in recent films such as The Princess and The Frog (2009), which featured Disney’s first African- American princess (Breaux 413). In order to answer this question I in this paper critically assess African-American representation in Disney films from the 1940s to today. In order to see how race has been dealt with in one of the studio’s first feature-length films and in one of its most recent releases I analyzed specific instances of racial representation in two case studies: Dumbo (1941) and The Princess and the Frog (2009). This analysis is informed by an awareness that the offensiveness of such representations is culturally determined and has changed over time. By textually reconstructing the contexts in which the films were produced and then analyzing instances of racial representation according to how they have been constructed, making reference to concepts of Stereotyping, Othering and Hierarchy.

Stuttgart, FH, Diplomarb., 2002.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, Santa Cruz, 1997. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 318-338).

No description available.

En tant que première destination touristique aux Etats-Unis, les parcs à thèmes Disney représentent un phénomène culturel important et une opportunité unique d’évaluer les médias de masse à l’aune de leur influence sur les usages et les conduites. L’analyse se propose d’interroger le concept d’imachination (imagineering), qui désigne chez Disney la conception des environnements thématiques et narratifs des parcs. Au travers de l’examen des protocoles de création des parcs, il s’agit de déterminer comment leurs concepteurs réunissent dans l’environnement certains critères de la narrativité ainsi que les récits qu’ils s’attachent à y raconter. Ainsi, le parc offre l’image d’un monde fictionnel qui, reflétant sous une forme objective certaines valeurs portées par la société américaine, décrit les conditions d’une bonne entente entre le visiteur et son environnement. Investi par le moyen de récits d’attributs psychologiques (souvenirs, valeurs), l’espace du parc oeuvre à la répartition des tâches entre le paysage et l’usager : en assignant un rôle à l’un et à l’autre, l’espace narratif soumet leurs interactions à un script préalable, si bien que les conduites et les émotions du second y relèvent d’une performance.En même temps qu’ils décrivent implicitement les conditions du bon usage du parc, les récits servent à la mobilisation d’acteurs distincts, et, ce faisant, à l’élaboration d’un système sociotechnique : de grands récits de progrès technique et économique ont ainsi permis à la compagnie de s’attacher le concours de grandes corporations américaines et d’obtenir pour son complexe floridien un statut juridique particulier, donnant le jour à un système de production inédit. / As the number-one tourist destination in the United States, the Disney theme parks are asignificant cultural phenomenon and present a unique opportunity to evaluate mass communication inlight of its influence on the user’s behavior and practices. This study aims to provide an analysis of “Imagineering”—that is, the design of narrative environments in the Disney-branded theme parks. By examining the design processes at work in the parks, the analysis shows what stories theso-called “Imagineers” intend to tell as well as how these stories fulfill the requirements of narratives in the very environment of the parks. The park thus presents the image of a fictional world that reflects the values of American society in an objective form, and in so doing provides the conditions for conformity between the user and the environment. As the repository of subjective and psychological traits (memories, values), the narrative space of the park distributes the tasks at hand between the visitor and the environment. By assigning each its role, the park subjects their interaction to a pre-established script—so well that the visitor’s behaviorsand emotions take on the appearance of performances. Besides providing implicit instructions for the proper use of the parks, narratives also serve to mobilize various social agents and in doing so create new sociotechnical systems. Grand narratives of technical and economic progress have thus helped the company secure the collaboration of prominent American corporations as well as a specific legal status for its Florida resort, giving rise to a new production system.

The significance of brands within our media-intensive culture can hardly be overstated. Having emerged in the mid-20th century as platforms for the distribution of commodities, brands have since become, as scholar Celia Lury argues, “the logos of the global economy.” Brand interfaces not only differentiate mass production, but produce cultural assemblages that rewrite social and political relations. This dissertation concerns itself with the meaning of theatrical production within brand performance, with a specific focus on the Walt Disney Company. Although there are many corporate producers in commercial theatre today — Warner Brothers, MGM, Universal, and Cirque du Soleil, to name a few — Disney has the distinction of being the first to make live theatre a cornerstone of its brand relationships. Disney has also had, in branding terms, the most depth, breadth and consistency of any global entertainment brand. Using the concept of assemblage as an applied framework, I consider how Disney’s brand theatre functions as a form of communicative/affective capitalism, as an interface for consumer interactivity and exchange. Following Deleuze and Guattari, DeLanda and Lury, I argue that Disney’s theatre assemblages are heterogeneous, contingent, emergent and most of all generative. At the heart of this project is the question of how Disney’s theatre assemblages cohere – the question of identifiable, intensive continuities. What kinds of historical contingencies are replicated in Disney’s texts and territories? How does the company code cultural flows? In what ways are Disney’s theatre assemblages networked to social formations like childhood, gender, race, sexuality, and nation? What kinds of consumer interactions and socio-technical conditions are most important to the ongoing process of developing brand relations? Although Disney’s multi-modal theatre assemblages are a function of neoliberal logic and labor norms, and sustain dominant modes of production, they are also highly mutable, often supporting contested claims of intelligibility and citizenship. The company produces a vast range of theatre experiences. This dissertation focuses on character encounters, children’s theatre, Broadway musicals, a re-creation of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West and animal/safari performance. The chapters are composed as a nested set of assemblages, starting with theatre for Disney’s most important demographic: children. I then move into larger social fields/assemblages, considering theatre that addresses the nation, theatre that reframes transnational/global space, and finally, animal/ecological theatre. Taken together, the chapters present an argument for the significance of brand theatre as a localized, expressive, collaborative and extremely flexible site of cultural affiliation, agency and assembly.

Thesis (M.A.I.S.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 133-138). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 589-609).

Denna komparativa analys jämför J.M. Barries Peter Pan och Wendy (2013) med Disneys Peter Pan (2015) för att se hur karaktärerna förändrats genom adaptionen av berättelsen. En narrativ analys presenterar berättelsens intrig och följs av en komparativ analys av de två verken där fokus ligger på vad som tagits bort vid adaptionen och hur karaktärerna framställs. Analysen visar hur mycket som vid adaptionen tagits bort och att detta påverkar bilden läsaren får av karaktärerna.