Disney, The New Rome

Pop culturally speaking, all roads lead to Disney. The Walt Disney company is becoming the great depository of pop culture. A museum, not in the old stodgy, lock it away type, but in the "let's preserve this because we like it so much way". As the National Parks keep alive the Great Outdoors for future generations the Walt Disney Company is keeping alive for future generations the pop art of artists whose work may not survive them on its own. 

Disney had already absorbed such cultural landmarks as The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, The Jungle Book by Kipling, the stories of The Brothers Grimm, the classic fairy tales of Europe, the books; Bambi, 101 Dalmatians, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Wind In The Willows, Alice In Wonderland, The Hunchback Of Notre Dame and Tarzan and even modern movie mythologies such as Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Now they've acquired The Muppets, The Marvel Universe and all the Pixar characters. They even made a stab at The Beatles with a proposed but ultimately jettisoned remake of Yellow Submarine.

Many people lament that Disney seems to be turning into a children's entertainment monopoly since they have a tendency to "Disneyize" the properties on which they get their hands. The "Disney version" is a censored and cuter version of the original made for small children to enjoy while the original source material such as "The Hunchback Of Notre Dame" most certainly was not intended for children.

This criticism of Disney doesn't bother me as I see what they do as similar as to what a band does when it covers another band's hit. The original still exists and must have achieved a considerable level of popular awareness for Disney to have been interested in absorbing it to begin with, but their version is just another artistic interpretation and usually intended for a different audience than the original. Disney's guaranty that the work will survive, at least in one form, for future generations is enough to make their cataloging of the world's great stories a very valuable service. It is also nice to think that Disney is not destroying the opportunities for new artists that some may see as its competition but like the huge company that they are, they're there to buy you out if you succeed enough and insure that your work won't be forgotten even if you are. Remember Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan or only Disney's Tarzan?


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