Post by K on Dec 26, 2007 16:28:04 GMT -5
When average folk think of Disney, they envision cute animated and live-action films as well as the theme parks which have become modern-day meccas for the middle-class. For nearly a century, Disney has produced tantalizing eye candy to fulfill peoples' deepest and in some cases darkest desires, and Disneyphiles have eaten it up in droves.
From "Steamboat Willie" to "Bambi" to Disney World to their "On Ice" tie-ins to all the "Herbie the Love Bug" sequels, Disney's popularity has not only lifted them to the status of American icon, but a symbol recognized around the world. Even war-ravaged children in impoverished nations can be seen wearing so-called Disneyana.
What can be more enticing than the hypnotic "Yo Ho Ho" or "It's a Small World" while floating along the picturesque attractions that have made Disney this planet's most-frequented family vacation destination? The Mouse represents the ideal way of life, a fantasy world devoid of the hardships that the rat race has forced upon us. From the Plasticine facades of "Main Street, USA," to the eager "cast members" immediately scooping up that wayward piece of trash, what can be more ideal than escaping to the "Happiest Place on Earth?"
To die-hard fans, Disney is the paramount of perfection. Anything to the contrary is blasphemous in the eyes of the Disneyphile. They stake their investments on those colorful stock certificates hung over the infant's bed; on the abundance of clothes, toys, and accessories that burst forth from every nook and cranny; on their extensive video collections that line the shelves. To own even a small piece of the Mouse represents a life's dream for many. And no one is going to tell them otherwise.
Walter Elias Disney
Generations of television viewers welcomed Uncle Walt into their homes every week to promote his theme park, teach about the animal world, and show America how a good Mouseketeer should have fun. Some Mice, past and present, rose to stardom including Annette Funicello, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake. It was Britney who told us, "Honestly, I think we should just trust our president in every decision he makes and should just support that, you know, and be faithful in what happens." She is quoted in Michael Moore's "Farenheit 9/11" which Disney refused to release.
Behind the scenes, though, things weren't as wonderful as the world of Disney would have us believe. Walt had a horribly abusive father. This shaped his life into what he would become: a stern business leader with obsessive habits. While demanding his employees adhere to strict work rules such as a stringent dress policy including no facial hair and absolutely zero cussing, Walt's hypocrisy in this area is legendary. Apparently only he himself was allowed to sport a mustache. Walt even enforced a dress code for guests at his theme parks, mostly targeting beatniks and hippies.
The hypocrisy goes even deeper with Walt's claim to fame of inventing Mickey Mouse. He had actually created Mortimer Mouse whose visage was based on Walt himself. It was upon the advice of his animator and business partner Ubbe Iwwerks later changed to Ub Iwerks at Disney's suggestion and Walt's wife Lillian that Mickey was born.
At Walt's thirty-fifth birthday party in 1936, he fired two of his animators for producing an in-house short depicting Mickey consummating his relationship with Minnie. Walt's strong-arm practices led staffers to begin referring to "Waltalitarianism," "fearing a single misinterpreted word to anyone could result in immediate termination," according to biographer Marc Eliot in <cite>
Walt Disney: Hollywood's Dark Prince</cite>.
In 1941, the Screen Cartoonists Guild struck Disney. Not only did Walt hire thugs to rough people up, but he was so convinced it was a Communist plot to take over the industry that he reported several of his employees to the Joseph McCarthy House Un-American Activities Committee witch hunt. Walt also became an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. <cite>Hollywood's Dark Prince</cite> lets us know that under his attorney's "tutelage, Disney discovered how the passions and power of political activism could be used as weapons for personal gain. And later on, for revenge." Walt's HUAC testimony and FBI file, released through the Freedom of Information Act, are available online.
Walt's alleged patriotism also reared its head in his involvement with the "America First" movement to prevent the US from entering World War Two. Disney animator Arthur Babbitt relates how Walt even attended American Nazi Party meetings. While historians theorize that this was his attempt to once again get Disney films shown in Europe, Walt's racism hasn't escaped Disney biographers who have described him equating Jews and blacks with Communism. When the US military eventually "invaded" his studios, the Mouse had no choice but to create training films and propaganda for the war effort: there was no money elsewhere.
In 1967, shortly after Walt's death, Disney was granted permission from the Florida Legislature to experiment with nuclear fission. As Walt let us know in Heinz Haber's <cite>
The Walt Disney Story of Our Friend the Atom</cite>, "With our atomic projects we found ourselves deep in the field of nuclear physics. Of course, we don’t pretend to be scientists we are story tellers. But we combine the tools of our trade with knowledge of experts. We even created a new Science Department at the studio to handle projects of this kind."
Attractions
The pride and joy of Walt's empire was Disneyland Park. On 17 July 1955, friends Robert Cummings, Art Linkletter, and Ronald Reagan provided commentary on ABC for the opening day logistical nightmare referred to as "Black Sunday" by Disney veterans, according to biographer Marc Eliot. Things eventually fell into place, and over the years additional Disney parks have sprung up not only in a second Orange County, but in Europe and Asia as well. Walt Disney World even became the backdrop for President Richard Nixon's infamous "I'm not a crook" speech.
With the theme parks has come a price, in particular the inherent danger of the thrill rides. Stephen M. Fjellman references a 1985 <cite>Time</cite> Magazine article in his book
<cite>Vinyl Leaves: Walt Disney World and America</cite>: "Although the corporation does not disclose the annual number of injuries to visitors,...between fifty and one hundred personal injury lawsuits are filed against Disney each year."
According to online resource Theme Park Insider at www.themeparkinsider.com which provides a visitor-maintained database of park injuries, "official U.S. federal and state data on theme park accidents is almost nonexistent." Larger amusement parks are not subject to state oversight.
In 2004, Disney was sued for wrongful death when it was discovered that mechanics had failed to tighten and wire lock bolts on a crucial "Big Thunder Mountain" guide wheel at Disneyland. Park inspectors had also signed off on work that hadn't been done. The case was settled by confidential settlement.
In 2006 a 12-year-old's heart stopped from the "Rock 'n' Roller Coaster" at Walt Disney World. It took more than seven minutes from the 911 call for park paramedics to arrive and defibrillate the boy. Disney doesn't store defibrillators at the individual rides, instead depending on their roving medical staff to arrive in time with the life-saving device. He was the ninth person to die at the park in three years.
Disneyphiles would try to convince us accidents happen at amusement parks that it isn't just Disney and therefore shouldn't be a worry. But the Mouse apparently considers the deaths at EPCOT Center to be problematic, leading them to retool part of their "Mission: Space" attraction in 2006.
© WDP
Walt Disney Productions is a publicly owned conglomerate like so many other business giants, and they too seek to make money from their holdings using whatever method possible. Under the more than twenty year reign of Michael Eisner, who lost his position as chairman in 2004, Disney earned the title of <cite>Business Week's</cite> worst managed board in 1997.
Disney has invested in its employees through so-called "dead peasants" life insurance. These tax exempt policies were in many cases taken out illegally without the mark's knowledge. Working someone to death has become highly profitable for the Mouse. Disney was even found guilty in 2000 of coercing a dying employee out of more than a million dollars.
Disney subsidiaries include movie studios that have produced such controversial films as "Kids," described as nihilistic child pornography by family advocates, and "Priest," "such an alarming and sick movie that the gay newspaper <cite>The Advocate</cite> reported it under the heading 'Family Alert Issues'" according to the www.anomalies-unlimited.com website. Disney even considered filming the movie "Ripe" about deflowering 14-year-old twins. Disney also hosts Viewer's Choice "Hot Choice" pay-per-view soft porn on their cable channels according to the website.
Pornography has even been allowed to slip into their animated features. A photo of a topless woman appeared in "The Rescuers" home video. In "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Jessica Rabbit doesn't appear to be sporting underwear when she twirls. There's also a questionable scene involving Baby Herman sulking under a woman's petticoats. The original home video cover art for "The Little Mermaid" contained a phallus. And mysterious layering of voices in "Aladdin" has him saying "Good teenagers, take off your clothes."
Mischievous or otherwise disgruntled employees are usually to blame for these inclusions to the Disney experience. One example is the claim that letters in the clouds of "The Lion King" were allegedly inserted by special effects artists to spell out SFX, but they actually appear as SEX to the astute observer.
The movie's hit song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" became the subject of a lawsuit when heirs to the original artist, Solomon Linda, who died penniless in 1962, sued Disney for back royalties, later settling out of court for an undisclosed sum. It should also be noted that the storyline itself was blatantly ripped off from "Kimba The White Lion" by Osamu Tezuka, the "Walt Disney of Japan," after his death.
Disney attempts to bypass copyright laws by reproducing the works of deceased artists. As a slap in the face, the Mouse all but illegally bribed Congress to pass the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act. To protect its self interests, Disney sued at least one child care center to remove its caricatures from the walls and has threatened children's websites with legal action for displaying Disney creations.
To Disney's credit, the Mouse did finally agree to allow the British parents of a stillborn child to include an image of "Winnie the Pooh" and the words "bear of very little mind" on the headstone. The long-running legal battle over ownership of Pooh was decided in 2006 when the US Supreme Court ruled that Stephen Slesinger's heirs control the licensing of the product and not Pooh author A.A. Milne's heir nor Disney. The Slesingers claim that Disney owes them at least $700 million in unpaid royalties.
Save Disney
Disney claims that "people are our most valued asset," but Disney sweatshops are located in numerous countries reports the Immaculata High School's Child Slave Labor project at their www.ihscslnews.org website. As www.anomalies-unlimited.com describes, "Disney was one of the most active members in UNICEF, an organization dedicated to the protection of children's rights including protection from sexual exploitation and child labor, specifically." But when in 1995 Federal Agents raided two sweatshops in Los Angeles, they discovered children as young as 12 making Disney apparel. In addition, the website also notes that "the National Labor Committee in New York, whose job it is to track the labor force hiring of U.S. Corporations, considers Disney one of 'the worst offenders.'"
Even the Disney clothing line itself has come under scrutiny. Greenpeace began a campaign to attach warning labels to children's wear containing unsafe levels of harmful chemicals including gender-bending phthalates. The products included Buzz Lightyear pajamas for boys; Piglet pajamas; Tigger pajamas with caption "100% Cheeky;" and Tigger pajamas with caption "Come on in little buddy. The water's great!"
Other products to slip through the cracks include small chocolate balls containing choking hazards and lead-lined jewelry. Mickey waffle irons and Winnie the Pooh Brand Complete Multi Vitamins also made the chopping block. Even entire children's book sets and an Insane Clown Posse album have been recalled.
Disney will also cut costs by summarily terminating employees. The website www.duckau.com arose from the fallout of such firings. This online resource offers itself as an "outlet for 'Tragic Kingdom' cast members, current and former, to be able to read about and contribute stories and information about what travesties of justice go on behind the scenes, not just at the resorts, but within the corporate structure and studio as well."
After his resignation in 2003, nephew Roy Disney Jr. formed his own protest website www.savedisney.com. With the promise of the complete departure of Michael Eisner in 2006, Roy dismantled his site and returned to the Mouse as director emeritus.
Despite being the subject of numerous alternative news articles and several books exposing their hypocrisy, most mainstream avenues of information regarding the Mouse have met any derogatory accusations with silence and contempt. Disney criticism hurts their bottom line so they choose to refuse the facts.