September 3, 2010
Sonia Poulton, writing with warm aplomb for the DailyMail, a British newspaper, suggests that Walt Disney's guilt over his mother's death might have led him (and his faithful successors) to gleefully snuff parents in the company's movies.
What nerve! What cheek! What ... insight?
When you think about it, Disney does plug a lot of parents: Bambi, The Lion King, Finding Nemo. And, quite often, if the parents aren't dead, they're separated or one has run off and abandoned the child. Dumbo's father is a dead-beat Dad. In Toy Story, Andy's father is absent. In Hannah Montana, the dad is there, the mother not. Want more examples? Sonia has 'em in her article.
But Sonia goes a bit too far by concluding that Disney had a role in the 'demise of family values' (I think she meant decline of family values since there must be a teensy bit left, somewhere).
Here's a better explanation: Disney movies are for children. The earlier movies were based on fairy tales. The intent of many fairy tales, and much juvenile entertainment, is fear, good old-fashioned scary story-telling. What's more frightening to a child than the loss of one or both parents? Or, generally, the fear of being alone and having to make new friends to survive.
Don't blame Disney for the 'demise of family values'. Disney movies tend to feature sympathetic characters (human or animal) who have lost their families but spend the next cinematic hour fighting hard to get them back - or, if that's impossible, struggling to form or join a new family.
What are these characters fighting for if not the recovery of lost family values?
MORE: Daily Mail (Sonia Poulton)
In this week's on-line edition of the Eastern Echo, a long-running newspaper for students of Eastern Michigan University, Janis Tsai profiles EMU graduate and Disney ImagiNation finalist Laura Whitbeck.
The ImagiNations Design Competition, held yearly by Walt Disney Imagineering, is a chance for students to develop a Disney-themed project and for finalists to present their ideas to a panel of Disney Imagineers, with the winners receiving 'Best in Show' awards (and potentially internships, as well). The focus is on technical innovation built upon core Disney concepts - the same approach taken by actual Imagineers.
Whitbeck's presentation, a humorous pitch for Wallaby Way and its inhabitants, multi-lingual fish who live in the shadow of an active volcano (wonder in how many languages they're able to shout: "watch out, hot lava!"), earned her a 10-month internship with Disney Worldwide Safety and Accessibility in Florida.
While there she'll live free in Disney housing as she masters the magic from Disney notables like Joe Rohde, the Imagineer-in-Chief of the Animal Kingdom.
The 2011 competition begins in January. For details, an application, and videos of past projects, visit the ImagiNations site.
As for Laura Whitbeck: when her internship ends, she hopes to become a spotlight speaker for the Disney College Program. And it all started with multi-lingual fish.
MORE: Eastern Echo (Janis Tsai)
Sometimes, simple does it, and it doesn't come much simpler than a new feature of Shawn Slater's blog, DisneyShawn, called "Where in Disney's World".
Each day this week Shawn posted a snippet of a picture taken at a Disney theme park, then the next day posted the entire picture.
Cake? Okay, tough guy: identify the snippet to your left. What's it from? Here's a hint: Disneyland. Nothin'? Me, neither. When you visit Shawn's site and see the full picture, you'll be ashamed.
No word yet on whether Shawn will make "Where in Disney's World" a regular feature on his blog, but even if he doesn't, there's lots more stuff there to read, including well-researched historical articles and trivia, and it's all written in Shawn's exceptionally clear style. Recommended!
MORE: Disney Shawn (Shawn Slater)
8:45 AM
Disney Report, Disney World
Robert Niles, owner of the world's top site about theme parks (according to Forbes), Theme Park Insider, is smilin' mad. I mean, he's mad about smiling. One more time: he's mad that a Disney cast member told his son to smile. Niles the Younger was walking with his father in Epcot that day, a torrid day, and he wasn't smiling. He's at Disney but not smiling? Can you go to prison for that?
Niles coined a name for such over-zealous Disney employees: the Smile Police.
Don't smile! Niles makes sense. I hate people telling me to smile. For all they know, my dog just died, or I'm in need of a lavatory, pronto. Like Niles' son, I've been told (twice) to smile at Disney, and I've been asked whether I was having fun. Not being a half-wit (three-quarter wit, maybe), I don't smile constantly but that doesn't mean I'm not happy or I'm not having fun.
As Niles suggests: don't tell me to smile, do something to make me smile.
From the many comments left by ThemeParkInsider readers, Niles' article hit a nerve. Few of them are smiling. And Disney better not tell them to start.
PS. Baby boomers will nod nostalgically at 'smilers never lose, frowners never win', the headline of this story; for everyone else, here's the source.
MORE: Theme Park Insider (Robert Niles)
Back in the glory days of televised cooking shows, the stars (Julia Child, Graham Kerr) worked seemingly without a script, but always with a bottle of wine, and their personalities made even their mistakes interesting. Nowadays, if you watch 'reality' shows like The Next Food Network Star, it seems that the folks in charge think we want cookie-cutter chefs who smile, rush, and pose.
Anyone remember Two Fat Ladies, a cooking show from the late 1990s? The ladies drank, smoked, and scowled while cooking such classic English fare as bubble and squeak. More of them, please (the Fat Ladies, not the bubble and squeak).
I'm not saying that Greg Grimsley, owner of the blog DisneyObsession, drinks, smokes, and scowls. But he does cook. Inspired by the recent movie Julie and Julia, in which a blogger cooked and blogged her way through Julia Child's classic cookbook, one recipe per day, Greg has decided to cook and blog his way through Disney dishes, one recipe per week.
Greg calls his new series Dining with Doc, and for his first kitchen challenge, he whips up the Rose & Crown Pub's Cottage Pie from Cooking with Mickey, Volume 2.
Unfortunately, Greg doesn't film the feat. He simply bookends the recipe with before (ingredients) and after (dish) pictures. But his notes and comments are helpful if you want to try it yourself.
I had the same idea when I first saw the trailer for Julie and Julia and prepared to undertake a similar project myself when I remembered that I'm not a good cook (unless you like bad food). I'm glad Greg is doing it, instead.
PS. For Greg and other budding on-line chefs, I recommend this short but masterful video of Christopher Walken cooking a chicken.
MORE: Disney Obsession (Greg Grimsby)
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