Previously, Paul Isley wrote...
The thing about Shakespeare is that he did it very well. Disney,
however,
seem to be able to completely miss the point of the stories, or water
down
the content (to avoid offending anyone) that they become mindless
pulp.
I don't agree with the Disney ideal of taking classical tales and
completely
disregarding the underlying moral message, replacing it with false
Hollywood morality.
Morality is morality, no matter how distasteful are the people who spout
it. That's the trouble - if you've got boring, cutesy anthropomorphised
animals telling you to always be good to others and never to take drugs,
chances are you'll deliberately do the opposite just to annoy those who
are patronising you with the message. (For "you", read "average kid at
whom it's aimed)
However, they do water things down and miss the point even more than a
blunt pencil sharpener. For example, one evening my (worldy-wise)
mother and I were watching The Simpsons on Sky; during an advert break
was a trailer for Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame... my mother
ended up screaming in terror at the very thought of Disney getting their
hands on it! (I believe the phrase "No, tell me it isn't true!" sprang
up) Other than this, however, my mother and I have enjoyed going to
DisneyWorld three times in past years. (Mind you, there were many other
places to go to in Florida...)
Kids surely used to enjoy this kind of thing - what's changed now? Is
it the standard of their films, or is it that kids are more, shall we
say, miserable gits who are only interested in trying to be "grown up"
(more in interests than in behaviour)?
Why don't they stick to creating original stories, like 'The
Lion King'
which was an example of Disney at it's best.
A-ha!!!! Someone else fooled into thinking it was an original story!
Well, they claim it was, but then there's an oriental tale called "Kimba
the Snow Lion" or something like that, about a lion cub whose father is
killed and who goes on to become king of his tribe... even the name is
similar! (Hence a joke in The Simpsons where, alongside the head of
recently-departed Bleeding Gums Murphy, the head of an adult lion
appears in a cloud proclaiming "You must avenge my death Kimba - I mean
Simba!")
Disney's merchandising is usually aimed at the grandparents,
Not sure how you came to that conclusion ?
It would be for the old stuff, because it would take them back to the
days when it first premiered!
Maybe, but I prefer the Teletubbies !
(What does that say about me ?)
The same as it does about everyone! Ah, but do you sit there thinking
"Oh, come on, Dipsy wants Laa-Laa *bad!*", or do you say "oh, isn't this
wonderfully educational, I'm so glad the Beeb is spending so much money
on this!"
It ain't just Disney merchandising absolute cobblers which serves only
to bore those at whom it was aimed, and amuse those at whom it was
not...
American On-Line. A very large Internet Service Provider which is
famed
in Internet folklore for allowing complete idiots onto the Internet
and
lowering the average IQ of the Internet user by several orders of
magnitude.
Ooh, another gratuitous Simpsons reference! In a recent season, where
the couch gags are getting more and more abstract, we see the Simpsons'
couch on a web browser; the user then tries to download the family from
AOL, and when it gets stuck with the bar reading "1 of 5" the cursor
clicks frantically at the "Cancel" button to no avail!
Right, enough about this! This is a science fiction mailing list! (My
God, now I'm saying it!)
Dave Chilard
