2025-01-29

Walt Disney  – An Icon of Children’s and Young Adult Culture

Although the world of fairy-tale cinematography for children and young adults is not made up entirely of works created by Walt Disney, Jack Zipes’s statement (2010, p. xii) about its dominant position in crafting (not only) film fairy tales from at least the mid-20^th century through the early decades of the 21^st century seems both valid and still relevant. The scholar considers it impossible for anyone involved in this field of art, born after 1945 in Western countries, not to have seen productions from the studio and not to have been faced with a choice: either to accept this legacy with all its limitations or to challenge it (p. xi).

When Disney celebrated its centenary in 2023, calling for a celebration of works created under its auspices, The Guardian Weekly journalist Amelia Tait reflected on whether the anniversary initiatives, such as the special exhibition “Disney100: The Exhibition,” might serve as an exercise in “Walt-washing,” an attempt to erase the more problematic aspects of the studio’s history and its creator. Critical voices regarding the corporation’s achievements are, of course, nothing new, as evidenced by Zipes’s numerous comments, such as the one on the kind of “spell” that Disney supposedly cast over traditional stories, not with “a magic wand or demonic powers,” but through “the most up-to-date technological means” and his “»American« grit and ingenuity,” which, according to the author, served to “appropriate the European fairy tales” (1994, p. xx). At the same time, the discussion about the company is not devoid of apologetic or at least nuanced voices, such as that  of Joseph Zornado, who, in his 2017 work Disney and the Dialectic of Desire: Fantasy as Social Practice, argued that criticism directed at Disney is often driven by nostalgia for a ​​“restorative signifier” – one that, while essentially non-existent, would carry some “essence, presence” (p. 64).

Although there have been many studies on the achievements of Walt Disney, his corporation, and the films and other cultural texts (series, books, toys) it has created, in the next issue of Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura [Childhood: Literature and Culture] we would like to once again – also from new perspectives, inspired by the anniversary marking the studio’s 100 years celebrated two years ago – explore the influence of the studio’s founder and the media corporation that emerged from it on the shape of 20^th-century and contemporary children’s and young adult culture (especially since this corporation continues to grow and undergoes constant transformations). The problem areas we propose are as follows:

• Walt Disney as a hero of mass imagination, e.g., the biography of the creator and its media representations;
• The Disney Studio as a media corporation, entertainment company, market monopolist, e.g., organizational structure, non-film projects: book publishing, television stations, theme parks (through the lens of place and space studies), acquisition of companies and franchises (Pixar, Marvel, Lucasfilm with Star Wars, etc.), total products (toys, gadgets, etc.);
• Disney in the US and around the world, e.g., historical perspectives, including attempts to periodize the studio’s activity (periods, eras, etc.) and forgotten works – animations outside the canon, audience reception, film and literary criticism, and academic engagement with Disney's productions across different countries (including the question of whether a distinct Disney-focused scholarly canon exists);
• Disney in Poland, e.g., the history of presence: its beginnings before World War II, the period under the Polish People’s Republic (PRL), the history of its reception: Polish audiences, film and literary criticism, academic analysis of Disney’s works, film icons in Polish culture (not only) for children and young adults, translations/localizations/dubbing, linguistic aspects of Polish versions of films;
• intertextuality, transmediality, transfictionality, metafiction of Disney films and in relation to Disney films, e.g., the studio’s approach to fairy tales and children's literature (strategies of reworking the original), literary adaptations of the studio’s films (picturebooks, young adult novels, comics, pop-ups), live-action versions of classic animations, Disney self-referential strategies, inspirations in literature, cinema, television, and visual arts;
• Disney’s problematic legacy: colonialism, racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, etc. in the studio’s past productions, their contemporary perception and the corporation’s actions in addressing these issues, as well as ideologically motivated accusations of façade tokenism and wokeism;
• Disney productions in the context of socio-cultural changes: diversity, (pop)feminism, (dis)ability, queerness, etc.;
• picture in Disney films, e.g., technical aspects of animation, the transition from cartoon to 3D animation, the use of colour and its significance, special effects, the uniqueness of animation (Disney style or authorial styles?);
• sound in Disney films, e.g., soundtracks, songs and their Polish versions, musical and vaudeville inspirations, soundscapes in animated and live-action films;
• Disney and childhood, e.g., the child as a protagonist and viewer, cinematic visions of childhood, educational projects, and the question of colonizing children’s imagination;
• Disney at the fan reception: cosplay, fandoms, fan fiction.

The topics listed here do not exhaust the proposed scope of the issue; we welcome ideas suggested by you.

We also invite you to submit texts unrelated to the issue’s theme to our Talks, Varia, and Review Articles sections.

Articles submission deadline: 30 June 2025

Submissions via the journal’s platform: https://www.journals.polon.uw.edu.pl/index.php/dlk

References

Tait, A. (2023, July 28). Disney and Walt-washing. The Guardian Weekly.

Zipes, J. (1994). Fairy tale as myth / Myth as fairy tale. University Press of Kentucky.

Zipes, J. (2010). Foreword. Grounding the spell: The fairy tale film and transformation. In P. Greenhill & S. E. Matrix (Eds.), Fairy tale films: Visions of ambiguity (pp. ix–xiv). University Press of Colorado.

Zornado, J. (2017). Disney and the dialectic of desire: Fantasy as social practice. Palgrave Macmillan