Disney Discourse: Producing the Magic Kingdom (Afi Film Readers)

Rating:
Summary: Complicates Assumptions about Disney
Review: Disney Discourse is a substantial contribution to the field of Disney Studies. Smoodin's collection offers a range of reactions to the different Disneys that exist: television and film, theme parks, retail, and so forth. Furthermore, this interdisciplinary work is structured in three useful ways. First, it offers some representative materials from Disney's "golden age" that tend to praise Disney (both the man and the corporation). Second, many of the essays consider the reception to Disney. Three, the book is divided into four separate categories that provide an overview of possible approaches to the study of Disney.

As with any collection, not all the essays are of equal analytic strength. There are many good essays, however, particularl in the the sections entitled Cultural Production and Reception. Smoodin's own essay, "How to Read Walt Disney" is, in my opinion, worth the price of the book alone. Even essays which seem more grounded in personal reaction than critique have their worth; they demonstrate the investment individuals have in Disney as a site of debate.

Overall, the result of the book's conscientious structure is to complicate any easy binaries--taken as a collection, Disney Discourse refuses to unreflectively praise Disney or, equally problematic, simply critique Disney. Instead, Smoodin's book offers Disney as a site of investigation, of exploration, and of analysis. Indeed, Disney Discourse might be better renamed Disney Discourses in order to reflect the multiple ways people have approached Disney. Though not all the essays are equally strong, the book is a "must-have" for both serious scholars and Disney enthusiasts alike.

Rating:
Summary: A collection of essays about Walt Disney and Disney Corp.
Review: The essays included in this book cover many different aspects of Walt Disney and his Corporation. Some of the essays written are very negative. The editor appears to have a person adgenda in compiling the essays he included