At 12:16 PM 6/25/98 +0100, Camille Bacon-Smith doth say
>Ah! This may be why the Disney version has never made a blip on my
>memory-radar. For me, Peter Pan has always been Mary Martin, a woman,
>in a version in which Wendy bossed the boys around. That version had
>its problems too--a racist take on Indians that in the fifties,when I
>was a kid, wasn't obvious to me the way it is now. In fact, Tiger Lily
>was another of my favorite characters.
>
>Disney is truly a menace. ARgh!
>
>Camille
>
I would have to agree that Disney is a meanace, although not for the same
reasons. Most of what I have against Disney comes from their "softening",
almost making "politically correct" versions of popular tales. Take
Hercules, for instance. The whole tale of Hercules is one about a man who
possesses terrific strength, yet also has anger and madness in his veins.
He kills his wife and children, then sets about making amends for that
wrong. His whole life seems to be a tragic circle of rage followed by
contrition.
Do we see any of that in the Disney version? No; what we see is a cream
puff tale of a hero who has to find his "inner strength". Aside from
botching the whole story, (Hercules is a non-Athenian, mostly Spartan hero,
and the last place he should be showing up is a city where thought is
valued over strength), Disney uses a lot of tired, modernistic cliches to
explain away the conflict between the good and the bad in a person's soul.
I'm not surprised that Disney does a tale about a girl-hero and makes the
Chinese country out to be the good guy, using "honor" in every promotion ad
nauseum. Nor am I surprised that Disney ignores the human rights
violations of China. Disappointed in America's taste, yes, but not
surprised.
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John Meyer
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TechBits Poderator
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"Anyone who fights for the future, lives in it today" -Ayn Rand
"Bad Cop! No Donut!"
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