It's the Disney Version!: Popular Cinema and Literary Classics

(Hardback)

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In 1937, the first full-length animated film produced by Walt Disney was released. Based on a fairy tale written by the Brothers Grimm, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was an instant success and set the stage for more film adaptations over the next several decades. From animated features like and Bambi to live action films such as Mary Poppins, Disney repeatedly turned to literary sources for inspirationa tradition the Disney studios continues well into the twenty-first century. In Its the Disney Version!: Popular Cinema and Literary Classics, Douglas Brode and Shea T. Brode have collected essays that consider the relationship between a Disney film and the source material from which it was drawn. Analytic yet accessible, these essays provide a wide-ranging study of the term The Disney Version and what it conveys to viewers. Among the works discussed in this volume are Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Tarzan, and Winnie the Pooh. In these intriguing essays, contributors to this volume offer close textual analyses of both the original work and of the Disney counterpart. Featuring articles that consider both positive and negative elements that can be found in the studios output, Its the Disney Version!: Popular Cinema and Literary Classics will be of interest to scholars and students of film, as well as the diehard Disney fan.

Reviews

Brode and Brode have gathered essays that contrast classic literature with their popular (and catastrophic, according to some critics) adaptations. Several essays sparkle with insight and wit, among them David McGowans juxtaposition of Disneys iconic Snow White (1937) and the Fleischers inferior Gullivers Travels (1939), Gary Edgerton and Kathy Merlock Jacksons Disney's Pocahontas: History, Legend, and Movie Mythology, Elizabeth Bells delightfully autobiographical reflections on Tinker Bell in Do You Believe in Fairies and Finn Mortensens trajectory of the Little Mermaid from folk tradition to Danish then global icon. The book collects diverse glimpses at the American genius and pluck of Walt Disneys oeuvre and its compelling template as the dominant cultural storytelling of the 20th century. Onemust be content to be a glutton at a smorgasbord of sumptuous writings. The contributors capably show that Disneys cinematic visualizations fit snugly into that classic tradition of translating oral tales into ones own vernacular. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. * CHOICE *

Author Bio

Douglas Brode teaches popular culture at Syracuse Universitys Newhouse School of Public Communications, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Our Lady of the Lake University (also in San Antonio). He has published more than 35 books, including Rod Sterling and The Twilight Zone (2009). He is the coeditor of Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars: An Anthology (2012) and Sex, Politics and Religion in Star Wars: An Anthology (2012), and Draculas Daughters: The Female Vampire on Film (2013). Brode is a contributor to the upcoming PBS-TV mini-series: American Masters: Walt Disney. Shea T. Brode has an MA in Literature and Cultural Studies from the University Autonoma in Madrid. Douglas and Shea are the coeditors of The Star Trek Universe: Franchising the Final Frontier (2015) and Gene Roddenberrys Star Trek: The Original Cast Adventures (2015).