The following essay will examine the management and worker relationships within the 2009 documentary ‘Waking Sleeping Beauty’. Using French and Raven’s (1959) notions of power these relationships will be critiqued and analysed. Applying and critically evaluating the different notions of power will help to show the impacts they have had on the creative team within the Disney Corporation as well as the many variations of resistance, which occurred. This essay will discuss ‘Waking Sleeping Beauty’ in chronological order using specific events, which display the six notions of power in order to show the relationships between managers and the animators of Walt Disney Productions.
In a noteworthy study focusing on power two reputable academics John R.P. French and Bertram Raven (1959) broke down power into six different forms which they call bases of power. These six bases of power are referent, legitimate, information, expert, coercive and reward power. French and Raven (1959) explain that these bases or notions of power are known to be the most significant and prevalent when discussing power. These notions of power will be used to analyse ‘Waking Sleeping Beauty’, a documentary focusing on the history of Walt Disney Feature Animation and a timeline of events, which occurred between 1984 to 1994. The events show the management and worker relationships of the organisation and the types of obstacles the company faced when trying to produce animated films.
In the beginning of
Since the 1930’s, the Walt Disney Company is known for producing characters, images, as well as stories which have created happiness for audiences around the world. This corporation has grown from a small cartoon studio run by famous Walt and Roy Disney to a million dollar business. In Janet Wasko’s novel, “Understanding Disney”, Wasko explains Disney as corporation calling it “The Disney Empire”. Throughout her novel, Wasko argues that Disney is set up like a typical profit seeking corporation, as well as creates and manufactures fantasy, and lastly re-invents folk tales by “Americanising” them.
Tracey Mollet is a modern history researcher. She received her BA from Oxford and her MA from Leeds. Primarily she researched the Nazi regime in Germany, from 1933 to 1945. However while she was working on her MA she became more interested and captivated in the animation produced by the famous Disney Studios during World War II. This particular subject has not been researched or studied on: which made her even more interested and motivated. Her theses on her research paper argues that Disney Productions since 1932 presents as an adaptation mechanism for the depression of the era. She used mainly the Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs story to support her argument that
The Mickey Mouse Monopoly documentary reveals the obscure social messages behind the animated films created by the Disney Company. Although we are conditioned to believe that these movies are pure forms of entertainment, further examination has proved that there are hidden messages concerning gender, race and class that Disney is instilling in the minds of children. The speakers in the documentary argue that Disney is extremely political and hides its ideas behind innocence, magic and fun. When masked by features that are appealing to a younger audience, it is difficult to realize these ideas without taking a closer look.
Mickey Mouse may be an iconic figure. However, history has shown that Walt Disney may have actually been a rat. Building his empire of “The Wonderful World of Disney” does not qualify him to be a captain of industry. By definition, a captain of industry is one with positive integrity. Whereas, a robber baron is motivated by greed. As Disney began his ascent, he was like the Pharaoh in his Prince of Egypt production. Believing the end justified the means, Disney plowed over employees, considering their livelihood as part of collateral damage. Disney was a robber baron with a pernicious temper, who harshly controlled employees, and ruled his cast members by intimidation.
Walter Elias Disney was an amazing film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Mr. Disney left this world, impacting and inspiring the lives of everyone and changing the world of movie-making forever. Walt Disney was the creator of popular animated characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Alice in Wonderland, and Snow White. He is the namesake for the Walt Disney Company, Walt Disney Resort, and many more. Walt Disney had lived an enthralling life, and improved the field of entertainment tremendously. To sum it all up, Walt Disney will always be remembered as the best entertainer of
The Disney princess films are some of the most common in the world today. Because of their popularity, these works speak and evaluate, in significant detail, by various scholars. Numerous people disapprove these films for their seemingly sexist and oppressive gender messages. They find fault with the princesses serving as role models for young girls. Though, when one attentively scrutinizes the movies and compares the individualities of the princesses to the progressive woman of their time, one may obviously see the positive messages.
Walt Disney once said, “It’s not the magic that makes it work, it’s the work that makes the magic.” (Capodagli & Jackson, 2007). Walt Disney was truly a visionary and ethical leader that used his talents as a transformational leader and artist to dream up a world that has stood the test of time for nearly 90 years. In this paper I will explain why he was both a visionary and ethical leader. It will show that he used inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation to further his clear and easy to follow vision, inspire his personnel, and leverage their creativity. It will also show why I believe Walt Disney fit into the traits of an ethical leader by valuing his team members and creating an environment of mutual trust and respect. Then I will tell you how I have used the same transformational leadership behaviors to lead my people, have made sure not to fall into an ethical trap and take credit for the work others do. All leaders could learn something from Walt’s visionary leadership.
The story of Sleeping Beauty is told in many different forms and is most famous from Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. For example, the fairytale “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” by Charles Perrault is quite different than Disney 's version. This fairytale should be researched because it has an interesting historical background and it is still culturally relevant to this day. The three main points that will be discussed about Sleeping Beauty in this paper is historical background, the different ways this fairytale is represented, and the cultural significance this story has on society. Researching this story has opened my eyes that the Sleeping Beauty movie I
This paper will identify and explore the tensions that led up to the notorious Disney Studio Strike of 1941 as well as specifically provide the causes and effects the strike had on Disney Studios and the animation industry. The ultimate question to be answered throughout this paper is how did this strike demonstrate different issues than what was typical of strikes during the 1930s and early 1940s? Going forward with answering this primary question several other, more specific questions surface. To
Through the theoretical approach of Marxism, The Beauty and The Beast (2017) is a Disney film that depicts the divide between class structures in a traditionally oriented society. The Marxist theory is used as a tool to analyze the film in order to have the ability to examine the core concepts of the theory and investigate the theme of the film in its entirety. The film depicts two class structures that consist of lower, peasant-like villagers and a middle-class structure. The film depicts various social hierarchy’s that attempts to challenge humanities perception of power through the theory of Marxism. This paper will describe how the theoretical approach of Marxism applies to the Disney film, The Beauty and the Beast (2017) through
Welcome to the happiest place on earth, otherwise known as hell. Imagine entering a place where the air smells like fresh homemade cookies, the lush green trees are shaped like animated characters, and the sidewalks are always squeaky clean. The employees or “cast members” appear to be clean-cut, happy, wholesome, all-American people. This is the image Walt Disney World provides for its guests. But what goes on behind the scenes at Disney? Until a person has worked for the “big mouse” she won’t be able to understand the torture that can go on for employees. I’ve been in that Disney “cult,” part of the “wonderful world of Disney.”
The Walt Disney Studio’s Diversity Mission Statement is “To create an inclusive environment that is open to all perspectives, allowing us to tell compelling stories in film, animation and music that visually and emotionally reflect our audience worldwide.” “The Walt Disney Studios maintains that the only existing boundaries are those of talent, ambition, imagination and innovation.” (Moore, 2007)
Disney has become a marketing goliath and the #1 entertainment company in the US. They have been able to develop a creativity-driven philosophy that over time was tempered by financial responsibility and that benefitted from powerful synergies between its divisions. From the very beginning, Disney has been synonymous with innovation within the children’s entertainment industry, from their introduction of animations with synchronized audio, full-length animated feature films and then later into theme parks and on-ice and Broadway shows. One important element of Disney’s success was the extent to which they integrated and expanded into different
In the last decades, the number of major corporations that manage to control media has decreased significantly, resulting in a high concentration of ownership. In 2011, only six media companies were responsible for 90% of the things we saw and heard on a daily basis compared to fifty companies in 1983 (Lutz, 2012). The Walt Disney Company is one of them. In this report, we will take a look at how the Company has succeeded in growing into the media corporation it is today.
This paper will analyse a recent period of strategic change at The Walt Disney Company which began in 2005 with the appointment of current CEO Robert Iger. The company began to experience halted growth during the late 1990s. The former CEO Michael Eisner had been successful himself in the late 1980s in changing the company during what is known as the Disney