Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests I'm going to disney world!

There are actually some very nice restaurants in the Disney World theme parks. They can be a bit pricey, $25 for a buffet, but the food is very well prepared. One is in the Disney World park itself, it is a Winnie the Pooh buffet that has dishes flavored with spices from around the world. I am a cook and I was VERY impressed with the flavors and presentation of the food for a buffet. Top notch!!

I'm guessing it's still there, but the mcdonald's french fry stand also has the best regular fast food style fries anywhere. I say that because most mcdonald's have gone down in quality of how they prepare their fries, but they still did it right when I was last down there.

What happened to 96RedSE5Sp, his comments were good for a big laugh and I'm bored.

Since you're interested, here are some interesting analyses of the Disney Empire
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"We have no obligation to make history.
We have no obligation to make art.
We have no obligation to make a statement.
To make money is our only obligation."
-Michael Eisner, CEO, Disney, 2000

Disney's influence derives from its association with playfulness based on animation, films, parks as
films, and its promise of making childhood dreams come true- for both children and adults.

This playfulness consists of predictable, controlled experiences- the negation of play which is
unpredictable, spontaneous and controlled by the participants. The corporation's misty nostalgia serves
to disguise consumption, obscure the inadequacies of the present and bridge the gap into a higher
future care of technological progress managed by General Electric, General Motors, Coca Cola and
their corporate mates.

The myths of childhood, family and progress are a powerful drug. We need to wake up to the smell ...
and collectively seize and create the present and future.
------------------------------------------------------------

Popular audiences tend to reject any link between ideology and the prolific entertainment world of
Disney. And yet Disney's pretense to innocence appears to some critics as little more than a
promotional mask that covers over its aggressive marketing techniques and influence in educating
children to the virtues of becoming active consumers. Eric Smooden, editor of Disney Discourse, a
book critical of Disney's role in American culture argues that "Disney constructs childhood so as to
make it entirely compatible with consumerism." Even more disturbing is the widespread belief that
Disney's trademarked innocence renders it unaccountable for the diverse ways in which it shapes the
sense of reality it provides for children as they take up specific and often sanitized notions of identity,
difference, and history in the seemingly apolitical, cultural universe of "the Magic Kingdom." For
example, Jon Wiener, argues that Disneyland's version of Main Street America harkens back to an
"image of small towns characterized by cheerful commerce, with barbershop quartets and ice cream
sundaes and glorious parades." For Wiener this view not only fictionalizes and trivializes the history or
real Main Streets at the turn of the century, it also represents an appropriation of the past to legitimate a
present that portrays a world "without tenements or poverty or urban class conflict....it's a native white
Protestant dream of a world without blacks or immigrants."
------------------------------------------------------------

...[W]hile it is indisputable that Disney provides both children and adults with the pleasure of being
entertained, Disney's public responsibility does not end there. Rather than being viewed as a
commercial public sphere innocently distributing pleasure to young people, the Disney empire must be
seen as an pedagogical and policy making enterprise actively engaged in the cultural landscaping of
national identity and the "schooling" of the minds of young children. This is not to suggest that there is
something sinister behind what Disney does as much as it points to the need to address the role of
fantasy, desire, and innocence in securing particular ideological interests, legitimating specific social
relations, and making a distinct claim on the meaning of public memory. Disney needs to be held
accountable not just at the box office, but also in political and ethical terms. And if such accountability
is to be impressed upon the "magic kingdom" then parents, cultural workers, and others will have to
challenge and disrupt both the institutional power and the images, representations, and values offered
by Disney's teaching machine. The stakes are too high to ignore such a challenge and struggle, even if
it means reading Disney's animated films critically.

This is going to be fun...

Originally posted by 96RedSE5Sp:

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Since you're interested, here are some interesting analyses of the Disney Empire
============================================================

"We have no obligation to make history.
We have no obligation to make art.
We have no obligation to make a statement.
To make money is our only obligation."
*edited* -Any CEO, Any Company, Any Year *edited*

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Eisner summed up what any and every company is out to do, and didn't BS anyone about it in that statement, which is why I changed it to suit the argument.

Quote:

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Disney's influence derives from its association with playfulness based on animation, films, parks as
films, and its promise of making childhood dreams come true- for both children and adults.

---

Amazing... and to think a company wants to put out a good image and draw people to its product. What a concept!

Quote:

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This playfulness consists of predictable, controlled experiences- the negation of play which is
unpredictable, spontaneous and controlled by the participants. The corporation's misty nostalgia serves
to disguise consumption, obscure the inadequacies of the present and bridge the gap into a higher
future care of technological progress managed by General Electric, General Motors, Coca Cola and
their corporate mates.

---

Oh no, Disney has other corporate sponsors, too! The horror! And negation of WHAT play? Negation of kids' playing? Has nothing to do with Disney, that's the parents' fault.

Quote:

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The myths of childhood, family and progress are a powerful drug. We need to wake up to the smell ...
and collectively seize and create the present and future.

---

Wow, what an amazing dissertation on the current social state. This has absolutely NOTHING to do with Disney.

Quote:

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And yet Disney's pretense to innocence appears to some critics as little more than a
promotional mask that covers over its aggressive marketing techniques and influence in educating
children to the virtues of becoming active consumers.

---

Again, I say... a company wants to make money?! Outrageous!

Quote:

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For example, Jon Wiener, argues that Disneyland's version of Main Street America harkens back to an
"image of small towns characterized by cheerful commerce, with barbershop quartets and ice cream
sundaes and glorious parades." For Wiener this view not only fictionalizes and trivializes the history or
real Main Streets at the turn of the century, it also represents an appropriation of the past to legitimate a
present that portrays a world "without tenements or poverty or urban class conflict....it's a native white
Protestant dream of a world without blacks or immigrants."

---

Bwuaahahhahhahhhhahhhhahahahhah! Thanks, that's one of the funniest things I've read all week. It presents an ideal place- a place where nobody HAS to deal with poverty, nobody HAS to deal with the ugly side of the world... it's a place to leave all of the crap of everyday life behind. Hence the name Main St., USA. It's amazing what people will try to pin on "evil companies."

Quote:

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...[W]hile it is indisputable that Disney provides both children and adults with the pleasure of being
entertained, Disney's public responsibility does not end there.

---

The only thing wrong with that statement is that you assume that Disney has some sort of responsibility for the way kids are raised. Again, they do NOT. That's their parents' fault. Quit placing social responsibilities on a company that does not have them. Disney's sole responsibilities ARE to make money... they ARE a company, after all. This isn't some utopian world where every company is out to make the world a better place.

Quote:

---

...it points to the need to address the role of
fantasy, desire, and innocence in securing particular ideological interests, legitimating specific social
relations, and making a distinct claim on the meaning of public memory. Disney needs to be held
accountable not just at the box office, but also in political and ethical terms.

---

Why political or ethical? Political and ethical views vary person to person. Disney's not in charge of that, and isn't going to try to be in charge of that for everyone.

[quote
And if such accountability
is to be impressed upon the "magic kingdom" then parents, cultural workers, and others will have to
challenge and disrupt both the institutional power and the images, representations, and values offered
by Disney's teaching machine. The stakes are too high to ignore such a challenge and struggle, even if
it means reading Disney's animated films critically.

---

Parents begin teaching their children before they're able to even recognize what a TV is, let alone what's ON the TV. If Disney can exert that much control over your kids, you've failed as a parent, IMO.

Yeah, what he said.

I think that Walter Disney and Roy Disney would disagree with you and Mr. Eisner as to whether or not the Disney Corporation should have any goals in adition to making money.


"I believe that our mission has always been to be bringers of joy, to be affirmers of the good in each of us, to be - in subtle ways - teachers, and to speak, as Walt once said, "not to children but to the child in each of us," by way of great storytelling, by way of giving our guests a few hours in another world where their cares can be momentarily put aside, and by way of the memories of those moments that remain with people forever."

�??Roy E. Disney


In Roy Disney's resignation letter after he was eased from the Board of Directors of Disney by Mr. Eisner, Roy Disney acused Mr. Eisner of having betrayed the company's core values, alienating its best and brightest executives and compromised Disney's future.

Here's a quote from Walt Disney.


�??I�??ve always been bored with just making money. I�??ve wanted to do things, wanted to build things, to get something going.�?�

-Walt Disney

Things change, times change. If Disney doesn't make money, it goes out of business. It used to be people understood wanting to make a profit. Now it's all about a false perception of having to make a difference or teach something.

Roy and Walt themselves may have been bored with making money, but, ultimately, that's what the company MUST do in order to survive, no? I highly doubt that Roy or Walt NEVER took any form of compensation from the company.

What irks me is all these people, you included, who fault the company for the social and behavioral changes in children when it in fact lays squarely on the shoulders of the parents who cannot raise their children properly.