Disney Honeymoon

I know two grown women in their twenties who are infatuated with the Disney Princesses.  And I mean totally inspired with foolish love and admiration for them.

One of the women now works for Disney, the other is newlywed. They both dress up as princesses one for fun and the other as her dream job.

It is funny to see normally strong young women fall under the spell of the "princes mystique" .  For a six year old girl it's cute but for a mature adult it is almost strange.  Some parents of young daughters look at the Disney Princesses on par with the dreaded Barbie Doll as an unrealistic depiction of hyper femininity and a reinforcement of stereotypical gender roles.  That might be a little over the top.

Oddly that much purity attracts the cynical idea it's all a front and behind facade is a world of sadness and depravity.  As one Disney worker once said it does take a lot of pain and effort to make everyone else happy.

In the past I posted thoughts about the Empire of the Mouse.  It's kind of a complex relationship because I did grow up with Mickey Mouse Club, Davy Crocket and all the other Disney TV productions one hour at a time every Sunday night. It really made the idea of having to go to school on Monday bearable. And I have to admit I was looking at Annette Funicello when I had that first inkling that girls could be pretty cool.

The dark side of Disney is the fact it's a huge corporation and like all huge corporations they have a natural tendency to move towards monopoly and total world market domination. 

A few weeks back with a group of movie enthusiasts, we had this discussion over the film John Carter of Mars. Was it or was it not a good movie? The film did poorly in the box office and Disney was prepared to cancel pre-production work on two more John Carter movies. The initial plan was to turn Edgar Rice Burroughs's classic series of books into a blockbuster franchise.  The word is a sequel is being made, The Gods Of Mars and it should be released summer of 2015.

Disney did animation, westerns, adventure and mysteries. Science fiction was always a weak spot with only a couple of titles like 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and The Black Hole.  So John Carter was meant to Disney's flagship move into the genre.  It was also another attempt by Disney to expand out from classic family entertainment but still use the Disney name. In the past Disney used MiraMax studios to front more adult titles.

 The big question behind was John Carter of Mars a good movie? -Is the question what will Disney do with the Star Wars franchise now that they own LucasArts?  Disney was only one of a few players who buy out George Lucas. Disney, which was huge is now only bigger.

As media becomes more and more concentrated in the hands of half a dozen mega corporations that will soon control all of video/film, TV, music, radio, print and publishing as well as establish deep control into online media -what will happen to free speech and free thought. These mega corporations do not have to ham fistedly pound the public into submission with propaganda.  They can more subtly control what people think just by the selection of subjects they choose to present.

 

In short if you do not see it you might not know.

Another bone of contention that I have with Disney is their continuous aggressive legal action to make copyright protection last practically into perpetuity.  This is the spear point of a movement to keep all intellectual property from going into public domain. It somehow seems unfair that  the managers of media still collect and will keep on collecting royalties on the creative work of long dead people. There very soon can come a day where every time see an image or hear a song -or even say a certain word or phrase, you will be charged a fee for that.  The National Football League is already working on the legal frame work where they can charge every sports bar for the right to just turn on a TV.   

  

One computer engine was telling me how software can be written to not only prevent copying any material but also charge use rent based on overall usage of the program.  It's only a matter of time when all the world heritage of art and cultural will be available -but all of it will be a billable commodity.   And any free expression a taxable commodity, that is if it does get you arrested first for a thought crime.  That too is coming, law enforcement is working on an algorithm that predicts if you're capable of committing a crime  and what kind of crime you're most likely to commit based on your internet activity.  People will tolerate this because for now no one wants to be away from their social media.

 

April 5th 2013 in Reuter News

By Ronald Grover

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co expects to begin layoffs at its studio and consumer product divisions within the next two weeks, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, in the latest cost-reduction step to emerge from a company-wide review.

The studio job cuts will center on the marketing and home video units and include a small number from the animation wing, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the plans had not been made public.

It is unknown how many jobs will be lost at either division.

Staff reductions at the consumer products unit will largely result from attrition, another person said.

On Wednesday, Disney began layoffs at the 30-year-old LucasArts games studio it inherited with the acquisition of George Lucas' film company last year, as it focuses on licensing its "Star Wars" brand externally.

A Disney spokeswoman had no comment.

Disney, headquartered in Burbank, California, started an internal cost-cutting review late last year to identify cutbacks in jobs it no longer needs because of improvements in technology, one of the people said.

It is also looking at redundant operations that could be eliminated following a string of major acquisitions over the past few years, said the person.

Disney cut about 200 people at its Disney Interactive video game last year, as the company moved away from console games to focus on online and mobile entertainment. An additional 100 staffers have been laid off in two cuts since.

The company also made cuts at the publishing unit last year when Disney moved its operations to Burbank from New York as part of a restructuring of its consumer products unit.

(Reporting by Ronald Grover; Editing by Edwin Chan, Ryan Woo and Peter Cooney)