“The great ‘magic’ of the Disney spell is that he [Disney] animated the fairy tale only to transfix audiences and divert their potential utopian dreams and hopes through the false promises of the images he cast upon the screen,” (Zipes, 333).
I disagree with Zipes’ thesis. Although I do believe that Disney created these animated fairy tales to help audiences get away from the struggles and banality of their everyday lives, I also believe that Disney tried to instill some hope to his viewers, not by simply “transfixing” them through his animation of “false promises,” but by helping them realize that everyone can achieve the “American” dream.
Disney himself was the epitome of “the American dream.” Growing up in a poor family with weak parental relations, he was destined to become nothing more than what he was born into. He, however, showed that with hard work and effort, time and patience, anyone who puts their mind to it can achieve what they want out of life. Although Disney’s films were based on fairy tales from lands far away, with the events depicted lacking realness in today’s society, I do not think that it was with “false promises” that Disney tried to show his interpretations of many known fairy tales.
Although Disney is a believer in the American dream don't you think he gives some "false promises" with the image of the princeses and women in his movies. It seems that all the leading ladies in his films such as Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty are valued the most for their beauty and are simply an object of desire for the men in the story that end up saving the princesses from their predicaments in the end. Do you think he perhaps gives a false image of attainable beauty?
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