Lock em up

When consumers purchases Disney movies the selection is limited to only a few, this is due to Disney placing their movies unto the "Disney Vault." Before VHS, Disney would re-release their animated films every 7 years, in theaters. Which started with the 1937 version of Snow White being re-released in 1944, this allowed people to enjoy the movie again. After the invention of VHS, Disney continued this tradition of re-releasing their animated masterpieces every seven years from the Disney Vault. Then once they came out on DVD, Disney changed it to every 10 years. When released from the vault they are available anywhere from 30 days to a few years before returning to the vault. Some may wonder why Disney does this. The Disney Comp. states that they do this to control their market and to allow Disney Movies to be fresh to new generations. The placing of Disney movies into the vault turns them into a collectables and the prices skyrocket. After Disney announces the date of a movie to enter the vault, sales are sure to increase, due to the fact that it will not be available for another 10 years. And if you turn to auction sites like EBay, beware most copies on there are pirated.
Resent movies that have gone into the vault are, Aladdin, Return of Jaffar, Peter Pan, Return to Never Never land. However, Mary Poppins, Oliver and Company, and Sleeping Beauty have just recently been released out of the vault. Pinocchio is one that is going to be released on March 10th. So if you are a collector, plan to have children in the next 10 years or just love Disney movies you may want to pick up these movie, cause once they are gone it will be 10 before we see them again.

Walt Disney Himself

So this week I would like to take a look at Walt Disney himself. His real name is Walter Elias Disney; he was born December 5, 1901 in Chicago Illinois. Growing up Walt interest was in drawing and photography. He sold his first drawings to his neighbors at the young age of seven. In high school Walt contributed to the school paper with his drawing and photography. In 1918 Walt tried to enlist in the military, only to be turned down. Still wanting to help Walt joined the Red Cross and was sent over seas. Walt spent one year driving an ambulance, which was covered front to back with his cartoon drawings. After his time overseas Walt returned to the US starting his business in Kansas City. In 1923 Walt headed off to Hollywood CA. Walt married one of his first employees, Lillian Bounds. The couple had two children, Diane and Sharon.

Mickey Mouse was created in 1928, inspired by a pet mouse he had as a child, Walt gave Mickey his own personality and voice. Mickey Mouse’s first screen appearance was in "Steamboat Willie.” In 1932 Walt’s first Technicolor film “Flowers and Trees” won Walt’s first of thirty two personal academy awards. Mickey Mouse’s first words where “Hotdogs” in the cartoon “Carnival Time” in 1929. On December 21, 1937 Disney premiered Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Within the next five years Disney released four other full featured films. I found this quote from Walt Disney and I feel it fits his life well. "Somehow I can't believe there are any heights that can't be scaled by a man who knows the secret of making dreams come true. This special secret, it seems to me, can be summarized in four C's. They are Curiosity, Confidence, Courage, and Constancy and the greatest of these is Confidence. When you believe a thing, believe it all the way, implicitly and unquestionably." He does make dreams come true.

Walt wanted to build a comunity that would be a world of the future. Disney purchase 43 square miles of virgin land in the center of the state of Florida. He planned a whole new Disney world of entertainment which included a new amusement theme park, motel-hotel resort vacation center and his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. After more than seven years of master planning and preparation, including 52 months of construction, Walt Disney World opened to the public on October 1, 1971. Epcot Center opened on October 1, 1982.

Walt Disney passed away on 15, 1966. But his dream still lives on in all of us.

Dirt on Disney

So as some of you might know Disney is not all "kid friendly." There have been some roomers about the content in some of the Disney films. I will give you the scoop and let you decide if its fact or fiction.

In the first movie The Rescuers, there is a topless woman in the window. Fact or fiction....well on this one Disney agreed that it was true, and in 1999 recalled the 1977 video. Disney claims that it was not put into the movie by their animators but were inserted during a post production process. This scene is approximately 38 min into the movie, and occurs twice.


The next few Disney movies are not as clear cut as the Rescuers. Next I bring your attention to Aladdin. In the scene where Aladdin takes the magic carpet up to Jasmines' balcony, as the tiger Rasha approaches Aladdin. As he says down kitty, if you listen carefully Aladdin says under his breath "All good teenagers take of their clothes." Although Disney says that the script is suppose to say C'mon . . . good kitty. Take off and go. And the closed captioning says "Good Kitty Take Off," kinda fishy to me. Is this something Disney put into their movies to make them sell..think about it sex sells, and how many people went and rented or bought this Movie when this scandal broke. So fact or fiction.

Another movie with quite a bit of controversy is the Lion King. In this movie the word SEX appears in the night sky as Simba flops down on the cliff and dust flies up. If you look at the picture on the left I can clearly see the word sex in it. But is this only cause my mind is telling me to. But to some people this is not the only place where the word SEX appears. This You Tube video points out many other possibilities. So is it true or our minds seeing what we where told was there.



Another Disney movie is the Little Mermaid. This movie is the one that I personally noticed when I watched this movie. On the front of the original cover one of the spires of the castle looks alot like a penis. Disney once again denies this was on purpose, and it was just a result of hurried detailing. Along with the cover, at the end of the movie when the Priest says "Dearly Beloved." he seems to get an erection. Now Disney once again denies this and goes as far as to say it is his knee. Disney did change the cover of the Little Mermaid, although sticking to the story that it was not put there on purpose by the artist. We may never know however, we can use our best judgment when showing them to our children.

Are the lesons learned good for our youth.

As a girl growing up we learn about Prince Charming and his white horse. These fairy tales are what we have grown up on, however are these lesson what we really want our youth watching. I mean from the stereotype women that Disney portrays to the ways lessons where archived. Take Beauty and the Beast for example, in this movie the Beast locks Bell up in a tower and holds her hostage. Even when he lets her out he is mean and abusive to her. Is this the kind of relationship we want our young girls and boys watching....sure the Beast realizes his ways and falls in love with Bell but this still does not justify what he did to her. In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo is a hunchback that is pretty much exiled from the town. He lived in a bell tower and had low self-esteem. From the time, Quasimodo saw Esmeralda he fell in love with her. Quasimodo even saved her life when Frollo was burning her at the stake. As fairy tales go Esmeralda should have fell in love with Quasimodo and they should have lived happily ever after...However Esmeralda met a tall dark and handsome man fell in love and lived happily ever after with him.... I guess you only get to save the girl and live happily ever after if you are handsome...Even if you are mean like the Beast that can be over looked if you look good.
Then we have The Little Mermaid, where do I even start with this movie. Ariel is a young teenager who goes against every rule her father has set for her. She is late for her responsibilities and even makes a deal with evil to get what she wants. After all, of this she gets everything she dreamed of...are we teaching our children that breaking the rules and pushing off responsibility is OK.


I guess every one wants to believe in Happily ever after, but I think there are better ways to achieve it.

Where it all Started

Last week I talked about the new Disney Movie coming out this year. This week I would like to take some time and review the first Disney movie released. If we go back in time that Disney Movie was Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, which was released in 1938-1939. Since that date there have been 43 other movies to achieve the title Disney Masterpiece. One might wonder how Walt Disney made these timeless features without the help of today's technology's. It happen with the help of over 700 artist working round the clock for three years, and Walt Disney vision of Snow White was developed. This movie required over 3 million paintings and cost over 1.5 million Dollars. Wow in 1938 that was quite the chunk of change. This process starts with a story line....one we are all familiar with, probably the one that started it all, true love conquers all, and prince charming saves the day on his white horse. Then it goes into conference with Walt Disney and his writers and animators. After Walt has approved it production begins. Skilled Artist draw, redraw, and draw again each movement of every scene. Then they are transferred by hand to transparent paper to be painted. Expert chemist made over 1500 top secret shades for Snow White. After all celluloid's where painted they were sent to be photographed in technicolor, one frame at a time. This process was repeated over 1/2 million times.

I find the time and work that was put into this movie rather interesting. No wonder it is a self proclaimed Masterpiece.

List of Disney Movies. (n.d.). Retrieved January 25, 2009, from Disney Movies : http://www.disneymovieslist.com/disney-movies.asp

You Tube. (2004, September 4). Retrieved January 25, 2009, from You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhfp6Z8z1cI

The Frog Princess

Over the next sixteen weeks I will be digging deep into “Disney” movies, looking at the good, the bad and the ugly in these movies that have commanded the attention of our children for so long.

Today, I want to talk a look at the Newest addition to the Disney family.

Disney movies have brought families together for centuries. There have been many controversies over some of the content contained in the movies. However since 1992 Disney has added ethnical diversity into their films. Starting with Jasmine, in the movie Aladdin, Pocahontas, and Mulan, if you add these to Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and a few others there is a diverse ethnical background.

In 1999 Disney branded “Disney Princesses”, currently there are 8. The 9^th princess will star in “The Princess and the Frog” this year (2009). It is a story set in New Orleans staring the first African American Princess. Not unlike other Disney movies, this too has undergone its fair share of criticism. Disney announce what they thought was going to be a proud moment, and in turn was a disaster. After much criticism Disney had to change to story line, name of the Princess, and the Name of the Movie. After reading reviews on this movie, I do not understand why people are taking this movie as a negative thing for the African American culture. The movies character Tiana is an African American Princess growing up in the Jazz era of New Orleans. Ok, so Tiana’s living conditions may not be perfect, she may fall in love with a white guy, and she may live happily ever after. I guess I don’t see why this is any different than other Disney Princesses. Cinderella lived as a slave to her step mother. Pocahontas fell in love with a white man. Tiana is a girl with big dreams, who finds her happily ever after. Why is this any different from any other Disney Princess? I think that people should watch the movie before assessing criticism to it.

services, m. n. (2007, March 12). MSNBC. Retrieved January 18th, 2009, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17524865/