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Author
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Comment
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sereno2012
Registered User
(11/19/03 4:02 pm)
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Need help for paper on Disney please
Hey,
My name is Cathy and I am writing a paper on the marketing aspects of Disney. My plan was to write about what makes fairy tales so marketable in the first place, and Disney is obviously the most popular company to make a profit off of fairy tales. Some of the questions that I will be asking include: what makes fairy tales so marketable in the first place, what Disney has done to fairy tales to make turn them into profit, and some of the controversy between the original fairy tales and the new ones that Disney has created. Thanks so much for any help on this.
~~cathy
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Jason
Unregistered User
(11/19/03 5:40 pm)
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What makes fairy tales so marketable in the first place?
The idea of escape, the idea that something normal and mundane can
be magical and frightening all at once.
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Jess
Unregistered User
(11/19/03 6:35 pm)
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Have you looked
at the discussion "In defense of Disney" or something similar? You will find the answers to some of your questions.
Next, I would suggest you look at the Wall Street Journal ("WSJ"). The WSJ has followed Disney's return to prominence quite closely beginning in the mid-1980's. I think you will find a plethora of information about marketing fairy tales, the Fantasia story, the return to the fairy tale genre, profitablility, etc.
You might want to compare other film versions of fairy tales and their profit/loss structure. There were a number of non-Disney animated fairy tales in the 1990's (Don Bluth's "Thumbelina" comes immediately to mind - and incidentally had Jodi Benson aka "The voice of the little Mermaid" in the title role). There have also been some more adult stories and live-action fairy tales. You might want to look at ratings (G, PG, etc) and correlate that with marketing and profitablity. I believe several of Disney's tales have received a PG rating and, consequently, may not have done so well.
Just some thoughts.
Jess
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Lavengro
Registered User
(11/30/03 3:17 pm)
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Disney is to Fairy tales what McDonalds is to haute cuisine
The plain truth is I can't stand Disney. They take stories and change them entirely. The whole emphasis of the storyline of fairytales is often changed beyond recognition, and geared towards the generic pulp coming out of children's Hollywood.
A moer serious (perhaps) issue is that of Disney's targetting children with their marketing campaigns. Not just children of reasonable ages either. Since the law was repealed in the US in the mid 1980s I believe, under Ronald Reagans administration, companies such as Disneys can legally target under 7 year olds. Before this it was deemed that children under 7 years old were not able to differentiate between 'real' programs and marketing advertisments. This law repael opened up doors to the very wolves which real fairy tales might warn us about.
It is sad that our cultural heritage has been hijacked for profit this way, but I guess many of the characters of Grimms and Anderson's fairy tales are so compelling and vivid that it hard to come up with better, fresher and newer ones which will be so saleable. An excellent exeption to that is Shrek. It break the recent trend for over emphasis on the prettyness of female characters, concentrating on inner beauty, and true self. I salute the company which made it. They even have a whole sectoin of the story based on fairy tale characters being 'hijacked' which is so apt to what I am saying.
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Rosemary
Lake
Registered User
(11/30/03 7:47 pm)
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What Disney added
My impression is that fairy tales have been popular for at least a few centuries. What Disney did was make a marketable, copyrightable product: animated films. For a while before that, the only way to make a profit with fairy tales was by adding some copyrightable illustrations or making a fancy book.
The tales themselves were not very saleable, after Lang's fairy books went into public domain. Tho I wonder why some people now who use that material, get permissions from Dover for it.
R.
r@rosemarylake.com
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LadyWolf
Registered User
(12/2/03 1:17 pm)
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Disney suggestions
Just to be forthright - I hate Disney. So naturally, my suggestions will be skewed.
But...Jack Zipes has written extensively on Disney and fairytales. I like his articles (they've been featured in several of the course textbooks in classes I've taken), I like his manner, and like his insights.
His stuff has been published all over the place, so my best suggestion would be to do a library check on his name and see what comes up. He may also be featured in several academic journals, so it would be worthwhile doing a journal search as well.
Hope this helps
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