Disney as Monopoly of Nostalgia

As one of the largest media conglomerates in modern times, The Walt Disney Company is unequivocally a deeply ingrained facet of, specifically American, society. With a net worth of over $193.98 billion dollars and acquisitions that span across every major industry, it’s impossible to deny the visibility and cultural power Disney has continued to garner since its founding in 1923. While extremely economically lucrative, the company is known for more than simply its films, theme parks, and merchandise by making constant efforts to not only participate in culture, but to shape and create it. To achieve this, Disney has developed its own formula of operation that relies on specific ideologies reflective of current political and cultural contexts. Some of the most important ideologies that Disney invests in are nostalgia, perpetuation of media, and protective market power. While these strategies have been perfected and most notably implemented in the 21th century, Disney has always been a company that is intentionally interested in entertainment as culture, beginning with the man, Walt Disney, and his legendary presence as founder and father of the company. By examining the history of Disney from its creation of Mickey Mouse to its 2019 launch of Disney+, there is a consistent lineage and perpetuation of the values Disney uses to maintain its creative cultural power and ultimately control the future of American media.

Garnering a reputation as inventor of childhood as well as the general idea of the “child,” Disney has established a tradition of fan indoctrination through content that is easily shared between generations. This is largely due to its fundamental understanding of what the current population “needs” in media. The most notable and initial iteration of this phenomena is with Disney’s classic film Pinocchio, released in 1940. Only the company’s second feature length film after Snow White premiered in 1937, Pinocchio was narratively in tune with the current cultural atmosphere of Depression-era United States. Raising children to be economically stable and dependent adults was not a guarantee, raising anxieties about future generations. With social mobility in question, many parents were uncertain that their children would even successfully make it into adulthood. “In an economy barely stood on its feet by the New Deal, the idea that a middle-class child would grow to be a middle-class adult, or that a working-class child could leave its humble roots behind, was not a given” (Sammond, 33).

In a time where a child’s success was largely reflective of the quality of parenting, Pinocchio presented a potential solution in the form of its main character his “good” father, Geppetto. In order to transform from a puppet into a real boy, Geppetto’s only wish for him, Pinocchio must be “brave, truthful, and unselfish.” Pinocchio must do this on his own, without the guidance of his father, an apt parable for the journey faced by parents and children of the time. Aided by the Blue Fairy and Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio evades every potentially dangerous obstacle, and makes it to the end of the film achieving his status as a real boy. Through the discourse of Pinocchio’s narrative, Disney “occupied a central place in an imagined future in which children’s lives seemed secure” (Sammond, 34). This childhood success story not only provided a bright future for Depression-era families, but also told them exactly how to get there. By following in the footsteps of Pinocchio’s adventure with bravery, honesty, and unselfishness, children and their parents could be not only okay, but “real.” These values are present in essentially every Disney product since Pinocchio, forming values and characteristic likened to Disney and synonymous with a successful and good child.

These ideologies have become “a specific set of aesthetic, stylistic and thematic characteristics that are generally recognized and identified with Disney … including individualism, the work ethic, goodness triumphing over evil, innocence, and ultimate optimism” (Wasko 220). These are all classically middle-class family virtues, Disney’s key demographic, thus ingraining themselves into the hearts and spirits of middle-class Americans. Further, the dynamic between Walt Disney and his creation of Mickey Mouse traced these values from the screen and into real-world culture. Walt Disney, from his humble, middle-class rotos as “father” and Mickey, light-spirited and genuine as “child,” created an alluring and idyllic “alternative to the other contentious, petty, and immoral major Hollywood studios” (Sammond, 76). Eventually, the man, his mouse, and the company they represented became synonymous with morality, giving audiences a guide to a successful and valuable childhood, if only they consume Disney content. “Walt Disney Productions was not simply an industrial concern; it was the vehicle through which the man imprinted himself on the landscape that produced him. Walt Disney … embodied America, and in doing so gave America back to itself” (Sammond, 25).

Taking the company’s cultural presence one step further, Disney began to offer much more than just animated characters and ideologically ridden narratives. Marketing became a huge vehicle for Disney to further push the boundaries of media into everyday cultural life. Disney was able to replicate the emotional attachment created by their films into physical, purchasable consumer products through plush dolls, household items, clothing, the experience of Disneyland, and more. In addition to crossing the boundary of screen to home, these marketing techniques also placed children within capitalist markets as consumers. The ability to invite Disney into all aspects of everyday life created a normalcy of “accept[ing] Disney unquestioningly, accepting the preferred meanings and generally embracing the ideology promoted by Classic Disney products” (Wasko 221). In essence, Disney created and then commodified the American child.

In later years, after the death of Walt Disney in 1966 and the Disney Renaissance in the 1990’s, The Walt Disney Company has taken on a decidedly new and unprecedented route of growth. Due to their scope of content and market reach, modern Disney now has the ability to indefinitely perpetuate itself by capitalizing on the nostalgia and inter-generational value held by their existing intellectual property, a strategy shaped by the evolution of media technology. Because Disney has been more inherently present in culture since its founding than any other media company, their content is more inherently attached to childhoods across multiple generations as well. The breadth of Disney’s films since the 1940’s is large enough to literally encapsulate all decades to present day; Baby Boomers, experiencing childhood during the initial rise of Walt Disney through the 1960’s, saw the release of films like Dumbo (1941), Cinderella (1950), and Lady and the Tramp (1955). Jumping further in time to the 1980’s and 1990’s, as the children of Baby Boomers are Disney consumers, films such as The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), and The Lion King (1994) were released.

These two generational decades are specifically important to Disney’s perpetuation technique because of their “classic-ness” and direct connections to the ideologies valued by the company as a whole. Through their aging, all of these films have become beloved and recognizable across the globe, adding a nostalgic sense of time and place in relation to their theatrical release and subsequent VHS releases. These films could not only be consumed in public spaces, but also shared and viewed multiple times at home, creating a culture of sharing Disney media across generations and social groups. It was also during this time that Disney marketed their moratorium, or the process of suspending the distribution of physical media like DVD, VHS and Blu-Ray. Calling it the “Disney Vault,” the company would only re-release classic films every ten years, promoting it as a big celebration of beloved films becoming available again after a long waiting period. This strategy was largely shaped by the development and mass production of “at-home-entertainment,” beginning with the huge market popularity of VHS in the 1990’s, and eventually adapting to DVD and Blu-Ray in the 2000’s.

By limiting their own media, Disney constructed rarity and collectability through the use of the vault with the added ability to control their own markets as well as timely introduce past content to newer generations. While moratoriums were common among media companies during the VHS and DVD eras, Disney was really the only company that managed to capitalize on this technique by manipulating market trends and technological changes to their advantage. Buena Vista Home Entertainment (BVHE), Disney’s home video division, largely credits Disney with pioneering the business “with the release of such classic films from the Disney vault as Bambi, Mary Poppins, and Snow White -- films very few young people had seen on the big screen but could now enjoy in their own living rooms” (Hoffman). In fact, seven of the ten top selling VHS titles of all time are Disney films, with Lion King at number one with 32 million copies.

This strategy was again a form of childhood creation and nostalgia that Disney ingrained in their brand and consumer products strategy. By timing the re-release of such highly personal and beloved films by the decade, Disney allowed room for multiple generations, namely parents and children, to consume media together. Becoming somewhat of a ritual, parents could now patiently wait for their own children to become old enough to watch a film they themselves saw and loved as children in tandem with the varied releases from the Disney Vault. This also caused a sense of urgency as the vault releases were for a limited time only, further perpetuating the rarity and collectability of classic Disney media. The announcements of different films being released from the vault were often advertised as previews on other Disney VHS/DVD’s, targeting Disney’s desired audiences and contributing to the anticipation of their releases. These advertisements depicted an animation of an actual vault being opened to reveal the release, often sparkling with never-before-seen or altered cover art. This aspect of Disney’s perpetuation model is not at all pertaining to new content, but is entirely hinged on the nostalgic aspect of old media, banking on the value of memory and intergenerational relationships built over decades of content.

With further advances in film technology and yet another generation of young viewers coming-of-age to become Disney consumers, the Disney perpetuation model has evolved into creating new, or rather, re-made content. The recent fad of the 2010’s has been live-action remakes, specifically evoked by Disney drawing from original, classic films. Of course, Disney has released multiple sequels to previous films which will not be discussed here, as we are only addressing the live-action films released in theatres by Disney within the last decade--an example of their evolving perpetuation shaped by technology and media. Beginning with Cinderella in 2015, Disney chose one of their most iconic stories to launch this new era. The film was highly anticipated, boasting not only the story of Cinderella, but a largely respected modern cast; Lily James as Cinderella, Cate Blanchett as the Evil Stepmother, Helena Bonham Carter as the Fairy Godmother, and Richard Madden as the Prince. A relatively new technology, Computer Generated Imagery (CGI), was used to create sequences previously limited to animated films like the transformation of Cinderella's dress and turning a pumpkin into a carriage. The film was not a shot-for-shot remake, though followed a similar plot to the original, with a few altered sequences and songs to incorporate a more modern tone. “Have courage and be kind,” became Cinderella’s personal mantra, an ideology not associated with the rather docile original character and Disney’s way of revamping their old IP into an increasingly feminist and progressive world. Commercially, the film earned $201.2 million in North America and totaled $543.5 million worldwide.

While not a major box-office hit, the relative success of Cinderella (2015) as Disney’s first release of a modern-day remake was enough to justify a continuation of this strategy. As of 2019, Disney is well on its way to remaking just about their entire back catalog of classic films. In 2017, the Beauty and The Beast live-action remake was the first of its kind to surpass the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office. Aladdin (2019), and The Lion King (2019) have also achieved this market milestone with $1 billion and $1.6 billion respectively. In the same vein as Cinderella (2015), these remakes are not exact replicas to their originals but modernized for cultural relevance; using motion capture technology to make CGI animals look more life-like, casting non-white actors for non-white characters (“righting the wrongs” of original films), and adapting story-arcs and characters for more inclusive plots have all been employed to raise hype and anticipation for Disney’s remade inventory. Producing and releasing these films quickly, with usually multiple releases a year, has not seemed to cause remake exhaustion or lower ticket sales. In fact, every announcement of another live-action remake is exciting for Disney fans. This is largely due to their pre-existing perpetuation model now firmly established in the 21st century. New technologies and new generations are again not only rationalizations, but encouragement for Disney’s repeated methodology of perpetuation through a monopolization of nostalgia.

In recent years, Disney has looked elsewhere for opportunities to control all aspects of media market nostalgia, not limiting this strategy to their own original property. The Walt Disney Company has made multiple massive acquisition deals throughout the years, dating back to the acquisitions of Miramax in 1993 and ABC/ESPN in 1995, and has continued to procure such deals ever since; however, three of their most recent acquisitions have been specifically important in childhood sentimentality, allowing Disney to absorb company content as well as consumer experiences with that content.

In 2009, Disney acquired Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion dollars, a massive comic book and superhero conglomerate that, under Disney, would go on to dominate the commercial box office for the next decade through an array of cross-over films known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). In 2012, Disney acquired LucasFilm for $4.05 billion, the home of the Star Wars franchise, and Disney subsequently released its own trilogy as an addition to the classic previous Star Wars films. Lastly in early 2019 after a long bidding war with Comcast, Disney finalized their purchase of 21st Century Fox for $71 billion, giving them rights to all Fox television stations (which house the long-running show The Simpsons), National Geographic, The X-Men and Fantastic 4 franchises, and a total 60% share in the streaming service Hulu. These acquisitions have solidified Disney as self-proclaimed culture curator and protector, exponentially widening its scope across genres, demographics, and mediums.

At the fruition of these strategic acquisitions is Disney’s crown jewel (or final infinity stone if you will) in their rise to media conglomerate power; the launch of the company's streaming service, Disney+ in November 2019. Marketed as a space for every and all content made by Disney or their acquired properties, Disney+ is cultural nostalgia in physical/ streaming form. Emphasized by the tagline, “the vault is wide open,” Disney has released all of their titles held in the Disney Vault to be viewed digitally on the website as well as previously inaccessible content such as Disney Channel original series and TV movies, a slew of short films, and highly anticipated original content largely based on their tried-and-true perpetuation model.

A few of their Disney+ original content titles are a live action remake of the 1955 film Lady and the Tramp, a television show based on the Disney Channel Original Movie High School Musical (2006), titled High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, and The Mandalorian, a series to be released weekly and arguably the most highly anticipated and promoted Disney+ asset as a Star Wars spin-off based on pre-existing storylines. These titles further insert themselves in the cultural zeitgeist through planned phenomena like “Baby Yoda” with commercial products primed for holiday merchandise sales.

In addition to the massive size of the company, another incredibly frightening Disney development post Fox acquisition is their strict enforcement of who and when titles under their proverbial jurisdiction may be seen. An article by film critic Matt Zoller Seitz published in industry magazine Vulture profiles the slow and calculated removal of older Fox titles from theatres and public spaces occurring since early this year; in multiple instances, Disney has denied the use of major Fox films including Alien (1979), The Sound of Music (1965), and Fight Club (1999) to be screened at small, independent theatres who host various older titles for the local community. There doesn’t seem to be a clear reason for these limitations as Disney is yet to clarify why some films are denied and others are not, even refusing to speak directly to the denied theatre’s management. A few programmers were even flat out told, without explanation, that all Fox back-catalogue content is now off-limits.

This is not only worrisome because it limits the sheer ability to see older titles in theatres, but because it greatly places the future of independent films, filmmakers, and theatres in jeopardy. By cutting off a major revenue stream for independent theatres who screen older titles for local cinephiles and nostalgists, these theatres could potentially shut down entirely. Further, “without the estimated 600 independent first-run theaters left in the United States [who] are the only reliable incubators for independent filmmakers … unlikely to have their work screened in multiplexes dominated by Disney and other major distributors” (Seitz), independent cinema in America could almost entirely dissolve. Restricting the use of these films to make screening room for their guaranteed blockbuster hits like Endgame (2019) and The Lion King (2019), or to conjure more audience anticipation for their own streaming service is a cruel capitalist strategy with long-lasting cultural implications.

Due to the history and scale of these distinctly Disney practices like monopolizing nostalgia, perpetuation, acquisitions, and content limitation, the company is undoubtedly the largest media influencer to ever exist. Their grasp reaches back to the early 20th century and forward to the foreseeable future of all entertainment. Disney has essentially made it impossible to participate in culture without them. Whether it’s revisiting childhood films with a new generation, watching a broadcast football game, or attending the most recent premiere of a box office hit, Disney is present. For similar reasons, it is also impossible to “turn against” the company. They own so much of what is beloved and valued in our culture that to deny Disney would be considered un-American. Throughout the history of Disney’s capitalist empire, they have created, perpetuated, and reinvented the needs of society to ensure their own necessity. This pursuit comes at the price of a free and unbiased media as companies not rising to Disney’s mega-corporation status are obscured. Whether or not this was Walt Disney’s intention back in 1923 is of course unknowable, but it is hard not to imagine what the man who started out in Missouri would think of his modern namesake and legendary cultural status.

Sources

High, Kemet. “A Timeline of Disney's Media Acquisitions.” Complex, Complex, 21 Nov. 2019, www.complex.com/pop-culture/2019/11/disney-acquisition-timeline.

Hoffman, Ilene. “Buena Vista Home Entertainment: A Very Lucky Accident Indeed.” Buena Vista Home Entertainment: A Very Lucky Accident Indeed, Animation World Magazine, 1997, www.awn.com/mag/issue2.8/2.8pages/2.8hoffmanbvhe.html.

Sammond, Nicholas. Babes in Tomorrowland: Walt Disney and the Making of the American Child, 1930-1960. Duke Univ. Press, 2006.

Seitz, Matt Zoller. “Disney Is Quietly Placing Classic Fox Movies Into Its Vault, and That's Worrying.” Vulture, 24 Oct. 2019, www.vulture.com/2019/10/disney-is-quietly-placing classic-fox-movies-into-its-vault.htm.

Wasko, Janet. UNDERSTANDING DISNEY: the Manufacture of Fantasy. Polity Press, 2001.