14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Lazy Research, November 9, 2006
This review is from: The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust (Paperback)
It sounds like a good premise if a bit of a tall order, examine Disney's animated features for the role that their themes have played in the moral and spiritual development of generations of children. The idea being that these themes originated in the minds of Walt Disney and his successors, who were not entirely motivated by a bottom line, but had certain political and social agendas to advance.
Unfortunately, Mark I. Pinsky, the religion reporter for The Orlando Sentinel, conducts his analysis of the Disney animation world like a reporter running late for a press run deadline. Mostly this consists of a cursory viewing of 31 Disney films, plucking out a few nuggets of content that support his theme, and creating short chapters speculating on the symbolism within each film.
At the end is a non-philosophical analysis of the 1990's boycott by the Southern Baptist Contention.
Shortly into the book it becomes obvious that Pinsky has made little if any attempt to examine the source material for each film, attributing each relevant element to Disney rather than to the source material from which each screenplay was adapted.
This becomes especially glaring when a reader is familiar with the source material. A more useful approach would have been to compare and contrast the original material with its adaptation; identifying which elements Disney elected to keep, to cut, and to alter. It is likely that what was excluded is just as important as what was included in understanding the motivational forces at work within the Disney empire.
For example, the animated film "Alice in Wonderland" (1951) was more inspired by than adapted from the original Lewis Carroll story. Little more than title, some character names, and the basic premise (little heroine dreaming about going down a rabbit hole into a strange wonderland) was utilized by the Disney movie. That most viewer's believe it was a closer adaptation stems from the use of John Tenniel's original prints as inspiration for the character sketches.
Pinsky details several scenes in the film that were not even part of Carroll's story, then states: "For all the complaints about Disney's tinkering with and sanding down the edges of fairy tales, "Alice in Wonderland" demonstrates the pitfalls of fidelity to the original, of illustrating a classic story rather than transforming it and making it your own". As anyone even vaguely familiar with the book and the film know, on this point Pinsky is totally incorrect. Only someone unfamiliar with Carroll's original could have reached such a faulty conclusion. The failure (be it error or laziness) to do basic research in this case should set off reader alarm bells regarding most of the other assertions Pinsky makes in this book. No doubt some are valid but readers would do well to not accept any of Pinsky's points at face value.
Which doesn't mean that Pinsky's ideas are totally useless. They introduce fresh ways to examine many elements within Disney's features and might actually provide some useful insights to anyone motivated to aggressively explore his cursory assertions.
Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.
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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar..., November 6, 2004
This review is from: The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust (Paperback)
As I've mentioned before, I'm a Disney addict. So it was understandable when I picked up The Gospel According To Disney - Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust by Mark I. Pinsky. As usual in these types of books, I was somewhat disappointed...
Pinsky is the religion reporter for the Orlando Sentinel, and he's also written The Gospel According To The Simpsons (which I haven't read). In the Disney book, he first looks at the Disney organization and attempts to determine what the company religious views are. That can mean anything from the company's view of life to how they tolerate organized religion. This information then provides the backdrop for the majority of the book, which is a review of the company's animated films and what religious concepts are woven into them. The last couple of chapters examines the Disney theme parks and the Baptist boycott in the light of religious themes.
Now I have a bias here myself. I don't go to Disney films to gain religious instruction or insight. I go to be entertained. And while there are lessons to be learned in films, it's also easy to superimpose a personal view or bias and then interpret everything in that light. Unfortunately, I feel that's what is happening in this book. Since Pinsky is looking to find religious thought in each film, everything that appears is colored by that expectation. It's very possible that what he sees is really there and was really intended. But all too often I felt as if the explanation was possible only because you were looking for it. I'm sure if an organization like PETA were to write a book like this looking at Disney from an animal rights perspective, they would end up seeing the same type of thoughts that pertain to their views and make it look like Disney's foremost thought in films is animal rights.
I guess what I'm saying is that if you reduce any examination of events to a single issue (politics, religion, etc.), it's easy to see things that aren't there. I come away from this book feeling like a fair amount of that occurred.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Discussing ideological themes in thirty-one Disney films, January 11, 2005
This review is from: The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust (Paperback)
Religion journalist Mark Pinsky presents The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust, a sober exploration of the role that the animated features of the Walt Disney Country have carried out in the spiritual, emotional, and ethical development of generations of young adults. Discussing ideological themes in thirty-one of the most popular Disney films including "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", "Beauty and the Beast", and "The Lion King", The Gospel According to Disney also reaches beyond the impact of the morality plays on the big screen to such issues as the postive and negative contributions that theme parks have on American culture, why the Southern Baptist Convention chose to boycott Disney in the 1990's and the repercussions of that movement, and much more. An astutely researched and written exploration of the interesection between spirituality and one company's domain of popular entertainment.
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