Overview

A collection of essays exploring the wide-ranging influence of the Walt Disney Company.   It would be difficult to go through life without ever encountering a Disney product. Since the first Mickey Mouse cartoon premiered in 1928, Disney has played a central role in shaping American popular culture, and it has expanded to the global market. The company positioned itself as a titan of family entertainment, and many of its offerings, from films to consumable products, have become embedded in the minds of children and adults, woven into many of our life experiences. Fans of Disney build connections with their favorite characters and franchises, fueled by Disney’s marketing practices. Others have developed a near-cult-like relationship with the brand, equating its products with religious icons and theme park visits with pilgrimages.  This edited volume looks beyond the movies and merchandise to peer into the very heart of the Disney phenomenon: how the fan response drives the corporation’s massive marketing machine and how the corporate response, in turn, shapes the fan experience.

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9781789387629

Table of Contents

Reviews

'[The] idea that [Disney] should continually renew itself to be in dialogue with the vagaries and vicissitudes of contemporary society is a throughline in the chapters that comprise Interpreting and Experiencing Disney: Mediating the Mouse, edited by Priscilla Hobbs. The volume is a welcome addition to this corpus, as many of its essays feel specific to 2020s America, a period of enormous flux and introspection characterized by popular protests and the removal of outdated statues. The book will interest scholars in the humanities and social sciences and the general public. One of the virtues of Hobbs’ volume is its concentrated focus, as many of the chapters feel connected. [...] In sum, this book is a significant contribution to Disney studies in that its authors point to the dialogical relationship Disney has historically had with American and European society. Like the Disney Company itself, Disney studies is presented as in constant evolution.' -- Noah Zweig, International Journal of Communication 'Recommended - Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.' -- CHOICE

'[The] idea that [Disney] should continually renew itself to be in dialogue with the vagaries and vicissitudes of contemporary society is a throughline in the chapters that comprise Interpreting and Experiencing Disney: Mediating the Mouse, edited by Priscilla Hobbs. The volume is a welcome addition to this corpus, as many of its essays feel specific to 2020s America, a period of enormous flux and introspection characterized by popular protests and the removal of outdated statues. The book will interest scholars in the humanities and social sciences and the general public. One of the virtues of Hobbs' volume is its concentrated focus, as many of the chapters feel connected. [...] In sum, this book is a significant contribution to Disney studies in that its authors point to the dialogical relationship Disney has historically had with American and European society. Like the Disney Company itself, Disney studies is presented as in constant evolution.' -- Noah Zweig, International Journal of Communication 'Recommended - Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers.' -- CHOICE

Recommended. -- Choice

Author Information

Priscilla Hobbs, Ph.D., researches primarily Disney and American studies, with special emphasis on Disneyland. She is the author of the book, Walt's Utopia: Disneyland and American Mythmaking, about Disneyland and the Cold War. She is currently an associate dean at Southern New Hampshire University. 

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