From Conflict to Concord: Lessons from the Mouse
Mead K. Hunter
Abstract
Walt Disney Company’s dramatic strategies have long been the focus of vociferous cultural criticism. Some blame “the Mouse” for bankrupting western storytelling traditions, while others extol the narrative skill that has gone into crafting numerous folk and fairy tale adaptations. Recently, however, with the advent of global markets both established and nascent, the company’s Imagineers are finding that Joseph Campbell’s classic monomyth of the hero’s journey (long regarded as Disney’s go-to dramatic structure) is not universal, as was once claimed by many literary and anthropological scholars. Therefore as Disney continues to expand its international ventures, an active search is underway for new storytelling models capable of refreshing the company brand by taking advantage of and building upon indigenous mythologies. Storytellers of all stripes, whether commercial, academic or artistic, can glean much from Disney’s cultural excavations, some of which eschew the western dependence on conflict as the engine of plot.
Walt Disney Company’s dramatic strategies have long been the focus of vociferous cultural criticism. Some blame “the Mouse” for bankrupting western storytelling traditions, while others extol the narrative skill that has gone into crafting numerous folk and fairy tale adaptations. Recently, however, with the advent of global markets both established and nascent, the company’s Imagineers are finding that Joseph Campbell’s classic monomyth of the hero’s journey (long regarded as Disney’s go-to dramatic structure) is not universal, as was once claimed by many literary and anthropological scholars. Therefore as Disney continues to expand its international ventures, an active search is underway for new storytelling models capable of refreshing the company brand by taking advantage of and building upon indigenous mythologies. Storytellers of all stripes, whether commercial, academic or artistic, can glean much from Disney’s cultural excavations, some of which eschew the western dependence on conflict as the engine of plot.
| etudesdec2016hunter.pdf |
