Description
Book SynopsisIn 1937, the first full-length animated film produced by Walt Disney was released. Based on a fairy tale written by the Brothers Grimm, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was an instant success and set the stage for more film adaptations over the next several decades. From animated features like and Bambi to live action films such as Mary Poppins, Disney repeatedly turned to literary sources for inspirationa tradition the Disney studios continues well into the twenty-first century. In It's the Disney Version!: Popular Cinema and Literary Classics, Douglas Brode and Shea T. Brode have collected essays that consider the relationship between a Disney film and the source material from which it was drawn. Analytic yet accessible, these essays provide a wide-ranging study of the term The Disney Version and what it conveys to viewers. Among the works discussed in this volume are Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty, Tarzan, and Winnie the Pooh.In these intriguing essays,
Trade ReviewBrode and Brode have gathered essays that contrast classic literature with their popular (and ‘catastrophic,’ according to some critics) adaptations. Several essays sparkle with insight and wit, among them David McGowan’s juxtaposition of Disney’s iconic Snow White (1937) and the Fleischers’ inferior Gulliver’s Travels (1939), Gary Edgerton and Kathy Merlock Jackson’s ‘Disney's Pocahontas: History, Legend, and Movie Mythology,’ Elizabeth Bell’s delightfully autobiographical reflections on Tinker Bell in ‘Do You Believe in Fairies?’ and Finn Mortensen’s trajectory of the Little Mermaid from folk tradition to Danish then global icon. The book collects diverse glimpses at the American genius and pluck of Walt Disney’s oeuvre and its compelling template as the dominant cultural storytelling of the 20th century. One…must be content to be a glutton at a smorgasbord of sumptuous writings. The contributors capably show that Disney’s cinematic visualizations fit snugly into that classic tradition of translating oral tales into one’s own vernacular. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. * CHOICE *
