Disney animation and the business of childhood 1 'The enemy is inside, and we find it hard to distinguish him from some of our innermost thoughts and nurturings'; 'the dominant media and their fictions are somewhat like the Medusa that Perseus had to destroy. . . . Reflect the head in the mirror; accept and understand it; cut it off.' Ariel Dorfman. The Empire's Old Clothes: What the Lone Ranger, Babar and Other Innocent Heroes do to our Minds (London; Pluto Press. 19831. pp. 207. 209. 2 Russell Oavies, 'Disney's world; "Dreams are always in bad taste" ', The Listener. 16 February 1984. p. 9. DAVID FORGACS What is a Disney baby? Disney Babies are a line of toddler products (soft toys, clothes, colouring books and the like) made by fifty different firms under licence to the Walt Disney Company which bear the images of baby versions of Disney characters: a baby Mickey and Minnie, baby Pluto, and so on. They are designed to be irresistible to new parents. A Disney baby is also what you were if you were born at any date after 1925, were taken as a child to see Disney films, used to read Disney comics and owned some Disney merchandise such as a Mickey Mouse watch. Disney babies of the latter kind grow ideally into Disney adults. Disney adults take their children to Disney films and theme parks, buy them Disney merchandise and subscribe to the Disney Channel. In the evening they may unwind watching a Touchstone film on home video. Am I a Disney adult? Not exactly. I was a Disney baby who grew up to find some bits of Disney material bland, icky (like Disney Babies) or distasteful and other bits endlessly fascinating and beautiful. I do not shower my children with Disney products but neither do I believe they need to be kept away from them. I do not see Disney as a cultural arm of American imperialism or a beast within us (Ariel Dorfman') or as a 'cultural Chernobyl' (as someone in the French cultural ministry is reported as having described Euro Disney); and though I think the Disney theme parks present a very narrow, sanitized, version of US history, I do not see them as 'an alibi for the American public's unwillingness to look an unprocessed, non-showbiz world directly in the eye' (Russell Davies 2 ). I dislike Disney's corporate wealth and power because it 361 Screen 33:4 Winter 1992 • forgacs • Disney animation and the business of childhood at University College London on November 1, 2014 http://screen.oxfordjournals.org/ Downloaded from