[UA] Darkening Children's Tales

[holycrow at mindspring.com]

>Frankly I think it's something to do with Disney trying to make >himself The Kindly Uncle.

There was a fascinating bit in "Hollywood's Dark Prince" (a Disney biography) in which some egghead type tried to talk to Disney about the connections between his (Disney's) dysfunctional childhood and the messed-up childhoods of Bambi and Snow White and his other characters.  
Disney would not hear of it.  He refused, absolutely refused, to even consider the idea that there was any subtext AT ALL to his movies.  It would not parse in his brain.  And (the author argued) that's WHY his subtexts are so powerful, because they're so completely denied and unconscious.

-G.

Who thinks this was the book where he found out half the theater's seats had to be replaced after the first public screening of "Bambi."  They'd been ruined when children wet their pants in terror.


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