Learning from Mickey, Donald and Walt: Essays on Disney's Edutainment Films

275 Pages·2011·1.43 MB·English

by  A. Bowdoin Van Riper, A. Bowdoin Van Riper

Learning from Mickey,
Donald and Walt
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Learning from
Mickey, Donald
and Walt
Essays on Disney’s Edutainment Films
Edited by
A. B V R
OWDOIN AN IPER
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina, and London
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
Learning from Mickey, Donald and Walt : essays on Disney’s
edutainment films / edited by A. Bowdoin Van Riper.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-5957-5
softcover : 50# alkaline paper
¡. Walt Disney Company. 2. Walt Disney Pictures. 3. Disney,
Walt—Criticism and interpretation. 4. Animated films—United
States—History and criticism. 5. Documentary films—United
States. 6. Motion pictures in education—United States. I. Van
Riper, A. Bowdoin.
PN¡999.W27L43 20¡¡
79¡.43'66—dc22 20¡0047490
British Library cataloguing data are available
© 20¡¡A. Bowdoin Van Riper. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Front cover by TG Design
Manufactured in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 6¡¡, Je›erson, North Carolina 28640
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For Cindy,
who believed
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction
A. BOWDOINVANRIPER 1
Section I: War and Propaganda
1. The Canadian Shorts: Establishing Disney’s Wartime Style
BELLAHONESSROE 15
2. “Desiring the Disney Technique”: Chronicle of a
Contracted Military Training Film
DOUGLASA. CUNNINGHAM 27
3. Cartoons Will Win the War: World War II Propaganda
Shorts
RICHARDJ. LESKOSKY 40
4. Cartoon Combat: World War II, Alexander de Seversky,
and Victory Through Air Power
JOHND. THOMAS 63
Section II: Science, Technology,
Mathematics and Medicine
5. The Promise of Things to Come: Disneylandand
the Wonders of Technology, 1954–58
A. BOWDOINVANRIPER 84
6. A Nation on Wheels: Films About Cars and Driving,
1948–1970
A. BOWDOINVANRIPER 103
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viii Table of Contents
7. “A Journey Through the Wonderland of Mathematics”:
Donald inMathmagic Land
MARTINF. NORDEN 113
8. Paging Doctor Disney: Health Education Films,
1922–1973
BOBCRUZ, JR. 127
Section III: Nature
9. “Nature is the Dramatist”: Documentary, Entertainment,
and the World According to the True-Life Adventures
EDDYVONMUELLER 145
10. Sex, Love, and Death: True-Life Fantasies
RONALDTOBIAS 164
11. It Is a Small World, After All: Earth and the Disneyfication
of Planet Earth
EDDYVONMUELLER 173
Section IV: Times, Places and People
12. A Past to Make Us Proud: U. S. History According
to Disney
MARIANNEHOLDZKOM 183
13. Reviving the American Dream: The World of Sports
KATHARINABONZEL 201
14. Beyond the Ratoncito:Disney’s Idea of Latin America
BERNICENUHFER-HALTEN 209
15. Locating the Magic Kingdom: Spectacle and Similarity
in People and Places
CYNTHIAJ. MILLER 221
16. America’s Salesman: The USA in Circarama
SARAHNILSEN 237
About the Contributors 255
Index 259
Acknowledgments
This project had its origins at a 2006 conference, The Docu-
mentary Tradition, sponsored by the Center for the Study of Film
and History. For helping to bring it from there to here, I am grateful
to Dan Vogel and Ron Weekes, for their contributions to the original
conversation; Peter Rollins, organizer of the conference and director
emeritus of the Center, for his encouragement; Skip Elsheimer, for
his generous offer of access to his film collection; Kathy Merlock
Jackson, for her astute comments and suggestions; several anony-
mous referees, for sharpening my ideas about the shape of the proj-
ect; and my daughter Katie, for her patience with a project that I
began when she was in elementary school and finished when she
was in high school.
Finally, my thanks go to Cindy Miller, whose insight, enthu-
siasm, and willingness to be my first, best editor have been invalu-
able throughout this project’s long life.
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