Publications and Research
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2023
Abstract
Over the past ten years, more than 200 peer-reviewed articles with Disney in their titles have been published across disciplines, especially in the humanities and social sciences. Beginning in the 1930s with Disney’s first motion picture, the company, its venues, acquisitions, movies, and other products have become a robust research topic for academics, constantly refreshed with new ideas and perspectives. As Disney celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2023, researchers and readers examining the movies could benefit from some consistency in how the passage of time is described, and yet the methods of classification of these movies are not robust or universally implemented. In this era of culture wars, how Disney has changed over time has become a political litmus test. A common vocabulary supports the claims made by defenders and detractors. This article will provide a foundation for future Disney research across disciplines on a variety of topics through a categorization and organizing system to define a context, an essence – what the movies are – and an impression – what the movies “feel like.” This structure could also be used to create consistent categories of time to measure cultural changes in other popular media longitudinally.
