How Disney bypassed God… (and no one noticed)

[kskiska]

…to preach the gospel of dreams coming true

Entrepreneur who became icon of family values shied away from religious imagery, and none of his company's theme parks contains a church

Disney may have colonised the imagination of the world's children for the best part of 80 years, but - remarkably in one of the world's most ostentatiously Christian countries - the entertainment company has done so without the aid of God, a new book points out.

The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust, by Mark Pinsky, an American journalist and best-selling author of a similar book about The Simpsons, shows that the film industry's most family-orientated entertainer has rarely mentioned God, and that such religious figures as there are in its animated films are almost entirely bad.

Pinsky, the religion reporter at the Orlando Sentinel, argues: "In the more than 35 animated features Disney has released since 1937, there is scarcely a mention of God as conceived in the Christian and Jewish faiths shared by most people in the western world and many beyond."

The first ordained character to have a big part in a Disney cartoon was Frollo, the villainous priest in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and he did not make his appearance until 1996, nearly 60 years after the studio began making feature films.

American Christians appear to have scarcely noticed that none of the Disneyland theme parks - replete with every other aspect of US main street culture - has a church. The company's cruise liners do not have a single chapel on board.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1264120,00.html

[Joy Anne]

1. like Norman Rockwell

who painted all those supposedly idyllic scenes of small-town America, but with never so much as a church steeple in the background.

[2Design]

2. many of disney ideas are wholistic...not M. Eisner...but the real

disney....alice in wonderland...is the story of the dark night of the soul....and the caterpillar is smoking a lot of something.....he does a lot of pagan type themes....witchcraft and magic...and beliefs....like lucas's star wars...and the 'force' be with you.....

much of the folklore beliefs is what is the foundation of disney....gypsies....and such.....

I love that part of disney....

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Alice in Wonderland was written by a deacon in the Church of England

in 1862. I wouldn't say it's pagan.

http://www-gap.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Dodgson.html

[Lydia Leftcoast]

3. Not quite accurate

There are the nuns in Fantasia, processing to Ave Maria, and Pollyanna has a minister, played by Karl Malden. He starts out as a hellfire and brimstone preacher, but Pollyanna persuades him that God wants people to be happy.

Also, the Zorro TV series featured a sympathetic character who was a priest.

The author does not know his Disney. :-) But he's right in that Christianity doesn't play much of a role in the movies and TV series produced under Walt's supervision.

[ixion]

4. true... also, the end of Fantasia, after 'Night on Bald Mountain'

With the Church bells ringing and people going to Mass. No subtle nod to god there, eh?

[true grit]

6. Moses never acknowledged God

in the prince of Egypt. He did it all on his own.

[AmericanErrorist]

7. That was a Dreamworks film

but Jeff Katzenburg was involved, so who can say?

[Bamboo]

8. Shirts and Skins

Rockwell had a family praying before meal at a diner and mom and kids off to church as dad slumped in chair.Norway section in EPCOT has a stave church and China section has a Buddhist temple.There was a ride at EPCOT for a short time which had a religious theme but was so vague as to be meaningless and a virtual wailing wall which was offline when I was there.Eisner was the force behind Celebration which has a picture book church and a memorial garden which is not sectioned by religion.I have never seen any praying at Disney World but I have given a Buddhist greeting at Animal Kingdom,I am not Buddhist but they do it there to create atmosphere.Religious types are upset because they were the original dark ride and are losing customers.