The Love & Hate of Disney -
The Hate:
1. The Steal
Being an Animator For Disney isn't quite as glamorous as it seems. Along with the less than a princess attitude, when you sign a contract with Disney, you're practically signing your life away. No kidding. As an animator they own the rights to any personal work that you make while employed with them. That includes any personal animations, stories, and creative ideas that you come up with. It gives a whole new meaning to "they own you."
2. The Copyright
You know those super annoying copyright laws that everyone keeps getting in trouble for? Once upon a time, copyrights for a corporate authorship was about 75 years. Thanks to Disney, that was extended to 95 years. Why? Remember that old as dirt steam boat cartoon that Disney made back in the day? You know... The one that you see in the opening credits for their 50th anniversary? That should be in creative commons by now, but thanks to Disney complaining to the court system, it's not. In fact, because of that one stupid cartoon, a ton of other stuff isn't either. And that's straight from the lips of a Hollywood producer, folks. But the crazy thing is, there's a big question mark as to whether the original cartoon was even copyrighted at all. Crazy how the world works, huh?
3. The Disney Patent
There are pages upon pages of Disney patents--titles, logos, and just plain things. They patent things like children eat candy. And make no mistake--those words you can't use or things you can't make... that isn't due to copyright. That's due to patent. It's insane the amount of things that Disney has under their control. Here are some on the list that I'm sure very few know about:
- Insect Capture Device #5537777
- TV Movies that talk back #4569026
- Video games that voice dialogue #4445187
- Amusement ride having spinning passenger cars #5453053
- Marine Mammal Communication Device #5392735
And the list goes on for miles. But hopefully this was enough to freak you out just a little. I know it freaked me out.
The Love:
1. Disney & Cartoons
Disney is something that almost every American has grown up with as a small child, and you'd be hard-pressed to find someone that as an adult doesn't still watch at least some things by Disney. After all, my generation was all about the Lion King and Cinderella. My personal favorite was Mulan. It was that something that explained the harder things about life without being too in your face. Like death for instance. Every child who ever watch the Lion king can tell you exactly what death is, and believe me, it wasn't their parents who were the ones to tell them.
2. Themes for All Ages
Perhaps one of the most successful things about Disney as a whole is that they built their works around the idea that both children and adults should be able to watch the same movie and enjoy it for both similar and entirely different reasons. This is precisely why, as an adult, rewatching the Disney cartoons appeals to you differently than it does when you are a child. You start to understand the jokes and the crazy lyrics. But by far, their greatest success is hiding the more crude jokes so artfully that children can't pickup on them--something that many studios trying to be like disney never quite mastered.
3. Disney the Artful
Disney animation was a crazy wonderful idea back when it first started. Each individual cell was hand crafted and colored, layered and photographed. The coloring on snow white's cheeks was said to be real makeup. It doesn't get much more artful than that. Today, things are a little different, but Disney continues to put out fairly good works. And then there's Pixar. For those who don't know, Pixar is owned by Disney. Contrary to the belief that Disney owns everything, in fact, it's Paramount that owns and distributes Nickelodeon, Dreamworks, MTV, and Marvel. Who can blame Disney for wanting to get in on the action a little?
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So you see... Disney is a true Love, Hate relationship. I can't decide yet whether I love them or hate them... maybe I'll never be able to.
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