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Rating: 
Summary: "Academia" at it's worst...
Review: Being a Disney nut, I'll read just about anything that talks about the Disney corporation and culture. I found Understanding Disney at the library and eagerly picked it up. What a waste...I should have been clued in on page 5 with this statement: "The continued expansion and popularity of the Disney empire calls for the deliberate integration of political economic analysis with insights drawn from cultural analysis and audience studies or reception analysis, or, in other words, analysis emphasizing the economic as well as the ideological, or production as well as consumption." Huh? She teaches a class at the University of Oregon on this stuff. Very academic and abstract, and too much so for my liking. While there were some interesting factoids about Walt's true history vs. the story told by Disney, she went into pure academia all too often. An example, labeled "Psychoanalysis And Pinocchio": "Brody observes the anal images and incorporation themes have been common in Disney tales, citing examples from The Three Little Pigs and Peter Pan. Anal images, especially featuring the "often-kick-in-the-butt" Jiminy Cricket, are a rampant in Pinocchio as images of erection (Pinocchio's nose, the donkey ears), and incorporation is appearnt in the scenes of Pinocchio and Gepetto in the whale's stomach." Please!!!! You have *got* to be kidding me... She even covers Marxist analysis and the imperialist Disney. And kids pay to take this class?
Rating:
Summary: "Academia" at it's worst...
Review: Being a Disney nut, I'll read just about anything that talks about the Disney corporation and culture. I found Understanding Disney at the library and eagerly picked it up. What a waste... I should have been clued in on page 5 with this statement: "The continued expansion and popularity of the Disney empire calls for the deliberate integration of political economic analysis with insights drawn from cultural analysis and audience studies or reception analysis, or, in other words, analysis emphasizing the economic as well as the ideological, or production as well as consumption." Huh? She teaches a class at the University of Oregon on this stuff. Very academic and abstract, and too much so for my liking. While there were some interesting factoids about Walt's true history vs. the story told by Disney, she went into pure academia all too often. An example, labeled "Psychoanalysis And Pinocchio": "Brody observes the anal images and incorporation themes have been common in Disney tales, citing examples from The Three Little Pigs and Peter Pan. Anal images, especially featuring the "often-kick-in-the-butt" Jiminy Cricket, are a rampant in Pinocchio as images of erection (Pinocchio's nose, the donkey ears), and incorporation is appearnt in the scenes of Pinocchio and Gepetto in the whale's stomach." Please!!!! You have *got* to be kidding me... She even covers Marxist analysis and the imperialist Disney. And kids pay to take this class?
Rating: 
Summary: Information from Publisher's Web Site
Review: Here is some information about this book from Polity Press: Since the 1930s the Walt Disney Company has produced characters, images, and stories which have captivated audiences around the world. How can we understand the appeal of Disney products? What is it about the Disney phenomenon that attracts so many children as well as adults? In this major new book, Janet Wasko examines the processes by which the Disney company - one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world - manufactures the fantasies which enthrall millions. She analyses the historical expansion of the Disney empire, examines the content of Disney's classic films, cartoons and TV programs and shows how they are produced, considering how some of the same techniques have been applied to the Disney theme parks. She also discusses the reception of Disney products by different kinds of audiences. By looking at the Disney phenomenon from a variety of perspectives, she provides a fresh and comprehensive account of one of the most significant media and cultural institutions of our time. This important book by a leading scholar of the entertainment industries will be of great interest to students in media and cultural studies and will appeal to a wide readership.
Rating:
Summary: the best book I have ever read about Disney
Review: I have read many books on Disney. This book gives you all the details you want. It tells about the fun and interesting facts you want to know about disney. This book is a must. I have two of them just incase something happens to one of them.
Rating: 
Summary: Wasko is a bit verbose
Review: I have to agree with another reviewer. The text can be tedious and annoying while not conveying any information. Her many references to "which I will discuss in chapter (x)..." is so common it becomes a joke in her writing. While the text can be informative at times her writing style tends to be annoying and pretentious. It's reminiscent of a speaker who spends all their time telling you what they are going to tell you, that they dont really have that much to say in the end.
Rating:
Summary: Wasko is a bit verbose
Review: I have to agree with another reviewer. The text can be tedious and annoying while not conveying any information. Her many references to "which I will discuss in chapter (x)..." is so common it becomes a joke in her writing. While the text can be informative at times her writing style tends to be annoying and pretentious. It's reminiscent of a speaker who spends all their time telling you what they are going to tell you, that they dont really have that much to say in the end.
Rating:
Summary: Some things are just unnecessary...
Review: While the book is very interesting the author's constant use of phrases such as "which I'll discuss later in chapter x", "which we talked about in chapter x" was extremely distracting. She seemed to use this phrase at least once a page. Maybe she was just trying to make the book longer - who knows.
Rating:
Summary: Some things are just unnecessary...
Review: While the book is very interesting the author's constant use of phrases such as "which I'll discuss later in chapter x", "which we talked about in chapter x" was extremely distracting. She seemed to use this phrase at least once a page. Maybe she was just trying to make the book longer - who knows.
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