Breaking the Disney Spell - Zipes

I found Jack Zipes’ “Breaking the Disney Spell” to be very well structured, although I strongly disagreed with the way in which Zipes supported his argument that Disney has “violated” the fairy tale industry. I think Zipes was effective in setting up his argument by giving a history of fairy tales and how Disney entered the scene. I do agree that Disney has transformed the film industry as well as fairy tales, although I don’t think the influence was as negative as Zipes made it out to be. I felt that Zipes was too biased and he should have addressed some positive impacts that Disney had on fairy tales, such as incorporating a younger audience. Zipes also often exaggerates and doesn’t support his claims like when he says that Disney characters are “one dimensional” and that there is “no character development.” Disney and Pixar have a lot of brilliant writers who job it is to create character development. These claims go largely unsupported.

The biggest issue I have with Zipes’ argument is how he unfairly blames Disney for revolutionizing fairy tales in ways that would have happened whether Disney ever existed or not. Disney may have been more innovative then its competitors, but that doesn’t mean it should take on all the blamed for how the film industry changed. Zipes reminisces on the classical fairy tales, and shuns modern fairy tales for being less social, less about the author, and more targeted at consumers. Zipes transfers this downfall on Disney, but I think history would have played out the same way whether Disney existed or not. The world changed a lot in the 1900’s and although Disney influenced the world, the world had a greater influence on Disney. Disney was simply mirroring the changing world and fairy tales followed Disney’s lead.