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How to Read Donald Duck: Imperialist Ideology in the Disney Comic by Armand Mattelart, Ariel Dorfman
eely225's review against another edition
4.0
A fine, academic deconstruction of Disney comics as a tool of imperial ideology. What's interesting is that the comics function only secondarily as a means of colonizing the world, primarily they serve as bourgeois reassurance that it is truly meet and right to colonize, that economic dominance by "advanced" nations over "primitive" nations is just and to the benefit of all parties.
What's really compelling here is how deeply we've internalized Disney's values, whether we've read a comic or not. Looking at the selected samples, they're so brazen as to seem absurd, impossible. But they draw on the same impulse we still see now: nostalgia. In reaching for a natural state of upper-class leisure without having to see the existence of a working class, Disney highlighted and continues to highlight our collective desire to rid ourselves of the guilt of economic inequality. We need to attribute imbalance to something-- anything!-- else, the most common examples being luck or nature.
Because the world of Disney is a staid and changeless dreamscape of bourgeois righteousness, revolution or desire for change is always unjust, selfish, and impermissible. Donald and Mickey serve not as a representatives of the working class but as apologists for economic determinism. Scrooge is rich because he has ideas, Donald is poor because he's lazy. All sides admit that this is the reasoning and that it makes sense. And we all get to pretend that they're just harmless cartoons.
One note: it might be best, after reading the introduction, to also read the final appendix (located at the end) before reading the book itself. It provides some more context that could have helped me process this deceptively dense volume.
What's really compelling here is how deeply we've internalized Disney's values, whether we've read a comic or not. Looking at the selected samples, they're so brazen as to seem absurd, impossible. But they draw on the same impulse we still see now: nostalgia. In reaching for a natural state of upper-class leisure without having to see the existence of a working class, Disney highlighted and continues to highlight our collective desire to rid ourselves of the guilt of economic inequality. We need to attribute imbalance to something-- anything!-- else, the most common examples being luck or nature.
Because the world of Disney is a staid and changeless dreamscape of bourgeois righteousness, revolution or desire for change is always unjust, selfish, and impermissible. Donald and Mickey serve not as a representatives of the working class but as apologists for economic determinism. Scrooge is rich because he has ideas, Donald is poor because he's lazy. All sides admit that this is the reasoning and that it makes sense. And we all get to pretend that they're just harmless cartoons.
One note: it might be best, after reading the introduction, to also read the final appendix (located at the end) before reading the book itself. It provides some more context that could have helped me process this deceptively dense volume.
giantarms's review against another edition
5.0
"Surely it is not good for children to be surreptitiously injected with a permanent compulsion to buy objects they don't need. This is Disney's sole ethical code: consumption for consumption's sake. Buy to keep the system going, throw the things away (rarely are objects shown being enjoyed, even in the comic), and buy the same thing, only slightly different, the next day. Let money change hands, and if it ends up fattening the pockets of Disney and his class, so be it."
p. 66
That is the least of the problems with Disney. I've always thought Disney stories existed in some kind of uncanny valley that I always figured was a result of simplifying things for kids. But of course it's not that simple. This book, why it was written, and the trouble it took to get to American readers was fascinating.
Never forget: Disney was a Bad Man. I don't care how magical you may think his artistic sense was, he was a crappy boss and probably would have benefited a great deal from some therapy.
p. 66
That is the least of the problems with Disney. I've always thought Disney stories existed in some kind of uncanny valley that I always figured was a result of simplifying things for kids. But of course it's not that simple. This book, why it was written, and the trouble it took to get to American readers was fascinating.
Never forget: Disney was a Bad Man. I don't care how magical you may think his artistic sense was, he was a crappy boss and probably would have benefited a great deal from some therapy.
cgcpoems's review
4.0
an absolutely fascinating read, critiquing Donald Duck comics of the 1950s-70s through a Marxist lens. this book didn’t disappoint, & even so many years after its original publication I’m saddened to say that so much of it remains relevant.
frontyardpat's review against another edition
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Really delightful book about the abominable wickedness of Disney
bukukurasi's review against another edition
3.0
First published in 1971 in Chile, in the midst of Salvador Allende's revolutionary socialism, the book is exposes how Disney established hegemonic ideas about capital, race, gender and the relationship between developed countries and the Third World.
Growing up with Disney's characters, it is difficult for me to accept them as agent of capitalism as suggested by the book. And since the book was published in the 70s, Disney/Donald Ducks magazines I read should be different from what they have in their era, right? But, to see in retrospect this book has unveil things that I could not see as a child, especially ideas about natives as savages and stupid.
It is not an easy read and at some point I think its analysis is over the top, but perhaps it is a translation issue, since its original book was published in Spanish. And, although it is suffocating, I also realize the importance of knowing the other side of my favourite cartoon characters.
Growing up with Disney's characters, it is difficult for me to accept them as agent of capitalism as suggested by the book. And since the book was published in the 70s, Disney/Donald Ducks magazines I read should be different from what they have in their era, right? But, to see in retrospect this book has unveil things that I could not see as a child, especially ideas about natives as savages and stupid.
It is not an easy read and at some point I think its analysis is over the top, but perhaps it is a translation issue, since its original book was published in Spanish. And, although it is suffocating, I also realize the importance of knowing the other side of my favourite cartoon characters.
wint's review against another edition
I don't rate theory
"So whether they be actively wicked or passively virtuous, the role of the dominated is fixed, and history, it seems, is made somewhere else"
It is nigh impossible to find interesting academic criticism of Disney before the 80's, and even then while most of them are pretty harsh, they're also very simplistic (rat bad). While this one isn't an exception, the addition of the Latin America framework does give it a lot more weight.
Moreover, being a child of parents raised under a US-financed dictatorship, and that were very much fans of the Donald comics, this does add a lot of personal weight to the text.
I did find some parts of it pretty grating, though. The weird focus on this freudian notion of fathers and mothers, even when presented under the assumption of the validity of gender roles, was uncomfortable and sometimes pretty much a stretch (Mickey as a surrogate for actual motherhood? C'mon man).
But I did like the overall sardonic tone. As the (3) introductions like to point out, this is much more of an beginner text that facilitates the understading of some fairly complex marxist concepts. Their exploration of fetishism is downright brilliant. And while I didn't like the familial aspects of the analysis, it did flow pretty gracefully to the more grandiose and relevant theme of how the worldbuilding of the Disney comics, and I don't think it's a stretch to say it also applies to most of the media the company produced at the time, reflects this uncanny, parody-like characteristic of the economy and politics of Latin America now and then.
It is, in the end, fairly ok critique of the invisible influence of mainstream american media in third-world countries, with some truly powerful moments and easy to get through writing.
"So whether they be actively wicked or passively virtuous, the role of the dominated is fixed, and history, it seems, is made somewhere else"
It is nigh impossible to find interesting academic criticism of Disney before the 80's, and even then while most of them are pretty harsh, they're also very simplistic (rat bad). While this one isn't an exception, the addition of the Latin America framework does give it a lot more weight.
Moreover, being a child of parents raised under a US-financed dictatorship, and that were very much fans of the Donald comics, this does add a lot of personal weight to the text.
I did find some parts of it pretty grating, though. The weird focus on this freudian notion of fathers and mothers, even when presented under the assumption of the validity of gender roles, was uncomfortable and sometimes pretty much a stretch (Mickey as a surrogate for actual motherhood? C'mon man).
But I did like the overall sardonic tone. As the (3) introductions like to point out, this is much more of an beginner text that facilitates the understading of some fairly complex marxist concepts. Their exploration of fetishism is downright brilliant. And while I didn't like the familial aspects of the analysis, it did flow pretty gracefully to the more grandiose and relevant theme of how the worldbuilding of the Disney comics, and I don't think it's a stretch to say it also applies to most of the media the company produced at the time, reflects this uncanny, parody-like characteristic of the economy and politics of Latin America now and then.
It is, in the end, fairly ok critique of the invisible influence of mainstream american media in third-world countries, with some truly powerful moments and easy to get through writing.
plaidbrarian's review against another edition
2.0
It's an interesting enough idea - reading and examining the pro-imperialist leanings that may be present in South American Disney comics - but very dry if you're not the sort of person who is, you know, interested in things like South American imperialism. Decidedly not for me, but I'm still willing to give it a good ol' 2 star "it was okay" for the attempt.
boithorn's review against another edition
3.0
In the context of a Latin America where Disney was exporting translations of their comics in order to promote US imperial power, this response is amazing. Outside of that context, it is a fine (and unfocused) demonstration on how ideologies imprint their tenets on media that rings a little hollow because it's removed from any sort of recent examples of Disney media. Definitely an influential text, but I'm sure someone could make a killer update to the blueprint by examining Disney's recent shift to fangless inclusive liberalism.