A Cultural History of the Disney Fairy Tale : Once Upon an American Dream

This book charts the complex history of the relationship between the Disney fairy tale and the American Dream, demonstrating the ways in which the Disney fairy tale has been reconstructed and renegotiated alongside, and in response to important changes within American society. In all of its fairy tales of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the Walt Disney studios works to sell its audiences the national myth of the United States at any one historical moment. With analyses of films and television programmes such as __The Little Mermaid__ (1989), __Frozen__ (2013), __Beauty and the Beast__ (2017) and __Once Upon a Time__ (2011-2018), Mollet argues that by giving its fairy tale protagonistscharacteristics associated with ‘good’ Americans, and even by situating their fairy tales within America itself, Disney constructs a vision of America as a utopian space. Acknowledgements Contents Chapter 1: Introduction: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood... Disney and the Promise of Happily Ever After Disney, the American Dream and the 1930s National Myths and Fairy Tales Disney’s Fairy Tale Narratives Structure, Periodisation and Outline America as Disney Fairy Tale References Chapter 2: The Classic Era (1937–1959) Depression Culture New Deal Exclusivity Women and Post-war American Culture Masculinity and the Home Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) Cinderella (1950) Sleeping Beauty (1959) Conclusion References Chapter 3: The Renaissance Era (1989–1991) Neoliberalism and Its Impact Gender and Popular Culture in the Neoliberal Era Team Disney The American Fairy Tale The Little Mermaid (1989) Beauty and the Beast (1991) Conclusion References Chapter 4: The Revisionist Era (2007–2018) 9/11, New York and America Post-9/11 Fairy Tale Narratives Shrek (2001), Shrek 2 (2002) and the Rise of Postmodernism Enchanted (2007) Once Upon a Time (2011–2018) Conclusion References Chapter 5: The Renewal Era (2009–2013) Hurricane Katrina and the Crash of 2008 The Election of Barack Obama Third Wave Feminism and LGBTQ Rights The Post-Eisner Era The Princess and the Frog (2009) Tangled (2010) Frozen (2013) Conclusion References Chapter 6: The Reboot Era (2014–2017) Nostalgia and Twenty-First-Century America Disney’s Fairy Tale Universe Disney’s Reboot Culture Fairy Tales for Adults Maleficent (2014) Cinderella (2015) Beauty and the Beast (2017) Conclusion References Chapter 7: And They Lived Happily Ever After ... in America The Transformation of the Disney Fairy Tale American Attributes The Disney Fairy Tale: Context and Adaptation Fairy Tale America References Index This book charts the complex history of the relationship between the Disney fairy tale and the American Dream, demonstrating the ways in which the Disney fairy tale has been reconstructed and renegotiated alongside, and in response to important changes in America's social and cultural histories. In all of its fairy tales of the twentieth and twenty-first century, the Walt Disney studios works to sell its audiences the national myth of United States at any one particular moment. With analysis of films such as The Little Mermaid (1989), Once Upon a Time (2011-2018), Frozen (2013) and Beauty and the Beast (2017), Mollet argues that by giving its fairy tale heroes and heroines characteristics associated with 'good' Americans and even by situating their fairy tales within American itself, Disney constructs and sells a vision of America as a utopian space. This book charts the complex history of the relationship between the Disney fairy tale and the American Dream, demonstrating the ways in which the Disney fairy tale has been reconstructed and renegotiated alongside, and in response to important changes within American society. In all of its fairy tales of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the Walt Disney studios works to sell its audiences the national myth of the United States at any one historical moment. With analyses of films and television programmes such as The Little Mermaid (1989), Frozen (2013), Beauty and the Beast (2017) and Once Upon a Time (2011-2018), Mollet argues that by giving its fairy tale protagonists characteristics associated with ‘good’ Americans, and even by situating their fairy tales within America itself, Disney constructs a vision of America as a utopian space.