Disney as a fairytale

Earlier in the semester we read a piece by Jack Zipes called 'Breaking the Disney Spell'. It was awesome. The question it really asked (or at least made me consider) was whether Disney is continuing the fairytale tradition or just shooting it dead where it stands. Obviously different people will have different opinions, but I'm going to explain mine here.
Zipes tracks the development of the fairytale from the pedagogical tale it started out as in the classical/early medieval period to the period of their transferral to writing and then to the modern era. The question assumed is whether Disney's adaption of the tales to the screen and their messages to suit the audience voids their being labelled fairy tales or not. Obviously, fairy tale 'collectors' such as the Brothers Grimm did a similar thing in the past, assimilating the local German tales into an anthology for publication and distribution. The problem Zipes has with this process is that it strips the tales of their essence - a personal communication between the speaker and their audience. However, in modern times the Brothers Grimm are recognised as potentially the most influential figures in the world of fairy tales. An action movie was even made about them as people, rather than their tales. It was pretty bad though...

My response to Zipes' article is that Disney is most definitely continuing the fairytale tradition into the modern era. It is playing the most vital step in transferring an ancient tradition into the development of today's world, which is not a small role to play. Thus the drastic steps which need to be taken to achieve this, such as using the media of film and television is understandable. Although it cheapens the tales themselves in no small way, it is an inherent problem of modernity that interpersonal communication will never have the same intrinsic value it once did in, say, shamanistic tribes. Instead, this communication needs to be replaced with an impersonal intermediary, ie. the television. In this way, as many people as possible can be reached with just one broadcast or film, conveying the values within to as many people as possible. It is not a cheapening of the values themselves that we are seeing, but a limitation of one's ability to engage completely with them. Disney might be responsible for this, but that is only because it is the scapegoat for modernity itself, biting the bullet to ensure the continuation of a practice which underlines humanity as a whole. If you think about, do you know of any culture that does not teach its young tales and stories? Do the methods of teaching differ in each culture? Disney is the modern western method of teaching the tales.