This post will bring my work on this blog to a close, the end of a semester's (sort of debatable...) work. I was trying to think of something really profound to write in this post, but I couldn't. Therefore, I'll just try and draw the course to a close - for both my benefit and for yours.
To 'decode' Disney is a task beyond all but the most accomplished team of professional researchers. Indeed with the continuous evolution of the Disney corporation itself, there may never be a definitive ideology behind the Disney corporation. Sure, one can identify recurring themes and traditions in Disney's creations, but these do not necessarily represent the entirety of what the corporation stands for, if anything apart from profit. As Mike Wallace comments in his piece 'Mickey Mouse History: Portraying the Past at Disney World', Disney is unquestionably involved in a process of manipulating the past, yet for what end remains uncertain. The content of Wallace's paper resonated strongly with some of the lessons I had learnt from history class in high school: that history is sometimes manipulated and misrepresented to portray an ideal which we should all aspire to in the future. Whether this notion pervades society so deeply as to influence the layout of a theme park is of course up for debate, yet the conspiracy theorists among us would most probably think so. Personally, I'm not entirely sure what to think. With $81 billion of assets, the Disney corporation is a force to be reckoned with. The media outlets it owns and controls have the power to influence an audience of billions. What it uses or will use this immense influence for is for the world to fear or look forward to.
Thanks for reading and happy ANZAC day.
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