Disney Annotated Research

Carlos Vargas Rebecca Agosta ENGL 1103 28, March 2014

Questions
Why is Disney fandom considered a Discourse community? Has the Disney Company changed its support of fans through out its existence? How is the Disney fandom important to our society? How Does Disney shape peoples identity? Why are some people more interested in one period of Disney films rather than another? Does personal belief effect what period of Disney films you enjoy ?

Rotten Tomatoes: Movies | TV Shows | Movie Trailers | Reviews." Rotten Tomatoes: Movies | TV Shows | Movie Trailers | Reviews. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
Rotten tomatoes is a movie citation website. This website is used by many people to see whether a film is good or bad. What make this website unique from other websites is that it gives you a percentage from both people who have seen it as well as movie critiques. This is good because it gives you an option in which you want to look at whether it be the critiques or the audience. In this assignment, I am using this website to rate each of the 53 official Disney films. This will allow me to see where the popular films are as well as the unpopular and thus see where the films eras fit in when looking at the companies history.

Gee, James P. Literacy, Discourse and Linguistics: Introduction, Journal of Education 171.1 (1989): 5-17. Print
Gee journal expresses a view into the world of Discourse Community and compares it to the idea of literacies. In other words Gee tries to show how identities can change when he or she joins a Discourse community. Gee also talks about four different types of discourses. These include primary, secondary, dominant and nondomiant Discourse. He also argues that different Discourses influence other Discourses. Gee research will be used as a part of basis for this assignment. The main use will be to allow me to compare the different groups (or Discourses) that come up from the animated films Disney produces. These groups that will be looked are are different eras in which the company has gone through. This of course will allow me to bring Gees main idea of Discourse into the final piece.

Stein, Andi. Why We Love Disney: The Power of the Disney Brand. New York: Peter Lang, 2011. Print.
Stein includes factual and historical information on how the branding of Disney has effected how we look at the company. This book allows me to see major historical events in detail, such as major deaths and important events in the company. These include not only the animation part but also the theme park, Disney channel and so forth. For this assignment we will be focusing on very important events that shaped the popularity of the Disney corporation. Some of These events include not only the death of both Roy and Walt Disney (the original founders of the company) but also the introduction of Pixar partnership and later merger with Disney. Others include the introduction of the Disney parks which allowed people to ride their favorite characters and skyrocketed the corporation as more than a film studio

With this information, I am planning on incorporating the major events into my final piece. This is because these events allow us to explore where the different eras start as well as end. It also establishes a comparison between the films being produced and the events since cultural and human perspectives can change a companies motive.

Vargas, Carlos E. "Disney Survey." Google Docs. 25 Mar. 2014. 25 Mar. 2014 This survey bring some important ideas to the
table. One of the main ideas is the variety of answers coming from not only the idea of cultural icons but also race and gender in Disney films. The other important idea is that most of the least favorite films are Disney princess films, some of the most popular films they have ever created. Also there is an interesting shift in ideas between films people like and films people do not like. For example many people enjoy films from the Renaissance (1989-1990) while did not like films from the silver age (1950-1967). This survey provides several important aspects toward my research. First it allows me to compare my results with what I have taken from rotten tomatoes. Also it will allow me to focus on why they are there, especially their least and most favorite films because most of the time it gives a sense of pattern. This pattern will help create an understanding beliefs system in the corporation.

Walker, Doug, dir. Nostalgia Critic Editorial - What. Blip, 2013. Film. 25 Mar 2014. <https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAXEQswcv44>.
Walker video looks at an analysis of why we hate the idea of woman being princesses instead of queen. In other words, why do we want woman to be princesses rather then queens in our society. He starts this argument by analyzing what is considered the main problem: Disney Princess. What walker main argument that they are important to society because they show virtues that would be considered dimmable during the time they were created. For example, snow white is a good motherly figure because she takes care of the Dwarfs. He does a great job in defending almost all the princesses, including Cinderella, who gets a reputation of doing absolutely nothing and gets all she wants just by dreaming. The information will be used as evidence arguing the ideas coming from the least favorite film answers of the survey. It will also be used in the introduction which will examine how beliefs effect whether a person likes a Disney film or not.