To not understand what's so wrong with Disney??

[Anythingwithagiraffeonit]

I keep reading on other threads about a great dislike of Disney.

On the 'expectations of myself as future mum' thread one of the points the OP makes is that she won't allow anything Disney, and this is just one of many times I've read this.

Am I missing something? I can't wait to show DD Disney films, take her to Florida and make her an amazing dressing up box including princess clothes.

AIBU to not get what's so wrong with it?

They rip you off with their over priced crappy toys. There's also alot of hidden masonic imagery in Disney films.

This is for the LOVERS not the HATERS

www.mousesavers.com/

Gives all the inside scoop on deals and discount codes for Disney parks and Cruise ships. We've found it very helpful for finding the best deals and the discounted periods.

I don't specifically object to Disney, I just don't personally like it. Nothing to do with anything other than my own opinion on the films. Don't care about the toy tie-ins, and went to Disneyland in California as a child and liked some of it, thought most of it was tedious tbh. DS has seen a couple of Pixar films (Cars, Wall-E iirc) and hasn't asked to watch them again.

I think the Dreamworks films are better generally, though I can take or leave them DS likes them. I think they're funnier too.

It's overpriced trash that only sells as well as it does because Disney can afford the extremely aggressive marketing it carries out.

The current ad re filming families telling their kids is just hideous.My 3 totally thought we'd be going. I've banned pop tv channel as I'm sick and tired of explaining all families don't go as it costs a bloody fortune.Nice little bit of added pressure for families living with austerity measures-thanks Disney!!!!

I'm all for make believe but Disney doesn't have the monopoly on it(although they'd like to believe they do).

Thanks for the link Missinglalaland...

It seems to me, that the people who don't like it do so for fashionable reasons.

I would never deprive my child of how absolutely magical it is to walk down mainstreet and see cinderella's castle, or to watch the Christmas parade and see it snow, or take away the wonderful memories she'll have of us curling up under a duvet and watching 'disney's'. :)

Disney tells little girls that their lives will be perfect once they have met their quoiffed-haired, veneered-toothed, perma-tan prince.

Yes, I agree a lot of films do carry that sort of message (love the YouTube links as well, really funny!) - but there is, IMO, much more to Disney than those films. We don't have Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty etc, I wasn't into them as a child so I haven't bothered buying them. We like the animal/adventure type ones.

If a girl has decent female role models, parents who don't enforce gender stereotypes, plenty of hobbies, and a family who don't buy into all the merchandise (don't ask for much do I :o) there's no real reason for them to latch on to the princess idea. We encourage DD to value her behaviour and achievements, not just her appearance. We encourage her to engage in the world and help people. I think ATM if we asked her what she wanted to be when she's older, she wouldn't say a princess - why would she? She would say a hero, or a bug hunter, or a dinosaur expert.

If a girl grows up watching nothing but princess movies, and having everything pink and fluffy, and being told she will be a good wife one day, and thinking that only men work and only women cook and clean, and not being allowed to play in the mud or play with cars, then yes, she probably will end up a wannabe princess. I just really don't think that's inevitable because there's a lot more to disney than princesses, and that parenting has a greater influence anyway.

Many of my friends who have been have justified the expense by saying "you just have to do it, don't you". It is this attitude, and the fact that my nieces love it "because everyone is really really nice, all the time, and it makes you happy" which puts me off - I dislike the idea of paying for happiness.

Incidentally my DB, DSIL and nieces (aged 22 and 20) are going again this year. For the 4th time. I seriously can't understand why they are unable to see further than Florida. Eg if going to USA, go somewhere different.

Having said that I often worry that I am "depriving" the DCs by not going...asked them today if they wished to go, and DS1 (13) said "yes", DS2 (11) "don't know.." Will I regret not going when they are older? Will they regret that we didn't want to go? They have never begged to go though, and maybe I would feel differently if they had.

It is amazing, take them.

If you don't 'pay for happiness' by going on a holiday, then when do you?

When I look back some of my best and earliest memories are of being in Florida. There's a reason make a wish foundations take people there... It's out of this world good.

Over the years I have taken my children to Disney in France for four days and Disney in L.A for two days and had great fun. We went because we thought a theme park type holiday would be a nice change to the usual sightseeing or beach holidays we usually do. This year we are going on a Disney cruise and all looking forward to it . I just look at the Disney experience as fun times I have shared with my children and a nice balance to cultural and sporty things we have also done.

See, I just don't get this idea that I'll be depriving DS of something if he doesn't watch Disney.. he's shown no interest anyway in the Disney classics. Pixar is another story entirely :p
He'd definitely feel deprived if I didn't let him watch toy story :)

i like pixar (which is disney) and have very fond memories of watching pocahontas on summer camp in the US sleeping out under the stars.

i think it depends on the individual film. i don't really do 'princesses' though so i hope i don't have a really princessy DD.

My DD seems to have rejected the princess Disney.

We are very much a Pixar household. She adores the Toy Story trilogy and if it makes her happy then so be it!

Oh I seeee. You can't make beautiful memories with your children if you don't take them to hell on earth Disneyland or buy them Winnie the Pooh crap? And you don't think you're brainwashed OP? hahahahaha :o

I hope my DD is princessy :) I'm imagining pink everything and loads of dressing up clothes, wands, tiaras...

DH is hoping for a football loving tomboy. This would be my worst nightmare :p I wanted a girl so I could take her to Disney and dress her up as a princess. Lol...

Gwendoline - I said 'some' memories. Not all.

And you think Disneyland is hell on earth?? Wow....

jeez.

can no one actually just read what is written, sometimes? without polarising it?

some people like Disney.

some children like Disney, and their parents don't see why they should ban it.

some girls like princess stuff, some don't - some are hooked, and some can take it or leave it.

same for boys and the Cars lot, I should think.

whatever you think of Disney as such, WDW does remain one fo the finest examples of a theme park (and it isn't all wall to wall mouse, or princesses, not by a long chalk) to be found anywhere.

why the sniping? why the implication that some posters "need" Disney to create memories, when what posters have said is that some of their best memories come form holidays there? why the need to feel so superior?

Well said Silverfrog.

I have nothing against dressup/ costumes/ imaginative play or the colour pink, but Disney leaves nothing to the imagination and that's my gripe. The whole experience is laid on. All you have to do is pay.

I prefer the original books for the Disney stories (AA Milne, Hans Anderson, Brothers Grimm), and there are better rollercoasters etc., elsewhere. Disneyland is all about merchandise. You feel you are being sold to all the time.

really, math? I can't say we felt that way at all.

yes, the whole experience was laid on - eg customer service, everything worked brilliantly, there ws nothing which was too much trouble.

but I didn't feel we were being relentlessly pushed to buy stuff - we walked past most of the shops, tbh. yes, carts everywhere with drinks/fans/sunhats - but that's just standard.

even the free photo service thingy - you have to actually ask them to take pictures of you, rather than having it foisted uon you as you walk down mainstreet etc - we had to work pretty hard sometimes ot get the photos we wanted, as the photographers were so hands off.

I find it interesting how different perceptions of the same place can be

I think I feel that way because the rides and attractions are associated with specific characters or films -- it's like being surrounded by ads/ trailers for the films/ hype. Even the level of customer service and everything working is part of the same Happy Ever After/Perfection Is Possible ethos that is found in the films. The Disney brand is associated with wish fulfillment (but wish creation is a very important part of the process).

hmm, yes. can see what you mean re: rides being associated with specific characters etc.

but apart form the bugs life one, can't think of any that were relentlessly so - and therefore more about the character than the ride, iyswim?

maybe it is because (despite appearances, perhaps!) my dds are not Disney-crazy. they like it, sure. and dd2 has a thing for Minne Mouse (red being her favourite colour, and spots being the only fashion possible!).

but other than Mary Poppins, and some Mickey's clubhouse, I am not sure what films they ahve seen, tbh. Beauty and the Beast. some of Nemo. and that's it, I reckon.

they know the characters from general fairy tales (and dd2 does have one book which has crept into the house which I keep trying to hide as it is the most ridiculous example of helpless females there ever was - a Disney Princess compilation - not the original stories, but a sort of follow-on, where they clearly do nothing but sit around all day . but tbh, they got another job lot of books the other weekend and she hasn't asked for it since - so problem solved without banning)

but I found a lot of the rides at animal kingdom weren;t character-specific (other than bugs life), and same at Epcot too. you do find the Mice everywhere, and random characters all over the place.

but other themed rides eg the Toy Story one, I barely noticed what it was about as was enjoying the fairground aspect to the mini-games etc.

interesting, though, and thanks

The characters are merchandise too.

DD4 got a Disney Princess compilation for a birthday (from a friend, she had a party) that was the most boak-inducing codswallop I've ever read. I think it's the same one you have. Apart from the objectionable theme of dating and marriage being front and centre in a children's book (as opposed to, say, Brambly Hedge 'Poppy and Dusty's Wedding' where the focus is on the preparations for the big day and the voyage downstream during the party). I remember reading a passage along the lines of someone's mother 'encouraging the relationship'. The word 'relationship' should not be used in a children's book imo.

I am really into animation and I had loads of the Ghibli DVDs from Japan before they were readily available in the US and EU (ie before they made Spirited Away ), plus other Japanese anime and Korean animation and various other animations for both children and adults.

I also own most of the Disney animations on DVD.

I'm also well educated, a feminist, and I'm left wing.

I'm fine with Disney. I'm fine with my kids watching it. The stores are full of tat - we don't frequent them. Simple.

Why am I fine with it? Because it's a bit of harmless fun that's why. They are no worse, and in many cases much better, than other stuff produced at the same time in terms of sexism and race representation.

And actually, I don't think they do too bad on ethnic representation these days. Unlike for example, Playmobil or Lego, both very "worthy" but very very "white".

Agree with Silverfrog: lighten up.