Eighty-nine years ago on Oct. 16, 1923, Walt Disney founded a company that would affect the lives of millions.

Being as popular as Walt Disney is, it comes as no surprise that Syracuse University offers several classes that study Disney’s culture, products, effects on society and more.

Adjunct professor in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications Doug Brode taught one such class last fall, a selected topics class, and hopes to teach it again in upcoming semesters. He describes the class as “dealing with the social and cultural values that are inherent in (Disney’s) films.”

And professor Brode won’t ruin any childhoods by bashing the Disney films people grew up with. In fact, he describes himself as “pro-Disney.”

“Most of the criticisms seem to stem from the idea that it is so big and powerful that it must be corrupt. I don’t believe in judging the work by the size of the company. I believe in going to the work itself. I believe the messages are enlightened,” Brode said in an email.

In his class, Brode presents his pro-Disney stance as well as an opposite, anti-Disney one, and allows the class to draw its own conclusions.

His belief in the positive messages of Disney films has led him to write two books on the topic: “From Walt to Woodstock: How Disney Created the Counter-Culture” and, more recently, “Multiculturalism and the Mouse: Race and Sex in Disney Entertainment.”

“Mostly, Disney is painted as a reactionary by the majority of academics. I see precisely the opposite in his work, a liberal and progressive vision that is pro-environmental, pro-minorities, pro-women’s rights, etc.,” said Brode about the topics of his books.

He even cites Disney’s documentaries, like 2009’s “Earth” and “Oceans,” as examples of the good Disney has done recently.

Another class that looks at The Walt Disney Company is COM 344: “Diversity and the Disney Princesses,” taught by professor Johanna Keller.

Keller, who recently created the one-semester class, said that it looks at all aspects of diversity in the 10 official Disney princess movies.

“I’ve found that these films provide a really rich environment for thinking about diversity in our culture and thinking about the way Disney has changed in its messages about diversity,” Keller said. “Diversity is much more complicated than black and white.”

Like Brode, Keller isn’t out to ruin Disney movies for her students. In fact, she even admits that part of the reason she created the class was because she enjoys them, especially “Tangled,” which retells the story of Rapunzel.

Although she loves the movies, Keller takes care to present both positive and negative examples of diversity in Disney movies, much like Brode does in his class.

“I have no feelings about Disney one way or the other. Do I think all of their media are bad messages? No. Do I think all their media are good messages? No,” Keller said.

Another reason Keller said she started the class was because she saw the effect that Disney was having on people who grew up with the movies, especially current college students.

Keller thinks that the impact of Disney on people will soon be apparent as the generations that watched the movies over and over again grow up and begin to do research on the effects themselves.

“We don’t even know what the impact of this is, but that there has been an impact is without question,” Keller said.

Even though the effect that Disney has had isn’t clear yet, classes like Brode’s and Keller’s are a start.

Said Keller: “It’s a very rich topic for analysis and I think it’s worth our study.”

Published on October 17, 2012 at 2:57 am

Contact Anna: amhider@syr.edu