Book Review: The Ride of a Lifetime: Lessons in Creative Leadership from the CEO of the Walt Disney Company, Robert Iger

Laying out the Vision and Executing It – the Disney Way There haven’t been many organizations which not just survive but continue to thrive during their lifespan. One of these is the Walt Disney Company, among the most valued firms (current market cap of $325 billion) in the world, an American diversified multinational mass media, and entertainment conglomerate headquartered in California.Having had a shaky start, with its predecessor having filed for bankruptcy, Disney has continued to innovate and evolve during its existence of nearly a century.The Ride of a Lifetimeis authored by Robert Iger, Disney’s sixth CEO since establishment in 1923 comes out as an absorbing business book. In the words of Bill Gates, “unlike most books on leadership, this one is worth the time”. He has already suggested it to several friends and colleagues, including Satya Nadella.

Black Normativity and Burdened Individualism

The Walt Disney Company has a marred past; the products that powered its explosive growth to an entertainment conglomerate depicted grossly racist stereotypes. Seeking to wash its hands of this controversial past, Disney released The Princess and the Frog (TPF), its first film featuring a Black protagonist. The film deserves recognition for its efforts to bring representation to Black Americans. But lurking in Disney’s redemption project is a noticeable revisionist whitewashing of American history. The film’s plot begins when Tiana, short on money and seeking to rescue her incipient dream to open a restaurant, accepts a prince-transmuted-frog’s offer to reward her for kissing him. When she compromises her unyielding adherence to “hard work,” she transforms into a frog. The film’s very narrative structure is built on what Saidiya Hartman labels “burdened individualism,” a discourse that demands Black Americans ceaselessly pursue market ascendency while stripping them of the tools to do so.

Dalí, Disney and Destino: Alchemy in Animation

Salvador Dalí claimed that he made his whole life “a work of alchemy.” He saw in alchemy the principle of metamorphosis and “the transmutation of bodies.” Carl Jung recognized “imaginatio” as the key to alchemy. As Patrick Harpur suggests: “The Work takes place in a realm intermediate between mind and matter. It is a daimonic process, a ‘chemical theatre’ in which processes and psychic transformations interpenetrate.” The alchemist does not simply work on matter, but on the self. In Dalí’s “paranoiac-critical method,” objects similarly seem to exist in an “intermediate realm between mind and matter”; they are animated presences, with a life of their own. The Dalínean double-image is itself a kind of alchemical magic, invoking the “transmutation of bodies.” In 1946, Dalí began work for the Walt Disney Company on a short film, Destino. This would be, he claimed, the “First Surrealist Cartoon.” The appeal of animation for him may have been based in part in what Eisenstein termed “plasmaticness”: the “ability to dynamically assume any form.” Animation, then, may be seen as a kind of “chemical theatre.” As a “realm between mind and matter,” it also functioned for Dalí as a form of mundus imaginalis, in which he could engage with the “obsessing” images in his psyche. In Destino, Dalí invoked the alchemical process as a journey to tranfiguration and psychological “rebirth.” The film was not completed in his lifetime; this account is based on the original storyboards which he produced.

Aquisição da Twenty-First Century Fox (21CF) pela The Walt Disney Company

<p>The Acquisition of Twenty-First Century Fox (21cf) by the Walt Disney Company</p>

New methods for mapping media concentration: network analysis of joint ventures among firms

Measures of media concentration typically rely on two primary indices: CR4 and HHI. These indices are based on the market share of the top firms as well as the share of total revenues for top firms. These indices only serve as an adequate representation of media concentration sectors if one assumes that the top firms are competitors. However, these measures do not adequately capture the degree to which top firms work together through joint ventures or other shared interests. By using network analysis, this article illustrates the joint ventures that exist among the five largest media firms (Comcast, the Walt Disney Company, National Amusements, AT&T/WarnerMedia, and Fox/News Corporation). We argue that this type of analysis can supplement existing measures of media concentration and may also be useful for policy debates, particularly in reviews of proposed mergers.

Fairy tales between transformation and repetition: How audiences rethink the big romantic myth through Disney princess stories

One of the ways in which culture becomes enriched is through reconsideration and reinterpretation of well-known stories, and classic fairy tales provide promising material for investigation of the nature of this complex process. The Walt Disney Company is among the most powerful tellers of classic tales, its line of princess animations being an example of simultaneous development and preservation of the fairy-tale phenomenon in a changing cultural context. We analyse the dialogue among classic and modern princess stories and the discussions that these stories give rise to in English-language academic criticism and English-based participatory culture. We focus on the interaction among authors, texts and readers, showing how traditional tales balance between mythological and nonmythological consciousness, between innovative and canonical art. The diversity of fans’ practices may be seen as a key to possible explanation of why fairy tales exist in culture as a complex, constantly growing web, not as a limited number of selected final versions. Amateur authors demonstrate their interest in the mythopoetics of classic fairy tale plots. They are attracted by the old romantic myth that stands behind princess stories, participate in the creation of the romantic antimyth that is supported by the professional critics, and expect the appearance of new modern myths that might be generated by the new productions of Disney. New fairy tales appear, but this does not result in the disappearance of the old ones. Not only the interests towards the plots themselves, but also discussions and conflict around classic stories keep them topical for contemporary heterogeneous audiences.

Horror and Death: Rethinking Coco's Border Politics

In 2013, the Walt Disney Company submitted an application to trademark “Día de los muertos” (Day of the Dead) as they prepared to launch a holiday themed movie. Almost immediately after this became public Disney faced such strong criticism and backlash they withdrew their petition. By October of 2017 Disney/Pixar released the animated film Coco. Audiences in Mexico and the U.S. praised it's accurate and authentic representation of the celebration of Day of the Dead. In this essay, I argue that despite its generic framing, Coco mobilizes many elements of horror in its account of Miguel's trespassing into the forbidden space of the dead and his transformation into a liminal figure, both dead and alive. Specifically, with its horror so deftly deployed through tropes and images of borders, whether between life and death or the United States and Mexico, Coco falls within a new genre, the border horror film.

Cultivating Magic and Nostalgia

In 2018, the Magic Kingdom at Disney World in Florida was the world's most-visited theme park, with nearly 20.8 million visitors. The influence of Disney is only growing, as Disneyland attendance was up 2% in 2018, drawing an average of more than 51,000 people a day. This study will argue that Disney's success, in part, draws on the ability to create authentic nostalgia tourism experiences for its guests. After situating the Walt Disney Company and its experiences in the literature on cultural tourism and memorable tourism experiences (MTEs), this study will explain the significance of nostalgia tourism and offer specific examples from the Walt Disney World theme park model. This includes examples from the six Disney resorts and 12 Disney parks globally.

Mondbeglänzte Zaubernächte

Er ist der große Märchenerzähler von Hollywood: Seit dreißig Jahren dreht Tim Burton, der Mann mit der zerzausten Lockenfrisur, den schwarzen Künstler-Outfits und der blauen Sonnenbrille, Filme, die zum Träumen einladen. In seinem schillernden Kino-Kosmos, der sich zwischen gruselig flackernden Halloween-Kürbissen und den verschneiten Lichterketten der Vorweihnachtszeit entfaltet, wandeln die absonderlichsten Geschöpfe umher: eine schüchterne Kreatur mit Scherenhänden, ein Fledermaus-Mann und eine Katzenfrau, Marsmenschen, Untote und ein bizarrer Chocolatier. Fast allesamt sind sie kreative Sonderlinge – Freaks, für die ihre Andersartigkeit Fluch und Segen zugleich bedeutet. Ihr auffälliges Schwanken zwischen selbstgewählter Abgrenzung und dem Verlangen nach Wärme, Zuneigung und Liebe kommt nicht von ungefähr. Tim Burton weiß, wovon er spricht: Sein Werk ist durchzogen von verschlüsselten autobiographischen Erfahrungen. Aufgewachsen in einem sterilen Spießeridyll vor den Toren Hollywoods, floh er vor dem allgegenwärtigen Konformitätsdruck schon früh in ein phantastisches Paralleluniversum. Als Kind malte der spätere Blockbuster-Regisseur Monstergeschöpfe, schaute sich im Fernsehen stundenlang Gruselfilme an und sponn sich absonderliche Geschichten über den örtlichen Friedhofsgärtner zusammen. Nach dem Schulabschluss heuerte er bei der Walt Disney Company als Trickzeichner an, verfiel dort über dem Zeichnen niedlicher Tiergeschöpfe in Depressionen und ergatterte schließlich nur mit viel Glück und Beharrlichkeit den langersehnten Platz auf dem Regiestuhl. Die abschätzigen Unkenrufe, die seine eigenwilligen Filme zu Beginn noch als «weird» (verrückt) bezeichneten, sind inzwischen längst verstummt. Spätestens seit dem kommerziellen Erfolg seiner phantastischen Charakterstudien BATMAN (1989) und EDWARD MIT DEN SCHERENHÄNDEN (1990) gilt Tim Burton als einer der wenigen wahren Künstler in Hollywood, als Filmemacher, der den ständigen Drahtseilakt zwischen Massen-Appeal und persönlichem Stilwillen virtuos zu meistern versteht: Sein Werk verdichtet sich zu poetischen Blockbustern mit unverwechselbarem Charme, mythischem Zauberkino, das der Realität den Spiegel vorhält – melancholisch, komisch und von atemberaubender Schönheit. Das Buch richtet nicht nur an Film-, Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaftler, sondern vor allem an die große Burton-Fangemeinde.