Mickey Mouse Monopoly

Disney, Childhood & Corporate Power

Duration: 52 min ISBN: 1-893521-54-0 Date Produced: 2001 Subtitles: English Filmmaker Info Study Guide Transcript Film Festivals Press Reviews Praise for the Film

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Mickey Mouse Monopoly
Disney, Childhood & Corporate Power

The Disney Company's massive success in the 20th century is based on creating an image of innocence, magic and fun. Its animated films in particular are almost universally lauded as wholesome family entertainment, enjoying massive popularity among children and endorsement from parents and teachers.

Mickey Mouse Monopoly takes a close and critical look at the world these films create and the stories they tell about race, gender and class and reaches disturbing conclusions about the values propagated under the guise of innocence and fun. This daring new video insightfully analyzes Disney's cultural pedagogy, examines its corporate power, and explores its vast influence on our global culture. Including interviews with cultural critics, media scholars, child psychologists, kindergarten teachers, multicultural educators, college students and children, Mickey Mouse Monopoly will provoke audiences to confront comfortable assumptions about an American institution that is virtually synonymous with childhood pleasure.

Sections: Disney's Media Dominance | Disney's Gender Representations | Disney's Race Representations | Disney's Commercialization of Children's Culture

Filmmaker Info

Producer, Writer: Chyng Feng Sun
Director, Co-Producer: Miguel Picker
Editor, Camera, Graphics, Music, Audio: Miguel Picker
An ArtMedia Production
Educational Distribution by the Media Education Foundation

Filmmaker's Bios

CHYNG SUN | Producer, Director & Writer
Dr. Chyng Sun is a filmmaker and a Master Teacher of Media Studies at McGhee Liberal Arts, School of Continuing and Professional Studies at New York University. Her research interests include media literacy; race, gender and sexuality in media; and audience research/media effects. With Miguel Picker, Sun produced the documentaries Mickey Mouse Monopoly: Disney, Childhood and Corporate Power and Beyond Good and Evil: Media, Children and Violent Times (both distributed by the Media Education Foundation). She has been researching the topic of pornography since the summer of 2004. Together with Robert Wosnitzer and two other scholars, Sun designed a large-scale research project on the content of the most-rented pornographic movies of 2005. Her forthcoming book Fantasies Matter (working title) will be published by the Peter Lang Publishing Company in 2010.

MIGUEL PICKER | Producer, Director & Editor
Miguel Picker worked at WGBH-TV in Boston for over 15 years as an editor. His editing credits include La Plaza, Greater Boston Arts, and a 52-part national series titled Destinos. He also has produced and directed programs for WGBH, including Como Hacemos, Duo and The Early Music Workshop. He has produced and directed numerous independent projects as well, such as Francisco Mendez - The Portrayal of a Cuban Painter and A Day in Martha's Vineyard. Picker is also a musician and composer, and has worked with a wide range of art institutions and public foundations, including PBS, the Boston Ballet and the New England Conservatory. Picker moved to New York City in the summer of 2004, and his recent projects include editing and music composition/production for the award-winning documentary The Borinqueneers (2007), and co-directing and editing Ulises' Odyssey (2009), a documentary on Pinochet's dictatorship in Chile in 1970's and its aftermath.

Film Festivals

The Milky Way | Jamaica Plain, MA | October 2001
Zeitgeist Gallery | Cambridge, MA | June 2001

Awards

Related Links

Press Reviews

VIEWING DISNEY VIDEOS WITHOUT ROSE-COLORED GLASSES
The Boston Globe | Barbara Meltz | April 5, 2001

Praise for the Film

"A daring and disturbing look at Disney's power to shape mass culture. Anyone who cares about children and commercial culture should see it, but get ready for the urge to cover your eyes as Mickey Mouse Monopoly chips away at one of America's favorite icons and leaves you with nothing but the ugly truth."
- Nancy Carlsson-Paige | Lesley University

"Viewing Disney without rose-colored glasses... Mickey Mouse Monopoly explores representations of race, gender, and class in Disney movies, drawing on interviews with media experts, teachers, parents and children."
- Boston Globe

"Mickey Mouse Monopoly is an insightful, stimulating look at the world of Disney. A terrific teaching tool for a wide range of classes; highly recommended for generating critical discussion of The Mouse House."
- Janet Wasko | University of Oregon