Walt Disney's Impact On American Culture

message that women are only good for looking pretty, and men were the ones who provided.

On the subject of Disneyfication, many post war intellectuals were angered by Walt Disney and

the absolute empire he had created within American culture. They believed that by not focusing

on serious issues or what was really going on in the world, that the youth were being

cheated of growing up in reality with pertinent facts, and knowledge regarding WWII. Also,

they were frustrated that the mindset of the country was on cartoons and 'sugar coated endings,'

when we had just finished a war that ended so many lives and effected so many more. Critics of

Walt Disney also believed that he supported conformity and represented a mindless population

that sung along to musicals and payed no attention to current events, their jobs, or their places

This was deemed as 'escapism' and was, and still is, demonized by a great amount

of people.

The impact of Walt Disney can be explained with a few simple facts. First, 53,000

guests visit Disney World every day. Second, 240 million people have seen a Disney movie and

third, 800 million have read a Disney comic book or magazine (Johnson). Whether the impact

is negative or positive is subjective, but we can all agree that Disney has changed America and

its culture. We can not walk in to a store without seeing the accumulation of Mickey Mouse

merchandise, and the signs directing traffic to Disney World in Orlando begin throughout

various places in the city, making it nearly impossible to avoid. By his transformation of the

amusement park into an experience, his pioneering work with animation and film production,

and his over all inspiring life story, he has changed the lives of