• culprit@lemmy.ml
    143·
    1 day ago

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_Donald_Duck

    1971 book-length essay by Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart that critiques Disney comics from a Marxist point of view as capitalist propaganda for American corporate and cultural imperialism. It was first published in Chile in 1971, became a bestseller throughout Latin America and is still considered a seminal work in cultural studies. It was reissued in August 2018 to a general audience in the United States

    The book’s thesis is that Disney comics are not only a reflection of the prevailing ideology at the time (capitalism), but that the comics’ authors are also aware of this, and are active agents in spreading the ideology. To that end, Disney comics use images of the everyday world:

    “Here lies Disney’s inventive (product of his era), rejecting the crude and explicit scheme of adventure strips, that came up at the same time. The ideological background is without any doubt the same: but Disney, not showing any open repressive force, is much more dangerous. The division between Bruce Wayne and Batman is the projection of fantasy outside the ordinary world to save it. Disney colonizes the everyday world, at hand of ordinary man and his common problems, with the analgesic of a child’s imagination.”

    — Ariel Dorfman and Armand Mattelart, How to Read Donald Duck, p. 148

    This closeness to everyday life is so only in appearance, because the world shown in the comics, according to the thesis, is based on ideological concepts, resulting in a set of natural rules that lead to the acceptance of particular ideas about capital, the developed countries’ relationship with the Third World, gender roles, etc.

    As an example, the book considers the lack of descendants of the characters. Everybody has an uncle or nephew, everybody is a cousin of someone, but nobody has fathers or sons. This non-parental reality creates horizontal levels in society, where there is no hierarchic order, except the one given by the amount of money and wealth possessed by each, and where there is almost no solidarity among those of the same level, creating a situation where the only thing left is crude competition.

  • Sundray@lemmus.orgEnglish
    110·
    2 days ago

    Old school Disney characters were downright psychopaths. Mickey was straight up waving his gun around on a regular basis.

  • BradleyUffner@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    1 day ago

    I mean Goofy did pretty much ask for it by saying “let 'er go”. I’m not really sure how else Donald should have interpreted that.

        • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
          9·
          1 day ago

          Kingdom Hearts. Donald and Goofy are your main allies, with Donald serving as a wizard and Goofy as a knight. You’ll have other Disney and Square guest members of the party when you’re in their worlds (e.g. Jack Skellington can fight alongside you in Halloween Town and Simba will join you in the Pridelands), but Donald and Goofy travel with you between worlds and can pretty much always be selected for the party.

          You can adjust Donald’s game AI to use more or less magic and items, and whether to prioritize things like healing or attacking.

          • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
            3·
            1 day ago

            We live in an interesting time where people can not know what game AI is yet or anymore, as well as they should know it but don’t connect the dots because the term is overloaded.

        • Cethin@lemmy.zipEnglish
          3·
          1 day ago

          I’m assuming Kingdom Hearts. I have no idea which one though. This might be an option in all of them, or maybe just some.

  • A_norny_mousse@piefed.zipDeutsch
    36·
    2 days ago

    Most cartoons were originally for adults. Helping your average schmuck, reading the daily paper, deal with feelings of societal injustice, anger, annoyance, frustration.

    I seem to remember that DD used to be particularly vicious and rude in old b/w cartoons.

    Is it possible that some duck creature already existed in Disney cartoons long before 1934?

    How did (Disney) cartoons become a thing for kids mostly? When did kids become main targets for product development? I suspect the answer involves Edward Bernays…

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
      4·
      1 day ago

      I don’t think Donald’s schtick was so much rudeness/viciousness as it was that he had no control over his temper and had horrible luck. I remember cartoons opening with him being perfectly pleasant but then getting more and more unhinged as the cartoon goes on and things go wrong for him. To the point of homocidal destruction of everything around him.

      He was a character that earned what happened to him after it happened, in his response to it.

      Though this was also in a world where a lot of cartoons were casually extremely violent. Like Elmer Fudd was constantly trying to kill Bugs and Daffy, who each tried to get him to target the other or tried to get him, and then they’d casually discuss it at various points during the show. Mickey and Pete had a similar at times homicidal relationship, though Disney seemed to have more “I’m so angry I could kill you” while Looney Tunes had more “Trying to kill you is just what I do”.

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.world
      5·
      6 hours ago

      DD also canonically has PTSD from the war. So there’s a lot going on there.

      Edit: apparently it’s a fan theory.

    • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
      11·
      1 day ago

      Most of these comics are from the newspaper funny pages of the 1930’s. They had to apply to a broad audience of readers. Something for the adults and the kids. Just no one has to worry about Karen’s or if things were appropriate or not.

  • cannedtuna@lemmy.worldMEnglish
    231·
    2 days ago

    I mean, if you have the ability, while drowning, to tie a rope around your own foot… you kinda deserve what’s coming