My Drama Teacher's Theory on Why Disney is Evil

[Ting Ting]

My drama teacher has no respect for Disney, quoting that they are "evil" and "money-hungry". He said that Disney was once a good studio (when Walt was alive), but ever since Eisner has taken over, things just aren't what they used to be. He told us this story on Friday:

Apparently a few years back, an orphanage hired an artist to paint pictures of Disney characters all over the walls. After it was done, Disney somehow found out about it and tried to sue the orphanage for copyright infringement. Warner Brothers heard about this and decided that this was wrong. They went in and painted pictures of the Looney Tunes characters on the walls for free.

Does anybody know if this really happened? If it did, that's a real shame.

[AwallaceUNC]

That story is frequently called upon by those who want to trash Disney but have no idea what they're talking about. Yes, something like that did happen. However, Disney (or any company, for that matter) has to defend their copyrights from infringement or they could lose it. The children's hospital/orphanage, no matter how noble in its intent, was infringing on copyright. Were a later copyright infringer to go to court and be able to prove that Disney had known about said infringement and not taken action against it, Disney could risk the loss of their copyright on whatever material was being used illegally. Nobody wants someone other than Disney owning the rights to Mickey Mouse. Well, except for maybe this guy.

-Aaron

[blackcauldron85]

I've heard that story, too. Here's what Wikipedia says:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse#Legal_issues

In 1989, Disney sued three daycares in Hallandale, Florida for having Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters painted on the walls. The characters were removed, and rival Universal Studios replaced them with Universal cartoon characters.

[darth_deetoo]

Well I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say that Disney is evil, and your drama teacher is being a bit of a drama queen. The sad truth of the situation is that the Walt Disney Company is a big corporation, and like any big corporation, they are going to protect their intellectual property.

There was a situation at my local hospital years ago where they wanted to decorate the children's ward with Disney characters. I don't know the full details, but from what I can gather, somebody contacted Disney and asked permission and they refused, and a comedian who had written children's books allowed his characters to be used and raised some funds for the hospital.

It's a fine line between what is right and wrong. Naturally Disney want to protect their assets, which are their characters, and don't want to see them portrayed in a bad way or misused. I think with the Internet it's become much harder to do this quite honestly, and perhaps a hospital or an orphanage is an easy target to wield their corporate might against.

The sad fact is that it's the corporate suits who are in charge, and I'd be very surprised actually if Warner are any different in this day and age. I'm sure that at some level in the company there is some charitable work goes on, but a story like this obviously paints a dark picture of a company which is supposedly built on magic, love and happiness. I think it's also worth remembering that Walt Disney himself was also first and foremost a businessman, and the true Walt Disney is no doubt somewhere between the two extremes of corporate businessman and Uncle Walt.

But to say Disney is evil, is taking things to extremes.

[memnv]

I have heard of this and just re-read thanks to blackcauldron85,
there are lots of places that have Disney Characters including here and if Disney ever wanted to do somethingthereisnothing we can do about it, I would be careful where to post the fan-art

[Escapay]

Wonder how Disney feels about this guy



Escapay

[memnv]

I bet they back him

[Ting Ting]

Oh believe me, I don't think Disney is evil. I was just posting what my drama teacher said. I do think that it was wrong to sue the orphanage, but I can see where it could cause some trouble with Disney when they use these characters without their permission.

I wasn't surprised, however, when my teacher told us what he thinks about Disney; he's very opinionated, he won't rent or buy a movie that stars an actor that is a scientologist, and he's very superstitious.

[Jungleprince_55]

The Daycare Center I went to up until about 1st Grade (The one that DIDN'T Suck!) had Disney Themed Rooms, The place was like divided up into different rooms (School Age, Preschool,Toddlers, Infants,Ect.) that interconnected into each other and each room was themed to a different Disney movie with huge character art painted on the walls and the front doors of each room. I believe I was in The Little Mermaid room, Where I would come after school and wait to be picked up later.

After 1st grade this place was closed and I had to go to a real S**tty Daycare.

[brotherbear]

Ha. That sounds like the kind of thing my drama teacher would say...or my Biology teacher for that matter.

This is actually the first time that I've heard about this story, and after reading about it, I don't think that Disney is now evil. They're just obsessed with copyright infringement. It's kind of like how Disney owns the rights to the name "Wendy." (Or, at least that's what I've heard, so I can be totally wrong). There was even a Simpson episode which made fun of how Disney owns all of these copyrights to stuff. In the episode, I think they said they had rights to the note (music pitch) G. But I'm sure that's not true.

What get's me is if Disney cracks down on on an orphanage, why are they letting other things slip by? ("fan arts", downloading of their films, or even clips, on youtube or other sources, downloading of disney music, etc.) Why was it SO bad to have murals of Disney characters on an ophanage's walls, while the company's not cracking down on the illegal downloads of Disney Films and Music?

-BB

[KeithS4789]

Wonder how Disney feels about this guy



Escapay

On his website in the picture gallery he has a scan of a Maxim Magazine article about him, and they asked him about that. He said that when he was 22 he asked, and they said it was ok.

http://www.disneytattooguy.com/picturegallery.htm

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Disney of today is a pretty huge company. I do not believe that it's governed by a single "will" or has one unifying "soul". So saying that "Disney" is "evil" is very much beside the point, or rather irrelevant.

[DaveWadding]

It's kind of like how Disney owns the rights to the name "Wendy." (Or, at least that's what I've heard, so I can be totally wrong). There was even a Simpson episode which made fun of how Disney owns all of these copyrights to stuff. In the episode, I think they said they had rights to the note (music pitch) G. But I'm sure that's not true.



-BB

If they owned the copyright to the name Wendy, how could there be WENDY's restaraunts all arounf the country not owned by Disney?

And in that Simpson ep, they said Disney owns the copyright to the A note, which is of course not true.

[RachelSmachel]

I think people forget, despite most of Disney's creative work being aimed at children or families, is still a business. A rather large business whose agenda is to make money just like any other.

[Ting Ting]

I think people forget, despite most of Disney's creative work being aimed at children or families, is still a business. A rather large business whose agenda is to make money just like any other.

Very true. But I think his point was that Disney only cares about the money and doesn't care about kids at all, which I don't agree with.

[Pluto Region1]

Saying that Disney is evil, spawned out of a far left-wing viewpoint that all multinational corporations are evil. There are books you can look up on Amazon that specialize in this type of political viewpoint of Disney. Having teachers try to indoctrinate kids with a particular viewpoint irritates me to no end, but they do it because they care and they think their opinion is the righteous one.

You drama teacher is also typical of a lot of people that think they should be able to tell you what their political opinions are. I occasionally run into people who I've talked to for maybe 5 minutes and they start going off about something political as if I would naturally agree with them. I just listen to what they have to say, but I never take a position or share what I really think. I suggest that is how you respond to your teacher. You are trying to survive this class and get a good grade. Therefore, just be empathetic to their position, but never share what you really think because it is not in your best interest to do so.

[Ting Ting]

The funny thing is that he watches Disney movies. He just thinks the studio is full of bad people.

Oh and believe me, I didn't say anything to him about it. He told the whole class this story, not just me. He likes me because I do the school plays, and I really don't want to ruin that.

[Timon/Pumbaa fan]

Just to make things more controversial, what does he think about Dreamworks and Pixar?

[Pluto Region1]

The funny thing is that he watches Disney movies. He just thinks the studio is full of bad people.

That is funny - he watches the movies!

He likes me because I do the school plays, and I really don't want to ruin that.

That is the way to play it. Enjoy the relationship and just forget about his politics.

[disneyboy20022]

Perhaps he Mistook Disney for Wal-mart ( Even though I shop there all the time...