The Portrayal of Animals in Disney Culture

The contributors to this collection examine the roles that animals - fictional and real - play in Disney culture, past, present, and future. Using various disciplinary perspectives with overlapping themes, the volume contributors analyze intersections of Disney studies and animal studies, showing how these themes and issues transcend Disney culture. Scholars working in animal studies focus on interconnections of human and nonhuman animal lives, acknowledging that the relationship between humans and animals has always been strong, symbiotic, and complicated. Animals have been a mainstay in the arts and entertainment, figuring prominently in literature, film, television, social media, and live performances. Applying these lenses to Disney''s animals gives cultural revelations about Disney''s perception of animals and media relationships with animals. Arranged thematically, these essays speak to the complicated saga of human-animal relationships. The starting point deals with how animals figured in Walt Disney''s early life and career, leading through the sections to then explore Disney''s childhood experiences with animals, his portrayal of animals in his Silly Symphonies, and his inclusion of animals in the propaganda films that he made during World War II. There is also a focus on individual animated films and franchises that feature animals as case studies on the portrayal of certain types of animals in Disney''s animated productions, the animal types, and the representation of animals in Disney''s theme parks. Ultimately, the scholars in this volume unveil the common themes that run through various Disney productions, including the advocacy of animal rights and the relationship between Disney adults and their dogs.

Product details

• Authors: Kathy Merlock Jackson, Kathy Shepherd Stolley, W
• Assisted by: Kathy Merlock Jackson (Editor), Kathy Shepherd Stolley (Editor), Stolley Kathy Shepherd (Editor), Mark I West (Editor), West Mark I. (Editor)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 01.08.2026
• EAN: 9781666975505
• ISBN: 978-1-66697-550-5
• No. of pages: 384
• Series: Studies in Disney and Culture
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; Popular Culture, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Popular Culture, ART / Subjects & Themes / Plants & Animals, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / Genres / Animated, PERFORMING ARTS / Film / History & Criticism, Animated films and animation, Animated Films, Film Theory & Criticism, Film history, theory or criticism, Nature in the arts