The Disneyfication of my Childhood

According to my parents, for a full year of my early childhood, I would watch The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh every single day. I grew up surrounded by Disney; my childhood was extremely Disney-ified, as I owned dozens of Disney VHS tapes and countless Disney stuffed animals and toys; the first movie I ever saw in theaters was A Bug's Life. This seems not to have been outside of the norm. In fact, it is often considered strange for a person in my generation not to have seen a classic Disney movie such as The Little Mermaid or The Lion King. Dorfman and Mattelart talk about Disney as “the inviolable common cultural heritage of contemporary man” and “the great supranational bridge across which all human beings may communicate with each other” (Dorfman & Mattelart 110). In the Western world, everyone knows and loves the classic Disney characters; they have become so entrenched in our culture that we don’t even realize it. Every child has his or her favorite Disney movie and character, and every kid dreams of someday making the pilgrimage to the Great American Holy Land, Disney World. Disneyfication is prevalent in our society, as Disney is the largest media conglomerate in the world, and is both horizontally and vertically integrated into our culture, with theme parks, Disney stores selling an array of Disney products, and Disney’s control over programming such as ABC, ABC Family, ESPN, Disney Channel, and other television channels, as well as its purchase of Marvel Comics and Star Wars.
    It is impossible for me to fathom a world in which Disney does not exist, and honestly, I don’t think that I would want to live in that world. Although I am aware of Disney’s imposition of its values and ideals upon impressionable children, Disney did help shape my childhood. Maybe it’s because I grew up surrounded by Disney and cannot step outside of its ideology, but my childhood memories mostly involve some aspect of Disney. While I know Disney commodifies childhood nostalgia by selling tickets to its theme parks and merchandise with our most beloved characters on them, I still succumb to it, and I admit that I will probably never outgrow the “happiest place on Earth.”