Questionnaire results

Disney has proven to be more popular. 15 out of 30 questionnaires proved this. Thats half of the questionnaires I prepared.
But in gender categorization, over half the boys that participated in the methodology said The Simpsons was their favourite.
None of the girls ever indicated on the sheet that they liked Anime or Anime characters. And only one, two or three boys actually indicated they liked Anime.

Meanwhile

This is a short post.
I'm currently cramming on my Disney assignment due on Tuesday and I think that Disney has outweighed The Simpsons, but The Simpsons also outweigh Anime, and Anime still has large fan base regardless of what I prove.
I'll post how I went when my teacher marks my work.
Also after this term I will have the option of attending Disney on Ice in Sydney with S.A.C. class and can bring others. I am most definitely going to go but I don't think I'll be bringing anyone with me, I don't like the idea of bringing others into our cool S.A.C. class, the type of group has the right people in it and I don't want anyone disturbing it.
I will soon update on what comes next.

Content Analysis

Today is actually May 1st in Australia and so happens to be my sister's sixteenth birthday. For me things started off by making everyone coffee, then me and Chelsea missing out on watching The Jonas Brother's show on the NSW Disney Channel, but we cracked up by watching Sonny. Then our mum made us breakfast; hash browns, eggs and bacon with BBQ sauce. We celebrated Chelsea's birthday three weeks ago with her friends when we were all on holidays, so her actual birth date only consists of new clothes as family presents from us, an average breakfast that we always have loved, and also she will be receiving a CD of her favourite band Reliant K and possibly a birthday cheque from our Poppa.
Later I had a Nuteller on toast and ate it while making a pot of tea. Now as I type up this post I have left my cuppa at my bedside table.
The one thing I'm trying to promise my sister is that I wont talk about Disney in front of her because she has had a enough of it. Thank goodness for this blog!
Two days ago our S.A.C. class were doing content analysis as a methodology on Disney. What we had to do was, we were given a catalogue and we had to find out how much Disney we could find in it and compare it to how much wasn't Dsiney. My Woolworths catalogue only had one Disney item, Huggies Nappies with Winnie the Pooh characters adorning the packaging, but it didn't have the characteristic Disney label. The Target catalogue had four items, and the K-Mart catalogue had six.
However from doing this I cant say my results are completely valid to make a conclusion about Disney's advertisements and marketing practise. I only had access to my local catalogues that are recent. However Disney is out there no matter how big or small they're putting themselves out there; they have a wide geographical range in the marketing world.
The catalogues I didn't record in the table of my Popular-Culture Case Study booklet was the "Prouds" and "Bunnings" catalogues as they did not have any Disney products to sell.
Prior to this, on Monday I had to go on the internet to record Disney products for different age groups. I enjoyed that a lot. I have a whole lot of things I want now, though I'm not sure if I'd get myself a Disney wedding dress or coffin. The Disney empire really has succeeded a birth to death strategy in the world of marketing.
For young boys, they can have a Mack Truck Playset from the movie Cars. And if your a teenager get your a trendy Tinkerbell T-shirt. Or if your older than that you can have a lot of things like Mickey-Mouse mugs or Seaworld Shamu magnets.
For me I want a Snow White cel, a courvoiser Fantasia art pic, a Mickey Mouse shower curtains and the Tinkerbell key chain, teacup, travel mug. And lots more. I particularly have my eye on the art for sale.
The best thing about owning Disney collectibles is that they go up in value. The very first famous merchandise was the trendy Mickey-Mouse watch. If you have one in good condition you've hit the jackpot.
My S.A.C. teahcer is a funny kind of woman. For one thing she is the first adult I've met that collects Disney merchandise as a hobby. And once she told us about when she was our age she was at Disneyland and made a childish commotion of being excited to see Mickey and Minnie and have her picture taken with them along with their autographs. But I think I'd be that way too somehow.
In Australia we dont have Disney stores, probably because we're not a global country we're just mega. But one day I am so going to America to pick up a few things. I think I should write a list first and estimate how much it would cost and what kind of job I should get to afford it.

Controversies and Feminism

In S.A.C. I've been learning a lot about Disney controversies. All I can say is that most of the complaints are made by people who just want to complain. I've been hearing about lots of complaints over the smallest things that seem to be a figment of the imagination, like Dopey 'giving-the-finger' as if! Is it really racially inconsiderate to have an African-American heroine in a movie "The Frog Princess"? Not really, its just the title of the actual book "The Frog Princess". As a result they had to change the title to "The Princess and the Frog" but I prefer the original title to be honest.

I feel sorry for people who make these kinds of outrageous claims against Disney being racist and sexually subliminal. In "The Lion King" some people think it was being suggested that Simba and Nala were having a sexual encounter with each other, as the song goes "The lion sleeps tonight".

Aparently in "Dumbo" its portrayal of the crows was a racist depiction of stereotyping black people especially since one of them was named "Jim". I think thats just all a big misunderstanding since the crows are just crows not people. Besides, the crows had a certain style to them that I thought was cool. They made the line "I've seen house fly" famous.

By now I am so over feminists. I had to read an article "Disney's Dolls" and I thought it was a very boring read. The writer was too generalised about a few things. "But... Underneath... they're still happy homemakers" was a a very close-minded statement. Take Snow White for example, the very first Disney feature film and princess, she takes it upon herself to clean the Seven Dwarfs' house because she think that it belong to children without a mother. However, what is so wrong about cleaning? My mum does it all the time and she has a full-time job and once even worked on Christmas Eve! Anyway, when Snow White meets the Seven Dwarfs she asks to stay and makes them supper. However, though she is on their turf she upholds authority in their presence, and she's a woman and their seven men regardless of their size, and even changes Grumpy for the better.

Cinderella is also a young lady forced in becoming a servant. But she still held her ground against her step-mother when she tells her "Every maiden in the kingdom is to attend". When all she is going to get is a temporary moment of glamour and dance at the ball and only to mid-night, Cinderella sets a good example of gratitude despite the limits. She also boldly insists to have her turn on trying on the slipper.

Belle was criticized in "Disney Dolls" because the only thing feminist about her was that she reads. Well to be fair that actually displays her intellect and we have to be realistic, the kind of town she lives in is set a couple of centuries ago when someone like Belle would have stood out for reading books but she doesn't care. Even the man she ends up falling in love with encourages her reading his extravagant library.

Another argument in the absurd article was that all the Disney Princesses are looking for a man. That is not true. They have their dreams and ideas that they want to follow and along the way they so happen to bump into their true love. There's nothing wrong with love, it's suppose to be a good thing. Snow White at first ran away from her Prince. Cinderella didn't go up to Charming he came to her. Jasmine hated the idea of getting married and only wanted a friend and coincidentally married her first and best friend who was a street orphan out of all the "stuffed shirt, swaggering peacocks" she met, and even with Aladdin she would express her outrage. Belle didn't throw herself at Gaston like other girls and she definitely didn't love Beast at first site.

Are the princesses damsels in distress? No, its normal for everyone even men to be stuck in tricky situations. Jasmine stood defiant against Jafar even before she realized Aladdin had come to save the day (which was his movie anyway, so he had a right anyway). Mulan saw her cause all the way through despite being discovered as a woman when she was the only one that realized the enemy hadn't died. Belle chose to stay with the Beast to save her father. Pocahontas was a strong woman who believed in negotiation and in fact it was John Smith who was in distress and was saved by her.

Aside from the article now, Disney Productions have been accused of setting bad examples because they make out that girls are supposed to be skinny. The Disney Princesses are teenagers after all going through body change, but I always thought that Snow White had healthy plump cheeks. Mulan was made to feel self conscious of being "too skinny" by the cynical match-maker. The rest of the Disney girls that don't fit in the princess category aren't all skinny either. Lilo from Lilo and Stitch had a natural child's chubbiness and is Disney's most chubby character. Tinkerbell also has slightly plump thighs that she briefly was self-conscious about but went on through the movie without anymore concerns. But the Disney girls aren't anorexic or anything, they are all heathy body times and none of them ever say out loud that they are beautiful.

Personally I think that when girls are little that it is OK for them to look up to fun-loving characters and to think that they can also be princesses in their hearts. Why not? Eventually they'll grow out of that stage but as result they'll start to develop their own independence as they get older. If you go Disneyland and meet Cinderella she tells your daughter "You look just like me when I was your age".

Disney methods, and Disney up-and-coming

For S.A.C. we've been given an assignment and had to either base it on Buddhism or Disney. We all chose Disney. I guess we all decided to start avoiding religion because of the HSC pressures anyway. And I'm a Christian so I know enough about Buddhism to know why not to follow it. Not to mention how dazzling Disney is as a subject.
The assignment is to conduct a methodology on pop-culture. We can interview different generations about how they feel about Disney today and how its changed. Form a focus group of children and adults, and create a tally of their reactions to watching Disney movies. Or conduct questionnaires of the loyalties to Disney and other pop-culture groups. I was really hoping to make up a focus group, but I didn't want to annoy my mum about having a group of people over to watch movies that she finds annoying. Actually I suppose my dad and sister would of been annoyed to. So instead I'm doing the questionnaires. About thirty pages of them, fifteen to be filled out by girls and fifteen to be completed by boys, and have them spread out among different age groups. Besides Disney, the other pop-culture groups I chose were The Simpsons and anime.
Whenever I ask someone if they could fill out a questionnaire I always have to be prepared for the potential participant's response. Most of the girls and women I've asked have been very pleasant about it and I was glad for it. As a result I got fifteen questionnaires completed in two days by girls. I still have to have the rest of the questionnaires done by boys. Its slower when your trying to get males to do these things. You only get two filled out a day. Sometimes when you ask, they say, "Yeah, sure", trying to act cool like my purpose doesn't matter. And other times its, "No, I'm alright", as if I was asking them to do it for fun.
Well, that's just life. You never know what your going to get in it. Its been fun anyway. I think so far Disney and The Simpsons are going to tie. I think if The Simpsons win that means most people like short, simple and adult-hilarious. If Disney wins I think that means most people prefer to keep in touch with their childhood through media. I'm not really sure what I'm suppose to find out from pop-culture loyalties, but I'll ask my teacher.
By the way, if you think that Disney is absolutely not for adults, you should know that you are wrong. Disney does their best to make their animated classics as enjoyable for adults too, because while the target audience is the children they also need to gain the favor of the parent to bring the child. They do this by using language and jokes only adults could understand, for example in Hercules when the two little boys are trapped under a rock slide one of them says "Someone call IFCI" as in 'call 911' in Roman Times Numerals. Also if you really don't like the animated classics and want to watch something live-action and mature Disney's first and only M-rated movie is really popular. Pirates of the Caribbean. The forth sequel of the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is coming out this year and I wouldn't miss it. And if you didn't see, at the end of credits of the last movie you would have seen that ten years have passed and Elizabeth and her son stand on a sea cliff and see Will returning on The Flying Dutchman.
Mothers, take your daughters to see Rapunzel in the movie Tangled. New technology has created a new look in animation inspired by the famous painting The Swing. The character Rapuzel is guaranteed to be a likeable character with a strong head, a dream to come true and a special talent. And boys may also enjoy the movie unbelievably as the movie is equally shared with an unnamed male character who shares an equally predominant role with the heroine.
And everyone, Toy Story 3. You've probably already seen the first, then second and maybe the 3D cinematic release. But in Toy Story 3 there will be a mcuh older Andy and the relationship with his beloved toys is going to change. And what will happen to Buzz and Woody in the end?

First post

Walt Disney changed the world with superb business skills and break-through technology, and of course the cute characters adored by all and the truly memorable stories no one forgets. Mr. Disney brought these characters and stories to the public in cinemas. From being local, to national and within ten years his business was global.

I've always been addicted and persistent with pop-cultures. The very first pop-culture I fell in love with was The Simpsons, though I was too young to even understand most of the jokes directed at adults I still enjoyed the concept of a yellow family with gags and bizarre themes. And now that I'm older I enjoy it more. When I went fresh into high-school and was fascinated by the Asian cultures, I discovered the broad variety of manga and anime, mostly shows like Naruto and Shana and as a child Sailor Moon. Warner Bros. are also well-known for their Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Even McDonalds and Coca Cola are major pop-cultures. But above all, The Walt Disney Company stands at the top of the global world for its magical reputation.

My name is Joz and I'm a young artist living in the NSW state of Australia, and for those who don't know Australia is an island often called the "the island continent". I'm in my final year of high-schooling, and as a result I'm undergoing drastic changes, stressing over the last of my school work, trying to remember my scheduled driving lessons, thinking a lot about my future and constantly seeking advice from others about big decisions. So I've been worrying a lot about things for a pretty laid back Aussie.

Though the HSC's tough as it is I cant say I hate it. I mean, I'm learning about the subjects I chose and wanted to do, its just that its a lot. My escape subjects from the pressures of Ancient History, Hospitality and English are Art and Society and Culture.

In Society and Culture class its a small group of people (eleven of us altogether) and it is the most fun subject. Last year for a S.A.C. assignment I got to perform a focus group: I had a group of people in a room and watched their reaction to freestyle music and then their reaction to the Macarena. This year I'm creating a P.I.P. on initial attraction between men and women.

Besides all that, after I studied a great deal on Japanese life in S.A.C. I am now studying pop-culture and more specifically Disney. It's a dream come true for me to be studying pop-culture because of my sharp memory at remembering everything I watch in cinemas or on TV. If its interesting and on TV its stored in my brain automatically. It sounds sad but I've just always been able to naturally remember those things ever since I could remember. Plus its helped me on occasions whilst playing trivia. However, it is much to the annoyance of my family that I can strongly remember what I watch for entertainment and not what I read for education. My family loves me, but I can be overbearing for them when I start overflowing with the scenes and jokes that have been burned in the fabric of my memory. But seriously, I cant help it.

With my teen hood about to change with the responsibilities of adulthood, I am really hoping that I'll be able to cope. I have a feeling that Disney is going to help me with that when I'm not studying and when I finally find time to relax. But also I think that Disney will be having a bigger impact on me in the long run.

Thank you for reading and please stay tuned.