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Disney in Science Fiction Land

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 33; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3200/jpft.33.1.12-21

1930-6458

J. P. Telotte,

Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life

In the wake of a highly successful and publicized series of articles on space travel in Collier's magazine, Walt Disney commissioned a group of episodes on the subject for his new television show Disneyland. These episodes, grouped under the show's Tomorrowland theme, employed many of the experts involved in the Collier's series, combined the Disney studio's strength in animation with live action, and set about making the facts of space science entertaining for a family audience. The shows, however, also demonstrated shifting attitudes toward science and technology at Disney, as the early efforts at emphasizing the educational aspects of the episodes eventually gave way to overblown dramatizations and even trivializations of the cultural concern with space exploration. An early and demonstrably serious concern with issues of "tomorrow" was gradually transformed into little more than an entertaining "fantasy."