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A Cultural History of the Disney Fairy Tale: Once Upon an American Dream by Tracey L. Mollet

2021; Wayne State University Press; Volume: 35; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/mat.2021.0035

1536-1802

Charlotte Durham,

Digital Games and Media

Reviewed by: A Cultural History of the Disney Fairy Tale: Once Upon an American Dream by Tracey L. Mollet Charlotte Durham (bio) A Cultural History of the Disney Fairy Tale: Once Upon an American Dream. By Tracey L. Mollet, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020, 181 pp. Since the release of the Walt Disney Company’s first feature-length animated film in 1937, the Disney fairy tale has become embedded within contemporary Western culture as the quasi standard in proclaiming the promise of happily ever after. Mollet’s previous monograph explored the Disney and [End Page 393] Warner Brothers animated shorts within the historical context of World War II and the Depression. In this book, she suggests that this highly desirable notion of happily ever after is firmly located within an idealized conception of the American Dream, shaded with its rose-tinted hue. Disney films, such as Beauty and the Beast (1991; 2017), The Little Mermaid (1989), and TV shows such as Once Upon a Time (2011–18), among others, promote America as a utopian space where all your dreams will come true. Foregrounding her analysis of the much-loved Disney fairy tales in American cultural history, Mollet charts her analysis from 1937 up until present day, together with changes in American society stressing the complex entanglement and nuances of Disney fairy tales. The selection of Disney princess fairy tales with a European history sees the blurring of reality with the mythical and magical; social context with the aptly termed “contingent nostalgia” celebrates the very American nationalism that culminates in a pervasive ideology. Thus, in many ways, the traditional stories are reconstructed within a diegetic space that Mollet argues is inherently American. This book engages with these Disneyfied fairy tales, uncovering how the American Dream is revealed in the canonical works of the Grimm brothers or Charles Perrault. At the same time, Mollet also explores how these Disney adaptations keep to the socioeconomic, cultural, and political changes of society during the respective era in which they were produced. The structure of the book follows a typology adapted from Amy Davis (2006) and Bridget Whelan (2014) by which the Disney princess films are periodized in view of the values and virtues demonstrated by their respective princess (Classic, 1937–59; Renaissance, 1989–91; Revisionist, 2007– 18; Renewal, 2009–13; and Reboot, 2014–17). The Classic Era includes the early outputs of the Walt Disney Company and perhaps some of their most notable films: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Cinderella (1950), and Sleeping Beauty (1959). In this chapter, Mollet argues the heroines are typecast as domesticated princesses, with no ability to determine the narrative of their lives that consequently resolve in heterosexual marriage. Evoking nostalgia for the prewar society, Mollet suggests these fairy tales axiomatically demand a resurgence of patriarchal social structures so that the American Dream may be actualized, contrasting some of the problematic progressive attitudes that were emerging. Moreover, the triumph of the underdogs of the era (namely, the dwarfs in Snow White; Jaq and Gus in Cinderella; and Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather in Sleeping Beauty) reflects the societal cohesion enacted by policies contained within F. D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. The Renaissance Era moves away from the heroines longing for love, and, in maintaining their inherent goodness, both Ariel (The Little Mermaid) and Belle (Beauty and the Beast) desperately desire something more than their [End Page 394] “provincial life,” Mollet identifies these crucial magical transformations that transpire reflective of an inward change. As such, the American Dream is poised as within each of us and attainable for all. Moving into the Revisionist Era, Mollet explores Enchanted (2007) and Once Upon a Time as the theme of inward change progresses to counter the legacy of moral binaries. In this chapter, she proposes the evolution of values coalesces into the increased accessibility of the promise of the American Dream for (redeemed) traditionally immoral characters. The Revisionist Era also sees the magic of fairy tales enter into the real world (importantly New York City following the 9/11 attacks). Mollet asserts that “marrying together the promise of the American Dream with the fairy tale ‘happily ever after’” clearly positions America, the home of capitalism...