Between Disney - Animating the Victorians

 

I find myself on a ledge between two worlds of Disney between books. I have academic training, have written academic pieces to those standards of citation and scrutiny, and I teach history while not actually doing research at the moment. But I do put a lot of examination of sources into my teaching. I also love to read Disney books that come from a number of publishers that don’t require citation or peer review, as they are meant for the general public or Disney fans. It’s been one of my stated goals to support the increase of academic study of Disney history (and culture), mostly due to my own background and interests.

And I feel like the floodgates on this movement are opening with an increase in university presses publishing Disney-focused books. There is now an academic conference out there for the study of Disney. And what’s this 2025…an academic journal!

As academic Disney studies spreads, I ask myself, can the regular Disney fan who has been entertained by books from corporate, independent, and general audience presses still be entertained and informed?

Animating the Victorians: Disney’s Literary History by Patrick C. Fleming investigates the connection between Disney's animated films and shorts, largely but not exclusively under Walt Disney’s production, and literary works and authors from the 19th-century Victorian Period. The book is connected through chapters covering four large themes: Disney and the Victorian Tradition, Disney and connections to Alice in Wonderland, the impact on Disney content by Hans Christian Anderson and his works, and finally, Victorian influences on Disney depictions of princesses and pirates, including in recent films. Each of these large chapters go beyond just discussions on actual literary works and the threads connecting them to on-screen adaptations, but also investigate how these works would have been seen by Walt Disney and his animators, the lives of Charles Dickens and Anderson in the public eye and parallels to Walt Disney himself, and how modern views of princesses conflict with historical and literary Victorian ideals on the big screen in films like Ralph Breaks the Internet.

Fleming provides a serious, well-researched, cited, and reviewed literary academic review. He weaves a story about how the Victorians impacted the Disney content that fans love. As a history guy and not a literary criticism fan, I was worried that I would be out of my depth. I view myself in this arena as a Disney fan and not a scholar, as I opened the academic monograph. I am thrilled to say that Fleming held my attention, made the literary review portions of his text accessible to me, and others. And Fleming provided a large amount of history, both 19th-century English and Disney, to engage this history lover. For example, his discussion on princesses describes the key archetypes of Victorian literary princesses, and then uses the real examples of Queen Victoria and her daughters to illustrate expectations, including how they fulfilled the models and pushed against social ideals. 

Animating the Victorians: Disney’s Literary History by Patrick C. Fleming is a serious academic study of Disney's creative endeavors and how Victorian literature helped form, I think one could say even inspired, some of the most important Disney films of numerous Disney eras. It is also an interesting study of entertainment archetypes and history. And best of all, as academic study of Disney grows, it is the type of book that most Disney history fans will find accessible while finding something new…like a discussion on the history of international copyright laws before the creation of Mickey Mouse! 

 

Review Copy Provided for Review

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Between Books - The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles Book One

I have become very interested in the concept of traditional Disney fairy tale characters stumbling into our non-magical world. Because of this, I really enjoy Once Upon a Time and the comic book series Fables. They are both have very different takes on traditional fairy tale characters. For example Cinderella in Once Upon a Time is a young girl who continued to work in service positions in our world while the Cinderella of Fables is a female James Bond. I really enjoy seeing how authors redraw the lines around these characters that we think we know while staying true to their basic nature.

Recently a friend recommended that I check out The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles by Ben Avery and Casey Heying. My friend knew I enjoyed Fables, had heard good reviews of the series, and I am friendly with author Ben Avery (ironically it was not Avery who told me about this series and when I asked him if I would enjoy it before I ordered it, of course he hedged his bets). One of the hooks that led me to pick it up was the fact the main characters have been underutilized in Fables and Once Upon a Time, Alice and Dorothy. Dorothy you say? Yes between Oz The Great and Powerful and Return to Oz, we need to see Dorothy as Disney canon.

The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles Book One collects issues 0 through 4 of The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles. In this adventure we meet a Dorothy and Alice that are all grown up, going to college and sharing an apartment in Chicago with three other roommates. Dorothy has moved off the Kansas farm following the death of Uncle Henry and Alice has moved from the United Kingdom and her strict family. Their world is turned upside down when a destroyed Jack-O-Lantern shows up on their doorstep. The Jack-O-Lantern is actually Jack Pumpkinhead from Oz, coming to warn Dorothy of a new witch which has taken power in Oz, stolen all magical items she can gather, and has arrested or sent on the run all of Dorothy’s former friends (who Dorothy does not remember). Alice is pulled into this adventure as they discover in Oz that the witch’s plan involves transporting the Jabberwocky from Wonderland through our world and into Oz. The fates of all three worlds is in the hands of Dorothy, Alice and their newly remembered old friends.

I do not want to keep making comparisons to Fables, but it is impossible not to for me. I would say compared to Fables this story line is not as action packed, though a fight in downtown Chicago between armies from Wonderland and Oz against the Jabberwocky is action movie material. There is a lot of dialogue as the girls go through a journey of self-discovery and remembering. It is a very cerebral book as one puts together the pieces of who these characters are. As smart as Fables is, The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles relies more on drama and not action to move the story forward. A big difference is the Between Kids are not allowed to read Fables. There are plenty of adult situations, blood and sexuality in that universe. I would be more comfortable with the Between Tween picking this up, no naked werewolves here! And the Between Tween picked it up, flipped through the art, pointed out images that were enjoyable and then handed it back to me without reading the entire volume. Honestly, I think that despite this being a safer version of fairy tales in our world, it is meant for an adult audience who has worked though self discovery themes a few times. If I was to continue making comparisons with Fables the characters also do not overlap greatly, with neither Dorothy nor Alice major characters in that series.

I really enjoy how the authors use characters that are part of these original stories but that we have not generally seen in other media. For me a highlight was Jack Pumpkinhead who was a new character for me, yes I know he is in Return to Oz. I really enjoyed his confrontation with the gnome king in our world. Additionally, I liked the addition of Hungry Tiger and his constant requests to eat. I enjoyed the Wizard of Oz, who has returned to our world to become a college professor. However, he comes off as an action hero to me, complete with guns a blazing. The Wizard is more solider than con man in this version. I also like how they introduce us to content about the characters we think we know well, like why is the Scarecrow not just smart, but sharp!

The only real criticism from me is some art. For example it was difficult for me to distinguish between the three roommates. They just did not stand out to me. And I would have liked them to be more individualized since the character biographies in the volume make it clear that Alice and Dorothy are not the only ones with childhood adventures! Also there is one sequence where Alice’s image to me morphs into a version of the roommates/adult Dorothy. Her hair even darkens. I would assume the artist has a reason for this change, but I am not really a visual detail guy so it just caused me some minor confusion. Maybe this is the reason I like superheroes, costumes! In a room full of blonds, I always know the guy in orange is Aquaman!

In the final summary, if you like Once Upon a Time and/or comic books I would suggest exploring The Oz/Wonderland Chronicles. The story has familiar Disney characters while also introducing you to the bigger worlds of Carroll and Baum in an interesting way. But with adult themes, you may want to direct the kids to other kid friendlier titles (though this is more kid ready than Fables). Personally, I plan to check out some additional volumes of this universe as I see the potential of this first story in building on itself into new directions.


Contest: Jump over to the Between Disney Facebook page to find out how to enter to win a copy of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland 

Mousey Movie Preview - Oz The Great and Powerful First Trailer

Disney at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con has released the first Trailer for Oz The Great and Powerful.

What do you think?  Does Disney have another franchise smash in the mold of Pirates?

Personally, I have been somewhat apprehensive.  I really enjoyed Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, but had lost excitement by the third installment in the franchise.  And James Franco has not been a favorite for me, but then I have not disliked him either.  It has a real Alice in Wonderland feel to me in some scenes, with a pinch of John Carter.