It has long been known the J.R.R. Tolkien did not like Disney, since the day he saw Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with his close friend C.S. Lewis in 1938. But let's set the record straight. First, he didn't hate Walt Disney, the man. Tolkien wasn't that kind of person. But he hated the way The Walt Disney Company changed traditional folklore, dumbing it down, so to speak. Second, he felt this way long before he saw Snow White. Tolkien was an old-fashioned writer even for his time, and he had massive respect for classic fairy tales that went back hundreds of years. He also had his own particular vision of storytelling as a whole. You know that already, but when you contrast it with the way Disney, as a company, works, you can see that the twain would never meet.
Disney is a well documented racist. Lot's to dislike.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching a Walt Disney film where lemmings jumped off a cliff ... to fall to certain death.
ReplyDeleteYears later I read that the camera crew were forced to push the lemmings off.
For yonks people believed that lemmings committed suicide frequently, where in fact they never do, although they are often predated on.
It doesn't mean before time.
Tolkin didn't live in the real world, to him fairy tales were epic literature and THE teaching tool. Children wouldn't get it but later in life it would all be understood.
ReplyDeleteWTF, were they supposed to reread it every year on their birthday? Or go through life pondering what parts they didn't understand until it became clear?
While they ponder I hope they don't drive of fly a plane.
Every persons life is different and won't always teach lessons that create conclusions which agree with the fairy tales. In the real world good doesn't always triumph over evil, sometimes the bad guy wins and the good guy gets screwed. That's probably why the hobbits lived underground.
When someone becomes as popular as Walt Disney people will always be taking pot shots, unfortunately it comes with the territory.
Damn Walt, I got a flat tire on my way to Disneyland.
One of Walt Disney's 225,000 employees was rude to my uncle.
xoxoxoBruce