Mark Pinsky - The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust

Advance Praise for The Gospel according toDisney

Mark Pinsky has done itagain, a highly readable, entertaining, and important look at amajor media icon. Bravo. This is must-reading.

Ted Baehr,chair of the Christian Film and Television Commission and publisherof Movieguide

My highestrecommendation.... The Gospelaccording to Disney will literally openyour eyes and give you a fresh way to understand these importantanimated art treasures. So, sit back, read, and enjoy the journey,as Mark transports you to Disneys magical Wonderland.

David Bruce, host ofHollywoodJesus.com

Here is both anentertaining tour and an educational read through Disneys world ofanimation. Disneys reel faith is engagingly documented, as isthe varying response of both church and synagogue toit.

Robert K.Johnston, coauthor of Finding God inthe Movies and professor of theology andculture, Fuller Theological Seminary

Parents and grandparentswho want to share biblical values and memorable lessons with theirchildren will find a wealth of opportunity in Disney-animatedfeatureswith the help of Mark Pinskys new book. This easy-to-readbook will get you started talking with your kids about goodmessages behind the movies. Pop some popcorn and let pop culturework for you for a change!

ConnieNeal, author of The Gospel accordingto Harry Potter

2004 Mark I. Pinsky

All rights reserved. No part of this bookmay be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or byany information storage or retrieval system, without permission inwriting from the publisher. For information, address WestminsterJohn Knox Press, 100 Witherspoon Street, Louisville, Kentucky40202-1396.

This ebook is licensed for your personalenjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away toother people. If you would like to share this ebook with anyone,please purchase an additional copy for each person you share itwith. If youre reading this book and did not purchase it, pleasego to Smashwords.com and purchase a copy. Thank you for respectingthe work and intellectual property of the author.

SMASHWORDS EDITION

Scripture quotations, unless otherwiseindicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible,copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of theNational Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and usedby permission.

This publication was not authorized orendorsed by The Walt Disney Company.

Print edition Information:

Book design by Sharon Adams

Cover design by Mark Abrams/Jennifer K.Cox

First edition

Published by Westminster John Knox Press

Louisville, Kentucky

11 12 13 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3

Library of CongressCataloging-in-Publication Data

Pinsky, Mark I.

The Gospel according to Disney : faith,trust, and pixie dust / by

Mark I. Pinsky. 1st ed. p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 0-664-22591-8 (alk. paper)

1. Walt Disney Company. 2. ChildrensfilmsMoral and ethical aspects. I. Title.

PN1999.W27P56 2004

791.43' 682dc22

2004050887

For

Paul G. Pinsky,

brother and hero;

and

Charlotte and Joe Brown,

supportive in-laws, wonderful grandparents,good Presbyterians

M ickey Mouse and faith? The worlds most famous rodent and hisanimated friends say more about faith and values than you mightthinktheyre not just postage stamps. Peter Pan taught us thatfaith, trust, and pixie dust can help you leave your caresbehind. Jiminy Cricket showed Pinocchio (and millions ofmoviegoers) that when you wish upon a star dreams cometrue. Bambi stimulated baby boomer support for gun control andenvironmentalism. Cinderella became a syndrome. TheLittle Mermaid illustrated the challengesof intermarriage. The Lion King hinted at Hindu tradition in the Circle ofLife. Walt Disney wanted his theme parks to be a source of joyand inspiration to all the world. Some have compared them toshrines to which American families make obligatory pilgrimages,parents reconnecting with their own childhoods while helping theirkids experience a cartoon fantasy Mecca. Even Disneys detractorssee tremendous symbolic value in his cartoon characters. As aboycott loomed in the mid-1990s, one Southern Baptistleaderdenouncing the Disney corporations human resources policiestoward same-sex couplesasked his sympathizers, Do they expectMickey to leave Minnie and move in with Donald? ThatsGoofy!

Like many baby boomers inthe 1950s, I was raised on Walt Disneys animated features. And Iimaginealthough I am not certainthat, as with the generationsthat have followed, my first trip to a movie theater was to see oneof these films. I recall more clearly seeing some of them againyears later, introduced by an avuncular Uncle Walt, on Sunday nighttelevision in our suburban New Jersey living room. Much later, atcollege in the late 1960s, I remember watching Fantasia in an altered state, butenjoying it no more than when I struggled to sit through it thefirst time.

This book, like my earlierwork, The Gospel according to TheSimpsons: The Spiritual Life of the Worlds Most AnimatedFamily , begins with my children, Liza andAsher. While living in Southern California and writing forthe Los Angeles Times in the early 1990s, I watched as the toddlers viewed theclassic Disney features over and over. My wife, Sallie, and I tookthem to the theater to see new releases such as The Lion King . Some of the olderfilms that we watched at home on video I had not seen for fortyyears; the newer ones Id never seen at all. Now, with a parentseyes, I tried to observe their impact in our tiny Long Beach den.There were lessons and values in the films that I supported andwished to encourage, such as the acceptance of differences inothers and respect for the feelings of others. If children couldbe entertained into good behavior, then Disney is just the one tosend them to for instruction, William I. McReynolds wrote in hisgroundbreaking thesis, Walt Disney in the American Grain. Otheraspects of the earlier filmssuch as dated racial, national, andcultural stereotypesdisturbed and embarrassed me, and required meto stop the tape and discuss these matters with the kids. There isnothing innocent in what kids learn about race as portrayed in themagical world of Disney, wrote Henry A. Giroux in The Mouse That Roared: Disney and the End ofInnocence. The racism in these films isdefined by the presence of racist representations and the absenceof complex representations of African Americans and other people ofcolor.

As often happens withjournalists (and academics, I soon learned), the personal led tothe professional. In my case, I recognized in these films what Ibelieved was a generally identifiable theology and ethical system.I sensedcorrectly, I thinkthat millions of children around theworld were having their values shaped by Disneys animatedfeatures. So, in my last days as a reporter for the Times, I began doingresearch on the role of religion and ethics in Disneys movies.Thus, the first story I wrote for the Orlando Sentinel, where I was hiredas a religion writer, described what I called the Disney gospel.That piece, carried on the Knight-RidderTribune News Service inJuly 1995, was widely reprinted in newspapers around the countryand posted on the Internet. In the decade that followed, I havereturned to the subject of religion and animation more than a dozentimes, reporting on this issue as it relates to Disney and othermovie and television studios.

This newspaper reporting on religion andanimation led to other stories about the Walt Disney Companysinteraction with the faith community. Well over 50,000 people workfor Disney in Central Florida, making the entertainment giant theregions biggest employer. The Southern Baptist Convention, thenations largest Protestant denomination, is also the church ofchoice for the largest number of worshipers in the Orlando area. Soit was inevitable that when, in the 1990s, the Baptists decided toboycott Disney for a variety of reasons discussed in chapter 37, Iwas consumed by the story and drawn even deeper into the companysinvolvement with, and relationship to, religion. Later, I wasgratified when officials from both the company and the denominationtold me that my coverage was fair and evenhanded.