Throughout its one-hundred-year history, The Walt Disney Company has utilised many innovative tactics for promoting their products and engaging with consumers. This article highlights the use of direct-to-consumer streaming by the company as a way to reach consumers, and discusses the company’s potential future in consumer entertainment. A brief history of consumer engagement is provided, and then Disney’s strategy in the streaming marketplace is discussed along with how it may influence the future of consumer entertainment.
{"title":"Streaming with the mouse: Disney’s entrance into direct-to-consumer streaming and implications for the future of entertainment","authors":"C. Havard, Amy M. Davis","doi":"10.33178/alpha.27.07","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.27.07","url":null,"abstract":"Throughout its one-hundred-year history, The Walt Disney Company has utilised many innovative tactics for promoting their products and engaging with consumers. This article highlights the use of direct-to-consumer streaming by the company as a way to reach consumers, and discusses the company’s potential future in consumer entertainment. A brief history of consumer engagement is provided, and then Disney’s strategy in the streaming marketplace is discussed along with how it may influence the future of consumer entertainment.","PeriodicalId":378992,"journal":{"name":"Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media","volume":"30 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141685491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Danijela Kulezic-Wilson has discussed at length how the use of music in cinema adds to its corporeality and both fleshes out and gives life to otherwise spectral images. Todd Philips’ Joker (2019) both narratively and aesthetically leverages music to embody Arthur Fleck’s (Joaquin Pheonix) transformation from outcast to popular villain. In a Q&A with The Academy, Philips described the character of Fleck as full of grace and someone who “has music in him”, and it is Fleck’s performative interaction with the music as he becomes the Joker that leads to the corporeal reading of the film presented in this article. At the beginning of the film, Fleck is a thin and gaunt man, a ghostly figure lacking love or meaning, but he soon grows more bold and violent. Fleck’s horrifying acts of violence are accompanied by his bodily interaction with the music as he dances to both the soundtrack and the score as if it were emanating from him in some meta-diegetic sense. Joker is a deeply musical film, and its protagonist engages with both Hildur Guðnadóttir’s composed score and its compilation soundtrack, giving physical form to his metamorphosis. This paper investigates how musical moments and dance in Joker give corporeal form to Fleck’s alter ego and simultaneously encourage audience identification with its protagonist’s transformation.
{"title":"“He has music in him”: Musical moments, dance and corporeality in Joker (2019)","authors":"Jessica Shine","doi":"10.33178/alpha.27.14","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.27.14","url":null,"abstract":"Danijela Kulezic-Wilson has discussed at length how the use of music in cinema adds to its corporeality and both fleshes out and gives life to otherwise spectral images. Todd Philips’ Joker (2019) both narratively and aesthetically leverages music to embody Arthur Fleck’s (Joaquin Pheonix) transformation from outcast to popular villain. In a Q&A with The Academy, Philips described the character of Fleck as full of grace and someone who “has music in him”, and it is Fleck’s performative interaction with the music as he becomes the Joker that leads to the corporeal reading of the film presented in this article. At the beginning of the film, Fleck is a thin and gaunt man, a ghostly figure lacking love or meaning, but he soon grows more bold and violent. Fleck’s horrifying acts of violence are accompanied by his bodily interaction with the music as he dances to both the soundtrack and the score as if it were emanating from him in some meta-diegetic sense. Joker is a deeply musical film, and its protagonist engages with both Hildur Guðnadóttir’s composed score and its compilation soundtrack, giving physical form to his metamorphosis. This paper investigates how musical moments and dance in Joker give corporeal form to Fleck’s alter ego and simultaneously encourage audience identification with its protagonist’s transformation.","PeriodicalId":378992,"journal":{"name":"Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media","volume":"10 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141687259","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article revolves around two soundtracks Walker has admired along with the person to whom this issue of Alphaville is dedicated: Danijela Kulezic-Wilson. The soundtracks come from Soul by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers and Nomadland by Chloé Zhao, both released in 2020. The films are sonically worlds apart: Soul is dominated by jazz music by Jon Batiste and contemporary electronic music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, while Nomadland features modern classical music by Ludovico Einaudi and Ólafur Arnalds. Ironically, despite sounding profoundly different, both films draw from true stories in order to teach audioviewers about living well, even in the midst of death. Or, to reapply Danijela’s words about Waking Life (Richard Linklater, 2001), these films emphasise “the dualistic nature of human experience, the pleasure of being alive and the implicit proximity of death.” Walker combines cinematherapy with sound studies to make a case for the wisdom of both films that have helped her cope with the grief of Danijela’s death, in the hope that this might resonate for those readers who find similar comfort in their own film-to-person relationships.
{"title":"Remembering my friend and rehearing two films","authors":"Elsie Walker","doi":"10.33178/alpha.27.17","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.27.17","url":null,"abstract":"This article revolves around two soundtracks Walker has admired along with the person to whom this issue of Alphaville is dedicated: Danijela Kulezic-Wilson. The soundtracks come from Soul by Pete Docter and Kemp Powers and Nomadland by Chloé Zhao, both released in 2020. The films are sonically worlds apart: Soul is dominated by jazz music by Jon Batiste and contemporary electronic music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, while Nomadland features modern classical music by Ludovico Einaudi and Ólafur Arnalds. Ironically, despite sounding profoundly different, both films draw from true stories in order to teach audioviewers about living well, even in the midst of death. Or, to reapply Danijela’s words about Waking Life (Richard Linklater, 2001), these films emphasise “the dualistic nature of human experience, the pleasure of being alive and the implicit proximity of death.” Walker combines cinematherapy with sound studies to make a case for the wisdom of both films that have helped her cope with the grief of Danijela’s death, in the hope that this might resonate for those readers who find similar comfort in their own film-to-person relationships.","PeriodicalId":378992,"journal":{"name":"Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media","volume":"8 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141688635","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this article, I insist on a broader conceptualisation of the Disney Vault, not only as a figurative place for films outside of their distribution windows, but also as an industrial practice of vaulting which continues to play a role at the Walt Disney Company. Drawing on primary resources and the company’s home-video distribution history, I explore Disney’s relationship to past, present, and future. I posit that mobilising the Vault as a branding tool has broader historiographical implications in that it works as a tool of public relations that obfuscates problematic corporate histories—even as the company continues to distribute content in the streaming age. Using Song of the South (Wilfred Jackson, 1946) and the film’s paratexts as a case study, I consider how contemporary language surrounding the Vault has served to mask Disney’s most problematic and notorious property in the streaming age. By painting the streaming platform as a democratic space of open access, Disney conceals a fraught past by guiding users to believe that they maintain complete access to the Disney collection. Recognising vaulting as an industry practice can help researchers more effectively account for the limitations of the corporate-owned streaming archive.
{"title":"Hidden histories: Vaulting as corporate archival practice","authors":"Bailey Apollonio","doi":"10.33178/alpha.27.05","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.27.05","url":null,"abstract":"In this article, I insist on a broader conceptualisation of the Disney Vault, not only as a figurative place for films outside of their distribution windows, but also as an industrial practice of vaulting which continues to play a role at the Walt Disney Company. Drawing on primary resources and the company’s home-video distribution history, I explore Disney’s relationship to past, present, and future. I posit that mobilising the Vault as a branding tool has broader historiographical implications in that it works as a tool of public relations that obfuscates problematic corporate histories—even as the company continues to distribute content in the streaming age. Using Song of the South (Wilfred Jackson, 1946) and the film’s paratexts as a case study, I consider how contemporary language surrounding the Vault has served to mask Disney’s most problematic and notorious property in the streaming age. By painting the streaming platform as a democratic space of open access, Disney conceals a fraught past by guiding users to believe that they maintain complete access to the Disney collection. Recognising vaulting as an industry practice can help researchers more effectively account for the limitations of the corporate-owned streaming archive.","PeriodicalId":378992,"journal":{"name":"Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media","volume":"62 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141687090","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Cinema of Paul Thomas Anderson: American Apocrypha, by Ethan Warren","authors":"Nivedita Nair","doi":"10.33178/alpha.27.31","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.27.31","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":378992,"journal":{"name":"Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media","volume":"30 43","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141684468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the 1930s, with the rise of fascism and Nazism in Europe, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt believed that the United States would soon need the sympathy and cooperation of Latin America. His Good Neighbor policy sought to improve relations between the countries of the Americas. Walt Disney was commissioned by Nelson D. Rockefeller, who was in charge of inter-American relations, to make a goodwill tour of Latin America in search of inspiration for films about the region. He and his group met with politicians and artists, researched local cultures, and personally experienced the region’s society, geography and wildlife. As a result of these experiences, Latin America became the setting for two Disney films in the 1940s, Saludos Amigos (Norman Ferguson, 1942) and The Three Caballeros (Norman Ferguson, 1944). The aim of this article is to describe the key role played by Walt Disney and his cartoon characters (especially Donald Duck) in the transformation of inter-American relations, especially from the aspect of culture.
{"title":"Donald Duck goes south: Walt Disney and the Inter-American relations","authors":"András Lénárt","doi":"10.33178/alpha.27.03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.27.03","url":null,"abstract":"In the 1930s, with the rise of fascism and Nazism in Europe, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt believed that the United States would soon need the sympathy and cooperation of Latin America. His Good Neighbor policy sought to improve relations between the countries of the Americas. Walt Disney was commissioned by Nelson D. Rockefeller, who was in charge of inter-American relations, to make a goodwill tour of Latin America in search of inspiration for films about the region. He and his group met with politicians and artists, researched local cultures, and personally experienced the region’s society, geography and wildlife. As a result of these experiences, Latin America became the setting for two Disney films in the 1940s, Saludos Amigos (Norman Ferguson, 1942) and The Three Caballeros (Norman Ferguson, 1944). The aim of this article is to describe the key role played by Walt Disney and his cartoon characters (especially Donald Duck) in the transformation of inter-American relations, especially from the aspect of culture.","PeriodicalId":378992,"journal":{"name":"Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media","volume":"25 46","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141685265","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
An article comprising the videographic study Drill Team alongside a written framing of its film studies origins and comparative methodology. The video attempts a performative audiovisual adaptation of a chapter section from Danijela Kulezic-Wilson’s 2020 book Sound Design is the New Score: Theory, Aesthetics, and Erotics of the Integrated Soundtrack. Drill Team explores both Kulezic-Wilson’s specific (if uncertain) argument about the relationship between two films, Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999) and The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer, 2015), and her general argument in the chapter about the “composed” nature of the sound (and music) design in these and other modern or contemporary films, as well as about the capacity of these films, and film generally, to use modes of embodied experience as the substance of their language.
{"title":"On Drill Team and the musicality of videographic criticism","authors":"Catherine Grant","doi":"10.33178/alpha.27.13","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.27.13","url":null,"abstract":"An article comprising the videographic study Drill Team alongside a written framing of its film studies origins and comparative methodology. The video attempts a performative audiovisual adaptation of a chapter section from Danijela Kulezic-Wilson’s 2020 book Sound Design is the New Score: Theory, Aesthetics, and Erotics of the Integrated Soundtrack. Drill Team explores both Kulezic-Wilson’s specific (if uncertain) argument about the relationship between two films, Beau Travail (Claire Denis, 1999) and The Fits (Anna Rose Holmer, 2015), and her general argument in the chapter about the “composed” nature of the sound (and music) design in these and other modern or contemporary films, as well as about the capacity of these films, and film generally, to use modes of embodied experience as the substance of their language.","PeriodicalId":378992,"journal":{"name":"Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media","volume":"49 10","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141687815","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this video essay, I establish, discuss, and illustrate different types of Disney screencerts—events where the performance of music on stage is accompanied by the projection of the associated audiovisual on screen. Focusing on the audience experience, I use concepts from intermedial and multimodal studies to illustrate the experiential difference in each of the different forms of Disney screencerts—Film-with-Live-Orchestra Concert; Film-with-Live-Theatre-and-Orchestra Concert; Excerpt/Montage-with-Live-Orchestra Concert; and Shorts-with-Live-Orchestra concert. In the 100th anniversary of Disney, the event that truly celebrated the innovative spirit of Disney was not the one literary titled “Disney 100: The Concert” but the one titled “Encanto at the Hollywood Bowl”, which is a Film-with-Live-Theatre-and-Orchestra concert—a super-hybrid screencert form in which only Disney films have been presented so far.
{"title":"Disney screencerts: A video essay","authors":"Sureshkumar P. Sekar","doi":"10.33178/alpha.27.04","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.27.04","url":null,"abstract":"In this video essay, I establish, discuss, and illustrate different types of Disney screencerts—events where the performance of music on stage is accompanied by the projection of the associated audiovisual on screen. Focusing on the audience experience, I use concepts from intermedial and multimodal studies to illustrate the experiential difference in each of the different forms of Disney screencerts—Film-with-Live-Orchestra Concert; Film-with-Live-Theatre-and-Orchestra Concert; Excerpt/Montage-with-Live-Orchestra Concert; and Shorts-with-Live-Orchestra concert. In the 100th anniversary of Disney, the event that truly celebrated the innovative spirit of Disney was not the one literary titled “Disney 100: The Concert” but the one titled “Encanto at the Hollywood Bowl”, which is a Film-with-Live-Theatre-and-Orchestra concert—a super-hybrid screencert form in which only Disney films have been presented so far.","PeriodicalId":378992,"journal":{"name":"Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media","volume":"17 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141687900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Few women working as illustrators, designers, and animators in the golden age of American animation are as memorable and recognisable as Mary Blair (1911–1978). Today, she is best remembered for her unique style and design work captured in the It’s a Small World park attraction, as well as her concept art for films including Cinderella (1950) and Alice in Wonderland (1951). While this article contextualises Blair’s artistic development and her contributions to various Disney projects, I primarily interrogate how Blair’s career and legacy have been narrativised, particularly in the decades following her death, by Disney-sanctioned writers and for readers of all ages. This paper invites us to consider why Mary Blair, more than any other woman active at Disney during the mid-twentieth century, has achieved more fame and fan recognition since her death than she did in life. The answer, I argue, lies in how Blair is positioned in writing.
在美国动画的黄金时代，很少有女性插画家、设计师和动画师能像玛丽-布莱尔（1911-1978 年）那样令人难忘和耳熟能详。如今，人们对她最深刻的印象是她独特的风格和设计作品，包括《小小世界》（It's a Small World）公园景点，以及她为电影创作的概念图，包括《灰姑娘》（1950 年）和《爱丽丝梦游仙境》（1951 年）。本文介绍了布莱尔艺术发展的背景以及她对迪斯尼各种项目的贡献，我主要探讨了布莱尔的职业生涯和遗产是如何被叙事化的，尤其是在她去世后的几十年里，是如何被迪斯尼认可的作家和所有年龄段的读者叙事化的。本文请我们思考，为什么玛丽-布莱尔比二十世纪中叶活跃在迪斯尼的任何其他女性都更能在死后获得比生前更高的声誉和粉丝认可度。我认为，答案在于布莱尔在写作中的定位。
{"title":"Examining the legacy of Disney artist Mary Blair","authors":"Gabrielle Stecher","doi":"10.33178/alpha.27.02","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.27.02","url":null,"abstract":"Few women working as illustrators, designers, and animators in the golden age of American animation are as memorable and recognisable as Mary Blair (1911–1978). Today, she is best remembered for her unique style and design work captured in the It’s a Small World park attraction, as well as her concept art for films including Cinderella (1950) and Alice in Wonderland (1951). While this article contextualises Blair’s artistic development and her contributions to various Disney projects, I primarily interrogate how Blair’s career and legacy have been narrativised, particularly in the decades following her death, by Disney-sanctioned writers and for readers of all ages. This paper invites us to consider why Mary Blair, more than any other woman active at Disney during the mid-twentieth century, has achieved more fame and fan recognition since her death than she did in life. The answer, I argue, lies in how Blair is positioned in writing.","PeriodicalId":378992,"journal":{"name":"Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media","volume":"362 14","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141686276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Labors of Fear: The Modern Horror Film Goes to Work, edited by Aviva Briefel and Jason Middleton","authors":"Blake Lynch","doi":"10.33178/alpha.27.30","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.27.30","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":378992,"journal":{"name":"Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media","volume":"2 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141684306","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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