Showing posts with label Disney. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disney. Show all posts

Friday, May 9, 2025

CFP We Live Again! Disney's Gargoyles as an Evolving Transmedia Text (7/15/2025; NEPCA online 10/9-11/2025)

With apologies for cross-posting.

We Live Again! Disney's Gargoyles as an Evolving Transmedia Text

Co-sponsored by the Monsters & the Monstrous Area and Disney Studies Area

Call for Papers for 2025 Virtual Conference of the Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA)

Thursday, 9 October, to Saturday, 11 October, 2025

Submissions are open until Tuesday, 15 July by 5 PM EDT


Conceived by creator Greg Weisman, Disney’s Gargoyles began as a television series in the 1990s and has been expanded over the decades through action figures, books, clothing, collectibles, comics, conventions, fan art, fanfiction, games, puzzles, and recurrent rumors of a live-action reboot. Although now over thirty years old, Gargoyles has remained incredibly popular since its initial debut, yet, while other aspects of Disney Studies are flourishing, scholars have mostly neglected the series. Therefore, we seek in this session to offer some critical attention to Gargoyles and its various adaptations and continuations. 

Proposals should display some knowledge of the history and scope of the series, its adaptation history, and its ongoing evolution. We encourage you to make use of the resource guide provided at https://tinyurl.com/WeLiveAgainRG in formulating your approach. 




To submit a proposal, please review the requirements and procedure from NEPCA’s main conference page at https://www.northeastpca.org/conference. Proposals should be approximately 250 words; an academic biographical statement (75 words or less) is also requested. Payment of registration and membership fees will be required to present. More details on exact costs will be forthcoming. 


Direct submissions to the Monsters & the Monstrous Area can be made at https://cfp.sched.com/speaker/sTP9T9X3cW/event. Address any questions or concerns to the area chair at popular.preternaturaliana@gmail.com


Further information on the Monsters & the Monstrous Area can be accessed on our blog Popular Preternaturaliana: Studying the Monstrous in Popular Culture at https://popularpreternaturaliana.blogspot.com/.  

Further information on the Northeast Popular Culture Association (NEPCA) can be accessed from our new website at https://www.northeastpca.org/




Sunday, April 2, 2023

Check It Out: Neomedievalism, Popular Culture, and the Academy


Finally had a chance to review this. Looks like a great resource. 


Neomedievalism, Popular Culture, and the Academy: From Tolkien to Game of Thrones


by KellyAnn Fitzpatrick

Full details and ordering information from the publisher is available at this link.



TITLE DETAILS

244 Pages

21.6 x 13.8 cm

Series: Medievalism
Series Vol. Number: 16

Imprint: D.S.Brewer


Hardcover
9781843845416
October 2019
$95.00 / £65.00

Ebook (EPDF)
9781787447028
October 2019
$29.95 / £24.99

Ebook (EPUB)
9781800109308
October 2019
$29.95 / £24.99


Description


The medieval in the modern world is here explored in a variety of media, from film and book to gaming.

Medievalism - the ways in which post-medieval societies perceive, interpret, reimagine, or appropriate the Middle Ages - permeates popular culture. From Disney princesses to Game of Thrones, medieval fairs to World of Warcraft, contemporary culture keeps finding new ways to reinvent and repackage the period. Medievalism itself, then, continues to evolve while it is also subject to technological advances, prominent invocations in political discourse, and the changing priorities of the academy. This has led some scholars to adopt the term "neomedievalism", a concept originating in part from the work of the late Umberto Eco, which calls for new avenues of inquiry into the way we think about the medieval.
This book examines recent evolutions of (neo)medievalism across multiple media, from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings to the film Beowulf and medieval gaming. These evolutions can take the form of what one might consider to be pop culture objects of critique (art, commodity, amusement park, video game) or academic tools of critique (monographs, articles, lectures, university seminars). It is by reconciling these seemingly disparate forms that we can better understand the continual, interconnected, and often politicized reinvention of the Middle Ages in both popular and academic culture.


Contents

Introduction
1. The Academy and the Making of Neomedievalism
2. Tolkien: From Medieval Studies to Medievalist Fantasy
3. Hollywood Genders the Neomedieval: Sleeping Beauty/Beowulf/Maleficent
4. Game of Thrones: Neomedievalism and the Myths of Inheritance
5. Magic: The Gathering and the Markets of Neomedievalism
6. Digital Gaming: Coding a Connective Neomedievalism
Bibliography



Author


KELLYANN FITZPATRICK is an affiliated researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology.


Friday, June 17, 2022

CFP Disney and the Middle Ages collection (7/15/2022)

Apologies for cross-posting;

deadline for submissions:
July 15, 2022

full name / name of organization:
Christina M. Carlson, Mariah L. Cooper, and Joshua Parks

contact email:
disneymedievalvolume@gmail.com



Call for Papers

Edited Volume on Disney and the Middle Ages



We invite proposals for an edited collection of essays on medievalism in Disney media for Brepols’ new series Reinterpreting the Middle Ages: From Medieval to Neo. The Walt Disney Company's films, theme parks, and merchandise are full of people, places, and things coded as “medieval,” and because Disney's medievalism is often coded as white and Christian, it is especially relevant to medieval studies' ongoing struggle with white supremacy within and outside the field.



We encourage authors to consider the role of the Walt Disney Company in shaping popular perceptions of the Middle Ages, as well as the function of medievalism in Disney’s ideological projects. How does Disney’s medievalist media represent gender, race, religion, disability, and other features of medieval life? What do those representations reveal about modern life as seen and shaped by Disney?



We welcome submissions from a wide variety of disciplines including literary studies, history, religious studies, gender studies, musicology, art history, and film studies. Critical perspectives such as ecocriticism, animal studies, queer theory, critical race studies, disability studies, material culture, and postcolonial theory are also encouraged. In addition, we welcome submissions from non-medievalist scholars with expertise in twentieth- and twenty-first-century media and culture.



Proposals of 300 to 500 words should be submitted by email to disneymedievalvolume@gmail.com by Friday July 15, 2022. We aim to notify authors about accepted submissions by September 1, 2022. We have been invited to submit this collection for publication in Brepols’ new series Reinterpreting the Middle Ages: From Medieval to Neo.



Please write to the above email address with any questions, or contact Christina M. Carlson (cmcarlson@iona.edu), Mariah Cooper (mlcooper@mun.ca), and/or Joshua Parks (joshua.t.parks@gmail.com).


We look forward to hearing from you.




Last updated June 7, 2022
This CFP has been viewed 19 times.

Saturday, September 11, 2021

New from Oxford UP - The Oxford Handbook of Music and Medievalism

Worth a look for medievalism on screen:
 

The Oxford Handbook of Music and Medievalism

Edited by Stephen C. Meyer and Kirsten Yri 
 
 
Oxford Handbooks
 
Presents a cross-section of a diverse and growing area of study
Draws connections between musical styles and eras
Approaches topics from multiple disciplinary and thematic perspective



$175.00 (Hardcover)
 
Also Available As: Ebook

Published: 02 March 2020

848 Pages | 86 musical examples; 34 illustrations

6-3/4 x 9-3/4 inches

ISBN: 9780190658441




Description

The Oxford Handbook of Music and Medievalism provides a snapshot of the diverse ways in which medievalism--the retrospective immersion in the images, sounds, narratives, and ideologies of the European Middle Ages--powerfully transforms many of the varied musical traditions of the last two centuries. Thirty-three chapters from an international group of scholars explore topics ranging from the representation of the Middle Ages in nineteenth-century opera to medievalism in contemporary video game music, thereby connecting disparate musical forms across typical musicological boundaries of chronology and geography. While some chapters focus on key medievalist works such as Orff's Carmina Burana or Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films, others explore medievalism in the oeuvre of a single composer (e.g. Richard Wagner or Arvo Pärt) or musical group (e.g. Led Zeppelin). The topics of the individual chapters include both well-known works such as John Boorman's film Excalibur and also less familiar examples such as Eduard Lalo's Le Roi d'Ys. The authors of the chapters approach their material from a wide array of disciplinary perspectives, including historical musicology, popular music studies, music theory, and film studies, examining the intersections of medievalism with nationalism, romanticism, ideology, nature, feminism, or spiritualism. Taken together, the contents of the Handbook develop new critical insights that venture outside traditional methodological constraints and provide a capstone and point of departure for future scholarship on music and medievalism.



Table of Contents


Introduction [Stephen Meyer and Kirsten Yri] 

Section 1: Romanticizing the Medieval: The Longing for the Middle Ages in the Nineteenth Century
1. Medievalisms in Early Nineteenth-Century German Thought [Laura K. T. Stokes]
2. From Knight Errant to Family Man: Romantic Medievalism and Domesticity in Brahms's Romanzen aus L. Tieck's Schöne Magelone, op. 33 (1865, 1869) [Marie Sumner Lott]
3. Liszt's Medievalist Modernism [Balázs Mikusi]
4. Soldiers and Censors: Verdi's Medieval Imagination [Liana Püschel]
5. The Distant Past as Mirror and Metaphor:ÂPortraying Medievalism in Historical French Grand Operas [Diana Hallman]
6. Medievalism and Regionalist Identity in Lalo's Le Roi d'Ys [Elinor Olin]
7. Romantic Medievalist Nationalism in Schumann's Genoveva, Then and Now [Michael S. Richardson]
8. The Middle Ages in Richard Wagner's Music Dramas [Barbara Eichner] 

Section 2: Performing the Middle Ages
9. Medievalism at the University: Collegia and Choral Societies [Jacob Sagrans]
10. Medieval Folk in the Revivals of David Munrow [Edward Breen]
11. Re-sounding Carl Dreyer's La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc [Donald Greig] 

Section 3: Medievalism and Compositional Practice in the Twentieth Century
12. Medievalism and Anti-Romanticism in Carl Orff's Carmina Burana [Kirsten Yri]
13. Past Tense: Creative Medievalism in the Music of Margaret Lucy Wilkins [Lisa Colton]
14. Hucbald's Fifths and Vaughan Williams's Mass: The New Medieval in Britain Between the Wars [Deborah Heckert]
15. The Return of Ars subtilior?: Rhythmic Complexity and Appeal of Codex Chantilly Six Hundred Years Hence [Aleksandra Vojcic]
16. Miserere: Arvo Pärt and the Medieval Present[Laura Dolp]
17. The Postmodern Troubadour [Anne Stone] 

Section 4: Reimagining the Medieval Woman
18. Tolling Bells and Otherworldly Voices: Joan of Arc's Sonic World in the Early Twentieth Century [Elizabeth Dister]
19. Medievalism and Rued Langgaard's Romantic Image of Queen Dagmar [Nils Holger-Petersen]
20. Nature, Vision, and Light in Vision-Aus dem Leben der Hildegard von Bingen [Jennifer Bain]
21. Disciplining Guinevere: Courtly Love and the Arthurian Tradition from Henry Purcell to Donovan Leitch [Gillian L. Gower] 

Section 5: Echoes of the Middle Ages in Folk, Rock, and Metal
22. Early Music and Popular Music: Medievalism, Nostalgia, and the Beatles [Elizabeth Upton]
23. "Ramble On": Medievalism as Nostalgic Practice in Led Zeppelin's use of J. R. R. Tolkien [Caitlin Carlos]
24. A Gothic Romance: Neomedieval Echoes of Fin'amor in Gothic and Doom Metal [Ross Hagen]
25. Viking Metal [Simon Trafford]
26. Medievalism and Identity Construction in Pagan Folk Music [Scott R. Troyer] 

Section 6: Medievalism of the Screen
27. From the Music of the Ainur to the Music of the Voiceover: Sounding Medievalism in The Lord of the Rings [Stephen C. Meyer]
28. Faith, Fear, Silence and Music in Ingmar Bergman's Medieval Vision of The Virgin Spring and The Seventh Seal [Alexis Luko]
29. Hope Against Fate or Fata Morgana? Music and Mythopoiesis in Boorman's Excalibur [David Clem]
30. The Many Musical Medievalisms of Disney [John Haines]
31. Evil Medieval: Chant and the New Dark Spirituality of Vietnam-Era Film in America [James Deaville]
32. Fantasy Medievalism and Screen Media[James Cook]
33. Gaming the Medievalist World in Harry Potter [Karen M. Cook]


Author Information


Stephen C. Meyer is Professor of Musicology at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music. He is the author of Carl Maria von Weber and the Search for a German Opera (2003) and Epic Sound: Music in Postwar Hollywood Biblical Films (2015) as well as numerous articles on topics ranging from nineteenth-century German opera to film music to the history of recorded sound. He is editor of Music in Epic Film: Listening to Spectacle (2016), and from 2014 to 2018 he served as the Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Music History Pedagogy.

Kirsten Yri is Associate Professor of Musicology at the Faculty of Music at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada. She has published widely on the role of the early music revival and the intersections between music and medievalism in American Music, Intersections, Early Music, and Women and Music. Her work on medievalism and rock music (Dead Can Dance, Black Sabbath, and Corvus Corax) has been published in Current Musicology, Popular Music, and Postmedieval. Her recent research examines parody, gender, and social programs in Carl Orff's Trionfi against a context of German contemporary literary and philosophical debates.
Contributors:


Jennifer Bain, Professor of Music, Dalhousie University

Edward Breen, Coordinator of the Music Department, The City Literary Institute, London

Caitlin Vaughn Carlos, Adjunct Faculty, Chapman University

David Clem, Instructor of Music History, Greatbatch School of Music, Houghton College

Lisa Colton, Reader in Musicology, University of Huddersfield

James Cook, Lecturer in Early Music, University of Edinburgh

Karen M. Cook, Assistant Professor of Music History, The Hartt School of the University of Hartford

James Deaville, Professor, School for Studies in Art & Culture: Music at Carleton University

Elizabeth Dister, Webster University Faculty Development Center

Laura Dolp, Associate Professor, Montclair State University

Barbara Eichner, Senior Lecturer in Music, Oxford Brookes University

Gillian L. Gower, Visiting Assistant Professor of Musicology, Southern Methodist University

Donald Greig, Founding Member, The Orlando Consort

Ross Hagen, Assistant Professor of Music Studies, Utah Valley University

John Haines, Professor of Music and Medieval Studies, University of Toronto

Diana R. Hallman, Associate Professor, University of Kentucky

Deborah Heckert, Department of Music, Stony Brook University

Alexis Luko, Associate Professor of Music, School for Studies in Art & Culture and the College of the Humanities at Carleton University

Stephen Meyer, Professor of Musicology, College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati

Balázs Mikusi, Head of Music, National Széchényi Library in Budapest since 2009

Elinor Olin, Music History Faculty, Northern Illinois University

Nils Holger Petersen, Associate Professor emeritus of Church History, University of Copenhagen

Liana Püschel, Teaching Assistant of Musicology, Università degli studi di Torino, Humanities Faculty

Michael S. Richardson, Assistant Professor of Musicology, University of St. Thomas

Jacob Sagrans, Independent Scholar, Editor, Administrator, and Choral Performer

Laura K. T. Stokes, Performing Arts Librarian and Visiting Lecturer in Music, Brown University

Anne Stone, Associate Professor of Musicology, Graduate Center of the City University of New York

Marie Sumner Lott, Associate Professor of Music History, Georgia State University in Atlanta

Simon Trafford, Lecturer in Medieval History, Institute of Historical Research, University of London

Scott R. Troyer, Ph.D. candidate, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music

Elizabeth Randell Upton, Associate Professor of Musicology, UCLA

Aleksandra Vojcic, Associate Professor of Music Theory, The University of Michigan

Kirsten Yri, Associate Professor of Musicology, Wilfrid Laurier University 


Monday, February 1, 2021

Recent Scholarship: Brode and Brode's It's the Disney Version!

 I finally picked up a copy of this intriguing collection. 


Edited by Douglas Brode and Shea T. Brode

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 254 • Trim: 6 x 9 
 
978-1-4422-6606-3 • Hardback • June 2016 • $95.00 • (£73.00)
978-1-4422-6607-0 • eBook • June 2016 • $90.00 • (£69.00) 
 
In 1937, the first full-length animated film produced by Walt Disney was released. Based on a fairy tale written by the Brothers Grimm, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was an instant success and set the stage for more film adaptations over the next several decades. From animated features like and Bambi to live action films such as Mary Poppins, Disney repeatedly turned to literary sources for inspiration—a tradition the Disney studios continues well into the twenty-first century.

In
It’s the Disney Version!: Popular Cinema and Literary Classics, Douglas Brode and Shea T. Brode have collected essays that consider the relationship between a Disney film and the source material from which it was drawn. Analytic yet accessible, these essays provide a wide-ranging study of the term “The Disney Version” and what it conveys to viewers. Among the works discussed in this volume are Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins, Pinocchio,Sleeping Beauty, Tarzan, and Winnie the Pooh.

In these intriguing essays, contributors to this volume offer close textual analyses of both the original work and of the Disney counterpart. Featuring articles that consider both positive and negative elements that can be found in the studio’s
output, It’s the Disney Version!: Popular Cinema and Literary Classics will be of interest to scholars and students of film, as well as the diehard Disney fan.


Contents (from WorldCat):

Introduction: once upon a time at the movies / Douglas Brode --

"And they lived happily ever after?": Disney's animated adaptation of Snow White and the seven dwarfs (1937) and Fleischers' Gulliver's travels / David McGowan --

Marionette as metaphor: Pinocchio and evolving attitudes toward education / Jean-Marie Apostolides --

Here be gay dragons: queer allegory and Disney's The reluctant dragon / Tison Pugh --

Uncle Walt's Uncle Remus: Disney's distortion of Harris's hero / Peggy A. Russo --

"Glory in the flower": Disneyfying Bambi / David Payne --

Through the cinematic looking glass: Walt Disney's 1951 animated Alice and Tim Burton's 2010 film / Sarah Boslaugh --

Walt Disney and Robert Louis Stevenson: Haskin's Treasure island or Stevenson's Kidnapped? / Scott Allen Nollen --

Of medieval ballads and movie musicals: Walt Disney and the Robin Hood legend / Shea T. Brode with Douglas Brode --

"Do you believe in fairies?": Peter Pan, Walt Disney, and me / Elizabeth Bell --

"In God's good time": Walt Disney and 1950s Cold War culture / Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper --

Perchance to dream: a narrative analysis of Disney's Sleeping beauty / Alexis Finnerty with Douglas Brode --

"It's a jungle out there, kid!": Walt Disney and the American 1960s / Greg Metcalf --

"Higitus! figitus!": of Merlin and Disney magic / Susan Aronstein --

"This is not the Mary Poppins I know!": P.L. Travers goes to Hollywood / David S. and Olga Silverman --

The wonderful worlds of Dickens and Disney: animated adaptations of Oliver Twist and A Christmas carol / Shari Hodges Holt --

The tao at Pooh corner: Disney's portrayal of a very philosophical bear / Anne Collins Smith and Owen M. Smith --

From icon to Disneyfication: a mermaid's aesthetic journey / Finn Hauberg Mortensen --

Pocahontas as Disney princess: history, legend, literature, and movie mythology / Kathy Merlock Jackson and Gary Edgerton --

"Driven to sin": Victor Hugo's complex vision of humanity in Disney's The hunchback of Notre Dame / Michael Smith --

The integrity of an ape-man: Burroughs, Disney, and the meaning of the Tarzan myth / Stanley A. Galloway.
 
 
Authors:
 
Douglas Brode teaches popular culture at Syracuse University’s Newhouse School of Public Communications, the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Our Lady of the Lake University (also in San Antonio). He has published more than 35 books, including Rod Sterling and The Twilight Zone (2009). He is the coeditor of Myth, Media, and Culture in Star Wars: An Anthology (2012) and Sex, Politics and Religion in Star Wars: An Anthology (2012), and Dracula’s Daughters: The Female Vampire on Film (2013). Brode is a contributor to the upcoming PBS-TV mini-series: American Masters: Walt Disney. Shea T. Brode has an MA in Literature and Cultural Studies from the University Autonoma in Madrid. Douglas and Shea are the coeditors of The Star Trek Universe: Franchising the Final Frontier (2015) and Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek: The Original Cast Adventures (2015).


Friday, April 6, 2018

Going Viking with the Muppets

The worlds of Jim Henson offer much to delight medievalists, including a spirited rendition of "In the Navy" (from season five of The Muppet Show) with Muppet Viking-pigs attacking (and, in the end, being repelled from) a medieval seaside community.

There are multiple version of the short online including the following:




So far, only seasons one, two, and three of The Muppet Show are available for home video. Hopefully Disney will release the remaining seasons soon.

Sunday, August 6, 2017

Robin Hood CD Update

An update to my previous post. Intrada has now listed the information and track listing for The Legacy Collection: Robin Hood CD to its online catalog. Details at http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.10941/.f.

Here are all 41 tracks:

Disc 1
1. Main Title (0:52)
2. Whistle Stop (2:49)
3. Oo-De-Lally (0:59)
4. Hail John (1:50)
5. It’s Only a Circus (1:17)
6. Fortune Tellers (3:07)
7. Enter the Sheriff (1:37)
8. Skippy’s Birthday Gift (3:32)
9. A Lost Arrow (1:20)
10. Meeting Maid Marion (2:35)
11. To the Winner (1:32)
12. The Archery Affair (1:52)
13. Fooling Ol’ Bushel Britches (2:01)
14. Archer’s Processional (1:04)
15. Sir Hiss Suspects (0:34)
16. Well, Well (2:00)
17. The Loser (2:11)
18. Seize the Fat One (3:35)
19. Fight On Wisconsin (0:36)
20. There You Are (2:11)
21. Love (1:56)
22. The Phony King of England (2:44)
23. Double the Taxes (0:46)
24. Not In Nottingham (5:05)
25. Not Yourself Today (4:02)
26. Bird Brain (4:02)
27. Lower the Bridge (6:12)
28. All’s Well That Ends Well (1:59)

Disc 2
1. Whistle Stop (Ragtime Demo) (Instrumental) (2:21)
2. Oo-De-Lally (Western Score Demo) (Instrumental) (0:38)
3. Not In Nottingham (Prince John Demo) (1:02)
4. Love (Robin Hood Version) (3:38)
5. The Phony King of England (Country Version) (2:04)
Louis Prima Bonus Tracks:
6. King Louie and Robin Hood (2:42)
7. Robin and Me (1:39)
8. Sherwood Forest (3:14)
9. The Phony King of England (2:09)
10. Friar Tuck (1:50)
11. Merry Men (1:34)
12. Love (1:55)
13. Robin Hood (2:15)

Tuesday, June 27, 2017

Disney's Robin Hood on CD!

I recently came across a reference to the Walt Disney Records The Legacy Collection Robin Hood two-disc set on Amazon.

The initial news and cover art were released in late May on the various Disney Music Emporium media sites (see, for example, the news on its Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DisneyMusicEmporium/photos/a.1417819401816272.1073741828.1417567548508124/1850095375255337/).

Further details on the set can be found on the WDW News Today website (http://wdwnt.com/blog/2017/05/d23-expo-2017-disney-music-emporium-returning-album-signings/), where Jesse DeRosa wrote on 26 May 2016:
Disney Music Emporium, a pop-up store that sells collectable Disney music-related products, will be returning to the D23 Expo 2017. During the event, fans will be able to purchase new limited music releases from various Disney artists and composers.

Walt Disney Records The Legacy Collection Robin Hood, a two-disc set, will be released for the first time during the expo. Disc one of the collection includes songs and score from the film. Disc two includes unreleased demos and bonus tracks performed by Louis Prima. The CD collection contains liner notes, as well as a 20-page booklet featuring new artwork inspired by Robin Hood from Lorelay Bove, a visual development artist who’s worked on various Disney films including Tangled, Wreck-It Ralph, and more. Those that purchase the collection will receive a special lithograph featuring the back cover artwork, though there will only be a limited quantity available.



Wednesday, June 22, 2016

The Disney Middle Ages Now in Paperback

Palgrave has recently released Pugh and Aronstein's The Disney Middle Ages collection in paperback; it was originally released in hardcover in 2012. Full details on the new edition can be found at their UK (http://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9780230340077) and US (http://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9780230340077) websites.


Sunday, May 24, 2015

Poor Merida

There was some outrage when Disney tried to co-opt Pixar's Merida from Brave into the Disney Princess line, and now she has been cutified by Hallmark for Christmas. Full details on the Disney/Pixar Precious Moments Brave Princess Merida Ornament are available at Hallmark.com: http://shop.hallmark.com/christmas/christmas-ornaments/disneypixar-precious-moments-brave-princess-merida-ornament-2495QXD6009.html. The porcelain figurine retails for $24.95.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

CFP Disney and Its Worlds (5/15/14; PAMLA 10/31-11/2/14)

Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association
112th Annual Conference - Riverside Convention Center, California
Friday, October 31 - Sunday, November 2, 2014

Disney and Its Worlds

Presiding Officer:
Jeremiah Axelrod, Occidental College

From the Frankfurt School to contemporary cultural studies, the social ramifications of Disney movies and theme parks, and their cultural penumbra, have long provided rich terrain for critical scholarly analysis. This panel explores the discursive, literary, filmic, and historical dimensions of the Disney phenomenon in both the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Papers that draw upon the rich canon of scholarship on Disney and engage with its cultural effects through critical theory, spatial or historical analysis, Feminist methodologies, or close reading strategies are particularly encouraged.

Status:
Open (accepting submissions)
Associated Sessions
Disney and Its Worlds
Topic Type:
Special Session

- See more at: http://www.pamla.org/2014/topics/disney-and-its-worlds#sthash.Tdyh5HKb.dpuf

Thursday, April 17, 2014

CFP Discussing Disney Conference (4/30/14; UK 9/3-4/14)

This sounds exciting. Wish I could go.

'Discussing Disney', 3-4 September 2014

full name / name of organization: 
University of Hull
contact email: 
Film Studies at the University of Hull is proud to announce that it is hosting a conference exploring the world of Disney studies. Papers on any areas of Disney are welcome for consideration, to include (but not limited to) discussions of Disney studio history, animation, live-action films, television, theme parks, merchandizing, and/or popular cultural representations of all things Disney.
Abstracts of 300 words, along with personal details, should be sent to Amy M. Davis (a.davis@hull.ac.uk) by 30 April 2014.
Keynote speakers include Dr Chris Pallant, author of Demystifying Disney (2011).

cfp categories: 
american
cultural_studies_and_historical_approaches
film_and_television
twentieth_century_and_beyond

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Sleeping Beauty Diamond Edition Advance Notice

The following advertisement appeared in the package of the recent Jungle Book Platinum Edition. The re-release is of course timed to tie-in with the live-action spin-off Maleficent due out this May.


Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Sword in Stone and Robin Hood Updates

Advance reviews of both The Sword in thse Stone and Robin Hood Blu-ray/DVD/Digital Edition combo packs reveal that both releases will include concept art for scenes deleted from the films. Further details at the following site:

The Sword in the Stone:

http://www.criterionforum.org/DVD-review/the-sword-in-the-stone-dual-format-edition/disney/1202

http://moviemansguide.com/main/2013/07/review-swordinthestone-bd/


Robin Hood:

http://www.criterionforum.org/DVD-review/robin-hood-dual-format-edition/disney/1204

http://moviemansguide.com/main/2013/07/review-robinhood-bd/



Monday, July 29, 2013

From the Disney Vault Update

Disney is re-releasing both The Sword in the Stone (1963) and Robin Hood (1973) to Blu-ray next month as part of special anniversary editions including digital copies of both films (whether purchased as part of the DVD or Blu-Ray/DVD combo sets). Both were recently released as DVD special editions (in 2008 and 2006, respectively). No word yet on whether or not they will include any new extras. I append the advertisement from the Disney Movie Club. Both films can also be purchased from various online sellers, though, curiously, Disney's own DisneyStore.com fails to list either product.

Also of interest, the Disney Movie Club is offering Season 2, Volume 2 of the popular 1990s' series Gargoyles as a 3-disc club exclusive. The set completes the season (first released to DVD in 2005). The Gargoyles are originally from 10th century Scotland but active in the modern world, where they interact with a number of figures from medieval myth and legend, including Macbeth, King Arthur, the Lady of the Lake, Cú Chulainn, Odin, and the Weird Sisters from Macbeth. In addition, this half of the season introduces Titania (from Midsummer Night's Dream) into the Gargoyles universe and also integrates both her and Puck (also from MND) firmly into the Gargoyle's extended family.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Mulan and Mulan II Trailer

Advertisement scan from last night seems a bit muddy, so here is the official trailer:




Additional videos at http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-muvh_380IafMMO3fC55frFmfTG0tiyX.

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Mulan News

Mulan and Mulan II are set to be re-released as a special fifteenth-anniversary Blu-ray combo set according to the following advisement from the recent Peter Pan Diamond Edition:


Saturday, March 2, 2013

Disney Middle Ages (Complete at Last)

Here are the complete details on the recent collection Disney Middle Ages:

The Disney Middle Ages: A Fairy-Tale and Fantasy Past
The New Middle Ages
Edited By Tison Pugh and Susan Aronstein

Palgrave Macmillan, December 2012
ISBN: 978-0-230-34007-7, ISBN10: 0-230-34007-5,
5.500 x 8.500 inches, 304 pages, 6 b/w illustrations,
Hardcover $85.00

The Middle Ages depicted in Walt Disney movies have come, for many, to figure as the Middle Ages, forming the earliest visions of the medieval past for much of the contemporary western (and increasingly eastern) imaginary. The essayists of The Disney Middle Ages explore Disney's mediation and re-creation of a fairy-tale and fantasy past, not to lament its exploitation of the Middle Ages for corporate ends, but to examine how and why these medieval visions prove so readily adaptable to themed entertainments many centuries after their creation.

Contents:

Introduction: Disney's Retroprogressive Medievalisms: Where Yesterday Is Tomorrow Today; T.Pugh

PART I: BUILDING A BETTER MIDDLE AGES: MEDIEVALISM IN THE PARKS
Mapping the Happiest Place on Earth: Disney's Medieval Cartography; S.YandellDisney's Castles and the Work of the Medieval in the Magic Kingdom; M.BaylessPilgrimage and Medieval Narrative Structures in Disney's Parks; S.Aronstein

PART II: THE DISTORICAL MIDDLE AGES
'You don't learn it deliberately, but you just know it from what you've seen': British Understandings of the Medieval Past Gleaned from Disney's Fairy Tales; P.SturtevantThe Sorcerer's Apprentice: Animation and Alchemy in Disney's Medievalism; E.F.Labbie
The Sword in the Stone
: American Translation and Disney's Anti-medievalisms; R.GossedgeWalt in Sherwood, or the Sheriff of Disneyland: Disney and the Film Legend of Robin Hood; K.J.HartyFuturistic Medievalisms and the U.S. Space Program in Disney's Man in Space Trilogy and Unidentified Flying Oddball; A.Foster

PART III: DISNEY PRINCESS FANTASY FAIRE
'Where happily ever after happens every day': The Medievalisms of Disney's Princesses; C.BradfordDisney's Medievalized Ecologies in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty; K.C.KellyThe United Princesses of America: Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Purity in Disney's Medieval Past; I.Mitchell-SmithEsmerelda of Notre Dame: The Gypsy Girl in Medieval View from Hugo to Disney; A.CravenReality Remixed: Neomedieval Princess Culture in Disney's Enchanted; M.S.Cecire


About the Editors:

Tison Pugh is a professor of English at the University of Central Florida. He is the author of Queering Medieval Genres, Sexuality and Its Queer Discontents in Middle English Literature, and Innocence, Heterosexuality, and the Queerness of Children's Literature.

Susan Aronstein is a professor of English at the University of Wyoming,. She is the author of Hollywood Knights: Arthurian Cinema and the Politics of Nostalgia and her articles on medieval Arthurian romance, medieval film, medievalism and popular culture have appeared in numerous books and journals.


Praise:

'An exciting excursion through Disney's entertainment kingdom. The exploration of Disney's 'retroprogressive' reimagining of the Middle Ages - from the medieval cartography of the theme-park maps and the fantastical geography of Wart's Camelot and Robin's Sherwood to the familiar iconography of Disney's fairy-tale castles and the increasingly diverse ethnography of his princesses - is lively, perceptive, and provocative. The Disney Middle Ages offers fascinating insights into American values and consumer practices; and it is essential reading for anyone interested in medievalism, film, or popular culture.' - Barbara Tepa Lupack, author of The Girl's King Arthur and Illustrating Camelot
 
"Witty, wry, and informative, this volume opens with an engaging introduction followed by thirteen essays that explore Disney's influence on contemporary readings of medieval sources as well as on modern perceptions of the Middle Ages. Stylishly written, the essays have wide appeal, reaching medievalists in all disciplines and well beyond to anyone who has ever encountered or who has been touched by a Disney film, owned a Disney product, or visited a Disney theme park. A model for other publications of its kind, The Disney Middle Ages presents fresh ways to consider popular culture in historical contexts and demonstrates Disney's apparently endless vitality in shaping modern notions of all things medieval." - Martha W. Driver, Distinguished Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies, Pace University

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Medieval Papers at Film & History 2012

The 2012 Film and History Conference meets later this month from 26-30 September 2012 at the Hyatt Regency Downtown in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The complete program can be accessed at http://www.filmandhistory.org/conference/conference2012.php.

The following sessions are of interest:

THURS., 27 SEPT

SESSION 1
PANEL 2716 Myths R Us III: The Sun Never Sets: British Identity in Film and Television
PAPER 2 OF 3: Brave Hearts and Minds: Scottish Politics, Nation-Building and the Myth-Making Power of Braveheart
Cody Neidert, University of Northern Colorado
PAPER 3 OF 3: “Decaying Splendours”: Landscapes of Absence, Loss, and Trauma in the Films of Stephen Weeks
Kevin M. Flanagan, University of Pittsburgh


SESSION 2
PANEL 2723 Medieval Myths II: Magic Beyond the Pale
The Dark Ages in the Cinema: A Case Study on Medieval Witchcraft
Tom Vercruysse, Kotholieke Universiteit Leuven
Father of Anarchy: Robin Hood and the Medieval Outlaw in Contemporary Culture
Melissa Sartore, West Virginia University Institute of Technology
Indistinguishable from Magic: Weapons of Mass Destruction in Robin Hood
Leah Larson, Our Lady of the Lake University

PANEL 2726 Mythos II: Goddesses: Armed and Dangerous
PAPER 2 OF 3: Arya, Katniss, and Merida: Three Screen Teen Amazon Archers
Beverly J. Graf, Pepperdine University


SESSION 3
PANEL 2733 Storytelling 101 II: Prominent Historical Figures: Anastasia,
Martin Guerre, Edith Piaf and Cleopatra
PAPER 2 OF 4: The Artful Historian and the Historical Filmmaker: Two Accounts of Martin Guerre
Mike Schraeder, M.F.A


SESSION 4
PANEL 2747 Medieval Myths I: Magical Medieval Realms in High
Definition
Politics, Magic, and Religion in the Middle Ages as Presented in George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones
Thomas McBryde, Our Lady of the Lake University
To Infinity and Beyond: How Film and Television Have Influenced the Evolution of the Arthurian Legend through BBC’s Merlin
Vanessa Schuchardt McBryde. Our Lady of the Lake University
Arthur and Guinevere 2.0: The BBC’s Merlin and the Reimagining of Arthurian Legend for a Twenty-First Century British Audience
Antoinette Winstead, Our Lady of the Lake University



SAT., 29 SEPT.
SESSION 2
PANEL 2924 Myths of Place
PAPER 3 OF 3: Off to the Highlands: Pixar’s Brave and the Allure of Scotland to the American Imagination
Dorene Koehler


SESSION 3
PANEL 2931B | Medieval Myths III: Varied Visions of Medieval Legends
Beowulf and Grendel
Kris Kobold, York University
Artifice and Misrecognition in Zemeckis’ Beowulf
David Watson, Michigan State University

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Disney Middle Ages Contents

My thanks to Tison Pugh for the update:

The Disney Middle Ages: A Fairy-Tale and Fantasy Past

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: Disney’s Retroprogressive Medievalisms: Where Yesterday Is Tomorrow Today
Tison Pugh


Part I: Building a Better Middle Ages: Medievalism in the Parks

2. Mapping the Happiest Place on Earth: Disney’s Medieval Cartography
Steve Yandell

3. Disney’s Castles and the Work of the Medieval in the Magic Kingdom
Martha Bayless

4. Pilgrimage and Medieval Narrative Structures in Disney’s Parks
Susan Aronstein


Part II: The Distorical Middle Ages

5. “You don’t learn it deliberately, but you just know it from what you’ve seen”: British Understandings of the Medieval Past Gleaned from Disney’s Fairy Tales
Paul Sturtevant

6. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice: Animation and Alchemy in Disney’s Medievalism
Erin Felicia Labbie

7. The Sword in the Stone: American Translatio and Disney’s Anti-medievalisms
Robert Gossedge

8. Walt in Sherwood, or the Sheriff of Disneyland: Disney and the Film Legend of Robin Hood
Kevin J. Harty

9. Futuristic Medievalisms and the U.S. Space Program in Disney’s Man in Space Trilogy and Unidentified Flying Oddball
Amy Foster


Part III: Disney Princess Fantasy Faire

10. “Where happily ever after happens every day”:The Medievalisms of Disney’s Princesses
Clare Bradford

11. Disney’s Medievalized Ecologies in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Sleeping Beauty
Kathleen Coyne Kelly

12. The United Princesses of America: Ethnic Diversity and Cultural Purity in Disney’s Medieval Past
Ilan Mitchell-Smith

13. Esmerelda of Notre Dame: The Gypsy Girl in Medieval View from Hugo to Disney
Allison Craven

14. Reality Remixed: Neomedieval Princess Culture in Disney’s Enchanted
Maria Sachiko Cecire