![disney](https://static-asset.amac.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/28062937/disney-1.jpg)
Like most Baby Boomers, I grew up happily fixated on the spellbinding showman Walt Disney from the time I could crawl.
Of course, I loved Mickey Mouse cartoons whenever I’d be planted in front of our black-and-white Zenith television. A few years later, I would laugh and sing along as a member of the Mickey Mouse Club…feeling like Jimmy Dodd and Annette Funicello really were my personal friends because of the ingenious way Walt Disney penetrated the so-called “fourth wall,” a performance convention in which an invisible, imagined wall separates actors from the audience.
As I entered my pre-teen years, Disney television shows still had their clutches in me…as Guy Williams raced across the TV screen cloaked in a black cape and mask as “Zorro.” (Naturally, my #1 Christmas present one year was an official Zorro sword which had an attachment on the end where you’d affix a stick of chalk so you could scrawl “Z” on your sidewalks.)
Most Americans shared my fascination with Walt Disney as the 1960s unfolded (launch of Disneyland in Anaheim, California) through the 1970s (Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida) and countless quality, family-friendly theatrical films including classics like “Bambi,” “Mary Poppins,” “Cinderella” and “101 Dalmations.” In an ever-changing world filled with Civil Rights demonstrations, the Vietnam war, political upheavals in both parties and the arrival of the “hippie” drug culture, the one constant parents and kids could always count on was that the Disney brand would always be safe for the whole family.
But cracks began to appear in the Disney veneer when eagle-eyed parents viewing 1989’s “The Little Mermaid” observed the brief appearance of the word “SEX” in a sandbank under the sea. Naturally, they were mocked as “uptight conservatives” who were “obsessed” over imagery…but nobody ever ferreted out the animation perverts who included that in a kid’s movie. A few years later—in 1994’s “The Lion King”—the character Simba swipes the dust with his paw, and again…the word “SEX” clearly appears in the nighttime sky. (The lame explanation this time was that the animation actually said “SFX” as a subliminal message honoring Disney’s Special Effects department.)
But proving the old adage “You can’t be a little bit pregnant,” the floodgates continued to open: Disney-owned mass media outlets (including ABC television and ESPN) increasingly loaded up their programming with anti-conservative jibes, including non-stop Trump-bashing from late-night “comedian” Jimmy Kimmel. Programs like “Modern Family” and others not only included—but celebrated weekly—gay and LGBTQ characters. Recently ESPN commentators literally gushed over the “Women’s Sports” victories of biological male Lia Thomas.
Disney-owned ABC News is ground zero for anti-Trump “reporting” featuring such left-leaning “journalists” as Jonathan Karl, Martha Raddatz, David Muir and others whose political opinions honeycomb their alleged news updates. But the real capper is former Clinton White House stooge George Stephanopoulos…who reinvented himself as a “newsman” who now hosts both “Good Morning America” and Sunday’s “This Week.”
However as Ronald Reagan would declare, you ain’t seen nothin’ yet: workers at Disney’s 3-D animation division Pixar recently walked off their jobs because a same-sex kiss in the upcoming animated film LIGHTYEAR had been edited out of the movie. Instead of giving the workers 24 hours to come back and quit whining, Disney CEO Bob Chapek caved and the same-sex kiss will be restored before LIGHTYEAR is released to theaters. According to industry publication The Hollywood Reporter, one of the key activists within Disney’s ranks is Dana Terrace, who in an un-Disney-like statement, said “I’m f**king tired of making Disney look good.” Nice, especially since she’s the creator of the animated Disney Channel series “The Owl House” which features multiple LGBTQ characters. Hardly a hostile work environment.
Meantime, Chapek has now inserted The Disney Corporation into the Florida “Parental Rights in Education Bill” controversy…which the Left has misnamed the “Don’t Say Gay” Bill. This ginned-up tempers to the boiling point so that when my wife Lori and my son Ethan recently ordered an Uber ride from the annual CPAC convention in Orlando…their driver (who identified himself as a public school history teacher!) flew into an irrational verbal tirade against Donald Trump and conservatives, and at one point threatened to pull over on the highway and end their journey right then and there. And THIS guy is a HISTORY TEACHER.
Where will it all end? Not in the foreseeable future. LA Magazine reports the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences is about to role out new “woke” guidelines for future Oscar submissions. “Here’s how it works: Starting in 2024, producers will be required to submit a summation of the race, gender, sexual orientation, and disability status of members of their movie’s cast and crew. If a particular movie does not have enough people of color or disabled people or gays or lesbians working on the set—and what is “enough” will be determined by a knotty tangle of byzantine formularies—then that movie will no longer be eligible for an Oscar.” Nutty? You bet. Happening? Unfortunately.
Which brings us back to today’s Disney reality. From a myopic “woke” CEO down to politically-engaged “cast members,” Disney World—once the “Happiest Place On Earth” and a dream vacation for parents and kids alike—now is a bloated, unmanageable theme park with little or no “magic” left…unless your idea of magic is standing in line for up to two hours for a ride on the Rockin’ Roller Coaster or the Hollywood Tower of Terror..only to find they are “temporarily” out of service about the time it is your turn. The tab for lunch or dinner for a family of four at any sit-down restaurant will rival your most recent tab at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse or The Palm. Reserving rooms for your family to Disney’s Polynesian Resort will set you back a cool $800 a night. And on and on.
Disney World—once every American family’s dream—has long ago vanished. (I know, I know…write the White House and Joe Biden will tell you the wildly-bloated, “sliding scale” ticket prices are Vladimir Putin’s fault.)
BOTTOM LINE: A combination of corporate greed and spineless capitulation to idiotic leftist whining (like demanding Disney remove pirates chasing women from its classic Pirates of the Caribbean ride because the tableau allegedly “encouraged rape”) has devolved Disney World from a fun, affordable family theme park into a money pit that will erase any great memories once the credit card bills start rolling in.
Personally, I’m holding onto my fond childhood memories. And I’m very, very happy that Walt Disney himself did not live long enough to see how his once-magnificent empire has been tarnished in 2022.
TOM TRADUP is Vice President/News & Talk Programming for Dallas-based Salem Radio Network. He can be reached at [email protected]
Long live fond past memories of Disneyland!
I used to enjoy going to the various Disney parks around the world but haven’t been to one 2000. I do not support the different Disney’s agendas that have been coming from their corporate HQs thus I stay away. Unfortunately, I have a daughter and her family that continue to support the Disney endeavors even though she knows they are wrong.
That’s the reason I will never be a part of Disney and fake News ABC and any other network
Also loved Disney as a young teen and watched Mickey Mouse Club a lot! The original old fairy tale movies of Cinderella, Dumbo, Bambi and so on were great. Started having kids in the mid-sixties and bought the Winnie the Pooh clothing and the record sound-tracks so the kids could sing the songs from the movies that I had watched as a kid and were shown again. They quickly left the Disney mode and really did not watch any programming after they reached 7 or 8. Now I am so glad they got over it when they were still young. I now have grown and two younger-than -teens grandchildren and none of them ever were into anything Disney. I refuse to watch anything by Disney and wish more adults would just check into how Disney is influencing their kids and grandkids. It is disgusting and is brainwashing our kids into becoming little Marxist robots!!
Disgusting
Wasn’t Walt a perv too?
Golly said Pluto , I have not heard of any of these clowns ! As for the Oscar’s who watches that crap ! One of the new members of Disney has the best advice Count says do not open your wallet equals a big fat 0 !!
Walt would be very proud of his company today as any high level Free Mason would be. Your “insight” from this organization is embarrassing.
I will never step foot in another Disney park. I grew up right down the road from Disneyland. I went for the first time when I was eight years old and I was captivated. I’m 66 years old and I am no longer captivated. I am disgusted. My granddaughter will be 12 soon and she has never been. As far as I’m concerned she is far better off never going to a Disney theme park. Walt Disney is rolling over in his grave! They have taken something beautiful and turned it into trash.
Agree 100%
Just say no..
Don’t support them with your dollars
Left wing nut jobs are a miserable lot and they want every one else to share in their misery. I would never spend a dime on anything with the Disney name on it because it’s not the same company it was when I was a child. Nothing is sacred to these lunatics, even our children, we are living in the times of Sodom and Gomorrah. I could care less about the film academy, I quit going to the show years ago.
Disney is the pedophiles Paradise. When they decided they were going to back homosexuals leading Boy Scout troops on overnights and this sort of thing they lost me. It was like putting the fox in the hen house. Then because the Boy Scouts fought it Disney revoked all contributions to that worthy an honorable organization. You cannot tell me that was not a plan. They hooked the Boy Scout organization like you are a hooker heroin addict. They gave them huge amounts of money for years. The Boy Scouts became dependent upon that money and when it was gone so were the scouts.
The author could have been telling my story from the beginning. Except our TV was a Motorola. Also the family friendly movie list left out an old favorite–“20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.”
What has happened to Disney is criminal, but then that’s SOP for the new socialists now RUNNING OUR NATION!
I have very fond memories or 7pm Sunday night with myself, brother, Mom and Dad gathering together at the small B&W Zenith to watch Walt Disney. Memory always returns with the Disney intro music with the castle. I lived within about 40 minutes to Disneyland but we were not the kind of family that would go every year, I think that I have only gone maybe 5 or 6 times.
I live in Idaho now but my daughter wants me to go with her family to Disneyland sometime in the next couple years. I am kind of afraid to go as it will be a Huge culture shock for me. Besides Disneyland being Much larger now (than when I was last there about 1994), the Magic is gone, smothered by “unwokeness”.
Due to Disney Woke, WONT be seeing Avengers Campus center.
Thanks Disney
IMO Disney’s woes of today are due to Paychex/aka Bob Chapek taking over. Back in the day you simply booked your hotel of choice, bought your tickets, enter the park of your choice, and have a magical day. Nowadays you have to pay to park your car at your hotel, that is if it’s ‘on property, then you have to deal with all your other ‘reservations’ before you can even get into the parks! As for those other ‘reservations’ they may be necessary for not only eateries, but for entering the parks, riding certain rides, certain ‘shows’, certain parades, and maybe even the line you want to stand in, and the line you choose might just have a price tag on it! The ‘magic’ is NOT what it used to be!!! Walt’s dream has ended!
Tarnished? Nah. It’s been destroyed like so many other things by woke fools.
I REALLY wish that they would change the company name!????
Visit Disney World and watch Mickey Mouse sodomize your grandchildren.
Progressive Liberal Democrats destroy everything they come in contact with…. look at what they’ve done to some of our greatest cities and institutions. People better wake up and understand what’s happening.
I have been shocked also at what they have done to the Disney name. My wife is related to the Disney’s and the family story was that Walt wanted to borrow $50,000 to get his idea started. My wife is not that closely connected so does not know who he asked about the loan.
They need to change the name of the company to Hefner, Flynt, or Guccione to better describe their current products! Why smear the good name of the Disney family?
Walt Disney would never have promoted this king of thinking. Let’s slowly brainwash America into thinking this is normal/okay?? Hope this new wave of thinking hits Disney in the pocketbook. Quit brainwashing our children.
I’`m afraid that,”We ain’t seen nothing yet”. God may look upon America as He did Sodom and Gomohorra* (*spelling).
Go back farther disney tarnished it Himself
When Walt Disney was alive, Disney World in Florida has homosexuals in their employ, so while it is a tragedy that Disney is no longer a family friendly place, I cannot say I am surprised. Unfortunately, nothing is like it used to be and it is a shame. We, Christians, have allowed LGBTQ individuals to profess their idealogy and spread it over the land, so actually, we are as much to blame as those who make the movies using LGBTQ ideas.
Disney did youtube.com/watch?v=Rrm8usaH0sM The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Walt Disney Cartoon …in the 1940s and that wasn’t healthy or wholesome either!
I wonder if anyone has the same problem I do when trying to “like” a comment. Sometimes I keep tapping and it eventually “takes”, but not always. Other times, I ended up accidentally putting a “dislike” and couldn’t remove it. Maybe it’s my ipad. I’m going to stop trying. So, I apologize to anyone with a “dislike “ from me. I probably didn’t mean it.
Better to take kidies yo FL’s ‘natural wonders…oceans, lakes, forest trails, rivers than this FAKE plastic stuff. Waste of time n money.
Pray that it is a LOSER !!!!
again the double standard – bash the US but never china. Do they not realize that many Americans now will think twice, three times before purchasing Disney products. We cancelled plans for Disney world, the people there don’t not need to concern themselves with us so why should we concern ourselves with them.
hear hear, you said what I belive in my heart.Glad Walt is not here to see what his dream has become..
Walt Disney dedicated his life to clean, wholesome, family entertainment. He is rolling in his grave over what has been done to his dream and his legacy. It’s appalling. And I have sworn to never support the current enterprise. There are many far better alternatives out there.
Time to take a good look at a divorce for our country. If the other side thinks it is okay to cultivate the ideas of LGBQT to our young, it is time to separate.
It”s very very sad I grew up in Southern Cal and first one to see the Matterhorn got to ride in front – makes me sad to think that innocence is being stolen from the children not to mention their futures thanks to the Communists who somehow weaseled they way into the WH – a complete frikin FRAUD!
I worked at California Adventure about for a short while along time ago the hiring process is very Disney at least it used to be but there were a lot of politics behind the scenes (family mbrs getting supervising positions etc..) God Bless Walt Disney I just hope they haven’t done away with this Mr. Lincoln at the Disney theater on Main Street… one of my favorite attractions .. God Bless America and may God help U.S. all !!
We were among the loyalists at Disney World from the very first time we took our daughters there in 1982. At that time they were putting the finishing touches on EPCOT as we watched the fireworks from our 19th-floor hotel room in Orlando, they were working on the Space Ship Earth and we could see it as well. Since then we have enjoyed another nine visits with our children and grandchildren, including a few visits with just the two of us. We are completely disgusted with the demise of all things Disney and will not ever allow them to have another cent of our hard-earned money. R.I.P. good old Disney is gone forever.
Mice are vermin……….vermin need to be destroyed. Same with their keepers.
Too bad for everyone., I’m older so I remember watching the “Wonderful World of Disney” and Walt describing what the World would look like. I remember our first time we went there, 1980. We stayed at the Contemporary. They said that Disney World was built so that you couldn’t see the outside world. You forgot about watching the news and everything going on outside. The theme music was fantastic as you walked through the parks.I think we’ve been there 15 times, and Disneyland twice, over the years, (Disneyland doesn’t compare to Disney World). My wife and I went to Disney World on our 25th anniversary instead of Hawaii. Now I wouldn’t even think of going there. The mouse is dead. Walt really is rolling over in his grave. Like Ron said R.I.P. good old Disney is gone forever.
The sellout of Disney started with Walt himself when he made Bambi and made hunters villains. There are a lot of secrets with Disney and Walt that are just now started to leak and it isn’t all that pretty. I loved Disney growing up and the nature films were fabulous but the dark side was always there hidden from the public.
I have been to both Disneyland and multiple times to Disneyworld/Epcot Center, but would never go again. It’s no longer for families but for pervert supporters.
This saddens me beyond words. When my children were young( now married with kids of their own) this was a dream vacation. So glad they could enjoy it. It breaks my heart that the grandchildren will not. Walt Disney must be rolling in his grave!
boycott do not buy do not go to see is the only way to show you do not like it
I couldn’t agree more with every word of this. It makes me so sad to see the changes taking place in our country under the name of “equality, fairness” whatever word one uses to describe the downhill turn our once great country is taking. We need to put God first again.
When will this end? Probably when the World ends and from the look of things that probably is not that far off.
Just another nail in the coffin of the USA! I grew up watching Walt Disney with all the great shows, educational programs, and family oriented quality programming. Today anything goes! No standards, no class, just liberal trash! If you object, Gayour a racist or whatever?? Thank God Walt Disney isn’t alive to see what has happened to his dream!! I’ll never spend a dime on anything Disney! Just another American institution destroyed by the selfish and intolerant far left!!
YAH, disney IS NOW A CANCEROUS, ANTI0AMERICAN,liberal ORG.
Walt Disney was an Elitist; he stood on the side of the NWO. There is lots of bad stuff out there about him if you choose to research his life. Disney was a front for Occult activity. Of course, there’s the happy face presented to the Public, however, he was no angel.
Nope, nope, nope…not getting our time nor our money.
I think Walt would be saying “WHAT THE….”
The WOKE folk. The left destroys everything it touches!