The Mouse Machine: Disney and Technology.
Book Review by: Bruce E. Seely
For Citation: Business History Review 83 (Winter 2009): 856-858.
The success of Walt Disney, his films, theme parks, and the company that now builds on his legacy has attracted the attention of numerous scholars, many of whom are interested in the large cultural influence of the Disney brand. While The Mouse Machine follows the pattern of film-studio histories, film-studies scholar J. P. Telote’s intentions are more ambitious than most. He offers a broader cultural perspective of Disney, whose use of, and approach to, technology he considers the central issue. Telote’s two main propositions are that Disney was a central figure in the application of technology to entertainment; and that, in order to understand post–World War II culture, it is important to grasp the complex negotiations surrounding the concept of technological progress. He has geared the book to readers with some background in the history of Disney, as he assumes a basic familiarity with both the man and his firm.
Telote makes his argument through case studies of Disney films and attractions within the various Disney theme parks. The studies deconstruct about fifty Disney creations drawn from the company’s history, ranging from animated shorts produced during the 1930s to the films Toy Story and Pirates of the Caribbean. The chapters are laid out chronologically, and technological developments within Disney provide the basic organizing structure. Thus, the opening chapter explores Disney’s efforts to utilize sound as a vital element of animated film-making during the 1930s. Other chapters survey Disney’s similarly pioneering role in adopting Technicolor; his innovations in three-dimensional—or at least multiplane—animation; his early embrace of television; the conceptual development and place of technology in Disneyland and later theme parks; and computer animation, as found in TRON and subsequent films, that was driven by the studio’s relations with Pixar.
Telote does incorporate some business history, notably in his account of Roy Disney’s role in restraining Walt’s sometimes passionate and expensive embrace of new technology; his description of the manner in which the company gained financing from ABC television in the 1950s to support the development of the initial Disney park in California; and his analysis of the company’s strategy of connecting films, television, theme parks, and product marketing. However, Telote does not cover either the business of film production or the story of the workers, in particular the animators who realized Disney’s visions, nor does he examine the consequences of technological changes on those workers. He introduces business matters only as a backdrop to his larger focus on cultural history.
One of Telote’s preoccupations is with the concept of a “cinematized world” and the place of technology in this pattern of cultural development. As an example, he offers a chapter on Disney’s science-fiction films of the 1950s, particularly the film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which he contrasts to the many science-fiction films of the decade that were inspired by popular concerns about the uncertainty of the times and the looming specter of nuclear weapons. Telote shows how Disney negotiated a position that, while not totally critical of contemporary technology, nevertheless demonstrated an awareness of the threat that large institutions (of which Disney and his corporate sponsors were obvious examples) posed to traditional values. Indeed, he shows how Disney’s efforts both to lead and to follow his audiences and to advance technological developments were based on negotiation, a term that appears throughout the book. In another chapter, Telote expands on the theme of negotiation, examining Disney’s efforts to figure out how to treat science, both within the park’s Tomorrowland and in his television programming of the mid-1950s.
The two chapters on technology, like the rest of the book, provide a balanced treatment of Walt Disney and the Disney empire, avoiding the tendency of many writers to lambaste all things Disney as examples of cultural imperialism, or to claim that the studio was “another agent of manipulation and repression” (p. 19). Telote’s estimation of Disney is more nuanced and careful; he acknowledges that the popular appeal of Disney’s creations should be taken seriously and not dismissed. He concludes that Disney’s efforts to be a leader in the use of technology—while also telling his audiences stories about technology’s place in society—mirrored the negotiations conducted by both individuals and society as they confront change in the modern world.
Generally, Telote’s arguments are cogent and cohesive. His research on film and studio history is thorough, and he has taken advantage of studies by leading historians and cultural and social scholars of technology.