Long considered a figurehead of family values and wholesome adolescence, the Disney franchise has faced increasing criticism over its gendered representations of children in film, its stereotypical representations of race and non-white cultures, and its emphasis on the heterosexual couple. Against a historical backdrop of studio history, audience reception, and the industrial-organizational apparatus of Disney media, Seán Harrington examines the Disney classics through a psychoanalytical framework to explore the spirit of devotion, fandom, and frenzy that is instilled in consumers of Disney products and that underlie the fantasy of the Magic Kingdom. This compelling study demystifies the unsettling cleanliness and pretensions to innocence that the Disney brand claims to hold.

Seán J. Harrington is a writer and academic based in London. He is a lecturer in screen media at Brunel University and is currently involved in interdisciplinary research in the areas of animation and digital game design.

Part One: The Homunculus
1. A Theoretical Context
2. Psycho-mythology
3. The Phallus and Disney Animation
4. The Conceptual Homunculus
Part Two: The Regressive Apparatus
5. Disney Character Tropes
6. The Industrial Process and the Father
7. Fantasia and Eroticism
8. Regression and Jouissance
Part Three: The Hybrid Utopia
9. Hegemony
10. Disney's "Good Neighbor"
11. World War II and Propaganda
12: The Consumerist Utopia
Conclusion
Future Research
References and Filmography