In the article "The Wonderful World of the Depression: Disney, Despotism, and the 1930's. Or, Why Disney Scares Us," Kevin Shortsleeve comes off as a writer desperate in his explanations about how Walt Disney was an anti-Semitic, egotistical dictator, and utopian-society designer. While Shortsleeve may certainly have some valid criticism of Walt Disney as a person, his many logical leaps and poorly-supported ideas greatly detract from his overall argument. In particular, I found a few examples where I had some strong reservations.
One instance where I thought Shortsleeve stretched the truth was when he claimed that Disney essentially took all of the credit for the work (and ignored all of his animators.) However, when you look at the screenshot above (taken from the video in my earlier blog post about the animation process,) Walt Disney does not come off as a person who is taking sole responsibility for the work. While he doesn't name each animator individually, he seems to genuinely appreciate and acknowledge the effort of others as they helped produce the film.
Another example where I questioned the validity of Shortsleeve's evidence was his anecdote about certain Disney employees receiving double the compensation for moving barriers faster than others. While this event certainly could have transpired, it mirrors his argument too perfectly, so much so that it appears fabricated. Not only does it appear to be made-up, but it also doesn't provide evidence that two people did the same job and received different compensation. Instead of considering that the supervisor might have set up a competition with the rules delineated ahead of time, Shortsleeve only takes this (possibly made-up) situation to show how some people earned twice the wage as others.
The last occurrence that made me question Shortsleeve's motives was his comparison between Walt Disney and Hitler. Immediately, I thought it was extremely strange to compare a dictator responsible for the death of millions of people with the founder of a company that produces animated movies aimed at children. While Shortsleeve says that "Of course, Walt Disney was no Hitler" (14), the comparison is offensive in the sense that the two people relate to issues of very different magnitudes.
Overall, I found Shortsleeve's lengthy article detailing the character of Walt Disney to be poorly supported at times, and completely fabricated at others. While at first glance it appears like he makes a lot of valid arguments, his decision to include these details severely detracts from his entire article as he comes off as a biased writer looking to smear the reputation of Walt Disney.
"The Wonderful World of the Depression: Disney, Despotism, and the 1930's. Or, Why Disney Scares Us" by Kevin Shortsleeve
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