It may all look smiles and sunshine but Disney can kill
Disney is in many ways directly responsible for a loss which many adult readers may not even realise. Sugar-coated, manipulated, ‘sunshine and smiles’ versions of children’s classics have been popular since Walt first picked up his pencil, but in this wealth of kiddie’s entertainment comes the condemning of its roots. The ‘children’s novel’ is almost falsely self explanatory, seeming only a novel suitable for children, and due to the way that companies like Disney twist and sweeten these novels, your average adult would never even think about seriously reading books like Peter Pan as they, through Disney interference, are considered shallow, frivolous, and immature. In an age where trashy and often money-grabbing authors aim their produce at ‘all ages’ it is time the adult nation started to examine the genuine talent in this field, starting with the oldies.
Peter Pan, arguably JM Barrie’s finest work, is a prime example of literature overlooked by grown-up tastes. It is significantly different from what you may expect, as the Disney cartoon is one of the looser interpretations. Captain James Hook is both the Darling children’s father, and an inversion of Pan himself,
entertaining an unspecified but unhealthy relationship with Wendy. The brutal shooting of ‘the Wendy bird’ and its relevant feminist symbolism are intriguing, and Tinkerbell is the biggest misrepresentation, a jealous and dislikeable hussy who wears what could only be described as lingerie, with a grudge against the world. While the popularised Disney animation presents us with an inflated, colourful, happy experience, the text itself is two hundred and fifty pages of dark brilliance, which never needed enhancing.
AA Milne’s classic Winnie-the-Pooh suffers from exactly the same treatment. Re-reading this book as an adult might seem an absurd thing to do, but Milne is ingenious with his language tricks, and with simple adult humour unattainable to life’s inexperienced, the child audience. Readable and verging on hilarious, Pooh is bumbling, undeniably stupid, pompous and big headed. Linguistically fantastic, Milne even depicts an attack on women, in the attempted driving out of Kanga. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a book already known to be full of the weird and wonderful, but just what does it all mean? Disney would have you believe it means adventures and a sound resolve, but Carroll’s text would have you never truly understand. Autobiographical elements combined with a desire to entertain uniquely, the possibility of drug taking and
a general perversion of real life produce the epic Alice stories, written by a man who ‘just’ wanted a little girl to love him. Alice cannot be explained – it has to be read and interpreted, and enjoyed through the window of confusion it offers.
Even Kenneth Grahame’s masterpiece The Wind in the Willows has suffered the Disney treatment. The animation turned this social satire and bachelor’s paradise into a Disney short, focusing only on Mr Toad and his obscene obsession with the motor car. Poignant, yes, but skimping on the reality of this brilliant male dominated animal text of escapism. It is true to say that whichever way you might think about it,
the Disney versions of these popular children’s classics provide good wholesome entertainment for a child for anything up to hours at a time, but in doing so, and by their incessant popularity over the years since they were made, they dent the nature and origin of the text. What Disney gave freely with one hand, it took away in the other. Books in which authors created worlds with echelons of reality, escape and satire to entertain parent and child alike, have been sacrificed to the televisual giant, and paid their dues. It is time that every self respecting bookreader should get hold of a copy of Pan, Pooh, or Alice, and read for themselves the ambiguity, and the simple and unrivalled genius.
Kayleigh Oliver
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