Editing Walt Disney (section)

==Reputation==
[[File:Disney1968.jpg|thumb|upright|alt=A portrait of Disney with cartoon representations of different nationalities on a 6 cent US stamp|A portrait of Disney with cartoon representations of different nationalities on a 6-cent U.S. postage stamp, 1968]]
Views of Disney and his work have changed over the decades, and there have been polarized opinions.{{sfn|Watts|1995|p=84}} Mark Langer, in the ''American Dictionary of National Biography'', writes that "Earlier evaluations of Disney hailed him as a patriot, folk artist, and popularizer of culture. More recently, Disney has been regarded as a paradigm of [[American imperialism]] and intolerance, as well as a debaser of culture."{{sfn|Langer|2000}} Steven Watts wrote that some denounce Disney "as a cynical manipulator of cultural and commercial formulas",{{sfn|Watts|1995|p=84}} while [[PBS]] records that critics have censured his work because of its "smooth façade of sentimentality and stubborn optimism, its feel-good re-write of American history".<ref name="PBS: AmEx"/>

Disney has been accused of [[antisemitism]] for having given Nazi propagandist [[Leni Riefenstahl]] a tour of his studio a month after {{lang|de|[[Kristallnacht]]}}.<ref name="NYT: Dargis"/> Riefenstahl's invitation was solicited to Disney by painter and ballet dancer [[Hubert Julian "Jay" Stowitts|Hurbert "Jay" Stowitts]], a close friend of Riefenstahl, and a former colleague of [[Leopold Stokowski]] who at the time was collaborating with Disney on ''Fantasia''.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=499}}<ref>{{cite web |last1=Graham |first1=Cooper C. |title='Olympia' in America, 1938: Leni Riefenstahl, Hollywood, and the Kristallnacht |url=http://www.coopercgraham.net/documents/OlympiaCCGraham.pdf |date=September 15, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304104337/http://www.coopercgraham.net/documents/OlympiaCCGraham.pdf |access-date=April 9, 2024|archive-date=March 4, 2016 }}</ref> A month later a spokesperson for Disney told the ''[[New York Daily News]]'': "Miss Riefenstahl got into the studio, but she crashed the gate. A Los Angeles man who is known to Disney obtained permission to take a party through the plant. Leni was in the party. If we had known it in advance she wouldn't have got in."<ref>{{cite news |title=Leni Isn't Kicking |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/daily-news-leni-isnt-kicking/170422066/ |access-date=April 8, 2024 |agency=New York Daily News |publisher=Newspapers.com |date=January 6, 1939}}</ref> Animation historian Jim Korkis, theorizes that Disney may have also met with Riefenstahl for financial reasons: as an attempt by Disney to recover over 135,000 [[Reichsmarks]] owed from his German film distributor and to get the ban on Disney films lifted in Germany.<ref name="Korkis" /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Korkis |first1=Jim |title=Call Me Walt: Everything You Never Knew About Walt Disney |date=2017 |publisher=Theme Park Press |location=Dallas |isbn=978-1683901013 |page=178 }}</ref> Animator [[Art Babbitt]], organizer behind the [[Disney animators' strike|1941 strike]] at the studio and who held a well-known grudge against Disney, claimed in his later years that he saw Disney and his lawyer attend meetings of the [[German American Bund]], a pro-Nazi organization, during the late 1930s.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=448}} However, according to Disney biographer Neal Gabler: "...that was highly unlikely, not only because Walt had little enough time for his family, much less political meetings, but because he had no real political leanings at the time."{{sfn|Gabler|2006|pp=448, 457}} Disney's office appointment book makes no mention of him attending Bund rallies, and no other employee ever claimed he attended such meetings.<ref name="Korkis" /><ref name="Call Me Walt">{{cite book |last1=Korkis |first1=Jim |title=Call Me Walt: Everything You Never Knew About Walt Disney |date=2017 |publisher=Theme Park Press |location=Dallas |isbn=978-1683901013 |page=176}}</ref>

According to Gabler, Disney was [[apolitical]] and "something of a political naïf" during the 1930s and he had previously told one reporter – as tensions in Europe were brewing – that America should "let 'em fight their own wars" claiming he had "learned my lesson" from [[World War I]].{{sfn|Gabler|2006|pp=449}} During [[World War II]], Disney was actively involved in making propaganda films against the Nazis, both for the general public (such as ''[[Der Fuehrer's Face]]'' and ''[[Education for Death]]''), as well as educational and training films exclusively for the [[United States Government]]. As early as October 1940 (over a year before America's entry into the war), Disney began enlisting contracts from various branches of the [[United States Armed Forces]] to make training films,{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=382}} and in March 1941 he held a luncheon with Government representatives formally offering his services "...for national defence industries at cost and without profit. In making this offer, I am motivated solely by a desire to help as best I can in the present emergency."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Barrier |first1=Michael |title=Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation In Its Golden Age |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0-19-516729-0 |page=368 |edition=Revised}}</ref> These training films contained highly classified information and required the highest level of security clearance to be viewed. If Disney had any previous sympathies toward Nazism, the U.S. Government would have disqualified him from making these films.<ref name="Korkis" /><ref name="Call Me Walt" />

The [[Walt Disney Family Museum]] acknowledges that ethnic stereotypes common to films of the 1930s were included in some early cartoons{{efn|Examples include ''The Three Little Pigs'' (in which the Big Bad Wolf comes to the door dressed as a Jewish peddler) and ''[[The Opry House]]'' (in which Mickey Mouse is dressed and dances as a [[Hasidic Jew]]).{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=456}}<ref name="Creative Explosion"/>}} but also points out that Disney donated regularly to Jewish charities and was named the 1955 "Man of the Year" by the [[B'nai B'rith]] chapter in Beverly Hills.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=456}}<ref name="Creative Explosion"/> The organization itself found no evidence of antisemitism on Disney's part. The plaque read: "For exemplifying the best tenets of American citizenship and inter-group understanding and interpreting into action the ideals of B'nai B'rith."<ref name="Korkis"/> Disney had numerous Jewish employees, many of whom were in influential positions.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=455}} None of Disney's employees&nbsp;– including animator [[Art Babbitt]], who disliked Disney intensely&nbsp;– ever accused him of making antisemitic slurs or taunts.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|pp=448, 457}} Jewish story man [[Joe Grant]], who worked closely with Disney throughout the 1930s and 1940s stated, "As far as I'm concerned, there was no evidence of antisemitism. I think the whole idea should be put to rest and buried deep. He was not antisemitic. Some of the most influential people at the studio were Jewish. It's much ado about nothing. I never once had a problem with him in that way."<ref name="Korkis"/>{{efn|Other Jewish employees production manager Harry Tytle, and head of merchandising [[Kay Kamen]], who once quipped that Disney's New York office had "more Jews than The Book of Leviticus"{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=455}}}} In addition songwriter [[Robert B. Sherman]] recalled that when one of Disney's lawyers made antisemitic remarks towards him and his brother [[Richard M. Sherman|Richard]], Disney defended them and fired the attorney.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/debunking-disney-urban-myths/ |title=Debunking Disney Urban Myths |last=Korkis |first=Jim |date=November 20, 2017 |website=cartoonresearch.com |publisher=Cartoon Research|access-date=September 2, 2022}}</ref><ref name="Korkis"/> Gabler, the first writer to gain unrestricted access to the Disney archives, concludes that the available evidence does not support accusations of antisemitism and that Disney largely got that reputation due to his association with [[Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals]] – an anti-Communist organization formed in 1944, that was rumored to have antisemitic undertones. Gabler concludes that "...though Walt himself, in my estimation, was not antisemitic, nevertheless, he willingly allied himself with people who were antisemitic, and that reputation stuck. He was never really able to expunge it throughout his life."<ref name="CBS: Gabler"/> Disney distanced himself from the Motion Picture Alliance, and had no involvement with the organization after 1947.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=611}} 
According to Disney's daughter [[Diane Disney-Miller]], her sister Sharon dated a Jewish boyfriend for a period of time, to which her father raised no objections and even reportedly said, "Sharon, I think it's wonderful how these Jewish families have accepted you."<ref name="Korkis"/>

Disney has also been accused of other forms of racism because some of his productions released between the 1930s and 1950s contain racially insensitive material.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=433}}{{efn|Examples include ''[[Mickey's Mellerdrammer]]'', in which Mickey Mouse dresses in [[blackface]]; the black-colored bird in the short ''Who Killed Cock Robin''; the American Indians in ''Peter Pan''; and the crows in ''Dumbo'' (although the case has been made that the crows were sympathetic to Dumbo because they knew what it was like to be ostracized).{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=433}}}} Gabler argues that "Walt Disney was no racist. He never, either publicly or privately, made disparaging remarks about blacks or asserted white superiority. Like most white Americans of his generation, however, he was racially insensitive."{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=433}}
The feature film ''[[Song of the South]]'' was criticized by contemporary film critics, the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]], and others for its perpetuation of [[Stereotypes of African Americans|black stereotypes]],{{sfn|Cohen|2004|p=60}} but during filming Disney became close friends with its star, [[James Baskett]], describing him in a letter to his sister Ruth as "the best actor, I believe, to be discovered in years."{{sfn|Gabler|2006|pp=438}} Disney and Baskett stayed in contact long after the film's production, with Walt even sending him gifts. When Baskett was in failing health, Disney not only began financially supporting him and his family, but also campaigned successfully for an [[Honorary Academy Award]] for his performance, making Baskett the first black actor so honored.{{sfn|Gabler|2006|pp=438}} Baskett died shortly afterward, and his widow wrote Disney a letter of gratitude for his support claiming he had been a "friend in deed and [we] certainly have been in need."{{sfn|Gabler|2006|pp=438–39}}<ref name="Korkis"/> [[Floyd Norman]], the studio's first black animator who worked closely with Disney during the 1950s and 1960s, said, "Not once did I observe a hint of the racist behavior Walt Disney was often accused of after his death. His treatment of people{{nsmdns}}and by this I mean all people{{nsmdns}}can only be called exemplary."{{sfn|Korkis|2012|p=xi}}

Watts argues that many of Disney's post-World War II films "legislated a kind of cultural [[Marshall Plan]]. They nourished a genial [[cultural imperialism]] that magically overran the rest of the globe with the values, expectations, and goods of a prosperous middle-class United States."{{sfn|Watts|1995|p=107}} Film historian [[Jay Telotte|Jay P. Telotte]] acknowledges that many see Disney's studio as an "agent of manipulation and repression", although he observes that it has "labored throughout its history to link its name with notions of fun, family, and fantasy".{{sfn|Telotte|2008|p=19}} John Tomlinson, in his study ''Cultural Imperialism'', examines the work of [[Ariel Dorfman]] and [[Armand Mattelart]], whose 1971 book {{lang|es|Para leer al Pato Donald}} ({{translation}} ''[[How to Read Donald Duck]]'') identifies that there are "imperialist&nbsp;... values 'concealed' behind the innocent, wholesome façade of the world of Walt Disney"; this, they argue, is a powerful tool as "it presents itself as harmless fun for consumption by children."{{sfn|Tomlinson|2001|p=41}} Tomlinson views their argument as flawed, as "they simply ''assume'' that reading American comics, seeing adverts, watching pictures of the affluent&nbsp;... ['[[Yankee]]'] lifestyle has a direct pedagogic effect".{{sfn|Tomlinson|2001|p=44}}

Disney has been portrayed numerous times in fictional works. [[H. G. Wells]] references Disney in his 1938 novel ''[[The Holy Terror (Wells novel)|The Holy Terror]]'', in which World Dictator Rud fears that Donald Duck is meant to lampoon the dictator.{{sfn|Pierce|1987|p=100}} Disney was portrayed by [[Len Cariou]] in the 1995 made-for-TV film ''A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart Makes: The Annette Funicello Story'',<ref name="Variety: Dream Is a Wish" /> and by [[Tom Hanks]] in the 2013 film ''[[Saving Mr. Banks]]''.<ref name="Saving Mr Banks" /> In 2001, the German author [[Peter Stephan Jungk]] published {{lang|de|Der König von Amerika}} (trans: ''The King of America''), a fictional work of Disney's later years that re-imagines him as a power-hungry racist. The composer [[Philip Glass]] later adapted the book into the opera ''[[The Perfect American]]'' (2013).<ref name="DT: Perfect Am" />

Several commentators have described Disney as a [[cultural icon]].{{sfnm|1a1=Mannheim|1y=2016|1p=40|2a1=Krasniewicz|2y=2010|2p=xxii|3a1=Watts|3y=2013|3p=58| 4a1=Painter| 4y=2008|4p=25}} On Disney's death, journalism professor Ralph S. Izard comments that the values in Disney's films are those "considered valuable in American Christian society", which include "individualism, decency,&nbsp;... love for our fellow man, fair play and toleration".<ref name="Izard: Master" /> Disney's obituary in ''[[The Times]]'' calls the films "wholesome, warm-hearted and entertaining&nbsp;... of incomparable artistry and of touching beauty".<ref name="Times: Obit" /> Journalist [[Bosley Crowther]] argues that Disney's "achievement as a creator of entertainment for an almost unlimited public and as a highly ingenious merchandiser of his wares can rightly be compared to the most successful industrialists in history."<ref name="EB: Crowther" /> Correspondent [[Alistair Cooke]] calls Disney a "folk-hero&nbsp;... the Pied Piper of Hollywood",<ref name="Guard: Cooke" /> while Gabler considers Disney "reshaped the culture and the American consciousness".{{sfn|Gabler|2006|p=x}} In the ''American Dictionary of National Biography'', Langer writes:

<blockquote>Disney remains the central figure in the history of animation. Through technological innovations and alliances with governments and corporations, he transformed a minor studio in a marginal form of communication into a multinational leisure industry giant. Despite his critics, his vision of a modern, corporate utopia as an extension of traditional American values has possibly gained greater currency in the years after his death.{{sfn|Langer|2000}}</blockquote>

In December 2021, the [[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] in New York opened a three-month special exhibit in honor of Disney titled "Inspiring Walt Disney".<ref>[https://nypost.com/2021/12/18/centuries-old-art-that-inspired-disney-arrives-at-the-met/ "Centuries-old art behind Disney's best animated films arrives at the Met"]. By Zachary Kussin. December 18, 2021. ''[[New York Post]]''.</ref>