A special guest post by author, former cartoonist and editor of Marvel Comics, and writer for Disney comics, Rick Marschall.
In my childhood years and even into my grown-up years, I regarded myself as Mickey Mouse’s pal. Uncle Walt’s pal, really. I went to the theme parks and collected the toys and went to the Disney movies. As a child, with my parents; and as a parent, with my children.
Among other work I have done through the years as a writer and a cartoonist, I was a writer of Walt Disney comics. I did numerous treatments and scripts for Mickey, Donald, Uncle Scrooge, and the rest of the gang.
When I was hired, I was given a “story bible” which instructed artists and writers on how to handle the characters. My essential requirement was to “write like Carl Barks and Floyd Gottfredson.” These were the men most responsible for the Donald and Mickey, respectively, we all knew from comic books and strips (Carl had even created the Uncle Scrooge character). As a fan and scholar, I already knew them personally and it was a dream assignment.
To children in America for almost a century now, Mickey has been part of our DNA and in our blood.
Suddenly, however, we are diagnosed with a blood infection, so to speak.
The dissolution of the Magic Kingdom’s magic and the betrayal of Uncle Walt’s vision and ethos have not been precipitous but recently have accelerated with a vengeance. At the parks and in cartoons and movies, the words “ladies” and “gentlemen” and “boys” and girls” literally will be proscribed. A princess is an endangered species because girls who might not dream of being princesses must not be offended nor have such awful visions planted in their heads.
Mickey and Tinkerbell have been dethroned as Disney spokespeople. “Goofy” would be more appropriate. I hereby nominate him. Or Cruella.
Today, I would refuse to work for the transformed Disney, this counterfeit colossus, a Magic Kingdom of black magic. And it is not I who has changed.
I knew a delightful lady, Virginia Davis, who as a little girl was a neighbor of the unknown Walter Elias Disney in Kansas…
