What is Disneyfication?

According to Urban Dictionary, there are three definitions of Disneyfication. They are quite cynical. The first two involve making the world safe for children and families in a way similar to theme parks. The third deals with consumerism and providing children with a false sense of security.



New Internationalist takes the definition farther in their article "Walt's World A Reader's Guide to Disneyfication." The somewhat biased article claims that the outsourcing of American films and entertainment overwhelms and annihilates local culture and stories. This has been noted in the past with regard to the globalization of fast-food chains like McDonald's and Burger King. NI states,

Disneyfication, like economic globalization, tends to ride roughshod over local variety. So baseball hats, blue jeans and running shoes become the uniform of teenagers in both Budapest and Bangalore while Western TV shows promote the illusion of limitless wealth.

It should be noted that the stated goal of NI is the fight for global justice, however this spread of Western Culture has been observed frequently since the the 1990's. NI goes farther to say that the American entertainment machine is as invested in consumerism as entertainment, pointing to the marketing strategies which accompany the release of each Disney films and that the eventual outcome of the spread of Disneyfication is a world which resembles an amusement park where people escape problems rather than trying to solve them.


Four Disney Castles from top to bottom:
Tokyo, Florida, Paris, & Califonia.