What Disney Really Had in Mind: An analysis of Dorfman

Childhood memories are so interesting. There are certain events, certain people and certain things that come to be representative of your childhood to yourself and others. Despite cultural, linguistic, generational and gender barriers, Mickey Mouse and the Disney “gang” seem to be recurring characters in the youth of many. Dorfman and Mattelart’s (hereafter collectively referred to as Dorfman) book, How to Read Donald Duck, was written as a commentary on the comics created by Disney for distribution in Chile. The book serves as a political critique of both the content of the comics and the process of their creation, illustrating the ways in which Disney’s power as a highly influential media source spreads a political ideology. This ideology is an American product, built from the dreams of what America is all about, exported to a culture which must be molded to share American values in order to increase the degree to which Disney can thrive as a successful international commerc...