Not Quite Disney Down Under
摘要
This chapter considers the influence of the Walt Disney Company on Australia beyond its cartoons and films. In 1938, Adriana Caselotti, the American actress who voiced Snow White in Disney’s breakthrough animated feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, toured Australia while having a spat with her old boss. Other Disney voices also visited, including Jack Dale, the voice of Cock Robin, and Cliff Edwards, the voice of Jiminy Cricket. After Disneyland opened in California in 1955, Disney sent “Disney Ambassadors” to Australia to spread the word, followed some years later by Disney on Parade, essentially “Disneyland on wheels.” However, not long after the theme park opened, Australian entrepreneurs began imitating it and trying to entice Disney to build one in Australia. Chapter 2 also looks at the influence of Disney characters on Australian art and artists over the years and Disney’s expansion in Australia during the 1980s and 1990s.