Animated Enchantment: A Psychoanalytic Exploration of the Enduring Popularity of Disney’s First Feature Films Howard Jacobs Queen Mary, University of London Thesis submitted for the qualification of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) March 2014 2 Declaration I declare that the work presented in this thesis is my own. I have received professional assistance with styling, especially in making the bibliography and footnotes consistent, from Ms Chris Steel. (http://www.chrissteel-editorial.com/) Howard Jacobs Date: March 2014 Copyright The images in the Figures in this thesis are from: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs © Walt Disney Productions; Ivan the Terrible Part I © Mosfilm; Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde © Paramount Pictures; Pinocchio © Walt Disney Productions; Dumbo © Walt Disney Productions; Bambi © Walt Disney Productions. For all other parts of the thesis, the author’s copyright is Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND) 3 Abstract In this thesis I explore reasons for the widespread and enduring popularity of Disney’s first feature-length films (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio (1940), Dumbo (1941) and Bambi (1942)). While acknowledging the historical, industrial and aesthetic features that have contributed to their success, my argument is that the continuing fascination of these films is in large part attributable to the manner in which they engage the spectator and evoke unconscious concerns about family cohesion, interpersonal conflicts and the death of parents. My investigation begins with an analysis of the films’ prefilmic provenance and narrative characteristics, placing an emphasis on the role of their narrative and extra-narrative components as embodying social, pedagogical and psychological meanings. In order to explore how the films engage with the spectator’s unconscious mind, I employ a number of Freudian and post-Freudian psychoanalytic concepts. The post-Freudian models include that of Jacques Lacan and those based on object-relations theory, particularly as developed by Melanie Klein and Donald Winnicott. These conceptual models are used to explore the content of the films, while that of Winnicott is also used to explore the visual fascination of the form Disney gave them. Although these films were designed for family viewing, and many of the more distressing aspects of their original stories were toned down in Disney’s adaptations, the films portray a remarkably dystopic version of family life, of childhood and of growing up. Moreover, psychoanalytic investigation suggests that concealed within the films’ attractive animation, music and humour, there lie recurrent ruminations on anxieties about death caused by germs (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) and old age (Pinocchio) and about culpability for injury (Dumbo) and death of mothers (Bambi). I conclude that the films reward the spectator by offering her/him the opportunity to engage with, fantasise about and work through the problems encountered by the films’ protagonists. 4 Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................... 3 List of Tables ................................................................................................. 6 List of Figures ............................................................................................... 7 Acknowledgements....................................................................................... 9 Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................ 10 Chapter 2 Prefilmic Sources and Narrative Structures ............................ 58 Chapter 3 The Mirror of Envy: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ....... 110 Chapter 4 Time and Punishment: Pinocchio ........................................... 146 Chapter 5 Separation Anxiety and Primitive Envy: Dumbo .................... 176 Chapter 6 The Oedipal Trajectory: Bambi ............................................... 200 Chapter 7 Concluding Remarks ............................................................... 216 Filmography .............................................................................................. 233 Discography .............................................................................................. 238 Bibliography .............................................................................................. 239 5 Appendix 1 ................................................................................................. 262 Table 1.1 Shot Analysis of Segment A of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs .............................................................................................. 262 Table 1.2 Shot Analysis of Segment D of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs .............................................................................................. 266 Appendix 2 ................................................................................................. 268 Table 2.1 Shot analysis of Segment A of Pinocchio .......................... 268 Appendix 3 ................................................................................................. 279 Table 3.1 Shot analysis of Segment D1 of Dumbo ........................... 279 Appendix 4 ................................................................................................. 283 Table 4.1 Shot analysis of Segment A of Bambi ............................... 283 Table 4.2 Shot analysis of Segment D5 of Bambi ............................. 288 6 List of Tables Table 2.1 Narrative functions in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ...... 64 Table 2.2 Spheres of action in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ........ 65 Table 2.3 Snow White: Main points of difference between Grimms’ Fairy Tale and Disney’s Film ........................................................................... 70 Table 2.4 Plot segmentation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ....... 74 Table 2.5 Spheres of action in Pinocchio ................................................ 85 Table 2.6 Plot segmentation of Pinocchio ............................................... 87 Table 2.7 Spheres of Action in Dumbo ................................................... 95 Table 2.8 Plot segmentation of Dumbo ................................................... 95 Table 2.9 Spheres of Action in Bambi................................................... 104 Table 2.10 Plot segmentation of Bambi ................................................ 105 Table 4.1 Magical transformations in Pinocchio .................................... 166 Table 5.1 Dumbo in tears ..................................................................... 187 7 List of Figures Figure 3. 1 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Establishing shot of the castle. ........................................................................................................................ 120 Figure 3. 2 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Queen sees her reflection in the magic mirror. Snow White and the Prince see their reflections in the Wishing Well ................................................................................................................. 121 Figure 3. 3 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Scenes of cleaning and washing ........................................................................................................................ 129 Figure 3. 4 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Dwarfs leave the mine after work. Ivan the Terrible, Part 1 (1945): Ivan discusses policy with his ambassador to England. ...................................................................................................... 134 Figure 3. 5 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931) and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ........................................................................................................................ 136 Figure 3. 6 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: The Queen in her disguise as the old peddler woman, framed by the open window of the Dwarfs’ cottage .......... 138 Figure 3. 7 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Snow White’s sleep of death.. 142 Figure 4. 1 Pinocchio: Some of the clocks on display in Geppettos’ shop ........ 153 Figure 4. 2 Pinocchio: Geppetto paints the finishing touches to the marionette that is about to become Pinocchio. .................................................................. 155 Figure 4. 3 Pinocchio: Pinocchio chases after Honest John and Gideon.. ........ 161 Figure 4. 4 Pinocchio: The Cossack marionettes need their strings to dance. but Pinocchio needs no strings. ............................................................................. 162 Figure 4. 5 Pinocchio: Lampwick’s transformation seen directly, in reflection and as a shadow. ................................................................................................... 169 Figure 4. 6 Pinocchio: Monstro dives through the air. Most of his body is outside the film frame. .................................................................................................. 171 Figure 4. 7: Pinocchio: Pinocchio is mourned by his father. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: Snow White is mourned by the Prince ...................................... 173 Figure 5. 1 Dumbo: Dumbo after the sneeze ................................................... 184 Figure 5. 2 Dumbo: Projective identification. .................................................... 185 Figure 5. 3 Dumbo: The dance of the Pink Elephants begins. .......................... 194 Figure 6. 1 Bambi: Bambi on the day of his birth, the image