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<v Speaker 1>Let's go by Forgotten. Hello everyone, and welcome to Forgotten Hollywood,

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<v Speaker 1>your podcast and memories of yesterday year. My name is

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<v Speaker 1>Doug Hesse and if you're tuning in Forgotten Hollywood for

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<v Speaker 1>the first time, what I do in this podcast is

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<v Speaker 1>take you on a journey back in time and share

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<v Speaker 1>with you pieces of Hollywood that you may or may

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<v Speaker 1>not know about. And today we have a very special

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<v Speaker 1>guest with us today, Stephen Cranch Thomas, and he is

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<v Speaker 1>here to talk about his book, Disney Animated Classics, A

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<v Speaker 1>Comprehensive Guide. Stephen, Welcome to Forgot on Hollywood.

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<v Speaker 2>Thank you so much for having me.

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<v Speaker 1>Well, it's always a pleasure to have guests on authors,

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<v Speaker 1>and you know, thank you for spending a few minutes

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<v Speaker 1>out of your busy time to be with us today

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<v Speaker 1>to talk about your book. You know, Thomas, one of

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<v Speaker 1>the things that we always like to do right out

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<v Speaker 1>of the gate is allow you, the author to kind

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<v Speaker 1>of talk about what the books about in your own words.

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<v Speaker 2>Of course, Yes, of Disney's Animated Classics is exactly what

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<v Speaker 2>it says on the cover. It's run through each and

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<v Speaker 2>every one of Disney's Animated Classics from snow White right

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<v Speaker 2>up to Maana two, and each chapter uses the film

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<v Speaker 2>in question to sort of launch off on exploration of

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<v Speaker 2>Disney's films, of the production, sometimes of that film, but

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<v Speaker 2>also on different themes. So you've got, for instance, the

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<v Speaker 2>Dumbo chapter talks about the representation of alcohol and drinking

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<v Speaker 2>in cinema and in particularly Disney's cartoons. Princess and the

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<v Speaker 2>Frog talks about the representation of race. The Pokemontas chapter

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<v Speaker 2>talks about the very questionable representation of the Native American

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<v Speaker 2>sort of population and the engagements they had with the

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<v Speaker 2>English in that film.

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<v Speaker 1>What kind of inspired you write this book.

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<v Speaker 2>I've been a huge fan of Disney all my life.

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<v Speaker 2>When I was a kid, we would get a lot

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<v Speaker 2>of the videos on VHS, but we'd also record them

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<v Speaker 2>off of the TV. And I went from, i suppose,

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<v Speaker 2>being a child who loved Disney films to being a

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<v Speaker 2>teenager who still really appreciated them, but was much more

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<v Speaker 2>able to see the flaws and see the the interesting

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<v Speaker 2>different things that make them not always perfect. I think

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<v Speaker 2>there's a lot of talk about Disney in the sense

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<v Speaker 2>of how great it is, how wonderful isn't not so

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<v Speaker 2>much where people are willing to appreciate it at the

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<v Speaker 2>same time as looking at it from an outside perspective

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<v Speaker 2>and saying what makes this interesting within the world of cinema,

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<v Speaker 2>but also what makes this flawed and great at the

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<v Speaker 2>same time. When I was a student, I spent far

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<v Speaker 2>too much of my student loan money on buying Disney

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<v Speaker 2>DVDs until I had more or less all of them.

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<v Speaker 2>I think I still have all of the Disney films

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<v Speaker 2>on DVD up until Disney Plus became a thing, at

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<v Speaker 2>which point I figured I'd save myself some money.

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<v Speaker 1>Absolutely. You know what's really fascinating to me is, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>you talked about several different things, race, drinking, Native Americans,

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<v Speaker 1>and I sometimes I don't think Disney gets the credit

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<v Speaker 1>of kind of tackling some of those issues kind of

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<v Speaker 1>in the forefront of things.

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<v Speaker 2>Yeah, I know, there's there's a lot of really interesting

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<v Speaker 2>approaches across the films towards societal norms and what was

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<v Speaker 2>expected at the time. I mean, one of the most

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<v Speaker 2>common things we think about in terms of Disney's flaws

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<v Speaker 2>is the racism representation and the like sort of different

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<v Speaker 2>poor representations of race throughout their films. A lot of

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<v Speaker 2>people talk back to Dumbo, and and there's a lot

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<v Speaker 2>of flaws in that. I mean, they've got the circus

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<v Speaker 2>workers are these faceless, almost anonymous, dark figures who sing

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<v Speaker 2>about being i mean very responsible their money and leaning

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<v Speaker 2>into a lot of cliches at the time. But at

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<v Speaker 2>the same time, the crows which are frequently called out

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<v Speaker 2>the leader of the crows and Dumbo is literally called

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<v Speaker 2>Jim Crow, but he's also one of the most likable

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<v Speaker 2>and kind characters in the entire film. I think very

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<v Speaker 2>often Disney tries to push the boundaries a little bit

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<v Speaker 2>without actually going so far as to cause trouble necessarily.

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<v Speaker 2>Let's go by Garden Harleywood