The vacationing American family walks beside the castle of La Belle Au Bois Dormant and finds that transporting Sleeping Beauty back to her native land of France has done wonders. Unfortunately for the Walt Disney Co., the main wonder is perhaps the absence of crowds and lines. In spite of their $4.4 billion investment in the park on nearly 5,000 acres (one-fifth the size of Paris) of land, Euro Disney has actually lost more than $1.2 billion since its opening in April 1992. Why are the giant parking lots only a quarter-full? Why are the lines so short? Where are the hordes of whining children frustrated by their three-hour wait for 40 seconds of fun? Where are the Germans, the Italians, the Dutch, the Belgians, the English__ and above all, where are the French?The reality is that only 40% Euro Disney visitors are French, despite heavy advertising and occasional free tickets for children. Earlier in 1994, Michael Eisner even muttered publicly that Euro Disney might have to close. Even yphoons every year and earthquakes are also frequent. The high latitude of Japan causes the temperatures to fall to extremes in the winter seasons. Yet on the upside, the country had a very high population, the GDP was attractive, and the standard of living was higher than even Europe. The government encouraged animation at that time, to give children hope following the losses caused by WWII. So Disney’s presence was a very attractive idea to both the Japanese and United States and they decided to build the new Disneyland in Tokyo. The Tokyo project proved to be a great success and indicated to a newly overhauled Disney management that the theme park concept could be readily exported.Western Europe was the obvious next best target. In the mid-1980s, the European economy was booming but there was no large-scale theme park. So the Walt Disney Company narrowed the choices down to France and Spain. The extreme winter seasons in France caused initial concern, but Japan’s exemplary record inFrench public was not as agreeable as their government, arguing that this was potentially an American cultural invasion of sorts. Before the resort had even opened its doors late April, the French labeled it a “cultural Chernobyl” and pelted a surprised Michael Eisner with ketchup and eggs. On HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/June_28" o "June 28" June 28, HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1992" o "1992" 1992 a group of French HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farmer" o "Farmer" farmers HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockade" o "Blockade" blockaded Euro Disney in protest of farm policies the United States supported at the time. A journalist in the French newspaper HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Figaro" o "Le Figaro" Le Figaro once wrote, “I wish with all my heart that the rebels would set fire to [Euro] Disneyland." Not only did this cold criticism cause negative effects on this investment, but Disney also made several more mistakes that cauing mall, 2,400 apartments and 3,000 time share apartments. The overall project was structured like a leveraged buyout: there was little capital__ FF6.2 billion ($1.1 billion) from 200,000 small shareholders in a public share offering in 1989 plus FF1.2 billion from Disney for its share of the company --and lots of debt, totaling FF21.3 billion during the first year. Only two years after opening, Saudi investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal stepped in to take a 24.7 per cent stake in the operating company Euro Disney – since reduced to 16.3 per cent.Next, the Disney Company emphasized too much on maintaining the “American Standard” on management policies. There was definitely some reluctance to export the concept into what was, by American standards, an alien culture. The biggest problem could be said to be employee-related. Not only did the French Government pressure Euro Disney to maintain a staff/visitor ratio well in excess of American practice, but the young French workers refused to s which they said would have lost their meaning in French: Main Street USA, for one, "has absolutely no meaning or equivalence in French," while La Montagne du Grand Tonnerre didn't seem to Disney officials as powerful or poetic as Big Thunder Mountain. This conflict between French and the Disney Company has given a bad impression on public since the first, and it might have caused the refusal of the French frequent Euro Disney. Actually, the French were counted on to provide at least 60% of visitors; but they represented only 40%.Euro Disney admitted that the recession was not fully to blame for its misfortunes. It also accepted that prices were too high and that the park had been poorly marketed. But the Disneyland Resorts Paris is not the only Walt Disney theme park in the doldrums. Attendance at the Walt Disney World resort in Florida dropped nine per cent year on year from April to June compared with the same period in the previous year. When it comes to becoming international, I
Walt Disney elicits a range of complaints from critics. A primary concern that has emerged relates to what critics call “Disneyfication,” a process by which they claim that Disney principles have burgeoned previously untainted and unsolicited genres of life. For example, a significant amount of attention has been given to the idea that Disney potentially bestows upon children a pretentious perception of reality. In this scheme children devote their imaginations to experience a vicarious life through a Disney terrain, one that is unavoidably an inaccurate representation of reality. The world that can be expected from a Disney perspective is one that is completely safe and entertaining. There are no unpleasant surprises and where everything is sanitized. This is regrettably but truthfully untrue. Therefore it is important to take into consideration that “Disneyfication” in all its magic also carries with it the capability to be a prospective seed for future disappointment and thus to serve as a misguidance for children worldwide.Literary criticism has not been absent in its censure of disneyfication. In particular, many feel that Disney versions of classic tales have left some rather distasteful blemishes to their originality. This can be likened to a bright paint job done for an antique wooden chair that was once revered for its ancient roots. For example, Brother Grimm’s Snow White tale has been a prime victim of disneyfication, where Disney’s film animation diverges the tale from the original version toward one that is toned down and simplified by sentimentality (Ayres, 45p). We are in essence losing the originality of treasured classics and many fear that this will worsen as time goes by.While feminist commend Walt Disney for his success, they too are not short of reprimanding certain consequences of its influence. In particular, they believe that Disney has had the effect of encouraging passivity and submissiveness in women as displayed by the dispositions played by heroine characters. For example, Bean calls The Hunchback of Notre Dame another iteration of the long-standing Disney project of “transforming women into acceptable marriage partner.” In order to market the old formula of patriarchy and misogyny to a modern audience however, Disney must be careful. Bean notes that re-creating tales that seem more palatably feminist on the surface may actually reinforce the stereotypes of patriarchy and misogyny by turning even mildly defiant women into willing models of female passivity. They emphasize their physical beauty and this should never be the central point in a learning audience (Hines and Ayres, 7p).From Snow White to Beauty and the Beast, the absence of the mother in these stories is hardly a dischargeable fact. This “absent mother” premise is quite ironic in the Disney milieu where one would expect their promotion of “Family Entertainment.” For example, Axelrod summarizes three categorical themes seen in Disney: (1) the role of mother is totally neglected or eliminated; (2) the role is reconstituted in the figure of the “cruel” stepmother; or (3) the role of a leading female authority figure, where no mother or stepmother exists, is transformed into an evil character (31p). In Grimm’s first edition of Snow White, the evil villain is the actual mother. Ironically the change to a stepmother in later editions is believed to have occurred with the intention of toning down the story for children. In current society where the divorce rate is high and remarriage common, it is important to consider the potential side effects of negatively portraying the stepmother character.Under meticulous scrutiny, it is hardly feasible to create a motion picture entertainment that is suitable for all children in any culture without some kind of criticism. Yet Disney attracts a diverse market and regrettably may continue to behave much like a business, doing what seems most attractive at the cost of divested conscience. They should be careful since their audience is a gullible and inexperienced one that relies on visual experiences for their perception of enjoyment.
In early 2003, PETA published the photo and video footage of how the company Iams, the leading dog and cat food manufacturer, were cruelly and inhumanly using dogs and cats to test their product. Video footage by PETA showed “dogs gone crazy from intense confinement to barren steel cages and cement cells, dogs left piled on a filthy paint-chipped floor after having chunks of muscle hacked from their thighs; dogs surgically debarked; horribly sick dogs and cats languishing in their cages, neglected and left to suffer with no veterinary care” (Iams Cruelty 1).Sadly, today nearly 500 different companies are using animals to test their product before distributing it in the market for consumers to purchase, and more than a million animals are used for the experiments. Most commonly used animals in the medicines or other products are rabbits, dogs, cats, mice, monkeys, horses and more. These animals are treated inhumanly when these companies test their products. Some of these animals get poie that may wreck the human society. Another problem we will have by using animal testing would be the extermination of the animal species. Today with the destruction of the forest and nature, many animal species lost their home and died. Animals are one of the important factors that make life of the human, the way it is. We already know what is going to happen, if the most of the animal extinct and animal experimentation is not helping to resolve the problem, but helping to quicken the extinction.There are several different areas that we use animal experiments. Mostly animal experiments are done heavily for educational purpose, for cosmetic purpose, and for biomedical research. Among the three areas, “the use of animals in biochemical research brings the most controversial issue today in society” (Miller 1). In biomedical research, many scientists have searched for accurate causes and solutions of diseases and animals were the answers to their search. Since animals have similar body orfield, animal experimentation became vital to continued medical progress (AMP 1).Animal experiments are morally wrong, but this has been the most useful research method for development of biomedical area in the past. Today with the phenomenon development in computers and science, scientists have found ways to serve the purpose without conducting animal experiments. Among the many different methods that are available, In vitro methods are the most common method that is used and preferred to replace animal experiments. “In vitro methods encompass the wide range of cell, tissue and organ cultures” (NCA 2). Basically, in vitro method is the study done with cells or tissues. Two different types of in vitro method are available to serve the purpose of the study this day. First type is to use subcellular fractions of cell component. An example of this type of in vitro method would be to study the role of liver microsomes and their importance to drug metabolism. Second type of the in vitro sysite truth that we can save animals from experiments and research. However, because of the nature of in vitro method we can not completely remove animals from experiments. Drawback of this type of cell culture experiment is the requirement of the cell, tissues, and organ cultures. Some experiments may require freshly obtained cell and tissues and animals are used more economically in this way. Also the complexity of in vitro methods, it is difficult to extrapolate the result. Another negativity of in vitro methods is that there is no interaction with other organs, which means that scientists can not determine whether the tested substance affects organs other than the one tested.Negativity of in vitro system does not have to be the reason of scientists to disregard the alternative method and go back to animals for the experiments. There are many ways to overcome the negativity of in vitro method. First, there are human tissues available after surgeries, according to publication from NCA vivid section industries in the United States. For example, National Institute of Health spent nearly fifteen billion dollars for the animal experimentation. “Too much money is being wasted on pointless experiments while millions of people in the United States can not afford to go to hospital…” (Miller 3). Secondly, we, human are dominant species than animal, but does this give us the right to perform experiments on animals? These animals live their entire life in the cage on cold concrete floor isolated. When experiments are finished, these animals are sent back to their cage mostly untreated because scientists does not know what is that exactly they are suffering with, until the result comes out. By performing experimentation on the animals, we are just throwing out the morality of human being. Lastly, these uncared for animals slowly suffer and die. When God created human, he also created animals to be friend with human. People enjoy watching animals at the zoo; people spend good t1
Recently, there is a critical public opinion in our society that media violence has a bad effect on national morality and behavior pattern. As a network of air has been developing in diversification of mediums and channels, medium’s primary function has been infringed by the commercialism and the vice has been increasing everyday. The most serious problem is that there could be bad influences on children. Today, our children can be called “Children who live in TV”. Their ways of thinking, manners or attitudes are grown by various indirect experiences from watching television. Since they have plenty of indirect experiences in their consciousness, television has had a great impact on children’s self-consciousness. There has been continuous argument about the positive or negative effects that television has on children’s way of thinking. However, we should focus on the fact that how media violence causes serious problems. Therefore, we should find a way to limit the media violence.Some peright to know what happens around them even if it is too violent.However, we should think about what can be bad effects from media violence, and what can be the best solution for our children. First of all, we should think that the influence of media violence directly correlates to violent behaviors. According to Dr. Leonard Eron, Longitudinal studies tracking viewing habits and behavior patterns of a single individual found that 8-year-old boys, who viewed the most violent programs growing up, were the most likely to engage in aggressive and delinquent behavior by age 18 and serious criminal behavior by age 30 (par. 7). There are contents of behavior violence, sexual and language violence which is very harmful to children, but the most serious problem may be that repeated attention of violent scenes can cause children to learn exactly what they watch. According to Nielson Media Research in 1993, children spend more time learning about life through media than in any other manner. The alence on television, including 16,000 murders before age 18 (“Facts about Media Violence”, par. 4). Another study shows us that forty-six percent of all television violence identified by the study took place in children’s cartoons (“Facts about Media Violence”, par. 13). These studies show that children are being exposed to media violence without any parental control, and they are influenced by media exceedingly. Unfortunately many children are left home alone after school, and their television viewing is not restricted. Watching television has become our daily routine for most of us; moreover, violence on television is so common that seeing violence on television does not seem to affect us much. No one wants our children to be influenced by television violence because it has been becoming more violent than ever before. No one wants to be involved in a chaos of violence. Therefore, we should find a way that can be the best for our children.The second problem is that media violence brinn impact on children’s self-consciousness. According to some studies, media violence causes insomnia, photic seizures, impaired school performance, increased sexual activity, decreased attention span, decreased family communication, desensitization and excess consumer focus (“Facts about Media Violence”, par. 10).Furthermore, if children are exposed to violence too much, children may think of the world as a scary or dangerous, and they may possibly develop an antisocial attitude. It is surely related with mental health problems, but the difference is that it is our loss to the society. They may not want to be concerned about society because they have negative attitudes towards the society. There are attacks from terrorists everyday, and people shoot each other on the street in a movie. Even news shows us violence that occurs in the world. After our children watch these, what do they think about our society? They may not want to even leave their homes. The most serious problem is that tull gradually. We become “immune” to the horror of violence. According to Murray, children may become less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others (Goff, par. 5). For example, people kill others unwittingly or without any reasons in the movies. When we watch movies, we never feel sorry for the victims. We just think that the hero looks great. What happened to our emotion? We are losing feeling and senses. In the idea of life reverence from the Orient, live things are equal and worthy of respect. However, this belief has been crumbling by media violence. It promotes that other live things are worthless, and it makes children get a wrong idea about the importance of live things. Therefore, we should think about these serious bad effects on children and should find a way to limit this violence.In conclusion, recently, we are exposed to plenty of various mediums. And we have indirect experiences from media which is degenerated by commercialism. This is just for visual pleasure, so th
The film “Shrek” starts with a hackneyed narration saying, “Once upon a time…” and shows an ethereal princess within a storybook. We are therefore led to expect that there would be a prince on the next page and that the story will finish as a typical storybook ending. All of a sudden, this giant green hand appears and tears the pages out of the volume for personal use as toilet paper. This scene drops us an exciting reassurance that DreamWorks is bidding the “typical Disney-style” a very much desired goodbye.The plot is as simple as other animations, in that the movie follows a prince (giant green handed ogre Shrek) on a quest to rescue an imprisoned princess,