The Mickey Mouse Paradigm: Aesthetics, Cultures, and Industries in the Disney Universe
Over the past century, The Walt Disney Company has established itself as one of the most influential and prolific players in the global film and media landscape. Founded as an animation studio, it consolidated its position throughout the twentieth century, evolving into a multinational conglomerate capable of diversifying its activities across a wide range of sectors. Today, Disney stands not only as one of the most globally recognisable media brands, but also as one of the most complex and multifaceted media corporations. Parallel to this industrial expansion, scholarly engagement with the Disney universe—defined as the ensemble of narratives, languages, cultural practices, and production configurations under or around the Disney brand—has developed in increasingly nuanced ways. From early critical reflections (Schickel 1968; Finch 1973; Ejzenstejn 1984), academic interest has steadily grown, culminating in the consolidation of Disney Studies as a productive, distinctly multidisciplinary field of research.
In recent decades, scholarship on Disney has largely foregrounded its aesthetic and creative dimensions. Alongside well-established approaches centred on cinema—particularly animation (Furniss 2009; Pallant 2013)—a substantial body of work has broadened the field to encompass television, video games, and Disney’s intersections with music, theatre, and fashion (Johnson 2011; Bell 2020; Madej, Lee 2020). At the same time, Disney has been examined as a social and cultural phenomenon, most notably through the lens of “Disneyfication” (Bryman 2004), as well as in relation to the production and circulation of ideological discourses and moral norms (Byrne, McQuillan 2000; Ward 2002). These analyses frequently engage with questions of national identity, gender, ethnicity, class, and the construction of otherness (Wells 2002; Brode 2006; Cheu 2013). Moreover, growing attention has been directed towards Disney’s industrial strategies and economic practices, including its role in shaping stardom and celebrity culture (Giroux, Pollock 2010; Bohas 2016; Blue 2017). Building on earlier audience studies (Griffin 2000; Wasko et al. 2001), subsequent research has explored reception among specific audiences, as well as emerging digital practices and the dynamics of participatory culture and fandom (Mittermeier 2022; Brookey et al. 2023).
Within this framework, Issue 31 of Cinergie. Il cinema e le altre arti addresses a field that remains comparatively underexplored in the Italian context: Disney Studies. Building on a rich and well-established international debate—only briefly outlined here—this special issue seeks to investigate the structures, dynamics, and complexities that have shaped—and continue to shape—the Disney universe more than a century after its foundation. While placing cinema and the media at the core of its inquiry, and engaging with other sectors of the cultural industries, the issue aims to consolidate and expand critical discussion on the aesthetics, cultures, and industrial configurations of The Walt Disney Company.
Moving from its origins to the present, contributions are invited to explore, first and foremost, the company’s creative logics. These may be examined not only through its celebrated animated production, but also by extending the analysis to live-action cinema, television, video games, and digital media, reflecting on both the canon and the ways in which its conventions are reworked or even challenged. In dialogue with cultural studies, the issue also encourages contributions that approach Disney as a cultural phenomenon capable of shaping social, cultural, and identity models, both within its productions and across the broader discursive and symbolic frameworks they generate. Finally, drawing on media industry studies, contributions may address the company’s production logics and economic practices, as well as its modes of reception and participation, in relation to one of the corporations that has most successfully asserted itself on the global stage, both in industrial terms and in the construction of a powerful and enduring imaginary.
Consequently, the issue invites contributions that engage with Disney, including (but not limited to) the following thematic areas:
– Cultural, social, and industrial histories;
– Aesthetic and representational conventions;
– Global dynamics and local/national articulations;
– Ideologies, value systems, and moral frameworks;
– Constructions of gender (femininities, masculinities, queer identities, etc.);
– Configurations of otherness (ethnicity, class, etc.);
– Production, distribution, and promotional strategies;
– Forms, practices, and techniques of animation;
– Specificities and interrelations of audiovisual forms (cinema, television, video games, etc.);
– Stardom, including teen idols;
– Interconnections with other sectors of the cultural industries (publishing, fashion, music, etc.);
– Audiences, fandom, and participatory cultures;
– Disney+ and emerging modes of digital consumption.
Deadlines and Submission Guidelines
An abstract of 300–500 words, together with a short author biography (max. 100 words), should be submitted by June 7, 2026, to francesco.dasero@uniba.it and gabriele.landrini@uniba.it [subject: Cinergie].
Notification of acceptance will be sent by July 1st, 2026.
If the proposal is accepted, the full article must be submitted by November 1st, 2026. Articles should not exceed 6,000 words and may include up to six images, as well as relevant links. Authors are responsible for securing all necessary permissions and publication rights for any iconographic or archival materials included. All submissions will undergo double-blind peer review. Contributions may be submitted in either Italian or English.
Publication of the issue is scheduled for July 2027.
