The Return of Disney's America in VA?

[carmelhp]

I attended Sweet Briar (and lived in NoVA) and that Disney Rumor floats around every few years.

And while the reputation has been damaged, you don't want to mess with Vixen. There are many legacies that attend as well as esteemed alumni who have come together. The current board of the organization that wanted to Save Sweet Briar already has the new members for the board and current ideas there. Now we just need the funding of converted pledges to abide by the settlement.

https://savingsweetbriar.com/

I too wish them well, it sounds like a beautiful campus, however, they may have just forestalled the inevitable. It's usually almost impossible to reverse this type of decline in fortunes for a school.

 

[RustManFan]

Disney's version of Pocahontas isn't history anyway. It was fiction about a real person. I loved the music but the story was crap

 

[maltdizzy]

Disney's version of Pocahontas isn't history anyway. It was fiction about a real person. I loved the music but the story was crap

My mentor worked on it. He was a real history buff, and points out the real story is a lot meaner and more gruesome than a family film would have been able to use. Plus, executives at movie studios all rise up through marketing, not creative.

But, Hollywood is one big glass house when it comes to accuracy....most bio-pics and historical films take a lot of creative license, the problem is most of them people take for granted as more or less true. But real lives and historical events don't happen in a way that creates an accurate 3-act story to hold an audiences attention,...most of HBO's John Adams is historically inaccurate, with big chunks of his life rearrange to hit the right pauses in episodes...Selma maligned LBJ's legacy on racial equality for dramatic affect...Cinderella Man was so accurate (and unfair to Max Baer), Ron Howard found himself have to publicly defend his artistic license...from Davy Crockett to 1776 to American Sniper, Hollywood has always used more fiction than fact in their films. As screenwriters, it's our job to create a roller coaster than builds and releases tension at just the right times to make not look at your watch. All movie biographies are lies.

 

[RustManFan]

Many Americans are ignorant or just don't care about history. If I watch history I want it to stick to the facts like a pure documentary. Or let me read some nice dry books on a subject.

Sad that so many don't get the creative license aspect.

 

[maltdizzy]

Well...um...most documentaries are almost as inaccurate. Documentaries, like thesis's (sp?), have to pick sides and make decisions, no matter how objective they want to be.. This isn't just to hold the audience's attention, but because the human mind doesn't process as well unless you give it a focal point to follow. More than one focal point creates a mental ambiguity and this kind of subversive "emotional discomfort" arises. You can't give them Britain and Germany evenly at the Battle of Britain, you have to nudge it one way or the other. Just the way historical footage is edited can sway an audience's emotions and opinions without any voice-over. Kinda funky, huh?

Shoot, the whole Walt Disney Studios is one big lie, it was Walt and Roy's studio, but myth of the "American original" Walt Disney was more marketable.

 

[DanBoris]

Most versions of the Pocahontas story are at least somewhat fictional.

 

[DDLand]

Well...um...most documentaries are almost as inaccurate. Documentaries, like thesis's (sp?), have to pick sides and make decisions, no matter how objective they want to be.. This isn't just to hold the audience's attention, but because the human mind doesn't process as well unless you give it a focal point to follow. More than one focal point creates a mental ambiguity and this kind of subversive "emotional discomfort" arises. You can't give them Britain and Germany evenly at the Battle of Britain, you have to nudge it one way or the other. Just the way historical footage is edited can sway an audience's emotions and opinions without any voice-over. Kinda funky, huh?

Shoot, the whole Walt Disney Studios is one big lie, it was Walt and Roy's studio, but myth of the "American original" Walt Disney was more marketable.

I agree with much of what you're saying. I also like Pocahontas. With that said, I would use considerably less strong language. To say "most documentaries are almost as inaccurate," is fairly radical. To use your WW2 example, yes you're on the mark that sometimes the focus tends to shift towards areas that are more comfortable, making certain battles seem more important then were, and omitting certain battles that may cast the party being showcased in a bad light. That's part of the game. But how many times are there mentions of crucial battles that never happened? How many key historical figures are mentioned that never existed or existed in such a different way that they're unrecognizable? Or reporting events that didn't take place?

The narrative that is told in documentaries will be biased. That's how everything is. The reporting and focus on events may be biased. Sometimes not even showing crucial battles can be biased. I'm just sure that they didn't make stuff up in the blatant way Pocahontas did. There's a line that Pocahontas crossed that real documentaries don't cross.

With all the above said, does this bother me? No. I feel like giving Native American Culture (even if not 100% accurate) a spotlight is better than not, and it also pays tribute to the real Pocahontas that did save John Smith.

Additionally I feel it's unfair to criticize Pocahontas when none of the other fictional stories get criticized for being fictional.

In the end Pocahontas was beautifully animated, interesting movie, with a lot of heart. Great entertainment, and also a thought provoking moral. A good movie.

 

[DDLand]

Also is it safe to say Disney is not building an American based theme park in Virginia?

 

[maltdizzy]

Also is it safe to say Disney is not building an American based theme park in Virginia?

Been safe to say that for 20 years.

Might have been nice...

 

[scrapbooksellman]

We saved Sweet Briar and it will prevail!!!!

As much as I love Disney I love Sweet Briar more!

savingsweetbriar.com