Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-cfpbc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T10:12:49.382Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - Animated Properties

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2022

Jose Bellido
Affiliation:
University of Kent, Canterbury
Kathy Bowrey
Affiliation:
University of New South Wales, Sydney
Get access

Summary

Chapter 4 explores the foundation of extended business activities and tie-ins in the 1920s and 1930s that developed around Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse. The term ‘animated properties’ acknowledges that these popular fictional representations were attributed subjecthood and, as such, came alive outside the celluloid frame. Felix and Mickey were pre-packaged as family-friendly viewing. Doll effigies and other merchandise literally took the characters into the heart of the home. The chapter discusses the ambivalent role of intellectual property registration in stabilising the character merchandising trade, exploring what was particularly distinctive about the Disney Corporation’s industrial system of production and distribution. This successful strategy was an organisational one with cultural ambitions, engaging franchise managers and licensees in educating children and the trade about the protocols of consumption attached to play. The Disney brand came to signify child-friendly cultural content of all kinds, with trust in the name secured by the deployment of a new legal creation, the phenomenon of ‘world rights’ exploited by a new managerial class, Disney Enterprises’ agents.

Type
Chapter
Information
Adventures in Childhood
Intellectual Property, Imagination and the Business of Play
, pp. 104 - 142
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Animated Properties
  • Jose Bellido, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kathy Bowrey, University of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Book: Adventures in Childhood
  • Online publication: 30 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108641968.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Animated Properties
  • Jose Bellido, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kathy Bowrey, University of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Book: Adventures in Childhood
  • Online publication: 30 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108641968.005
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Animated Properties
  • Jose Bellido, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kathy Bowrey, University of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Book: Adventures in Childhood
  • Online publication: 30 June 2022
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108641968.005
Available formats
×