The Extended Universe: How Disney Killed the Movies and Took Over the World

Activist Osterweil (In Defense of Looting) offers a razor-sharp critique of the tight control of intellectual property at the heart of the Walt Disney Company. Asserting that Disney uses its nostalgic image to facilitate “ruthless power grabs,” Osterweil argues that IP “must be overthrown.” Rigid control of IP has been Disney’s m.o. from the start, according to the author, who notes that founder Walt Disney lost copyright to an early creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and became determined not to let it happen again. In its current era, Osterweil contends, Disney has effectively “killed the public domain” in its endless quest to extend copyright, and churns out “soulless” sequels and reboots of classics. Today’s franchise era has so degraded the quality of scripts that it’s “outsource[d] the production of meaning to fan communities,” Osterweil writes, suggesting that this is less a bug than a feature: if the plot of a franchise movie is confusing, it just encourages fans to be “an expert... which is to say, an ultra-consumer” of the franchise. While some of Osterweil’s arguments don’t land—was the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise really a subtle campaign against media piracy?—the book nevertheless pushes valiantly back against the “ouroboros” of Disney (they own the rights to their own corporate strategy on IP, which they sell to other businesses). It’s a plucky argument against Big Fairytale. (Apr.)