The Gospel According to Disney: Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust

by Mark I. Pinsky

In this follow-up to his bestselling The Gospel According to The Simpsons: The Spiritual Life of the World's Most Animated Family , religion journalist Mark Pinsky explores the role that the animated features of Walt Disney played on the moral and spiritual development of generations of children. Pinsky explores thirty-one of the most popular Disney films, as well as recent developments such as the 1990s boycott of Disney by the Southern Baptist Convention and the role that Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg played in the resurgance of the company since the mid-1980s.

Genres: Nonfiction, Religion, Philosophy, Spirituality, Reference, Pop Culture, Faith

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 14, 2004

About the author

A former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times and Orlando Sentinel, Mark Pinsky holds degrees from Duke University and Columbia University. As an investigative journalist specializing in capital murder cases around the Southeast, he has written for the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

Although Met Her On The Mountain is his first true-crime work, he has previously published four religion books.

Reviews

[Brittney · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’ll start out by saying I absolutely adore Disney, and when I rescued this book off the "due out" shelves at my local Barnes & Noble I was so excited! The idea of a book like this is intriguing and right up my alley seeing as how I love books, Disney, pop-culture, history, religion, and critically analyzing said things. Had Pinsky actually written his essays as he proposed, this would have been a worthwhile, even great book. However, he did not. I am so disappointed with this. Essentially he summarizes several classic and modern Disney movies throwing in inane judgments (like “Parental Discretion Advised – by Me”) and "what-could-have-beens". I think what bothers me the most about this book is that at the beginning Pinsky says that his "Simpson's" book was criticized because all he did was summarize episodes and quote other people, so he vows to do better with “Disney.” Then all he does is summarize movies and quote other people. I guess his idea of writing his own thoughts is to say how he is appalled that he lets his children watch these movies and in telling parents what parts to explain, fast-forward over, or to skip entirely. I also found it annoying that he claims that he was searching for religious symbols in these movies and in several of the essays he doesn't even mention religion. (See “101 Dalmatians: Black and White,” “Alice In Wonderland: Take the Red Pill,” “Treasure Planet: Mining the Fatherlode” etc.) I did try to find some redeeming qualities to this book. I enjoyed learning things about Mr. Walt Disney himself, but I’m sure that anyone who has read anything about Disney would have already known these things. And I think that he has some good ideas that he left unexplored. For example in “Cinderella (1950): Prince Charming,” he asks “Are they considered ugly because they’re bad, or bad because they’re ugly?” referring to Cinderella’s stepsisters. This is an intriguing line and could be used as the thesis of an essay in and of itself. Pinsky just leaves that thought hanging though. Maybe he wanted his (few and unlucky) readers to think on this for themselves. In an essay,and book for that matter, lacking in actual argumentative issues, the exploration of this would have been welcome and fulfilling. If his intent had been to summarize, judge, and practically condemn Disney, both as a man and as a company, and its movies using his own moral compass he would have succeeded tremendously. As a well-written and witty book of original and fun essays looking for religion, historical, and socio-cultural symbols The Gospel According to Disney is an epic failure.

[Ari Garzon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a neat read. I think part of me was disappointed it was written so long ago, because I’d love to see Pinsky’s coverage on Disney today. I had no idea about the Southern Baptists attempting to boycott the company back in the early 2000s.
My favorite element of this book has to be the movie synopses and deep dives. From the Easter eggs, to the reception of viewers at the time, this analysis is a work of art to say the very least.

[lp · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is my dream book! I mean, I enjoyed reading it because I am a total Disney nerd. Often the snippets made me think about the movies in new ways, and I would notice for the first time their use of religion in a non-religious way. The religion of Disney is THERE, but it has nothing to do with God. It's about faith, trust, pixie dust, etc. I was surprised how prevalent religion is in Disney, but in this sneaky way. Pinsky is a great writer, a religion journalist -- but the book lacked a lot of analysis. It could go much more in depth- be much better. There was good information about the Disney Corporation and its relation to religious America, though, Michael Eisner, and the huge boycott from Southern Baptists. I worried that reading a book diving so deep into the business of Disney would make me lose respect, but it didn't. It's almost unbelievable how well Disney has been able to maintain this sort of purity from the 50's and bring it up to modern standards, keeping kids and parents entertained at the same time. Disney is not perfect, but what they do is, as I have known ALL ALONG, unnnnnnnbelievable.

[Hailee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, as a life-long avid Disney fan and one of the many who must every few years make a "pilgrimage" to Disneyland, as Pinsky observes. It was very interesting to see how the messages and morals in all those Disney movies compare to my own, and especially to see how the morals presented developed over the years from movie to movie, and from Disney to Eisner. Pinsky pays special attention to morals from a Christian perspective, and talks at length about the religious beliefs of the movies' creators, but was otherwise rather unbiased in his approach. The book was not negative towards Disney, nor was it overly positive of it. All in all, it was a fascinating and enjoyable read.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pinsky has some interesting and occasionally profound things to say about how the Disney company handles religion in it's work, but I wish that he hadn't acted as though straight to DVD releases like "Return to Neverland" had the same cultural and social impact as a film like "Aladdin" - giving them equal time and space in the book seems like a missed opportunity. He could have cut the commentary on lesser known works and stuck to the big fish, diving in deeper rather than repeatedly giving plot recaps with a few of his own thoughts tacked on to the end of each review. A good start to a conversation that I don't believe he finishes.

[Jasmine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed by the lack of analysis in the book. The author functionally summarized many Disney movie plots. While he offered some insights into the parallels to Christianity and other religions, they were surface level at best. Later in the book, the author goes on to discuss Disney's history as an organization and some of the controversies they have faced, but still takes a factual approach with little personal insight. If you're looking for plot summaries and facts, you will find them. However, the book lacks depth and insight rendering the title basically irrelevant.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

finished 11/13/17. i am not a fan usually of non-fiction. I prefer to exit my world and go somewhere else when i read. technically, this book did that as well. I enjoyed some of the inner workings from the company. I felt that the summaries of the movies were a little much...until i got to a movie I hadn't seen yet, and then I found it super useful. So I probably should've been happier to be encouraged to skim the summary sections when I was already familiar. All in all, I'm still a fan of disney so this book didn't change my impression too much. It did give me respect for the corporation and further proof of my outlandish political theory, but that's for a different discussion board and not around books.

[Jordan Frank · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book just summarizes every movie up until 2004 and provides very little commentary. The conclusion was the only thing that provided substance other than that of the movies themselves. On top of that, a lot of false comparisons to Christianity occurred, like comparing elements of pre Christian myths as “Christian” when Disney did them. There was an assumption that Disney originated all of these tales, which they did not. Also, there were many factual inaccuracies that made me question of the other watched some of the movies. Things were unequivocally wrong, such as Zazu from The Lion King being called a parrot. He’s a Hornbill and they literally say it in the movie during “I Just Can’t Wait to be King”. Also, you can just look things up if needed and it seems like that wasn’t done.

[Kimberly · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was so looking forward to reading this and am so disappointed with this. I don't think this book has a clear focus and was so not worth the hype. I thought it would be an in-depth analysis of Disney's animated features (there is so much to talk about in each of them), but the analysis that Pinsky offered was so elementary, anyone with a child who has watched the movies a couple of times (and who hasn't if you have kids?) could easily come up with them. Each chapter was devoted to a different movie and his "analysis", but the majority of the chapter was really just a plot summary with a few comments thrown in here and there. The only thing I found valuable in the book was the facts and trivia that he offered (if we can assume they are corrct). And every once in a while, he would make a comment on where to intervene and talk to your children about what they are seeing and whether it is right or wrong--I had no idea it was supposed to be a parenting book as well...Annoying! Anyway, in summary, definitely not worth the read.

[Emily · Rating 1 out of 5]

I didn't finish the whole book but I read a good chunk.
I was very disappointed in this book. It was filled with conjecture and reading between the lines. It is heavily moralistic without any reference to the true Gospel and barely any Scripture at all. (not totally surprising given the author isn't a Christian himself, he's Jewish.) The most interesting part of the book was the socio-political aspect to the movies.

[Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting - but not as interesting as I wanted it to be. While a brilliant idea and fascinating subject matter - the author didn't quite manage to say anything as profound or as shocking as he could have. The writing was often and sometimes read like term paper, so this book is probably best left for the true Disney fans.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thi book had such great promise from reading the title, reviews, and introduction, but it just didn't pan out. Most of the chapters summarize animated Disney films then give about one paragraph of analysis and background that doesn't provide much explanation or insight. The best chapters are those about the reigns of Disney and Eisner and other areas of Disney (theme parks, merchandising).

[Kristi · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected so much more of this book. It started off with some interesting insights, but it was a slug to get through the whole book. I was really hoping there would be some analysis of the underlying messages and morals in Disney movies, but there really wasn't. Mostly summaries of the movies with underdeveloped commentary.

[Anna Hanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recapping Disney's primary movie themes to illustrate the principles he discerns in them, Mr. Pinsky's book provides a look at how Disney's philosophies and overarching morality has influenced, and continues to influence, American culture and child-rearing.

[Stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Though I did enjoy the recaps of all of the Disney movies - it's been a while since I've seen a lot of these titles - this book didn't excite my brain as much as I thought it might.

[Michelle Demeter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Like his previous book about The Simpsons, very little analysis. He is a decent reporter of facts and previous work but again, where is the damn analysis?

[Suzanne]

I'm loving this book. It explains so much about why I am the way I am....religiously speaking.

[Julie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very dull and boring. Reads like a textbook.

[Mirah W · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought there were some interesting ideas in the book, but at times I felt the author was reaching.

[JJ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really not very good. Simply a synopsis of many Disney movies. Very little about the role of religion there. Read like a summary of other books from a more academic setting.

[Kelsey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did a video book review for this book:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB48gr...