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FEATURES | Issue: "Signs and wonders" January 26, 2008

Faith, hope and pixie dust

Entertainment | Disney profits by returning to its roots | Alex Wainer

Enchanted

New hits. New management. New profits, doubling in the third quarter of 2007 from one year before. And old, family-friendly values. A decade ago Southern Baptists declared a Disney boycott for its "anti-Christian and anti-family direction." Now, the House of Mouse is back—and the turnaround story is worth telling.

Walt Disney, of course, created the modern multi-platform structure of modern popular culture. In the 1950s, he transformed his two-dimensional body of cartoon stories and characters into a three-dimensional physical place, Disneyland, a safe, clean "theme park" that allowed families to enter Disney narratives—and shop for Disney merchandise.

What Disney himself termed "total merchandising" delighted millions while ensuring that Disney's company, for the first time in its history, would become profitable. The "empire of dreams" continued to expand from there with other theme parks opening in Florida, and later in France and Asia.

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January 26, 2008, Vol. 23, No. 2

The plots thicken Jan. 12, 2008 View WORLD E-zine	News of the Year Dec. 29, 2007 View WORLD E-zine	Out from the shadows Dec. 22, 2007 View WORLD E-zine
Daniel of the Year Dec. 15, 2007 View WORLD E-zine	Our pork Dec. 8, 2007 View WORLD E-zine	Not angry anymore Dec. 1, 2007 View WORLD E-zine