ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Walt Disney’s fairy tales played a crucial role in the re-imagining of the American Dream in the midst of the Great Depression in the 1930s. Fairy tales have long been a source of inspiration for the animated and live action productions of the Walt Disney Studio. The Walt Disney Company’s success has owed much to its capacity to appeal to new forms of nationalism in the US, and so to contribute to the formation of modern American society. Nicholas Sammond’s work is instructive in this regard as he connects Disney’s productions to the formation of a new idea of American childhood. Disney’s productions have always been linked to the perpetuation of cultural myth within American society and the American Dream is an integral part of that myth. The central figure in the Disney fairy tale is undoubtedly the Disney princess. The ordinary heroes within the Disney fairy tale are often as important as the princess herself.
