ABSTRACT
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse films emerged against the backdrop of a complex set of debates about children's leisure and the role of the cinema in children's lives. During the late 1920s and early 1930s the cinema's address to children was contested ground and a matter of frenzied concern. Reformers denounced the movies' influence on children and mounted well-organized efforts across the country to regulate and control this aspect of children's leisure. One particularly important aspect of these efforts involved the creation and supervision of a canon of films for children. Reformers asked whether a given film addressed the young moviegoer as a “true” and “proper” child.
