It's hard to argue that there has ever been another force in American culture as influential as the Disney Company, or another man more responsible for our collective reflection of our national self-hood than Walt Disney. From the time the Disney Brothers made their first cartoons in 1923, the march of Mickey Mouse to cultural supremacy has been as inevitable as it's been steady. So influential is Disney's reach that I would posit that America's identity, as tied into the alleged idealism and idylls of the 19th and 20th centuries as it is, is not remotely based on the truths of history, but rather on the rose-colored lens that Disney has cast it through for a century.
Throughout 2023, the Walt Disney Company has been celebrating its 100th anniversary with an array of movies, music, cartoons, TV shows, articles and wave upon wave of various collectibles. This has been somewhat overshadowed by current events, as
