Podcast Summary:

New Books Network – "Appropriated Tales: Race and the Disney Fairy-Tale Mode" (Wayne State UP, 2025)
Guest: Michelle Anya Anjirbag
Host: Pete Kunze
Date: December 14, 2025

Overview

This episode delves into Michelle Anya Anjirbag’s new book, Appropriated Tales: Race and the Disney Fairy-Tale Mode, examining Disney’s global influence on fairy tales, adaptation, representation, race, and authenticity. Through critical scholarship and personal reflection, Anjirbag explores how Disney’s retellings both open and restrict narrative space, shape perceptions of race, and provoke debates about cultural appropriation in mass media. The discussion moves beyond basic binaries of "good" or "bad," aiming instead at nuanced analysis and practical implications for researchers, policymakers, and wider audiences.

Author’s Background and Entry into Fairy Tale Studies

[01:34–04:50]

• Nonlinear Academic Path: Michelle began with premed studies, but a robust general education led her into anthropology, then English, Indigenous Studies, and publishing, before arriving at doctoral work in children’s literature.
• Interdisciplinary Training: Her studies spanned literature, sociology, political science, and economics, feeding into her methods for analyzing storytelling, transmission, and identity.
  • “It’s so just a lot of different ways of thinking about how do we tell stories, what kind of information do we think is important, who gets to speak…who shapes media.” (04:04, Anjirbag)

Why Disney? The Power and Reach of a Storytelling Giant

[04:50–07:20]

• Disney’s Unmatched Influence: Disney’s vast "footprint" extends beyond media, shaping norms and expectations around fairy tales globally.
• Disney as the Norm: With its omnipresence, Disney’s versions have redefined what counts as a fairy tale for many people.
  • “Sometimes things are so big you think you don't have to look at them because everyone just implicitly knows what they are. But my view on that was actually we have to look at the thing that has become normative.” (06:29, Anjirbag)

Disney in Contemporary Fairy Tale Studies

[07:20–10:43]

• Diverse Scholarly Attitudes: Some see Disney as harmful homogenizer; others as an entry point to wider storytelling. Attitudes are more varied in 2025 than previous decades.
• Disney As Part of a Network: Michelle advocates using Disney as a starting, not ending, point for engagement with fairy tales of all types.
  • “Perhaps…Disney can be a starting point, not an ending point.” (09:13, Anjirbag)

Moving Beyond “Good or Bad”: Critical Engagement with Disney

[10:43–13:17]

• Shift from Value Judgments: Anjirbag critiques binary thinking, emphasizing instead the need to analyze Disney’s specific strategies of narrative and representation.
• Invitation for Further Scholarship: The book is presented as a framework for deeper, varied questions—about gender, disability, nationality, and beyond.
  • “I do not consider this an end point...I really hope that this is a beginning.” (12:25, Anjirbag)

Adaptation vs. Appropriation: Analytical Lenses

[13:17–18:19]

• Adaptation as Relational: Viewing Disney films not as endpoints but as "links in a chain" allows for nuanced exploration of story transformation.
  • “Adaptation has become sort of my favorite toolkit...because it calls us to look at media relationally.” (13:56, Anjirbag)
• Appropriation in Multiple Senses: Simultaneous literary adaptation and cultural appropriation, particularly post–1989 Disney, enable complex conversations on race and “cultural ventriloquism.”
  • “How is identity made when you have almost a process of cultural ventriloquism?” (17:32, Anjirbag)

Authenticity and Representation

[18:48–22:06]

• Community as the Arbiter: Authenticity is not determined by outsiders but by those represented.
  • “Authenticity is realized when people who belong to the culture...can confidently say that they see themselves represented in the work.” (20:28, Anjirbag)
• Analogies for Understanding Authenticity: Uses food metaphors to illustrate differences between mass-market and community-centered creations.
  • “For someone who's grown up with it, you know, when it doesn't taste right, and it sounds like a very simple analogy, but it's also the best concept I have for...authenticity.” (21:25, Anjirbag)

Has Disney Ever “Gotten it Right”? Prospects and Limitations

[22:06–26:41]

• Moments of Promise:
  • 1997’s Whitney Houston/Brandy Cinderella cited as a standout for unapologetic, innovative casting and world-building.
    • “It does not step out of its way to explain why their Cinderella is black. It doesn't explain a black fairy godmother. And it's such a blip in 1997...Everything was completely 100% deliberate.” (23:24, Anjirbag)
  • Other examples include The Little Mermaid animated series and select moments in Turning Red and Brave.
• Limitations: Corporate scale means that progress often comes unevenly, with lapses and backsteps.

The Dissertation-to-Book Journey

[27:32–37:32]

• Autoethnographic Motivation: Michelle’s doctoral work was fueled by needing to articulate personal questions of cultural belonging, identity, and story.
  • “My doctoral work was very autoethnographic...exploring how my own perceptions of myself...were also running up against this kind of thing that was being projected at me as kind of idealized Americana culture.” (29:09, Anjirbag)
• Refining Scope: The need for manageable boundaries led to focus on fairy tale and folklore-esque films only.
• Transforming the Dissertation: With vital mentorship and scholarly networks, Michelle learned to reshape her thesis into a more accessible and coherent book, creating chapters that stand alone and work collectively.

Disney Renaissance & Storytelling Shifts

[39:02–43:31]

• Global Ambition: Late 1980s–1990s marked a turn toward racial and geographic expansion (Aladdin, Mulan, The Lion King), often with mixed results.
  • “We have the authority somehow to tell stories from anywhere. We're not bound to British children's classics...For better or worse, they ran with it.” (41:17, Anjirbag)
• Reflective of Wider U.S. Attitudes: These moves mirrored larger national feelings of exceptionalism.

Aladdin as a Case Study of Adaptation & Blowback

[43:31–53:57]

• Story’s Origin: Aladdin is a story filtered through many cultures; Disney’s adaptation borrows freely while centering marketable tropes.
• Stereotyping: Disney’s version triggered direct protests from Arab American communities—especially over the original lyrics referencing violence.
  • “There were very, very questionable lyrics in the opening song that played into kind of the idea of Orientalism as an implicit barbarism.” (49:39, Anjirbag)
• Corporate Response: Disney replaced the lyrics but left deeper issues untouched, showing the limits of surface-level fixes.
• Structural Issues: Colorism, linguistic coding of good and evil, and the dangers of mistaking commercial inclusion for true representation.

Live-Action Remakes: New Directions or Repetitions?

[53:57–58:02]

• “Difference without Distinction”: Recent remakes (e.g., Maleficent, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast) largely repeat rather than innovate.
  • “They're very much returning to nostalgic repetition as a method of commercial safety.” (56:24, Anjirbag)
• Missed Opportunities: While opening with promise, remakes mainly comfort adult nostalgia over creating new narratives or substantially expanding representation.

Who is This Book For?

[58:02–60:05]

• Wide Intended Audience: The book speaks to scholars, students, educators, librarians, policymakers, and anyone wrestling with questions of belonging and imaginary worlds.
  • “I’m hoping that I wrote a book that lets people have the language to articulate better questions.” (59:13, Anjirbag)

What’s Next?

[60:15–62:13]

• Upcoming Projects: Michelle’s next book will analyze Disney’s “norms” and their role in the construction of the children’s canon, broadening her focus beyond fairy tales.
  • Exploring adult adaptations of classics (e.g., Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh) and their afterlives.

Memorable Quotes & Moments

• “We have to look at the thing that has become so big that we assume everybody understands it because it is reshaping our media spaces and it’s reshaping our story spaces.” – Michelle Anjirbag [06:29]
• “Authenticity is realized when people who belong to the culture that is represented can confidently say that they see themselves represented in the work.” – Michelle Anjirbag [20:28]
• “There are pockets where they can do things very, very well. I just…think that anything with a giant corporation, you’re going to have some things that are done better, and then...some other things are going to get overlooked, because it’s all gonna boil down, do you have the knowledge in the room to avoid the pitfalls?” – Michelle Anjirbag [25:54]
• “The legacy of Aladdin…shows, number one, that representing the other is commercially viable. But it also does, in many ways, set up a template for misappropriation, and that misappropriation can also be commercially viable.” – Michelle Anjirbag [53:12]
• “I’m hoping that this is a book that starts to help people navigate this. And it’s not that I have answers, but I’m hoping that I wrote a book that lets people have the language to articulate better questions.” – Michelle Anjirbag [59:13]

Key Timestamps

| Segment | Time | |-------------------------------------------|--------------| | Author background & approach | 01:34–04:50 | | Why focus on Disney? | 04:50–07:20 | | Disney in fairy tale academia | 07:20–10:43 | | Moving past “good/bad” binaries | 10:43–13:17 | | Adaptation vs. appropriation | 13:17–18:19 | | Authenticity debates | 18:48–22:06 | | Disney’s best/worst moments on race | 22:06–26:41 | | From dissertation to book | 27:32–37:32 | | Disney Renaissance and representation | 39:02–43:31 | | Aladdin as adaptation & controversy | 43:31–53:57 | | Live-action remake analysis | 53:57–58:02 | | Intended audience and impact | 58:02–60:05 | | New research directions | 60:15–62:13 |

This episode is essential listening for anyone interested in how powerful institutions like Disney shape—and misshape—our collective storytelling, especially along lines of race, culture, and authenticity. Anjirbag’s work emerges as both a critical intervention and a springboard for further dialogue in media, education, and society at large.