Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2022
Abstract
Alongside Walt Disney’s animated movies, television programming, and theme parks, scholars have examined The Walt Disney Studios’ True-Life Adventures series of live-action nature documentary films for their impact on popular culture. Historians, however, have mostly overlooked the significance of the True-Life Adventures for student learning about the natural world. Amending this historiographical shortcoming, this essay examines Disney’s innovative approach to wildlife filmmaking, describes viewers’ reactions to the True-Life Adventures’ educational qualities, and investigates the Studios’ efforts to use the films to enter the education market. The study breaks new ground by analyzing seldom accessed documents preserved in theWalt Disney Archives both to reveal how students, teachers, and college and university faculty responded to the films and to examine the extension of the nature documentaries through related media.
Recommended Citation
Charles Dorn, “‘I Never Saw as Good a Nature Show Before’: Walt Disney, Environmental Education, and the True-Life Adventures,” History of Education Quarterly (2022), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1017/heq.2022.12.
Included in
American Studies Commons, Education Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, History Commons