Reversing Power Dynamics: The Commodification of Disney Within the Kingdom Hearts Series

This paper is concerned with the role that The Walt Disney Company’s licenses play within the Kingdom Hearts series, developed by Japanese company Square Enix and directed by Tetsuya Nomura. This franchise has been a major success worldwide, and it is not only because of Disney’s presence; the game displays a large array of original ideas that have enchanted millions of fans worldwide. The aim of this research is to shine light upon the many nuances this video game franchise presents. This research demonstrates how Kingdom Hearts challenges the traditional notion of Disney as a cultural imperialist force. This is due to Square Enix commodifying the larger power, while denoting a deeper correlation between the methods of the two companies. Furthermore, the fact that Disney hands a generous portion of its licenses to a foreign company to be managed and adapted to a completely alien environment, is an occurrence rarely seen before/in the past. The research question reads: How does...Show moreThis paper is concerned with the role that The Walt Disney Company’s licenses play within the Kingdom Hearts series, developed by Japanese company Square Enix and directed by Tetsuya Nomura. This franchise has been a major success worldwide, and it is not only because of Disney’s presence; the game displays a large array of original ideas that have enchanted millions of fans worldwide. The aim of this research is to shine light upon the many nuances this video game franchise presents. This research demonstrates how Kingdom Hearts challenges the traditional notion of Disney as a cultural imperialist force. This is due to Square Enix commodifying the larger power, while denoting a deeper correlation between the methods of the two companies. Furthermore, the fact that Disney hands a generous portion of its licenses to a foreign company to be managed and adapted to a completely alien environment, is an occurrence rarely seen before/in the past. The research question reads: How does Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts video game series challenge the traditional view of Disney as a cultural imperialist force in East Asia? In order to answer this question the research explores the discourse of past research written on the topics of Japanese role-playing-games, Disney, cultural imperialism, as well as analysing the video game series itself. This paper argues that the Kingdom Hearts franchise is a one-of-a-kind representation of transnational cooperation, existing outside of the boundaries of cultural imperialism and which reflects the similitude of two different international actors.Show less

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Reversing Power Dynamics: The Commodification of Disney Within the Kingdom Hearts Series