How Disney Took Over the World

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit skippedhistory.substack.com Today, writer and critic Vicky Osterweil explains how Disney didn't just make movies — it built the intellectual property regime that now shapes our economy, our culture, and, as it turns out, global vaccine access. In The Extended Universe: How Disney Killed the Movies and Took Over the World, Osterweil argues that Disney's business has never really been about movies. It's been about owning them and using the power of the state to protect that ownership at any cost. The animator who drew Mickey Mouse worked behind a literal curtain. The actress who voiced Snow White was informally blacklisted and never worked again. In 1976, Disney lobbied Congress to extend copyright law for everyone, slamming the door on the public domain that had given them Snow White, Cinderella, and The Three Little Pigs in the first place. Her argument? That IP protection (not magic, not imagination) is what Disney actually sells. And that it now shapes the entire economy. “I think we need to want more for ourselves,” she concludes. Vicky Osterweil is a Philadelphia-based writer, agitator, and worker, and the author of In Defense of Looting.