What is Disney doing?? |Reasons why the current Disney movies don’t seem as up to par as the classics|
With the next Walt Disney Pictures movie having been released in theaters today, I see now a better time as any to discuss a topic that has been plaguing the minds of Disney fans since the announcement of the movie; why has Disney been on such a decline?
I feel the need to remind everyone that the Writer’s Strike ended only recently and the production of movies has only slowed because of it. Without good writers, the good movies don’t come to fruition. The Actor’s Strike is soon to have its effects on the movie industry as well.
It also needs to be reminded that Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios are two separate groups. Pixar has always been focused on movies that are tear-jerkers and are angled towards emotions and human behavior. Walt Disney Animation Studios had these same themes, but only in subtext. Walt Disney Animation is best known for its princesses, heroism, and beautiful music. Examples that demonstrate each would be Coco for Pixar and Cinderella for Walt Disney. Both movies orchestrate the strengths of each studio and what makes them so different.
Wish is a newly released Walt Disney Animation production, which makes it different from its counterparts since Asha is not a princess nor is she a damsel in distress. She is more described as Tiana, headstrong and leading her own story, learning to save herself. Walt Disney Animation is also known for its genuinely horrifying villains and villainesses, people like Cruella De Vil, Scar, Frollo, and Rattigan. Walt Disney Animation is also known for its classic and renaissance eras, where they really began to test themselves.
Wish is no different than when Treasure Planet came out. It is Disney testing out what consumers enjoy and what they don’t. They had success with Frozen, Encanto, and Moana, who all have save-themself female leads. But it also had the same style as Tangled. Very little style or character differences have been shown. Disney has always had a knack for testing out different ideas and the movies that fail, fail. Movies like the aforementioned Treasure Planet, Dinosaur, and Brother Bear each test new stories, character designs, and animation styles and are all box office flops, while movies that looks almost the same in style and design (Frozen, Moana, Tangled, etc.) have been successes and regarded as “peak Disney.”
But why is this?
Basic human psychology can explain this. We are comfortable with what we know.
Humans are creatures that, if they can help it, they will live has comfortably as possible, even if that mean letting good movies flop and not letting people simply have fun or live. Wish, as of opening day, has 47% on Rotten Tomatoes and 48% on Metacritic and has no public score yet.
Humans are not adventurous enough to let such a huge and aged company like Disney try something new, go into it with fresh eyes, and be honest instead of hate-bombing on opening night, which is a phenomenon that has occurred.
Disney’s Experiments
Disney is doing what Disney does best and experimenting. With releases of movies like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse, both with incredible popularity, Disney is scrambling to catch up and learn what animation style suits the public interest. Spiderman: Into and Across the Spiderverse were popular due to its comic book-esque style and the new story of Miles Morales who existed as Spiderman in the comics. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish also bounces into the comic and even anime style fights which made it stand apart from is realism-geared predecessor Puss in Boots, which tells a story of a familiar character from the Shrek movies.
This is not pandering to one audience and disregarding another, if anything, what Disney is trying to do is appease all groups (which everyone knows is impossible). If anything, it’s more of a sense of trying to appeal to age groups. They’re trying to keep the audience they have while trying to gain more audience (or win back ones they lost.)
Everyone has grown up with Disney, although there are people who don’t allow their kids to watch it, it’s whatever. I have grown up watching all stages of Disney, I have DVD’s and had VHS tapes of classics and direct-to-DVD sequels (I maintain that Brother Bear 2 is absolute trash), watched almost the entire Disney animated catalog including Pixar and Walt Disney Animation, enjoyed the vast majority of them. That is how I know that Disney has always experimented with ideas and styles. Disney portrayed a single mother and an absent father in Treasure Planet, Pixar gave us a beautiful friendship whose movies need to end while giving us very little romance with every single one of the Toy Story movies, which also portray acts of selflessness and selfishness, loyalty, and trust, sometimes all in one movie.
But do you want to know what the two highest grossing movies of Disney are? Frozen 2 and Frozen. Movies with a strong female lead, one who has no love interest, and musical. So guess what they try to replicate? The exact same thing. Their top five movies are made up of mostly sequels, Incredibles 2, Frozen 2, Toy Story 4, and Toy Story 3. This further supports the fact that people love what they know and often times refuse to try anything new.
“Wokism”
What is this sudden idea? Being woke? I know of no such thing!
I’m joking, clearly. I’m on the younger side, which automatically classifies me as either thinking old or thinking new. I’m on the thinking new. I listen to LGBTQ+, minorities, races, and I try not to fund wars.
There is a sudden idea that every single company who opposes the left political stance will suddenly be ostracized and never forgiven. While the former stands pretty true, Disney has made reparations to the communities it hurt and continues to create stories that everyone loves. But some people think this means is that suddenly gays and trans people will “take over the screen” and the “agenda” will be “shoved down our throats.” Yes. Those are the words people use. Most the gay characters in more recent Disney movies are not only few and far between but their queerness plays very little to the story. Example being the lesbian cop in Onward. She only mentions that she has a girlfriend, in passing conversation, to relate to who she thinks is her coworker, who finds himself in a tough position; trying to be a father figure to Ian and Barley, who also seemingly want nothing to do with him.
Another character? Lake from Pixar’s Elemental. They are nonbinary and I would not have guessed or known if nobody talked about it in media, because it was not talked about in the movie.
LeFou is a character that is often counted in the list of gay characters but is not confirmed to be one. I completely understand why he is included, though, since his infatuation with Gaston is not straight in the slightest.
The only character that comes to mind whose homosexual tendencies has anything to do with the story is the boy from Strange World, who expresses multiple times to his father and grandfather that he has a crush on a boy he knows, but he’s way too nervous to talk to him.
Disney is also said to be pandering to the “liberal agenda”. With what else, I’m not sure. Rainbows? I think that’s the other thing? Which is wild since rainbows are natural and have been depicted in Disney for years.
So, Wish.
One of the movies biggest criticisms is that it looks unfinished, which was something I agreed on until I noticed the stylistic similarities between it and Sony and Dreamwork’s newest movies; Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse. I noticed that not only are they sequels, sure, but they use alternative animation styles, which is why they stand out.
To release Wish and Elemental in the same year as two powerhouses was a set up for failure. Both movies test out different styles and tell different stories. Today we’re focusing on Wish. As mentioned before, Wish had seemed unfinished when the trailer first came out but this is because it is trying to mimic the styles of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse. Disney knew what they needed to do and knew they had to do it fast. Hence why it looks a little rushed, the villain doesn’t seem like it’s usual ones, and the music seems subpar.
But the media doesn’t help.
Most recently I saw a little video (specifically on Instagram reels) that showed a villain song, Be Prepared from the classic Lion King, the direct scene from the movie, and then showed either a scene from the sing-a-long edition or the music video for the villain’s song in Wish. This was something else that set it up for failure, trying to compare something old to something new.
What is Disney Doing?
Disney is making the attempt to appeal to the older groups by merging the ideas that Pixar uses as a main point as well as subtext to drive a point home (because they know you’re traumatized, just like the rest of us, you just don’t realize it). They are also trying to appeal further by making changes to animation style and general plot schematics. They’re trying to appeal to the younger generation by using something already known; pretty woman lead who sings.
Something that Disney also did is have Asha as a character on Disney on Ice before her movie was even released, which was a general stupid idea. Every other character on the On Ice show is well loved because their movie was given time to be loved, while Disney just seems impatient for people to love Asha, which, honestly just makes others not want to view it out of spite and pettiness. Which I understand, I’ve been feeling that, too.
This is all an attempt to generate more money, which seemingly worked in the past. Wish is just another one of Disney’s devices to try and keep up with the ever changing taste in the public, just let it be. While Disney has been going about it wrong, it doesn’t mean the movie is bad, and if you enjoy it, that doesn’t mean that you’re wrong to or that everyone’s wrong to hate it. Watch the movie if you want, just go in with an open mind and try not to be stuck in the old ways.
