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'Strange World' Disney's 2022 Animated Film
- Thread starter NateD1226
- Start date
Wendy Pleakley
Well-Known Member
How did this thread segue into the fictional narrative that people are oppressed because they "aren't allowed" to say Christmas?
They even managed to shoehorn this into the Santa Clause TV show. They actually had a cringe line about "not being allowed to say Merry Christmas" in a literal TV show about Christmas.
They even managed to shoehorn this into the Santa Clause TV show. They actually had a cringe line about "not being allowed to say Merry Christmas" in a literal TV show about Christmas.
Phroobar
Well-Known Member
That is the whole point of Disney. Disney lives off nostalgia. That is the reason the parks are packed even with no fully operating rides. That is the reason we rewatch their movies.
ILoveWDW4ever
Member
Correct! The 70s and 80s were a bad time for Disney.
So, they changed course, got back to what made Disney animation the gold standard, and the Renaissance was born.
What they didn’t do was keep plowing ahead in the same direction hoping for audiences to change.
Phroobar
Well-Known Member
Disney is on a ten year tic-toc of good vs bad movies. Right now they are on a toc. Don't expect it to change for another eight years.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
I think you missed my point, which was to do with peaks and troughs in Disney’s history of filmmaking.
ILoveWDW4ever
Member
I see what you mean. However that is basically saying this is a natural phenomena that will simply correct itself.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
If we’re talking about animated feature films (and let’s include Pixar for the fun of it), the only recent offerings that have really done badly are Lightyear and Strange World. Some of you are making it seem as if we’ve been subjected to years and years of bad films, as if Coco, Encanto, and Luca never existed.
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LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
I take responsibility. I made the mistake of responding to a post by @TP2000 that mentioned Christmas, saying that I myself was a big fan of the holiday, and that prompted him to unleash the usual “War on Christmas” talking points.
This thread has become a dumping ground for reactionary grievances. The rage end resentment are palpable, even through all the witty repartee.
SuddenStorm
Well-Known Member
I love Trader Joe's, and Target. And as of about two days ago I started saying "Merry Christmas!" to any and all service workers. And I'm in a new town where none of these employees knows me yet. They light up and say "Merry Christmas!" right back at me. I wouldn't have been able to say that a week or two ago, because the Christmas spirit never hits me until about a week before Christmas.
But from now through Sunday? Watch out grinches! I'm on fire!
It's funny that when you are genuine with people how warmly they respond to you, even if the HR department and our moral betters don't approve of genuine warmth and cultural foundations.
I'm surprised you aren't shopping at Harmon's.
Disney Irish
Premium Member
Hopefully once this goes to D+ this thread and be retired and locked.
Heppenheimer
Well-Known Member
This is all just personal opinion, so I'll insert mine. I'm not sure if we have an official name for Disney Feature Animation's latest golden age, but I would say they were on a pretty strong run starting from Bolt in 2008 (or The Princess and the Frog in 2009, since I know Bolt is not universally loved) to Moana in 2016, with Encanto really being the only standout since then. None of the others were necessarily bad, they just weren't particularly memorable, with Ralph Breaks the Internet probably being the low point (and noting that I haven't seen Strange World yet).
For Pixar, I would say they were on a nearly flawless run from Toy Story in 1995 to Toy Story 3 in 2010, with the quality after that being all over the place, from the highs of Inside Out and Cocco to the lows of Cars 2 and Lightyear, and everything in between being kind of OK, but not great.
For lack of a better word, I'll use the word "woke", since I think what we all know what the word implies, even if we don't agree with its meaning or application, and I can't think of another that more succinctly refers to the phenomenon. I don't really blame the supposed "woke" tendencies of Disney nowadays for the decline in quality, since by my timeline, the drop occurred before these kinds of changes started to show up in the animated movies. But I do blame the studios for more recently seemingly putting greater emphasis on these kinds of "wokisms" than working out some of their increasingly obvious creative problems, and then using audience shaming as means to deflect criticism.
Phroobar
Well-Known Member
It corrects itself because executives see they are making no money so they change course. Movies take a long time to produce. They can't change course in a month. After a while of making money they get complacent and start straying from the formula and stupid ideas start creeping back in. We are in the mist of stupid ideas.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
This is the part I vehemently disagree with. To my mind, the dichotomy is entirely false. What you call “wokisms” are now standard in pretty much all mainstream entertainment, good or bad, Disney or otherwise. There is no correlation with quality.
As for “audience shaming”, the only people attributing the failure of Lightyear and Strange World to widespread homophobia (though they wouldn’t call it that) are those who think Disney is pursuing an “agenda”—see this thread for proof. Those of us who welcome the move towards greater inclusiveness are decidedly not reading anything ideological into the films’ poor performance.
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LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
My hope is that we actually start discussing the film itself.
Heppenheimer
Well-Known Member
No, I've seen clear examples of attempted audience shaming as a means of deflecting any criticism. Movies that would have failed whether or not they were inclusive, due to poor story, poor characterization, poor direction, or any other sort of poor execution, but the excuse offered back by the studios was "Well, those audience members just hate seeing empowerd women/minorities/homosexuals/etc."
This is a two-way street. There will be some reactionaries that primarily use inclusivity as the focus of their criticism, just as there will be content creators who use inclusivity as shield against valid criticism. That Ghostbusters film from a few years ago is probably the primary example of the two ends of the spectrum shouting insults at each other over a movie that really just wasn't very good.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
When has Disney ever said anything resembling this? Can you provide actual examples?
Heppenheimer
Well-Known Member
Marvel-associated personnel have made these statements in defense some of their lesser-assessed TV shows and movies. For a non-Disney example, Elizabeth Banks used sexism as the excuse on why her Charlie's Angels film was poorly received.
Neither Disney nor any other large corporation would ever put out an official statement like this. That's probably why every single DVD always contains the disclaimer about the "views expressed in the commentary are soley those of the individuals...". Even the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse DVDs have this disclaimer and I'm not even aware that these have a commentary track.
Maybe I shouldn't have said "but the excuse offered back by the studios was "Well, those audience members just hate seeing empowerd women/minorities/homosexuals/etc." because a studio itself, which only talks via ex cathedra communiques that have probably been filtered through an army of lawyers, wouldn't release such statements. But that hasn't stopped individual directors and actors from going on the offensive.
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lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
“What we were going for in this scene is really building up the sense of mystery around the Mystery Mousketool and how it would help Mickey.”
CaptinEO
Well-Known Member
Soul, Onward, Luca, Mulan Remake, Raya, and Turning Red all lost tons of money by being sent to Disney +. The company did not make money on these films. Encanto tanked in theaters but did become popular and hopefully has made its budget back in toy sales.
That is 6 films that lost money, and a lot of it. When Disney and Pixar finally went back to releasing films theatrically after two years of trying to subsidize Disney + they had two big bombs, Lightyear and Strangeworld. So now we are at 8 high budget films bombing.
Not saying the movies are good or bad, but none of them provided a profit or did good. It's a major embarassment.
Meanwhile pre 2019 Disney would make their films and license them to other streamers without having to pay for their own service to host it. D+ was a huge mistake financially and continues to be. Disney Animation and Pixar are in trouble. Marvel is still doing good theatrically and I think Avatar will also do fine. But Disney is not in a good place for either of their animated studios.
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