HMF
Well-Known Member
Which makes sense since anime is the only traditional animation that is actually produced now and obviously not by Disney.
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News Disney’s Boy Trouble: Studio Seeks Original IP to Win Back Gen-Z Men Amid Marvel, Lucasfilm Struggles
- Thread starter DisneyHead123
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HMF
Well-Known Member
Isn't Sonic in Nintendo's stable now?
Disney Irish
Premium Member
HMF
Well-Known Member
The 70s and early 80s were the nadir of Disney at least as far as the Animation Studio was concerned. The Parks at the time were great and carried the company but the studio's output at the time was pretty embarrassing and the Eisner/Wells team really did eventually change the company's trajectory. After the commercial disaster that was Black Cauldron. The Animation Studios content slowly started to improve with Great Mouse Detective and Oliver and Company but Mermaid was really what brought animation back to life, which led to the Disney Renaissance (Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Lion King.) Pocahontas was a very questionable concept rife with historical inaccuracies, Hunchback was brilliant and something today's Disney would never attempt. Hercules, Mulan and Tarzan were okay. I liked Fantasia 2000 but it was probably not a good idea to make it an IMAX exclusive. Atlantis, Lilo and Stitch, Treasure Planet and Brother Bear were okay. Home On The Range was a flaming dumpster fire.
HMF
Well-Known Member
So many of my childhood memories revolve around Fox Kids.
Tha Realest
Well-Known Member
As the father of young boys, I suspect a lot of this has to do with changes of media consumption. Video games and YouTube or the random mobile game are far more prevalent in their consumption habits than conventional TV. Movies still have a solid footing here, so that doesn’t completely explain it.
I think a bigger issue is Disney’s desire to expand its properties into more four-quadrant ones. There was a decided push to make conventional “boys” IPs like Marvel and Star Wars more palatable and marketable to girls/women. I don’t know if that push was successful but it seems to have lost the attention of its original core audience.
I think a bigger issue is Disney’s desire to expand its properties into more four-quadrant ones. There was a decided push to make conventional “boys” IPs like Marvel and Star Wars more palatable and marketable to girls/women. I don’t know if that push was successful but it seems to have lost the attention of its original core audience.
My 24 year-old daughter is the one who taught me about Mathmagicland. She saw it in school at one point.
erasure fan1
Well-Known Member
And they also dropped the ball on Minecraft. A ride based on that alone would be huge if done right. A highly themed area, not a whole land, in the studios, would be as close to Nintendo as you could come. The problem is Iger in all this. He hates games, doesn't understand the medium at all, so therefore has zero value to him outside of using their properties as micro transactions.
Dranth
Well-Known Member
Doesn't understand, sure, but hate, I doubt it. They've had problems with gaming long before Iger. Eisner was the first one to shutter in-house development which lead to Activision and Sony dumping cash grab style, direct to video level of trash into the market (with a few exceptions).
Development was eventually brought back in house and did well under Iger until the whole division fell on its face in 2014/15. At that point Iger did the same thing Eisner did, which funnily enough, is exactly what the anti-streaming folks seem to want Disney to do on that front, license it out to others while not dealing with any of the risk/cost.
CoastalElite64
Well-Known Member
The answer is anime and videogames. Disney has not fully embraced those mediums as much as they should have.
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
Disney did this to themselves! Disney purchased StarWars FOR THIS PURPOSE but then destroyed and replaced it!!! Its all their own fault.
Disney’s Boy Trouble: Studio Seeks Original IP to Win Back Gen-Z Men Amid Marvel, Lucasfilm Struggles
As Marvel and Lucasfilm stumble, Disney hopes originals will lure Gen Z audiences.variety.com
Interesting article on Disney movies / new IP. My impression is that there has been a cultural shift from classic narrative formats, where Disney generally excels, to bite sized, frenetic meme culture and various gamescapes.
If the purpose of the purchase was to appeal to males, immediately replacing the lead with a female does seem like a bit of a questionable choice. Like I can't in a million years imagine them doing the reverse - saying "You know, let's get rid of Elsa and have Frozen 3 be a movie that focuses largely on her son".
Vegas Disney Fan
Well-Known Member
My theory is Disney forgot what young men dream of being…having a light saber, having powers, and saving the Princess is what young men dream of, or being invincible, muscle clad, and defeating the bad guys, that’s what young men dream of, or being a spy with cool gadgets, who women fawn over while he saves the world, that’s what young men dream of, or being an adventurer who visits exotic places solving mysteries while defeating the bad guys… I think young men dream of being the idealized “man”… strong, handsome, rich, funny, smart, appealing to the ladies…
Disneys image of what young men dream of being is Pedro Pascal, I’d argue they dream of being Chris Helmsworth.
Disneys image of what young men dream of being is Pedro Pascal, I’d argue they dream of being Chris Helmsworth.
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Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
Legend has it George Lucas said Star Wars was intended for 12-year-old boys, a sentiment he reiterated as a core principle for the entire franchise.
Disney blew it.
Disney blew it.
Smugpugmug
Well-Known Member
I'm mostly a lurker but I am a Gen Z (although not male) so I thought I'd add my 2 cents.
I definitely agree with other comments about how my generation has less of an affinity for Disney compared to prior generations. When you bring up Disney in conversation, at least one person will moan about the lacking quality of Star Wars, Marvel, the live action remakes, etc. I am the rare person that has never seen a single Star Wars movie before so can't comment on that and I also have 0 interest in Marvel. I do find myself being less interested in Disney movies as time goes on as they aren't made "for me" but that's fine. Not everything has to appeal to me specifically. If anything I find myself watching Youtube more than watching something from a streaming service (and I'm not alone on that, at least in my circles).
What I find myself gravitating towards is anime and video games, so those comments are 100% correct. Everyone I meet that is in my age range watches at least 1 anime and/or plays some type of video game. So many people I know have a Switch 2. Plus gaming is just as nostalgic to me as any Disney film. Nintendo basically helped raise my sister and I lol But Disney has a...........interesting history with video games (i.e. not great). Disney's partnership with Fortnite didn't surprise me when that was announced but who knows how successful that'll be. I would love if Disney + Square Enix made a Kingdom Hearts anime; I know they tried 20+ years ago and that fell through but I feel like it would be popular.
I do think Disney has always struggled to appeal to the boy/young adult male demographic. Growing up I remember there being Atlantis, Treasure Planet and the Pirates movies. The first 2 of which bombed in the box office and aren't talked about that much outside of a cult following status (my sister LOVES Treasure Planet but I don't know anyone else who does in my personal life).
But I know it won't happen soon so in the mean time I've been watching and enjoying 2D animated films not made by Disney, which mostly come from Japan, France and Ireland.
I definitely agree with other comments about how my generation has less of an affinity for Disney compared to prior generations. When you bring up Disney in conversation, at least one person will moan about the lacking quality of Star Wars, Marvel, the live action remakes, etc. I am the rare person that has never seen a single Star Wars movie before so can't comment on that and I also have 0 interest in Marvel. I do find myself being less interested in Disney movies as time goes on as they aren't made "for me" but that's fine. Not everything has to appeal to me specifically. If anything I find myself watching Youtube more than watching something from a streaming service (and I'm not alone on that, at least in my circles).
What I find myself gravitating towards is anime and video games, so those comments are 100% correct. Everyone I meet that is in my age range watches at least 1 anime and/or plays some type of video game. So many people I know have a Switch 2. Plus gaming is just as nostalgic to me as any Disney film. Nintendo basically helped raise my sister and I lol But Disney has a...........interesting history with video games (i.e. not great). Disney's partnership with Fortnite didn't surprise me when that was announced but who knows how successful that'll be. I would love if Disney + Square Enix made a Kingdom Hearts anime; I know they tried 20+ years ago and that fell through but I feel like it would be popular.
I do think Disney has always struggled to appeal to the boy/young adult male demographic. Growing up I remember there being Atlantis, Treasure Planet and the Pirates movies. The first 2 of which bombed in the box office and aren't talked about that much outside of a cult following status (my sister LOVES Treasure Planet but I don't know anyone else who does in my personal life).
Absolutely agree with this. I would LOVE a return to 2D animated films from Disney. The 3D stuff isn't bad for the most part but that style will never replicate the magic of 2D animation.
But I know it won't happen soon so in the mean time I've been watching and enjoying 2D animated films not made by Disney, which mostly come from Japan, France and Ireland.
erasure fan1
Well-Known Member
I could have better clarified. He hates the idea of being in charge of studios. Because the video game landscape is too fickle for him. They would want to turn out licensed slop with micro transactions and battle passes. That would be a money loser extremely fast. Iger doesn't see games as a real viable business for them to be in outside of licensing to some of the worst monetizing companies in the industry. EA, Ubisoft, Epic...
Iger invested in fortnite because it makes 2 billion or so every month.
Dranth
Well-Known Member
Got it.
He certainly is a TV/Movie studio guy to the core so other areas often feel like they were/are taking a back seat with him, even the times when they aren't. I just think the Disney Infinity mess left too many scars for them to do much more than license out to others for now.
Tha Realest
Well-Known Member
Not just a legend - Ron Howard just repeated that sentiment on a press junket for his new movie when talking about the troubled production of Solo.
HMF
Well-Known Member
I do think that the Sequels which were an extremely cynical attempt to print money and objectively bad did have significant backlash. That being said a lot of the backlash was not taken seriously because some very out of touch fans inserted a lot of existing misogyny and racism into their arguments and hurt legitimate criticisms of them.
HMF
Well-Known Member
He doesn't seem to like Theme Parks either.