A Spirited 15 Rounds ...

[Da Man]

They have been desperately scrambling to do everything they can to maintain a semblance of control as they navigate this new world, where a few hours of social media outrage can destroy a person or fatally damage a brand (potentially affecting billions of dollars) in the span between breakfast and lunchtime.

This is really all that is relevant in this situation, and I commend AEfx for being one of the few people that 'gets' it. If anything, Disney could be argued to be heavily left of center, politically-speaking.

But politics don't enter into this equation. Time and again, BRANDS lay in the weeds while a Twitter/Facebook/Youtube kerfuffle breaks open and builds steam. The corporate heads of PR sit and wait it out, assuming the energy and steam will fizzle (this is especially prevalent on a weekend).

Except for when it doesn't.

By the time the dust settles, multiple heads are rolling, years of planning and developing for a project have to placed on hold or cancelled ,and billions - yes, BILLIONS - can be lost.

The lesson has been learned. Cut off the beast's head before it can fully emerge from the cave.

Or as a friend of mine in HR recently said, 'Nuke it from orbit - it's the only way to be sure.'

For the record, I think what James Gunn did to start this whole fiasco was incredibly obtuse, especially when you have a closet full of skeletons sitting 10 years back. But Disney really over-reacted here. An apology tour by Mr. Gunn, reaching across the aisle to Ben Shapiro, and the requisite donations to a few children's causes would have probably cleaned this up. Especially with the Mouse's PR machine distributing the images of everything.

Also, for the record, what James Gunn tweeted 10 years ago was disgusting. And let us also keep in mind he wasn't 17 years old when he wrote these things. His adult maturity level was fairly cemented by that time.

 

[WDWTank]

Mickey's 90th Birthday portrait just got revealed at comic con titled "Spreading Happiness Around the World” and “features Mickey floating over a world full of happiness.”

The painting was done by Disney animator Mark Henn

Awesome!

 

[Rodan75]

Just want to point out that Disney’s vote on the Fox acquisition is this upcoming Friday. Trump’s closeness to these figures likely impacted Disney’s decision making because they don’t want something minor to kill their deal.

Unfortunately I do think this was a bigger factor. During comic-con wasn’t an ideal time to announce a firing, they could have just required Gunn to sit out Comic-Con while they ‘investigate’. Marvel Studios already had minimal presence there.

 

[solidyne]

Mickey's 90th Birthday portrait just got revealed at comic con titled "Spreading Happiness Around the World” and “features Mickey floating over a world full of happiness.”

The painting was done by Disney animator Mark Henn

Wrong Mickey! The dimensionality is anachronistic, and what those wrinkles? How dare this guy......wait, wrong thread.

 

[Phil12]

Not to derail the topic but I just have to give another shamless plug to SeaWorld and their Electric Ocean event. If you're in Orlando this summer, and are able to, cancel a Disney night and head over to this hidden gem and see what a true nighttime theme party is really like!! Plus, you'll get to see the second greatest nighttime show in town too

But SeaWorld is not Steve-O approved:

 

[the.dreamfinder]

Wrong Mickey! The dimensionality is anachronistic, and what those wrinkles? How dare this guy......wait, wrong thread.

Some of the later Hench portraits were pretty bad, but they seem to work better.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Fifty plus years from now, the GotG films will be shown in film schools as exemplary films of their time.

. . . I think you may be overestimating the cinematic significance of Guardians of the Galaxy.

However I do think you’re right that it’s dicey to mess with the alchemy of a successful property like this. I’m sure they will simply hire a new director for the third film, but I bet the audience will feel that as they watch it.

Not that I’m necessarily sticking up for Gunn.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Mickey's 90th Birthday portrait just got revealed at comic con titled "Spreading Happiness Around the World” and “features Mickey floating over a world full of happiness.”

The painting was done by Disney animator Mark Henn

Some of the later Hench portraits were pretty bad, but they seem to work better.

I think I’m of the mind that this new portrait feels like a hollow throwback to these without any meaningful new content of its own.

The first Hench seems to be pretty inarguably the most successful of the bunch. The new one does a little more work to capture his likeness than the last few of Hench’s, but it does’t do anything to speak to Mickey’s character. Sprinkling pixie dust over the world from a collection of Balloons? Is that was Mickey does? There’s no “there” there. The base level of portraiture isn’t even any longer about likeness as much as it is telling you about the subject through other means, and on that front this one’s pretty flaccid.

It’s basically a nod to the portraits of the past more than it is an actual portrait of Mickey, which almost makes it a more compelling portrait of the state of the Walt Disney Company. Say what you want about some of those Hench paintings, they all had at least some richness in their storytelling.

EDITED to add: TLDR: At least the old ones were artful.

 

[Pixieish]

While I was the first to point out earlier that this was not identical to the Roseanne situation because of the time issue, it is disingenuous, or at the very least naive, to want to think that they don't have more in common than not. They both were clearly jokes, and even if you don't believe Roseanne that she thought she was making a joke about another white woman, does anyone really want to try to get into the weeds with what Gunn actually said and claim that a racist joke is worse than vile pedophile jokes?

In both cases, the outrage that fueled the action Disney took was politically motivated. When you look even broader, as these Outrage incidents keep happening it is becoming rather clear that it doesn't matter if "back then 'nearly everyone' was" doing something, or it supposedly wasn't a big deal at the time. Has #metoo taught us nothing?

In the reactions to Gunn's firing, I have seen quite a folks having a difficult time coming to terms with the fact that we have made our beds with this brave new world we have created. Social media/outrage culture has been weaponized, with a rigid ideology that ignores all context and intention. The biggest thing people are missing with Gunn is the message that the Al Franken situation should have already demonstrated - now that this spark has been lit, you don't get to control where the fire spreads.

I keep seeing people and articles try to claim that "well, the problem is the demand here came from terrible far-right wingers!" like that matters. at all. I mean, people really seem to not understand that companies like Disney haven't been on some noble social justice crusade with them, trying to "do the right thing". They have been desperately scrambling to do everything they can to maintain a semblance of control as they navigate this new world, where a few hours of social media outrage can destroy a person or fatally damage a brand (potentially affecting billions of dollars) in the span between breakfast and lunchtime.

Outrage culture has demanded that zero tolerance is the only acceptable policy. And zero tolerance is, well, zero tolerance. It is too late to go back now, and start deciding that we get to pick and choose who gets to pick up the weapon and use it. Once you have decided that "it was just a joke" or "I didn't know then what I know now..." is not an excuse, and an apology or offer of penance isn't enough - you don't get to retroactively say "all ties must be cut and the person banished, except when it is something that doesn't personally offend me or that is from someone I really like or agree with otherwise".

It has never been about corporations sharing social justice aspirations - they do these things to shut up the outrage on social media as quickly as possible, in a desperate effort to mitigate the damage done to them to bide their time until a mob gathers to decide who the next target is.

i.e. The Salem Witch Trials. We're making the same mistakes we made 300 years ago.

 

[Mike S]

i.e. The Salem Witch Trials. We're making the same mistakes we made 300 years ago.

Those who don’t learn history are doomed to repeat it.

 

[AEfx]

Just want to point out that Disney’s vote on the Fox acquisition is this upcoming Friday. Trump’s closeness to these figures likely impacted Disney’s decision making because they don’t want something minor to kill their deal.

I'm sorry - you are way too smart to actually believe that kind of conspiracy theory, LOL.

What the swift action they took here once this became a "thing" really demonstrates is that, like Roseanne, they had already made the decision of what they would do if and/or when the proverbial crap hit the fan. No company makes such massive action in just a few hours after something comes to light. It didn't matter if someone liberal or someone conservative made a stink about Gunn's past, the same thing would have happened.

This is really a wake-up call, folks - this is the new normal. Zero tolerance. It doesn't matter if "he's not really a pedophile", or "he was just joking" or "he said he is sorry" - we have set the standard that we do not accept those things, that what matters was, you said it, now you pay the price.

If you were fine with when this same exact thing happened to Milo Yiannopoulos (someone unearthed a years-old joke about pedophilia he made and suddenly he loses his job and book deal) then it is time to do some soul searching. Did you take the time to ask if perhaps he was a victim of abuse and was making a joke to cope, as you did for Gunn? (I don't know enough about Gunn to know if that is true, but it was in Yiannopoulos case).

When I see people making excuses for Gunn but not for others because they disagree with them politically, I'm starting to realize that some honestly are not aware of the fact that the monster that has been created will turn on anyone, regardless of how you feel about their politics or them personally. We don't get to pick and choose who the rules apply to and who we give a pass.

 

[AEfx]

Unfortunately I do think this was a bigger factor. During comic-con wasn’t an ideal time to announce a firing, they could have just required Gunn to sit out Comic-Con while they ‘investigate’. Marvel Studios already had minimal presence there.

That's just it, though. There was nothing really to "investigate". He said what he said. Indefensible comments are indefensible - these are the rules we have set.

Just like Roseanne, they already had decided what to do when crap hit the fan, they were prepared for it. Do you really think Disney decided in the span of like 3 or 4 hours to cancel its new #1 television show, or to fire a director from his billion dollar franchise? The company has already established this is how they do things now - people are just questioning and trying to come out with alternate explanations for what just happened because of the politics of where the outrage originated.

If anything, announcing it now with SDCC also was in their best interest in mitigating the damage the social media mob could do - the story is getting buried with the 100's of other stories coming out from SDCC. This keeps it from blowing up in the same way Roseanne did, when it was a slow general news day and it was the only entertainment story of note. In a way, it actually was the ideal time to do it - people are too busy fan-girling about the return of The Clone Wars and all the other major reveals and by next week the zeitgeist will have already passed the entire story by.

 

[Princess Leia]

Marvel fans launch petition to have James Gunn return to Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.3
https://metro.co.uk/2018/07/21/marv...turn-guardians-galaxy-vol-3-director-7744572/

Bit of an update- Selma Blair is now circulating one of the petitions. So while I think it’s fair to think that Disney isn’t rehiring him solely on a fan petition, actors sharing the petition might help change things (though I kind of feel what’s done is done unfortunately)

 

[AEfx]

Bit of an update- Selma Blair is now circulating one of the petitions. So while I think it’s fair to think that Disney isn’t rehiring him solely on a fan petition, actors sharing the petition might help change things (though I kind of feel what’s done is done unfortunately)

Yeah, there is no going back here. They have taken a stand. I mean, can you imagine? "Look, Disney is condoning abhorrent and disgusting pedophile jokes!" It is over, no doubt.

 

[Pixieish]

Bit of an update- Selma Blair is now circulating one of the petitions. So while I think it’s fair to think that Disney isn’t rehiring him solely on a fan petition, actors sharing the petition might help change things (though I kind of feel what’s done is done unfortunately)

I've mentioned that same petition in the other thread. It's up to almost 120,000 signatures at this point. Dave Bautista has spoken on the matter again as well.

 

[solidyne]

Some of the later Hench portraits were pretty bad, but they seem to work better.

I was just being facetious, referring to the Mickey Railroad thread. I actually like all the Mickeys!

 

[Rodan75]

That's just it, though. There was nothing really to "investigate". He said what he said. Indefensible comments are indefensible - these are the rules we have set.

Just like Roseanne, they already had decided what to do when crap hit the fan, they were prepared for it. Do you really think Disney decided in the span of like 3 or 4 hours to cancel its new #1 television show, or to fire a director from his billion dollar franchise? The company has already established this is how they do things now - people are just questioning and trying to come out with alternate explanations for what just happened because of the politics of where the outrage originated.

If anything, announcing it now with SDCC also was in their best interest in mitigating the damage the social media mob could do - the story is getting buried with the 100's of other stories coming out from SDCC. This keeps it from blowing up in the same way Roseanne did, when it was a slow general news day and it was the only entertainment story of note. In a way, it actually was the ideal time to do it - people are too busy fan-girling about the return of The Clone Wars and all the other major reveals and by next week the zeitgeist will have already passed the entire story by.

You seem to think there are a lot more rules here than the rest of society. Yes the pitchforks and tiki torches come out way too quickly as you have described. But this situation is not Roseanne. It is not Harvey. It is not Lauer. It is a little more Joy Reid than anything.

The #MeToo movement has created a double edged sword, one that I think will eventually be handled with more nuance. You seem to think that we've already reached some dystopian end state, I choose to believe we aren't quite there yet. Proven Bad behaviors should be punished appropriately, bad words should be handled with a little less decisively.

 

[Pixieish]

You seem to think there are a lot more rules here than the rest of society. Yes the pitchforks and tiki torches come out way too quickly as you have described. But this situation is not Roseanne. It is not Harvey. It is not Lauer. It is a little more Joy Reid than anything.

The #MeToo movement has created a double edged sword, one that I think will eventually be handled with more nuance. You seem to think that we've already reached some dystopian end state, I choose to believe we aren't quite there yet. Proven Bad behaviors should be punished appropriately, bad words should be handled with a little less decisively.

I hope you're right - and much sooner than later.

 

[the.dreamfinder]

From your guardians

 

[Princess Leia]

From three of your guardians

Holy frick, Bautista

My guess- Saldana and Pratt will come out in support, but not for a few days. I think Cooper might try to lay low, though anything he does or doesn’t say will get brought up on the Star Is Born press tour later this year.