'Strange World' Disney's 2022 Animated Film

[MisterPenguin]

He didn't? Then how do you interpret this direct quote from a prepared communication from Bob Chapek two days ago?

CEO Bob Chapek said in a memo to division leads sent Friday and obtained by CNBC. “Hiring for the small subset of the most critical, business-driving positions will continue, but all other roles are on hold. Your segment leaders and HR teams have more specific details on how this will apply to your teams.”

Chapek added: “As we work through this evaluation process, we will look at every avenue of operations and labor to find savings, and we do anticipate some staff reductions as part of this review.”

You think a CEO like Bob Chapek announces "some staff reductions" without meaning it just to keep folks on their toes and working productively through Christmas? Or just to improve morale?

Disney plans hiring freeze, layoffs and cost cuts, according to a memo from CEO Bob Chapek

"We are limiting headcount additions through a targeted hiring freeze," Disney CEO Bob Chapek said in a memo obtained by CNBC.

www.cnbc.com

Disney plans to freeze hiring and cut some jobs, memo shows

Walt Disney Co is planning to freeze hiring and cut some jobs as it strives to move the Disney+ streaming service to profitability against a backdrop of economic uncertainty, according to a memo seen by Reuters on Friday.

www.reuters.com

If you freeze new hires, then you will naturally have a reduced staff as people leave for the usual reasons and they're not replaced. You then move around the people that are left and in the end you wind up with "some staff reductions." It wasn't labeled "layoffs."

And while some staffing is reduced in a hiring freeze, they will still hire as needed, see emboldened red text above.

Small staff reduction + hiring small subset of critical positions = a wash


But, go ahead and paint this as layoffs.

 

[TP2000]

But, go ahead and paint this as layoffs.

It's not me just sitting here and making this up out of thin air.

It's the major financial media out of New York City, plus the entertainment industry media out of Los Angeles, that have all used the word "layoffs" repeatedly to describe this news, while quoting directly from Chapek's prepared statement.

But if trashy, obscure rags like Variety and the Wall Street Journal don't meet your journalistic standards for entertainment industry business news, I don't know what else someone could say. Other than...

Strange World needs to perform very strongly at the box office in this type of business environment.

Disney to Begin Layoffs, Targeted Hiring Freeze and Limiting Travel

Disney will begin enacting layoffs, implementing a targeted hiring freeze and limiting company travel as part of a sweep cost-cutting move announced to leadership Friday.

variety.com

Disney Details Plans for Cost Cuts, Layoffs and Hiring Freeze in Memo

Chief Executive Bob Chapek announced company-wide cost-cutting measures and told division leaders that layoffs are likely, according to an internal memo viewed by the Journal. The moves come days after Disney reported lackluster earnings.

www.wsj.com

 

[celluloid]

An absolute idiot for producing Enchanted Two as a Disney Plus original. It would have been a holiday bangers after the Wakanda and Strange World market fized a bit just to have them heavy in the market grab for the second part of holiday releases.

 

[celluloid]

He didn't announce layoffs.

Stop tripping over yourself to make points against Disney and maybe you won't look foolish by posting false information like this.

I hope you have a big enough mouth for all the times you have to put your feet in it.

 

[_caleb]

back on topic, this movie has a terrible title which won’t help its chances either

You don’t have to like it, but the title is evocative of the pulp fiction that inspired the film. MANY of those had titles like “Strange Stories,” Strange Worlds,” etc.

https://www.murphysmultiverse.com/director-don-hall-details-the-pulpy-influences-of-strange-world/

 

[TalkingHead]

No worse than it’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World; The World is Not Enough; Dr. Strange; Stranger Things; and on and on….

Yeah nope, it’s worse than those. Sounds like it could be Strange World, Stranger World, or Strange Worlds. It’s a vague colorless title that promises blandness instead of pulp adventure. It’s a bad title.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

An absolute idiot for producing Enchanted Two as a Disney Plus original. It would have been a holiday bangers after the Wakanda and Strange World market fized a bit just to have them heavy in the market grab for the second part of holiday releases.

The new Tim Allen Clause movie is straight to D+ also, I doubt it would have a massive box office but it seems odd to miss out on $50-$100 million.

I know they are trying to push people to D+ but I don’t think exclusives like these are the things that are going to get people to sign up, that’s what Mandalorian, the Marvel series, Imagineering story, etc are for.

 

[TalkingHead]

You don’t have to like it, but the title is evocative of the pulp fiction that inspired the film. MANY of those had titles like “Strange Stories,” Strange Worlds,” etc.

https://www.murphysmultiverse.com/director-don-hall-details-the-pulpy-influences-of-strange-world/

Maybe in print magazines, which were anthologies and necessarily vaguely titled. But not in the cinematic tradition. There’s a reason it was Raiders of the Lost Ark instead of Mysterious Object.

 

[_caleb]

Maybe in print magazines, which were anthologies and necessarily vaguely titled. But not in the cinematic tradition. There’s a reason it was Raiders of the Lost Ark instead of Mysterious Object.

So you think a movie about discovering/exploring a strange world titled “Strange World” is too vague?

 

[TalkingHead]

So you think a movie about discovering/exploring a strange world titled “Strange World” is too vague?

Where’s discovering or exploring in the title? That’s why pulp titles often followed the Flash Gordon and… or Indiana Jones and… formula. Because those characters are doing the discovering and exploring. This title suggests nothing about the characters, and perhaps even indicates an ensemble of weak forgettable characters. See how it works?

 

[Animaniac93-98]

The new Tim Allen Clause movie is straight to D+ also, I doubt it would have a massive box office but it seems odd to miss out on $50-$100 million.

It's a series, not a movie so that makes sense.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

An absolute idiot for producing Enchanted Two as a Disney Plus original. It would have been a holiday bangers after the Wakanda and Strange World market fized a bit just to have them heavy in the market grab for the second part of holiday releases.

Strange World should have gone straight to Disney+, given the obvious lack of confidence for the title, with Disenchanted being the Thanksgiving theatrical release (like the original was 15 years ago).

 

[_caleb]

Where’s discovering or exploring in the title? That’s why pulp titles often followed the Flash Gordon and… or Indiana Jones and… formula. Because those characters are doing the discovering and exploring. This title suggests nothing about the characters, and perhaps even indicates an ensemble of weak forgettable characters. See how it works?

I get what you’re saying now. You want it to be more descriptive. “Exploring A Strange World” or “Searcher Clade and the Strange World” or something. That’s not “how it works” that’s how you want it to work.

But since this is a one-off, standalone film and NOT a serial or anthology, riffing on the classic strange/weird/fantastic titles by putting it in the singular works for me.

Also, Disney has a lot of experience with titles that sell (or hurt) family films. Remember the rationale behind “Tangled” rather than “Rapunzel?” Or “Frozen” rather than “The Snow Queen?” And you mentioned the box-office bomb John Carter (which was adapted from A Princess of Mars). With multiple trailers and social media, maybe simpler titles work better?

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

It's a series, not a movie so that makes sense.

I didn’t realize that, interesting.

 

[MisterPenguin]

I hope you have a big enough mouth for all the times you have to put your feet in it.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I didn’t realize that, interesting.

I thought it was a movie too, then saw 6 different release dates and realized it was a mini series.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

I thought it was a movie too, then saw 6 different release dates and realized it was a mini series.

Another example of Disney struggling with their advertising, I’m a huge Disney fan, a huge D+ fan, a huge Tim Allen fan, and a huge Christmas fan… and yet I had no idea this wasn’t just a straight to video movie.

This is great news, it’s just pathetic I had to learn about it here rather than directly from Disney.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Another example of Disney struggling with their advertising, I’m a huge Disney fan, a huge D+ fan, a huge Tim Allen fan, and a huge Christmas fan… and yet I had no idea this wasn’t just a straight to video movie.

This is great news, it’s just pathetic I had to learn about it here rather than directly from Disney.

Their advertising seems to have become nonexistent, at least in anything I’m seeing. Even Wakanda Forever, most of the ads I have seen have been for other things (Sprite, Target) and not the movie itself. I’m not sure I’ve seen anything for Strange World.

 

[MisterPenguin]

There was a TV ad for Strange World in the latest episode of Star Girl.

 

[_caleb]

Releasing a film on Disney+ isn’t missing an opportunity to make money, it’s keeping subscribers. I’m not sure why some here seem to think box office= good films (that Disney is confident in) and D+ for poor films that won’t make money.