Phroobar
Well-Known Member
Well, if you love badly written and acted teen WB shows, it will be right up your alley. The only good acting was from everyone under 4 1/2 feet tall.
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'Strange World' Disney's 2022 Animated Film
- Thread starter NateD1226
- Start date
Step above a CW show... but only just.
ILoveWDW4ever
Member
I meant Wednesday!
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
I used to feel this way. Then I realised the importance of allyship, particularly given that those who dislike us tend to group us all together as deviants anyway. We are stronger together.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
This is a really depressing thread. Some here seem genuinely gleeful about the film's failure. That makes no sense to me coming from people who profess to be Disney fans.
ILoveWDW4ever
Member
Compare it to NFL.
You love your team. But your team stinks, or is simply average…. You start to root for them to lose so that things actually change. So you get a higher draft pick, or new executives to run the show.
That’s what this is. These films, and shows, are being steadfastly rejected. So hopefully!!! It leads to change.
RobWDW1971
Well-Known Member
On the entertainment (not fan) business sites, there are incredibly interesting discussions about what this film's failure and complete market rejection (and the recent bombs of "Bros" and "Lightyear") mean for the future of mainstream gay themed content both for adults and kids.I imagine the reason for the set-up is the exact reason that we aren't allowed to discuss here for some bizarre reason. It's the ultimate The Emperor Has No Clothes scenario, where we all know it but no one is allowed to say it. If the author of this article did come out and say it, he'd be blasted as a hate-monger and horrible bigot who must be fired from his blogging job immediately and cancelled from polite society forever.
Which is the part I find the most damning. They designed and manufactured toys, books, and children's clothing for Strange World. Then purposely didn't send all that merch to stores at Christmas, and only offered it online in backwater search tabs. That's really weird!
I'm going to go out on a limb and risk having my post deleted or "reported" by someone with hurt feelings and say that the plot and story arcs of the main Strange World characters, namely Ethan and how his family responds to him, was shoehorned into the story a couple years ago after the story had already been developed. Then the Ethan character and all the supportive pablum the other characters heap on him doomed this movie with test audiences. And in the months leading up to the film's release, the popular governor of Florida was cruising to an easy landslide victory in November's election, just to rub salt in Burbank's wounds.
So Disney had no choice but to bury the film and take the loss. Pull the children's merch from distribution, run only a few ads in the few days before opening, and hope to God no one makes a big deal about it.
The fact that male audiences over age 25 hated this movie is proof that a big mistake was made with the story development for Strange World. This should have been the ultimate father/son adventure guy movie! The 2020's version of Cars and a big money maker in merch and boys t-shirts and a sequel. But obviously, it is not.
So in Burbank's defense, this is perhaps the best last minute scenario they could come up with for this film.
I don't envy them though.
To have wide releases of gay-themed movies (both for adults and family audiences) open on thousands of screens within a couple of months and all have historic, terrible openings, warrants reflection on the financial risk of these projects (not to mention the long-term impact to a family oriented brand like Disney).
Some truly interesting insight, but we'll go back to talking about bus shelters and "Pepto-Bismol colors" here for some bizarre reason.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
But some of you are misidentifying the issue and therefore hoping for a kind of change that I find totally objectionable, because it's basically asking Disney to pander to reactionary fearmongering. Wherever we stand on the issue ideologically, we all know that Disney is never going to go back to making films that don't feature queer characters and romances. The shift has happened, and it's permanent.
I agree that lessons should be learnt from the poor reception of Lightyear (which I found extremely boring) and Strange Word (which I haven't seen yet and so can't really comment on). But those lessons have to do with storytelling, marketing, etc. Representation and diversity are not the problem here.
ILoveWDW4ever
Member
Of course not!!! Representation and diversity for the sake of checking boxes. That’s the problem.
Modern Family. One of the most successful shows in TV history featured a gay family! It was a mammoth, spectacular success. Why didn’t all these bigots and fear mongers “review bomb” that show?
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
For this to up to scrutiny, we have to imagine a scenario whereby the team making Lightyear were so overwhelmed with the task of designing non-white, non-straight characters—checking boxes, to borrow your phrase—that they forgot or neglected to write a good story. It's an untenable and frankly nonsensical argument, particularly in the case of a film whose eponymous protagonist remains as traditional as they come.
DisneyHead123
Well-Known Member
I thought the general consensus was that it bombed with test audiences and so Disney decided to cut their losses by not spending millions on advertising? Political environment might have played a part but that also would have been around the time that Chapek was looking at the disappointing earnings numbers that ultimately lost him his job. It might conceivably be yet another case of penny pinching.
CaptainMickey
Well-Known Member
Interesting to hear the different viewpoints. A lot of people feel Lightyear and Strange World was the pandering.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
I'm gay and didn't feel pandered to at all by Lightyear; it had one blink-and-you'd-miss-it same-sex kiss. Yeah, I was happy to see some queer representation, but I also wanted an enjoyable plot, which the movie failed to deliver. It would have been the same boring film had that character been written as straight.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
Andor for one. A fantastic show with a very diverse cast. Ergo, representation and diversity are not the problem here.
Magenta Panther
Well-Known Member
It's not a problem for Andor. Which, BTW, is not a theatrical film, but a series on streaming. Apples and oranges.
But, just to be asking...why did the movie "Bros" flop? One of its actors, Billy Eichner, has stated that he believes that some people's attitudes towards diversity and representation was definitely a factor...
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TwilightZone
Well-Known Member
Like I've said before here, none of the advertising hints at any of the characters being gay at all. In fact I didn't even know it starred a gay character until I visited this forum. The closest there is in any of the advertisments was a character who, to me anyways, has a stereotypical "gay voice".
The most obvious thing about the characters in the trailer is that its a mixed family. Disney has released many movies recently starring people from other cultures that made more bank than Strange World, so its not that either.
It's just a bland looking movie from trailers alone.
The most obvious thing about the characters in the trailer is that its a mixed family. Disney has released many movies recently starring people from other cultures that made more bank than Strange World, so its not that either.
It's just a bland looking movie from trailers alone.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
It's not a problem for any well-made production with compelling characters and a richly developed plot. If you won't accept Andor as relevant proof, try Moana, Coco, and Encanto.
I have not seen Bros and so cannot comment on it.
LittleBuford
Well-Known Member
I'm looking forward to watching it when it hits Disney+. I still haven't resumed going to the cinema (except a few drive-in experiences, which have been awesome).
One thing I miss from the old days (besides hand-drawn animation) are love stories. Disney hasn't done one of those in quite a while.
Magenta Panther
Well-Known Member
We're not talking about content. We're talking about audience reactions to content. That's where your denial is creeping in. Eichner might be harsh in his assessment of his film's failure, but he might very well be right. And you might very well be wrong.
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Magenta Panther
Well-Known Member
There are no secrets in the Age of the Internet.