Disney Needs ‘Course Correction’ Away From Political Messaging, Says ‘Little Mermaid’ and ‘Aladdin’ Director

18 comments

1. Where “political messaging” apparently means having racialized characters. [Recently we saw Pixar’s movie Turning Red criticized for not being “relatable”](https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/turning-red-review-pulled-1.6377614) because it told a universal coming-of-age story through the lens of a Chinese-Canadian character.

   > “We weren’t trying to be woke, although I understand the criticism,” Musker said of “The Princess and the Frog.”

   People who call things “woke” are telling on themselves when they talk about the supposed political messages in non-political things.

2. I watched both Elemental and Wish. Elemental was much more political in its messaging. Wish was very safe and inoffensive. Yet Elemental made almost $500M and ended up a hit on streaming while Wish was a total flop. Elemental is the highest grossing original movie since Tenet by the way.

   Elemental’s themes of immigration, multi cultural relationships, and familial expectations were central to the story. While Wish is a standard Disney fairy tale story about a girl who wants to stop an evil wizard from stealing wishes.

   What Elemental had that Wish didn’t was heart. Elemental was a passion project for the director, it meant everything to him. Wish was meant to cater to the masses and end Disney’s 100th anniversary on a good note.

3. There’s nothing wrong with diversity. A live action Princess and the Frog could be neat, especially if they expand human Tiana’s role, as opposed to mostly frog stuff. That being said, a lot of people like the characters to look the way they did in the original version. Most of the disney remakes made sure to hire actors that resembled the animated versions. But they didn’t do that for The Little Mermaid for some reason.

4. I respect his career but thinking that Disney has “political messaging” is hilarious.

5. Political messaging is definitely part of their problem, but not the only thing going on. Alienating parts of their fan base through social media, actors/actresses alienating audiences with their own comments, modernizing movies in ways that fans aren’t interested in, creating live actions or remakes where the originals are being spat on as marketing for the new one, being direspectful to the silver and golden ages of Disney that were the foundations for the entirety of all cinema, sequels, lowering quality to save money, being out of touch with the fan base, dismantling what people love about the original in adaptations, so on and so forth.

   The problem with controversy to sell tickets is that people are no longer engaging with it – bad press is no longer good press. Between the economy and the over staturation of every entertainment market, no one wants to see things that arent in their interests. People definitely don’t want to see things where the creatives behind it have done everything in their power to alienate the customer theyre hoping to retain.

   In regards to the “woke” part of it all, those who believe in the phrase comprise at least 25% of America. Probably has an upwards limit of 40%. That’s a lot of people you’ve told not to see your film. We can say “good we dont want them to” all you want, but it turns out you’re losing 25 to 40% of ticket sales. Are you trying to make good movies, make profits, or sell your messaging because I dont think you get all three.

6. Disney has the same problem they’ve always had: formula. They find a formula that works and that’s all they make for the next 20 years until they run it into the ground. That’s what happened to their princess films. It’s what’s going on now with their super hero films. Their cartoons have the same issue too.

7. Gay and Black people exist. Deal with it.

8. What political messaging?

   The article didn’t mention an example except for the directors own movie which was in no way political messaging.

9. I think they’ve accidentally put themselves in a position where they’re now going to be accused of political messaging no matter what.

   If the original Little Mermaid or Aladdin films were released this year, Disney would be accused of ramming strong female leads down our throats.

10. I like the way everyone is reacting to the sensationalist title without reading the article.

    All he said was:

    “I think they need to do a course correction a bit in terms of putting the message secondary, behind entertainment and compelling story and engaging characters.

    You don’t have to exclude agendas, but you have to first create characters who you sympathize with and who are compelling.”

11. Or maybe it’s something as simple as casting the right people for the right role.

12. They forgot they’re making art. Focus on making quality films. Invest in writers and directors. They very clearly poach cheap/new directors and actors. They’ve become the McDonalds of film production.

13. IMO all the best contemporary movies are those with cultural or psychological narratives that speak to the audience.

    Encanto, Elemental, Turning Red, and Tangled (though that’s older) are all great.

14. Honest Question: What kind of movies do the various Podcast hosts and Bloggers always crying about “Wokeness” on podcasts and blogs and whatever else NOT consider to have “Political agendas” ?

    I’m honestly asking. 20 Years ago, you would not have seen even hardcore KKK members get their sheets in a wad over a *mythological character that just happens to be played by an African-American.*

    I’m honestly asking.

15. Ok, make Cool Runnings 2 pls. Problem solved.

16. What’s being left out of this debate is the fact that this “political messaging” is super popular and makes money hand over fist.

17. I thought this was revealed to be a conspiracy?

    They are purposely creating films to stir people up which makes people defending them watch a movie they’ll never normally watch.

    They get a ton of free advertising and a ton of new viewers and end up making more money than it they just used standard casting.

    The only way to stop them is to just not watch it and not publicise it

18. Didn’t they fired Tim Burton for “too dark”? Two decades later, Nightmare before Xmas is still a classic… the problem is that they decision makers who got blind eyes 👀 to recognize talent and real good noses 👃🏼 for political correctness. How can you change that without changing the… or wait, they did change people too, for a short while, and then the old people swooped right back in… and those theme songs in recent years…