The Walt Disney Company, an industry giant that has given the world some of the best-animated movies and TV shows, has reached a point in its tenure where it is beginning to stagnate. Disney has released awe-evoking, inspirational, adventurous movies and TV shows, but now it seems like their artistic flame is starting to dwindle. The shows and movies that have been made as of late are of a lower quality than those that were made in Disney’s golden age. Movies like Strange World, The Little Mermaid, and Elemental have all had low critic and fan scores. Be it flawed marketing, ultra-wokeness, or a loss in creativity: is Disney losing its magic? 

Recently, Disney has become less creative regarding the movies it and Pixar* have produced (Disney purchased Pixar in 2006 ). Now instead of creating original animated movies, they are leeching on their past success by recreating cult classic movies as a cash grab. One example is The Little Mermaid, a live-action remake of the 1989 version. The original The Little Mermaid (1989) was a box office hit, being the sixth highest-grossing movie in 1989.   At the box office, The Little Mermaid (2023) grossed worldwide 569.6 Million dollars, which is mediocre when compared to other live-action cash grabs like The Lion King (2019) which grossed 1.7 Billion. The Lion King succeeded due to its beautiful, immersive imagery which was a new kind of movie, while The Little Mermaid failed due to its extended length (50 minutes longer than the original). Another box office failure was Pinocchio (2022); it was generally negatively reviewed by critics. Their reasoning was the lack of charm that the original 1940 film had. Disney has fallen into the same pattern: they reboot old series, re-make old movies, and re-do cult classic animated films in a way that turns off audiences from Disney films. 

 Disney has lost its charm with children. After all, they are prioritizing critics instead of children when they make new movies. This may not be a successful way of operation for Disney. One critic Chris Stuckmann explained how the limited emotional expression in the new Lion King live-action remake strained its emotional connection with a child audience. Children found it harder to connect with the CGI Lion than they did with the hand-animated Lion. According to one writer Sarah O’Connor who posted on her blog: “The CGI for Disney’s remake of The Lion King is beyond phenomenal, but while it’s pretty to watch it just doesn’t have the magic or emotion that the original had, that cartoons have.” Both Sarah O’Connor and Chris Stuckmann believe that CGI is less effective at conveying emotion to an audience. Hand-drawn animation was a more heartfelt animation style, though it was very costly. 

Another issue for Disney may be that the movies are perceived as being too woke and/or politically correct. Recently, some viewers have become skeptical of Disney’s increasing inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters, raising questions about the direction of their recent movies. For example Disney’s 2022 Strange World features a gay teen romance involving the main character, which failed miserably at the box office. It was a progressive film that also included a strong environmental message that political conservatives found “ultra-woke”. LGBTQ+ critics defended the film and accused critics of homophobia. Should children be exposed to sexuality in a children’s movie?

The lack of interest in films like Strange World could be from homophobia or racism or it could be from a lack of quality storytelling in the movie. However, pushing a politically correct message to the audience is a form of propaganda. People do not enjoy watching a movie that explicitly says “exclusively gay moment!” (yes, that is an actual phrase used in the movie). People do not want to be told what to believe, even if they do believe in it. That being said, had the message been a little more subtle, the movie could have been an effective artwork.

One could argue Disney’s recent wokeness comes as a correction to Disney’s controversial past. Walt Disney specifically had serious anti-semitic, racist, and sexist allegations. One of these instances which led many to give the label of antisemite was when Walt Disney personally welcomed Leni Riefenstahl to his studio, who was a Nazi director. Another was a scene in The Three Little Pigs where the wolf was portrayed as a “Jewish peddler” enforcing negative ethnic stereotypes. Furthermore, Song of the South is a movie made in the 1940s that is so offensive that Disney will not let it be shown today.  Song of the South was set after the Civil War, yet it was never defined in the movie as being so. Consequently, this made the film feel like it was set during a time of slavery, which did not bode well when coupled with the racial stereotypes, slurs, and the master-slave relationship set in the film. Disney’s recent ultra-wokenness may be one reason that it is not succeeding like it used to. 

The powerhouse that is Walt Disney Corporation will continue to produce mass media for the world’s enjoyment (and for the money lining their pockets), but what we need to consider is the quality of that media, what we absorb ourselves with. According to Variety Magazine, audiences in 2023 have found recent movies less interesting because they evoke fewer emotions, and come off as unoriginal. We need to look at Disney’s past, and Disney needs to focus on the present because people are not enjoying live-action remakes of cult-classic films. Businessmen will blame it on bad marketing, but in reality, Disney’s downfall would be at the hands of rehashed stories, spinoffs, and reboots which will not be as successful as the original content that we know Disney can produce. 

References

Dobbins, Amanda. 2013. “Fact-Checking if Walt Disney an Anti-Semite or Racist.” Vulture. https://www.vulture.com/2013/12/walt-disney-anti-semitism-racism-sexism-frozen-head.html. 

McDougald, Katelin. 2023. “Why Disney Doesn’t Want You to Know About Song of the South.” MovieWeb. https://movieweb.com/song-of-the-south-disney-doesnt-want-you-to-know/. 

Nachwalter, Jack. 2023. “Disney’s Biggest Box Office Bombs, Ranked.” CBR. https://www.cbr.com/disney-biggest-box-office-bombs/#around-the-world-in-80-days-2004. 

“The Problem with CGI.” 2019. Sarah O’Connor. https://notsarahconnorwrites.com/2019/07/29/the-problem-with-cgi/. 

Richardson, Valerie. 2022. “Ultra-woke ‘Strange World’ reanimates Disney criticism after bombing at box office.” Washington Times. https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2022/nov/29/ultra-woke-strange-world-reanimates-disney-critici/. 

Rubin, Rebecca, and Brent Lang. 2023. “Disney Has Box Office Failures With Indiana Jones, Elemental, Ant-Man.” Variety. https://variety.com/2023/film/news/disney-box-office-failures-indiana-jones-elemental-ant-man-1235660409/. 

Scarlett, Sayde. 2020. “Disney’s Creative And Moral Decline | by Sayde Scarlett | Medium.” Sayde Scarlett. https://sayde-scarlett.medium.com/disneys-creative-and-moral-decline-3081e8251e9e. 

Schmondiuk, Natalie. 2022. “Why is Everyone Mad at Disney in 2022? Answered and Explained.” The Mary Sue. https://www.themarysue.com/why-is-everyone-mad-at-disney-in-2022/.