The following statement might cause me to lose a lot of things. It will certainly cause me to lose some friends. It may cause me to lose my family. But it will not cause me to lose my dignity. When you have something to say, it is more harmful to keep it inside and regret never saying it than it is just to blurt it out and deal with the repercussions. So here it goes…
I don't love Disney.
OH, SHIT!
Hear me out, Flynn and Pascal!
I don't HATE Disney. They have made some fantastic movies-- Movies I grew up with! I will always love "The Lion King", "Beauty and the Beast", "Peter Pan" and many others. But I've grown skeptical of everything they make now. They used to be groundbreaking! They used to take risks! They used to make Hollywood better! But not anymore.
With the purchase of Marvel, Lucasfilm, Pixar and several other big-name companies in the film industry, it would be foolish to think that Disney doesn't run the majority of film making in the United States. Hell, they're the Alexander the Great of movie studios. It's only a matter of time before they own damn near everything.
But that's not why I've lost faith in them. I couldn't care less if they owned everything in Hollywood. My problem with them is that they've lost their creative touch. And very few people have noticed, because in their eyes, as long as there is still an over-crowded amusement park in two of the hottest, uncomfortable locations in the United States that they can walk around from ride to ride and wait in line for two hours for a two minute attraction and use the excuse that they're on vacation to completely forget their manners and be rude to one another, they don't care.
Not Pictured: Countless trampled bodies and a flood of children's tears.
When I say they have lost their creative touch, I mean that they have become too safe. They only care about films that will make money, rather than creating great content that will become classics. They're making a "Toy Story 4" for crepe's sake (yes, crepe was intentional)! IS NOTHING SACRED?!
Name the last, truly mind blowing movie that Disney has made. One that A) Was not a sequel or spin-off, and B) A movie you will not forget for years to come. If you said "Frozen", you're wrong and I will get to why later. If you answered "Up", you are correct!
"Up" was the last film Disney made to take risks. It tackled very sensitive topics such as love, infertility, grief, death, aging, mortality, eviction and the sadness that comes with being forced into a retirement home. And that was just the first ten minutes!
Sure, 2009 really wasn't that long ago. But when you release as many films per year as Disney does, you have to wonder when they'll start making good ones again. They have become too soft. I thought they would redeem themselves with "Maleficent", but that just became another example of how they are too afraid to take risks anymore.
The riskiest moves they made in this movie were her cheek bones.
They took what is debatably, yet still widely considered Disney's best villain and made her into a hero! I get what they were trying to do with the whole change of perspective thing. But in "Sleeping Beauty", Maleficent was unequivocally evil. You essentially took a villain that people loved to loathe and made her into an allegory as to why we shouldn't be so quick to judge Hitler.
OK, I realize that's a bit of a stretch. But come on! You can make a movie about a villain and still humanize them! They did it with
Hitler after all! I'm sorry I keep bringing up Hitler, but it's just so easy.
This was lazy, simple storytelling designed to look deep and thought provoking. But really, it's just showing kids that that guy who is offering them candy to get into their van may have just had his wings stolen by your Dad and just wants to get them back.
Speaking of films designed to seem like something their not:
"Frozen", the film that kids love and parents used to love but now hate. When it first came out, everyone talked about how empowering it was to women. How Elsa just wanted to be who she was and Anna, through terribly written lyrics found out she doesn't need a man to help her with anything…
Except she definitely does.
Anna was getting nowhere until Kristoff came by to save the day. Then Disney did what they do best, and had two people who barely know each other fall in love… AFTER THEY JUST MADE FUN OF THEMSELVES FOR ALWAYS DOING THAT A FEW MINUTES PRIOR!
How am I the only one to see the hypocrisy in that? They essentially promised us they were going to break from their normal plot formula and then proceeded to use their normal plot formula. HOW IS THIS NOT INFURIATING PEOPLE!? It's essentially calling out it's audience for being too dumb to realize what's going on. And apparently, they're right. So more power to them I guess.
Of course, this whole article is subjective. These are just the ramblings of someone who watches a lot of movies and is tired of seeing the same movie over and over again with different titles. But more than that, I'm upset that Disney has become too safe for their own good.
They used to have amazing, heart wrenching death scenes of major characters.
They used to talk about life.
They used to teach us important lessons.
And they used to give us hope.
I know it comes off as if I'm saying you can't love these movies and you can't blindly love Disney. If that makes you happy and these movies bring you joy, that's great. I only write these incoherent rantings because I have noticed a change in the way Disney makes movies.
Disney has straight up told Pixar they need to make more sequels than they do original, stand-alone films. I understand why they did it. But I just can't stand it. There was a time when Disney sequels were straight-to-DVD side projects. And I miss those days.
Since 2009, there are only four worth while movies created by Disney. You'd think that almost one a year is great until I tell you that they have made 65 movies since then. Disney has really fallen from grace.
But that's just my opinion… Perhaps my memory of Disney as a child overshadows the reality of it's mediocrity.
I do have high hopes for "Inside Out", though!
