It is absolutely amazing how one company can have so many failures at the box office and on their streaming service, continue to produce that same crap over and over again despite those failures, and then tout how successful they have been. Sounds just like our government. Like the Biden administration saying the economy is great, and there are no illegal aliens crossing our borders, Disney seems to have purposely put the blindfolds on, ignoring the fans’ obvious dislike for what they are trying to shovel in front of us, hoping that we will throw our hands up and cheer, ultimately surrendering to the willful destruction of what came before. In other words, Disney is proudly failing upwards, and the list is endless of the forced diversity and lackluster content Disney has pushed, from Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm, to Pixar and Disney Studios. They have hired show runners and directors with no experience, to helm characters that are rich in depth and history, and squandered away tons of potential for the sake of a few purple and blue haired weirdos who have thrown a temper tantrum because they don’t “see themselves” in those characters. The Disney Plus and box office failures are mounting for Disney, and are only getting worse with every new release. By appropriating well established characters and stories for their own selfish and cowardly ignorance, Disney is effectively destroying the potential joy and excitement of what came before for newer generations. Disney is also destroying a trust between fans and brand, that has been Disney’s hallmark for the past century.
Bob Chapek Has No Interest in Righting the Disney Brand
There are many questions as to why Disney would continue to allow failure after failure at the box office and on Disney Plus, just as there are many answers. Is it the ESG(environmental, social, governance) funding that they would qualify for because of new standards put in place by the Biden administration, which rewards a company for its diversity and inclusion, and as a result, allows Disney to fail upwards? Is it because they have been so contaminated by leftist activists in the company, that they are too far gone to turn it around? Is Bob Chapek too afraid to drop the hammer on the radical left virus that has infected his company, or is he all in on supporting an absolute minority of the population? Is it because Disney saw green when they acquired Marvel and Lucafilm and thought they could be creatively bankrupt with these characters to make a quick buck, and no one would notice? Did their initial success with live action remakes with Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast, get them so addicted to that formula that they forgot the original magic that was put into making those characters in the first place? Or is it all of the above? I believe it’s a combination of all of the above. Bob Chapek has shown no interest in making content for everyone, nor has he shown interest in making quality content that respects the original lore and established precedence that came before. In fact, he has done nothing to stop the free fall of failures in the last few years, that has to be about the worst on record for any Disney CEO.
Credit – Disney
More Live Action Remakes Please?
Disney has gone to the well of live action remakes over 20 times with the release of ‘Little Mermaid’ next year. It’s repetitive, boring, and shows no sense of creativity. With the exception of a few of these animated to live action remakes that were actually successful at the box office(because for the most part they stuck to the original story line and character reference), most of them have been either critical or box office failures. Cruella, Mulan, Pinocchio, Lady and the Tramp, Dumbo, and Mary Poppins Returns, all come to mind in the last few years of remakes that weren’t necessary, and all fell flat at the box office, and with audiences. But Bob continues to allow the regurgitation of repetitiveness, with no end in sight…profit be damned. It’s almost like he’s playing darts hoping that if Disney lands a bullseye every now and then, the fans will forgive the lack of creativity.
Related: Kevin Feige is a Fraud
Disney Hates Strong Male Leads
Remakes aren’t Disney’s only creatively bankrupt problem. Disney has also allowed the likes of Kevin Feige, Kathleen Kennedy, and their devoted minions, to effectively erase established character lore or outright destroy canon for the sake of Hollywood’s vaunted obsession with a woke diversity narrative. Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios have just about wiped out or ridiculed all of the white male leads that brought them their initial success. Iron Man was killed off, Captain America was made into an old selfish decrepit man at the end of his arc, that bares no resemblance to his origins, Thor has “found” himself time and time again and made into a parody, Dr. Strange was a second tier character in ‘Dr. Strange: Into the Multiverse of Madness’, Ant-Man has been made into a goofy side kick next to Wasp, and Hawkeye has been replaced by a failed comic book character called Kate Bishop. Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm have done the same thing, except they have taken it a step further by destroying canon that came before. Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Lando Calrissian, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, have all been made into characters that fans don’t recognize. When we saw an old Han Solo reverted back to his old criminal self, and killed off in a very demeaning way, or Luke Skywalker throwing his lightsaber away and admitting he lost hope in ‘The Last Jedi’, Lando Calrissian insinuating he was pansexual in ‘Solo’, or Obi-Wan Kenobi made into a cowering weaker version of the Obi-Wan we all grew up with, shows the disrespect Kathleen Kennedy has for these foundational characters in the Star Wars universe. With Disney Plus series’ like ‘Obi-Wan’, and ‘Book of Boba Fett’, Lucasfilm has helped erase what came before in the original Star Wars Trilogy. For example, Obi-Wan Kenobi never faced off with Darth Vader while he was off on Tatooine protecting a young Luke Skywalker. That was well established when an older, wiser Obi-Wan faced off with Darth Vader at the end of the original Star Wars movie. But in Disney Plus’ ‘Kenobi’, the show runners knowingly played and distorted canon in a very selfish way, trying to convince fans that what they were doing was actually within canon. Disney is systematically erasing strong male leads in their brand in hopes that every one looks out their window and sees what Disney erroneously sees….a world filled with pronouns and LGBTQ+ representation. Remember…Disney said they were buying Marvel and Lucasfilm to attract more of the male audience into their brand. But instead, they have done everything to alienate them.
Credit – Disney
Race and Gender Swapping All of Your Bread and Butter Characters is Not a Recipe for Success
The woke doesn’t just end with the original Avengers being summarily erased, or Lucasfilm destroying canon and belittling their main white male leads. Along with the bad storytelling and lack of originality, Disney has deep dived into diversity in these remakes as well, race and gender swapping long established characters for the sake of virtue signaling. ‘The Eternals’ race and gender swapped almost every character for the sake of diversity, and made the white male hero in the movie, who was originally a hero in the comic books, the ultimate villain, resulting in a gigantic financial loss for Disney. There are many more examples of Disney going to the woke well, including the upcoming ‘Wakanda Forever’ in which we’ll see a race and gender swapped, failed comic book character Iron Heart, take the mantle of Iron Man, Task Master in Black Widow was elusively gender swapped as a woman, Loki was made gender fluid, when that was never an established trait in the comic books, Captain America was race swapped for an already popular and established character in his own right, Falcon, the upcoming Snow White remake has Snow White race swapped, the Doogie Howser reboot has Doogie gender swapped, the Wonder Years reboot has a race swapped cast, and the upcoming Little Mermaid live action remake has a race swapped Ariel. The virtue signaling never ends, and the abysmal financial results are piling up, and yet Disney…proudly…continues to double down with promises of more.
Credit – Pixar
Audiences are Waking Up to the Woke Remakes and Bad Writing
There is some light at the end of this woke tunnel. The audiences are starting to show they are sick and tired of Disney promoting this woke and lazy narrative, and recent releases at the box office, and on Disney plus are proof. Marvel’s phase 4 has been an absolute bore, with entries that have their fans scratching their heads as to why Kevin Feige is picking such obscure characters to head a once and powerful juggernaut. ‘Thor Love and Thunder’ barely crossed the finish line in making a profit, along with ‘Black Widow’, ‘The Eternals’, and ‘Shang-Chi’. Disney Plus’ Ms. Marvel, ‘She-Hulk’, ‘Moon Knight’, and ‘Hawkeye’, have been forgettable to say the least. In fact, is anyone talking about these movies or TV shows, or for that matter, selling any merchandise? Not one bit. Compare that to phases 1-3, where you were selling merchandise year round, and fans couldn’t stop talking about every movie that came out. This proves that Disney has a serious problem with Marvel Studios’ pushing woke content onto audiences that are not interested. Pixar and Lucasfilm are no different, with fans ignoring and tuning out of what both are producing. ‘Lightyear’, for example, was supposed to be a juggernaut of a summer release, and it barely made a whimper, losing Disney millions, all because they thought interjecting adult topics into a marketed kids movie was a good idea. The same goes for Lucasfilm on Disney plus, where fans have seen some of their favorite characters made a parody of because it fits Kathleen Kennedy’s woke scheme of The Force is female. The fans are wise to Disney’s manipulation of their favorite characters, and it’s only going to get worse for Disney. For instance, they have another animated movie coming out called ‘Strange New World’, that they are clearly marketing towards kids, but it focuses on a gay teen couple. How is that going to go over with parents that already made their voices heard with ‘Lightyear’? Not very well I would imagine.
Basking in False Successes
So if fans are pissed off, or show no interest, and parents are walking away from Disney’s brand, there’s a solid reason why. Disney and Bob Chapek are complicit in the defaming of characters and lore that fans have grown up with for decades, and they have done it with smiles on their faces, and promises of more to come. So let Disney continue their kids animated shows that talk about feminine hygiene products and LGBTQ content, or keep producing content with characters fans don’t care about or never heard of. Fans will continue to turn to content that is free of the woke political agendas. ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’, ‘Cobra Kai’, Stranger Things’, and ‘John Wick’, all come to mind, of content that just wants to focus on story, and doesn’t point the finger at fans all the time. Disney should take pause and learn a thing or two from these creators. The fans are not your enemy, nor do they need to be preached to. Make great exciting stories that are for everyone without having to yell from the rooftops how woke you are. But Disney won’t, at least in the near future, and will continue to fail upwards, basking in false success that are a mirage they can’t get past.
