Credit – Pixar
Bob Chapek just put the last nail in Disney’s coffin. I have said forever, that Bob is all in on the woke, and has decided to embrace that wokeness to the detriment of the Walt Disney Company. Bob Chapek has embraced the dark side that is the identity politics disease infecting Disney, and spit on Walt Disney’s original vision of great creative storytelling. Chapek responded to questions about Disney and a woke culture, at a Wall Street Journal tech live event, and Bob sounded robotic like one of those animatronics at the Hall of Presidents. He said all the right things and doubled down on his caving to one side of the political aisle, while at the same time wrapping the answer in a convenient way that appeared to say Disney embraces everyone. Bob Chapek wants to have his cake and eat it too. But that’s just not going to happen for a company like Disney, that continually bashes and ignores the fans that helped make Disney the behemoth it is. The box office and Disney Plus failures among all of Disney’s franchises, are evidence enough alone. Bob Chapek is not going to end the woke culture that is festering in the Disney company, and it was clearly evident during the interview which side Chapek was going to take.
Bob Chapek is Trying to Convince Himself Woke Works
At Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live 2022 streaming event, Chapek defended the direction Disney was taking, by saying that their content reflects the diverse world we live in.
“I think the more complex something is, the more you really have to drill down into the basics. And we want our content to reflect the rich, diverse world that we live in. And, again, I guess that’s another way of saying, ‘Catering to your audience.’ But the world is a rich, diverse place and we want our content to reflect that. And we’re so blessed to have the greatest content creators and they see it similarly. I always say, when someone walks down Main Street and look at the castle, you’re not thinking ‘I’m on one side of the political spectrum or the other. You have a shared belief in all the wonderful aspects of what Disney is. I want to use Disney to bring people together, and I think we’ll do that by diverse stories and diverse characters.”
Bob Chapek doesn’t know whether he’s coming or going with that statement He’s trying to play both sides of the ball, when in fact he’s just contradicting himself. It’s almost as if he’s trying to convince himself that forcefully injecting identity politics into their content is the right thing to do, when all the facts point to the opposite. Disney has become a microcosm of the political divide in this country, and Bob Chapek is either too cowardly to stop that, or he’s really all in on turning The Walt Disney Company into something antithetical to its original intent.
Credit – Disney
Catering to “Your Audience”
Chapek fails to comprehend, that what made Disney a trusted and famous brand to all walks of life in the first place, was their great storytelling and creativity. Everyone gravitated towards Disney because they just told great stories. But now, because Disney has been infected with radical activists, (and I dare say now that Chapek might be counted in that crowd as well), Disney has unfaithfully represented everyone, and are now paying the price. So when Bob Chapek says he wants Disney’s content to reflect the rich diverse world we live in, he’s already alienating half the audience. Chapek even says so without saying so when he said during the interview…”I guess that’s another way of saying, ‘catering to your audience'”. Chapek is admitting that he wants to cater to that very small portion of the population, and that’s not at all what Walt Disney originally envisioned.
Related: Disney Has Opened Pandora’s Box
The Fans are not Excited Anymore
There’s not one arm of The Walt Disney Company that is successful right now. Star Wars has all but become extinct, with no one buying any merchandise or talking about any of the sub par content. The Mandalorian was their only saving grace, and in some respects, no one is even talking about that anymore. The once glorious MCU is dying a slow painful death, with each new Disney Plus show or movie failing to excite anyone. Kevin Feige and Alexa Alonso, in less than 2 years, have managed to dismantle, destroy, and mock great characters , in favor of a new virtue signaling policy that has alienated once loyal fans and consumers. Pixar and Disney Studios are proving how unimaginative and manipulative they are, with forcefully interwoven adult themes, such as the character Baymax talking about feminie hygeine products with a various whose who of pandering, a Lightyear movie that focused on a gay couple, and a new animated movie called Strange New World, that will focus on a gay relationship and identity politics…and that’s just the tip of the woke iceberg.
The Majority of Park Guests are Becoming Outsiders in a World Created Specifically for Them
The Disney parks are no different with attendance down, and confusing changes that once highlighted Disney’s magic, but now caters to a small portion of the population that little kids don’t understand or care about. Disney has changed their fireworks greeting from ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, to dreamers of all ages, eliminated Walt Disney’s opening day speech from a Disneyland anniversary, and have asked park cast members not to refer to guests as princesses, in fear of offending someone who might not prescribe to that gender. There’s also the yearly increase of ticket prices, and a galactic sized failure with Disney World’s Galactic Starcruiser hotel that failed to capitalize on a built in fanbase, and instead focused on characters that no one cared about. Is it any wonder that Disney’s stock has dropped 30% and become devalued, with some predictions that it could get worse? Parents, families, and kids, who make up a majority of the parks’ consumers, are increasingly feeling like outsiders in a world created specifically for them.
Bob’s All in on the Woke
Bob Chapek doubled down on the woke without directly saying it. For some reason, Chapek thinks that failure at all levels is the key to success, because the real success, allegedly, is in appeasing to the rich diverse world we live in. That’s great, but the diverse world we live in, does not have to include blatant pandering and virtue signaling to a minority of your audience, while the majority of your audience, that pay your bills, is ignored, and walks away wondering what happened to the creative storytellers they once knew. What’s also interesting, is how hypocritical Chapek is when he says he wants Disney’s content to reflect the rich diverse world we live in. If that were the case, then why does Disney censor lgbtq content that might debut in China, or some middle eastern countries because they might be offended? Wouldn’t that be considered offensive to the very groups Chapek is promoting that content for? Some might think Bob Chapek is playing the long game to prove that woke doesn’t work, but we’ve been hearing that for years now. Bob Could have made changes a long time ago, but he hasn’t. This interview either proved he’s all in, or he’s just given up and surrendered. Either way, both options are not good for the fans, or for the business.
