Disney went woke now they're going broke

The quality of big films coming out now is pretty dire across the board, the exceptions are notable because they are exceptions.

Television is more variable, but quite a lot is bad, and some shows that were very good are now quite shit.

Cineworld are going into administration, paramount losing money.

Disney aren't the only ones losing money though to be fair.

Well it depends on who is using the term and in what context. There may still be some people using it in its original meaning.

It is irrelevant what it originally meant (past tense of wake). It doesn’t mean that now.

I know it's not Disney, but there's going to be a live action 'How to train your Dragon' with a black actress playing Astrid.

Even a very wonderful actor can be a tokenistic choice, just like any hiring decision.

The serious negatives of tokenism don't go away because the person is competent, that's for sure. Least of all for the person hired.

Personally I see woke as shoving an agenda or ideology down other peoples throats.

When it comes to movies or tv, it’s usually diversity or gender casting along with the undermining of prior characters, or having a winge at the old white guy.

Nothing wrong with a great actor of any race or gender in a fab story or character arc, but when it’s a substandard actor and the show is being sold on its ‘virtues’ most people know to engage or turn off. Blaming the fans usually follows.

I don't think that's even what it originally meant.

As used by conservatives, it's mocking people that think they are "awake" to injustice when they are really just self deluded and likely narrow minded individuals.

Sure, but why are they bad?

What's being described as "woke" here is part of the reason, it just kills good writing.

And to some extent it's also being used to generate interest - let's cast a "diverse" actress in such and such a role and maybe create some media chatter about our shit film.

It's tricky.

One thing that I think gets underestimated by the general public is how picky they are about finding actors for productions. Any group with a fairly small population is going to have fewer actors available to play lead roles. You see it with First Nations actors, there are a limited number of people who can carry a big production, and when it comes down to extras, often they have to cast a lot of non-native people because there just aren't enough available, even just to stand around or whatever. Polynesian actors are also a fairly small group of people.

I remember reading about the casting of the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency show. They had initially wanted to cast an African actress, and held a lot of auditions and casting calls across Africa. In the end they felt they hadn't found the right person and cast an American woman, I believe.

In one sense that seemed crazy to me, there are obviously loads more black people in Africa, which is a huge continent, than in the US. But I also think there are a lot of things like theater training and experience, facility with English, and other things that come into it.

And then child actors are really difficult - most children are terrible actors, way too hammy.

So maybe it came down to trying to find a child actor who could carry a major film, and the one they found just was lighter skinned?

This ...

Woke means kind , accepting and generous. I'm quite happy to be "woke" then

This makes sense. I heard they sat on the distribution rights to Studio Ghibli films for years prior to Spirited Away to prevent them being released in cinemas.

What it points to is shallow and unexamined hypocrisy.

I think woke is actually a very useful to short-hand to describe those american university campus originated theories; namely Queer theory, Criticial Race Theory and Intersectionalist identity politics, all of which have now subsumed the Britisjh Left too.

That doesn't mean racism is OK, though, does it?

The Nike associations are not good either. Don't people attending 'Black Lives Matter' rallies wearing Nike sportswear know they have a history of using bonded and even foced labour?

I've always hated Disney. In my view Disney is responsible for the reinforcement of so many heavily gendered presentations; as well as a lot of expensive plastic toys.

People get obsessed with Disney. I don't get it.

Yeah that's kinda what I meant. But previously they were able to ride it out on the classics until the Disney renaissance happened and the studio started making real art with good plots again.

The remakes. The virtue signalling. The click bait decisions. It's all designed to keep the interest going. But unless they start producing good content they wont manage a second wind.

anyone ever thought it might be more to do with the fact the movies are just bad

I think Disney might be trying to apply it's previous strategies to kill competition to the current market and it's not very effective.

So when Don Bluth was giving it a run for its money, Disney used to release classics from its vault to try and funnel audiences back to Disney. They weren't bringing out good quality with enough regularity but using the vault stopped their competitors getting too successful.

But they can't use the vault now. Streaming and DVDs have made that obsolete. But releasing live actions of classics works a bit like the vault in that you'll get an audience in and away from other movies.
The difference though is the live actions aren't actually that good generally. So you might see one or two, but most people will realise they don't offer anything that the originals don't and will not bother.

If the little mermaid is doing badly part of that could be that fatigue. Peter Pan most recently was absolutely dire.

I thought the two female actresses were Hawaiian?

I don't know about woke, but I am just BORED of the same old stuff over and over again.

New content people! I have already read and seen the Little Mermaid. I don't need another Superhero movie. We are all done with Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones, they were great and they are done.

The Dungeons and Dragons movie was the first movie I have enjoyed for ages (and not just because I am a gamer). It was something different, finally.

There’s a customer demographic at play too. What are Nike’s core market? Young people, many of them black. What are Budweiser’s core market? Older blue collar and rural men.

Which demographic is more likely to have white supremacist leanings?

The white supremacist/neo-nazi movement in the US is HUGE. The leader of the KKK was an elected politician until 1992 and white supremacist organisations are still extraordinarily influential, and feared, outside of the urban bubble.

I think it's actually often calling people out for moral hypocrisy. Those people that think they are "awake" to injustice, and make a show of it, but are really just self deluded.

And those people that are quick to accuse others of bigotry etc. but are narrow minded bigots themselves.