Disney went woke now they're going broke

I agree with triple and Rufus that Jodie’s run was let down by absolutely dreadful writing. It was a travesty.

@IWillNoLie - I think there’s a big difference between having an ethnically and culturally diverse cast and rewriting history.

Armando Ianucci’s David Copperfield was racially blind casting and incredibly good fun. It took an all-white cast and mixed it up to no detriment of the plot or characters.

Trying to make Joan Of Arc non-binary, on the other hand, took a rare significant female historical figure of that period and twisted her story to fit a particular viewpoint. The whole thing with Joan is that what she did was so outrageous and heroic/heretical because she was female. Take that away and you are denying who she was and the impact of what she did.

Taking white characters and recasting them rarely disrupts the narrative because their whiteness isn’t a significant part of the story. That’s because for much of our culture’s history Default Human meant white msn.

Taking women’s or minority groups’ characters and recasting is more of a problem as their stories are often linked to their oppression and part of the narrative.

No. Perhaps you could read the article

'woke'? Is this about a black actor playing a mythical character? Or the minor mention of a character having a wife rather than a husband?
Why don;t you bob off to 'one million moms' - you'll get a better response there.
They like their Disney 'princesses' white and helpless and married off to men.

This.

I'm happy to be called woke if it means in not a racist, homophobic dickhead.

I remember when I was a kid going to the cinema with the girls next door to see 'suitable' films at the Norwood Regal. One such was a Disney film, The Swiss Family Robinson. Even at the age of 9 I thought it was dire. Another equally dire one was when I was 11, Summer Magic, with Hayley Mills (yuk!) and Burl Ives singing 'The Ugly Bug Ball' (double yuk!). I did like Zazie dans le Métro which an aunt took me to. She (Zazie) was my role model for months.

I think the go woke go broke is frequently used where it is completely irrelevant. No issues with more diversity on screen, we should see that. if disneys financials are suffering it’s because they aren’t making great stuff and the whole heading into recession thing.

It's a less empowering message than the 1989 version though due to the (spoilers!) significant plot tweaks

interesting point…

yeah I didn’t really get why they changed that bit (assuming we are talking about the same bit)

It's a less empowering message than the 1989 version though due to the (spoilers!) significant plot tweaks.

Whatever it is it doesn't score highly as a feminist piece. (And yes I know 1989 had its flaws but was ahead of its time, there's no excuse now to be taking away female characterisation and agency in 2023)

Oh

i enjoyed the little mermaid, smidge too long and didn’t really see the point of the two extra songs…and flounder was NOT cute….but overall it was good

Agree with triple

i think it was badly written, and i hated her braces 🤔

very much looking forward to Ncuti Gatwa (and a return of the Tennant/Tate double act)

Meh, Disney are slowly killing off great films and the cinema full stop. I couldn't care less about the messages I'm pissed off that barely anything makes it to the big screen for longer than 3 minutes theee days.

(I know it's not just them and cinemas can be £ but as a life long Star Wars fan they have turned my childhood into a cash cow)

It's depressing that the highlight is f new movie released this year is yet more Marvel Tosh.

> I'll get my coat ...

Complaining about a black Little Mermaid is on a par with complaining about a female Doctor Who 🙄

I'm not personally complaining because I haven't seen it - didn't fancy another re-make.

I was quite excited initially about female doctor who - Missy was fantastic villain and Dr Ruth was bloody good despite a poor script and minor role - and personally I love how mad* *Sacha Dhawan Master was.

What I came to loath was the poor writing - and increasingly Jodie Whittaker playing the Dr as some ditzy forgettable aren't I daft character because she was female because women can't be competent and have gravitas.

I can't be the only one as audience figure did dropped but I'm really hoping Russell T Davies coming back means it gets back to what it was - and I'm fairly excited about Ncuti Gatwa taking on the role eventually - I think after Tennant comes back for a bit first.

But if you raise how poor Dr Who got you ca get labeled as toxic or bigoted. Poor writing does seem to like to hide behind issues rather than accept it's the problem.

Racially diverse casts, same sex relationships, people with disabilities on screen are all positive changes to a cultural narrative that was predominantly telling stories of white men

But they often cease to be truthful retellings and instead seek to re-write history. Like the transing of women who fought against the expectations of their day.

It’s such reductive nonsense, that woke/broke stuff.

It’s great to see representation of our diverse culture in films. Take the smash hit Hamilton… “America now telling the story of America then” as Lin Manuel Miranda put it. Racially diverse casts, same sex relationships, people with disabilities on screen are all positive changes to a cultural narrative that was predominantly telling stories of white men.

That’s got bugger all to do with the financial problems facing the many competing streaming services.

Strange world was AWFUL. I've absolutely nothing against casting to represent society and to be inclusive of all sexualities etc but it's got to be done in the right way and if it's valid within the story. Shoe horning random relationships, various ethnicities and situations like it's a bingo card is a prime example of how NOT to do it. All of the best story writers succeed because they write about what they know, what they know intimately other wise you get "she boobed boobily down the stairs. ". If all. you know is a very insular little village in 1859 then it makes zero sense to force a lesbian couple, one black person in a wheel chair and a blind Asian vicar into the script. And these days it ALL feels like a box ticking exercise, with very little thought to the nuances or historical accuracies. In strange world it was a movie aimed at kids so the boy crush on another boy shouldn't have even been a main part of the story. It's just not realistic and came across as totally fake. I'm watching UP! right now and it's just a lovely story that I can watch again and again. It doesn't matter it's all fiction, same with Moana, Toy Story etc.

Anyone who has a problem with increased visibility of diverse races or gay characters in films is a racist, homophobic twat.

Misogynistic name calling however is perfectly fine

I'm not a fan of the live actions because, like a lot of the CGI they have a feeling of mass production and cheapness to them.

Disney lost its way pre renaissance and I think the Don Bluth studio played no small part in them upping their game. Some of the best animation in history was produced in the nineties because they had to compete with Land Before Time, Anastasia etc and these movies had soul.

Now Disney effectively has no competitors and their movies are no longer an artform. They don't have the Disney magic and use mostly division and gimmicks to create buzz.

I'd love to see a return to the old animation style, but wonder if those skills have been passed on to be able to do so.

For me the biggest crime of The Little Mermaid is she didn’t die and turn to sea foam at the end as her prince married his beloved. I think that would have made a much better and more complex movie.

having 5’2” waifs beat up 200 lbs guys, isn’t reality,

Because the rest of it is totally belivable.

@LaBefana

That depends on what the anticipated returns for it were and what other expenses were riding on its success. A relatively modest return could still be a ‘failure’ especially if the anticipated income was needed to cover the cost of the next project. Lots of companies go bust because of cash flow not because they fail to make a profit on their core product.

'Woke' is the slur and rallying cry of fascists, and the Daily Mail is their Völkischer Beobachter. Quite a lot of its filth gets on here.

I somehow don't think Disney of all companies will go broke. Just an inkling. I don't read the Mail though so clearly I'm not as... well-informed.

Complaining about a black Little Mermaid is on a par with complaining about a female Doctor Who 🙄

Anyone who has a problem with increased visibility of diverse races or gay characters in films is a racist, homophobic twat. “Colourblind casting” can be problematic if changing the race of a real, known individual or a character where their race/background is a defining factor of their story or where it’s wildly anachronistic, but where the characters and/or setting are fictional…what’s the issue?

I’m no fan of trans ideology and the lies spun to children and vulnerable adults in its name, but I’m not sure what’s to be gained by equating that with increasing opportunities for actors of colour and making gay couples in a story commonplace.

(That’s not to say that I don’t find recent Disney output flat, boring and derivative but that’s nothing to do with “woke” issues.)