Is Disney An Evil Empire??

[CB2001]

Is all this hate for Disney because people don't like how they have handled Star Wars or is they something more to it.

I long for the good old days of bashing George Lucas.

For me, it's because they threw the TRON franchise under the bus for Star Wars more than ruining Star Wars.

 

[HMSwolfe]

It’s because they’re a mega corporation that is buying up their competition, controlling the distribution and production of their films, and weakening the landscape of movies by over-saturating it with uninspired, passionless remakes of recognizable properties to avoid risk and maximize profits, causing their remaining competitors to seek to do the same, leaving fewer and fewer sincere films being made. Of course a business will want to make money. That’s a given. But the former culture at Disney was also driven by a desire to bring magic into people’s lives. Now they just want brand loyalty, market power, and enormous paychecks.

(Not to mention how unscrupulous they are about editing/marketing their films to foreign audiences in the hopes they’ll make even bigger box office profits.)

They are attempting to make movies risk-free; every release has to be a sure-fire success. That means they couldn’t care less about how the movie turned out if it does two things—gets butts in seats at the theater, and doesn’t ruin the viability of that IP. They couldn’t care less about any criticism towards, say, The Force Awakens. None of it was strongly-felt enough to drive away a large enough audience, and the film was a financial success. When films turn out like Solo or Last Jedi, where the audience is either greatly divided or uninterested in seeing the movie altogether, Disney gets worried. (Which is how you get market-tested train wrecks like The Rise of Skywalker attempting to appeal to everyone.)

Why is the early 90s commonly referred to as the “Disney Renaissance?” It’s because Disney started to put out original movies with solid animation, compelling characters, good music, and solid writing. If we ever make it out of this current version of Disney (which seems unlikely), I wouldn’t be surprised if this period were referred to as “The Dark Times”, “The Nostalgiassance”, or “Factory-Made Movies”.

 

[Bigdaddy]

It’s because they’re a mega corporation that is buying up their competition, controlling the distribution and production of their films, and weakening the landscape of movies by over-saturating it with uninspired, passionless remakes of recognizable properties to avoid risk and maximize profits, causing their remaining competitors to seek to do the same, leaving fewer and fewer sincere films being made. Of course a business will want to make money. That’s a given. But the former culture at Disney was also driven by a desire to bring magic into people’s lives. Now they just want brand loyalty, market power, and enormous paychecks.

(Not to mention how unscrupulous they are about editing/marketing their films to foreign audiences in the hopes they’ll make even bigger box office profits.)

They are attempting to make movies risk-free; every release has to be a sure-fire success. That means they couldn’t care less about how the movie turned out if it does two things—gets butts in seats at the theater, and doesn’t ruin the viability of that IP. They couldn’t care less about any criticism towards, say, The Force Awakens. None of it was strongly-felt enough to drive away a large enough audience, and the film was a financial success. When films turn out like Solo or Last Jedi, where the audience is either greatly divided or uninterested in seeing the movie altogether, Disney gets worried. (Which is how you get market-tested train wrecks like The Rise of Skywalker attempting to appeal to everyone.)

Why is the early 90s commonly referred to as the “Disney Renaissance?” It’s because Disney started to put out original movies with solid animation, compelling characters, good music, and solid writing. If we ever make it out of this current version of Disney (which seems unlikely), I wouldn’t be surprised if this period were referred to as “The Dark Times”, “The Nostalgiassance”, or “Factory-Made Movies”.

All of that is true but none of it is evil. An economist might even call it a sound business practice. Making money at the highest margin possible with the lowest risk to your capital.
I'm not suggesting it's beneficial for audiences that want well thought out and original films but it's hard to blame an organization for acting in it's own self interest and following it's legal obligation to the shareholders.

I used to think of Disney as a "magical" company but that was likely just my younger self buying into the marketing. It's always been a money generating factory, it just used to generate money from original content.
So while I view the Disney label on entertainment as a sign of banality, it's not a sign of evil.

What was the last "original" Disney animated feature? Aladdin? That's one I watched well over a hundred times between my nieces and my own kid! I actually didn't get tired of that movie... might watch it today!

 

[HMSwolfe]

All of that is true but none of it is evil. An economist might even call it a sound business practice. Making money at the highest margin possible with the lowest risk to your capital.
I'm not suggesting it's beneficial for audiences that want well thought out and original films but it's hard to blame an organization for acting in it's own self interest and following it's legal obligation to the shareholders.

I used to think of Disney as a "magical" company but that was likely just my younger self buying into the marketing. It's always been a money generating factory, it just used to generate money from original content.
So while I view the Disney label on entertainment as a sign of banality, it's not a sign of evil.

What was the last "original" Disney animated feature? Aladdin? That's one I watched well over a hundred times between my nieces and my own kid! I actually didn't get tired of that movie... might watch it today!

It might not be intentionally or outwardly evil, but I’d certainly consider it morally questionable. I’m speaking as an American citizen, so I can’t say anything about Disney as an international company, but we don’t (or at least shouldn’t) have a totally free market society. Business should regulate itself inasmuch as the consumer and their interests are protected (which is the role of competition and the government, which really hasn’t been doing its job to break up monopolies). It’s certainly not in my interest to have every company distributing its own content through proprietary streaming services, or see the same films rehashed over and over again with less passion and creativity each passing year. In the grand scheme of things (especially right now, with the pandemic), it’s low on the list of big problems we need to fix, because this is all entertainment. It’s a really low priority.

 

[Cephus]

I used to think of Disney as a "magical" company but that was likely just my younger self buying into the marketing. It's always been a money generating factory, it just used to generate money from original content.

They used to make money by producing high quality content. It used to be good for the sake of being good, it was made for the love of the art form and it was successful because it was good. Today, they are making movies off of a checklist. They don't care if it's good so long as it makes money. Absolutely everything they do is cookie cutter with an agenda stapled on. I don't begrudge them making money, not for a second, so long as it's done the right way. Disney hasn't done things the right way for a long time.

 

[Psab keel]

 

[Ron]

My friend who works part time in the film industry put it best:

"It's not that Hollywood is out of ideas...it's that they're afraid of them."

 

[Egon Spengler]

My friend who works part time in the film industry put it best:

"It's not that Hollywood is out of ideas...it's that they're afraid of them."

Which in a way I kind of get. They put a ton of money into making films, and if they flop they lose money, but look at how so many remakes have flopped. They really can't have it both ways.

 

[Psab keel]

The irony is that by being risk averse they are actually losing money. Movies used to be really special to me growing up, but that magic is mostly lost on me now.

 

[Cephus]

I used to see movies all the time, usually at least once a week. Now, I never see any in a theater and I see very few once they hit Bluray. I would if they were good but they're just not.

 

[robn1]

The old popular franchises exist because someone in the past took a chance on something new. The stagnancy of the last few decades is killing entertainment.

 

[PumpkinKing]

I don’t know how you can call them “evil”, but the fact that they ruined Star Wars, are in the process of ruining marvel and continue to ruin great movies and franchises of the past with the constant remakes has driven me away from one of my all time favorite company’s.

 

[Ron]

I still go to the theater a lot BUT it's usually to watch a rerelease of a classic movie. It's very rare that I go to watch a newer movie and I wish that wasn't the case.