Disney, as we know it, has died. Now I don’t mean the corporation—corporate Disney is alive and well. Total Disney revenue increased by 3% this year! Hurrah! Unfortunately, I’m referring to the movie studio, the creative side of Disney. As much as I’ve rooted for a return to form over the years, it’s clear that we’re nowhere near reaching the wondrous heights of the ‘90s renaissance era, or even some of the modern classics brought about by the 2010s.
The scarce morsels of originality that we’ve recently seen drown in a tsunami of nostalgia exploitation, phoned-in sequels, and unabashedly money-hungry “live action” remakes. I say “live action” in quotes because often, especially in the case of The Lion King (2019), these lifeless films remain animated, just in a CGI form. More disappointingly, these movies continue to succeed, raking in millions of dollars for the company nearly every time. Some families adore this release schedule, which offers a nostalgic return to classic favorites for parents, and an introduction to tried and true stories for the next generation. Disney CEO Bob Iger additionally believes that these productions work well for the company “because they’re known and it takes less in terms of marketing.” It’s a bold claim for a multi-billion-dollar company to say that marketing is the issue. In a streaming-dominated era, the real classic animated features make themselves readily available to anyone at the press of a remote. These classics not only hold some of the most visually stunning scenes in film, but they also tell the stories far better than any recent adaptation. Why does Disney continue to devalue the worth of its animated productions?
Unfortunately, the original content has struck out repeatedly in recent years. Strange World and Wish both made an attempt at something new but failed due to a bland narrative and low publicity. Curiously, uninteresting stories should not pose an issue to the studio, as Encanto released to critical acclaim just four years ago. It seems that the focus on sequels and remakes have potentially diminished the quality of original content as well. The low publicity, however, looks extremely suspicious. It’s hard not to assume that Disney continues to purposefully use low-ad campaigns in order to push their freebie live-action remakes in place of their more tenuous original films.
Disney has always had a divided public reputation. In past decades, however, the company’s creativity and magic still flourished. New lows continue to release like Moana 2, which was a direct-to-streaming television series repurposed into a feature-length film, and Mufasa: The Lion King, which was an unnecessary prequel to the unemotional 2019 CGI disappointment. Why does any of this matter anyway? Well, Walt Disney Animation Studios historically represents some of the most triumphant achievements in animation worldwide. The decline into tepid, heartless nostalgia fodder truly displays a disregard for the value of the animation medium and the work of the artists who came before.