Recently, Disney has seemingly been pivoting in its efforts to appeal to a larger demographic and family audience. For years, they have been chasing more niche groups, and it has led to box office disappointment. They seem to be pivoting back to the larger audience, and the media is crying foul. One reporter actually claimed that Disney is chasing “the most vocally angry fringe of their audience,” and this “has lost Disney and Pixar the respect and love of many fans.”
Actually. No.
Disney is pivoting to chase the silent majority that didn’t go to the theater for “Strange World,” “Lightyear,” or even “Wish.”
Disney is trying to win the family demographic back, and to do so they are willing to anger the “vocally angry fringe.”
“Inside Out 2” became the biggest animated film of all time and is also in the top ten box office totals. Disney also reportedly censored it, asking Pixar to make it less gay.
The result was a hit film. Now, I do think that was mostly because people loved the first “Inside Out” film and were excited about a second film, but the takeaway for many is that Disney is pivoting to the larger general audience.
It’s likely not about politics but about money.
Disney cares about money, and the last couple of years have shown that audiences are not on board with the products delivered.
Sarah Ligatich, a former Pixar assistant editor, gave this statement to THR,
“It hardly surprised me, but it devastated me. For a long time, Disney has not been in the business of making great content. They have been in the business of making great profits.”
If that were true, why has Disney been making choices that appeal to a much smaller audience and losing money?
When they pivot to remove messaging, they are rewarded with massive box office returns. This truth is likely why Disney is removing episodes or storylines in shows and films: the bigger audience wants fun stories for kids. They have canceled one episode of “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur” and removed dialogue from a transgender storyline in “Win or Lose.” The character in the latter was played by Chanel Stewart, who is trans.
Ligatich made this statement regarding Chanel Stewart’s character in “Win or Lose.”
“I can’t tell you how much I cried yesterday thinking about that conversation that [producer] David [Lally] had to have with [Chanel]. Not only are you asking someone to play someone they’re not, but to also get them to wrap their mind around a political conversation that is just so beyond them.”
I’m sorry. I thought it was called voice ACTING. The point of acting is that you are playing a character that is not you. While I understand why Stewart would be excited to portray the character, it is still just a character that is not the VA.
They also tried to claim that the changes were political, but the cancellation of the “Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur” episode happened a year or two ago. The show was issued a cancellation, but they were waiting on dates for the remaining episodes. It had nothing to do with Donald Trump’s reelection.
“Win or Lose” had its changes made more recently, even though it had been done for a couple of years and was still not released. This says to me that it was not based on who was in office but more than likely based on the company’s loss of money and desire to appeal to the largest audience they could.
As Ligatich says, it could have been released while President Biden was in office, but they didn’t.
“They had this story in the can for two years, so they could have released it in a Biden presidency, and they chose not to.”
Disney’s CEO, Bob Iger, said that they were prioritizing entertainment over messaging last April when he said,
“The bottom line is that infusing messaging as sort of a number one priority in our films and TV shows is not what we’re up to. They need to be entertaining, and where the Disney company can have a positive impact on the world, whether it’s, you know, fostering acceptance and understanding of people of all different types, great.”
Maybe the media needs to stop blaming an imaginary vocal minority and look at the silent majority because that’s who Disney is trying to get back. This does not mean that diversity and inclusion can not happen. It just means that the story comes first.
It’s about money and pivoting to stop losing so much of it.
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