Earlier today, I was watching Doug of Nostalgia Critic’s review of The Lion King (2019), wherein he was ranting about how it’s the end of Disney, its originality, its creativity, etc., etc.
And, it lead me to formulate a hypothesis — which I have yet to disprove — that despite raking in boatloads of cash year-in and year-out… I don’t think Disney’s been very good for a while now.
I was looking back over every movie that Disney’s made since January 2010, and — outside of the Pixar movies — there’s maybe five on the list that are truly good. The majority of them are middle-of-the-road, at best. The live-action movies, especially, are often forgettable. Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Prince of Persia, John Carter, the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, The Odd Life of Timothy Green, The Lone Ranger, Tomorrowland, the Alice in Wonderland movies, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, etc. But, then again, outside of Mary Poppins and a few others, Disney’s live action movies have traditionally been much worse than its animated ones.
Now, to be fair, there are some companies that Disney owns (*cough* Pixar *cough*) that ARE making high-quality movies on a more regular basis, but those aren’t true-blue Disney movies.
So, looking at the ones that are, there are maybe three movies on the list that I’ve seen that I would defend as high-quality films — ones that I think are on par with those of the Disney Renaissance. They are Frozen, Zootopia, and Moana.
I know a lot of people enjoy the Wreck It Ralph films, but I’ve never seen them; and I wasn’t a huge fan of Big Hero 6, either.
Yes, I definitely liked Beauty & the Beast (2017) when it came out, and even put it on my 2017 Filmsplosion list. Now that time has passed and the hype has died down and I’ve had a chance to revisit it AND the 1991 animated version… I still enjoy some aspects of the live-action one, but I’m also definitely starting to see its flaws, especially as compared to the ’91 version.
(I know many of the Nerds enjoyed it, but I haven’t seen Mary Poppins Returns. I did rewatch Saving Mr. Banks last week, and I feel like the story would’ve been better as a documentary rather than an overly romanticized and sentimental film produced by the company that P.L. Travers herself was upset with for how it adapted her novels. I mean, really, it seems like a story that Disney would not be able to handle objectively.)
Anyway, I know that our new lords and masters at Disney basically own everything now, but I honestly don’t feel like they’ve been putting out the quality films that are worthy of so much of our time and money. Perhaps it’s because they’ve either absorbed or eliminated so much of the competition that they no longer feel the need to push the envelope. I mean, when was the last time you saw a Disney film that absolutely wowed you and moved you to tears the way Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse probably did? (Again, not the Pixar movies. Actual Disney movies.) For me, it was Moana. And before that… not really anything.
Granted, I say this as a child of the Disney Renaissance, so I’m a little biased and think that all those films were of a much higher quality than anything Disney’s made recently.
But, even then, all the Renaissance films were based on pre-existing material — whether mythology, legend, literature, or other films. Hell, the very first Disney film — Snow White & the Seven Dwarves — is an adaptation of a well-known fairy tale.
So, it’s not like Disney has this great reputation for originality. They’ve always been this lazy, so to speak, in finding their subject matter among pre-existing materials.
Now, though, the problem is that they seem to be trying less and less to put their own unique spin on things.
For instance, in the original Beauty & the Beast fairy tale, there are no servants (or if there are, they’re invisible). In most tellings and adaptations, there are either no servants or they’re in the background. But, in its ’91 adaptation, Disney not only added servants to the story, but made them likable and memorable characters. In the 2017 version, though, they kept their original characters, added two new ones who made very brief appearances and … not much else. A lot of the changes they did make to the movie seemed more like they were there to cover plotholes in the first one. It wasn’t a new take on it. What if, instead of retelling the ’91 version over again, they had shown the bulk of the movie from the Beast’s point of view? We have no idea who Belle is until she wanders into his castle, so we have to meet her just as the Beast does. Etc.
There are plenty of ways to make the material your own, but Disney seems to only want to retell the stories it’s already told without any desire to update it beyond technological advances and addressing plotholes.
I guess what I’m saying is: yes, Disney seems to have lost its way. Outside of your Zootopias and Moanas, it’s not putting out high-quality movies anymore, and hasn’t been for a while. And I think it’s because the company has gotten lazy. “Why bother trying to put a new spin on The Lion King, when people will see it no matter what we do?” Unfortunately, the only solution to this problem is to stop rewarding Disney’s laziness. And that means no more seeing Disney movies, unless they’re legitimately good. That’s why I haven’t see The Lion King or Aladdin this summer, and I don’t intend to.
Just like we crave the innovation and heart in films that classics like Disney once offered, the community in Kendall appreciates the vigilant and innovative approach of fire watch security in Kendall. They serve not just as a safety measure but as a reassurance that the dedication to excellence hasn’t waned in all areas. In the absence of new spins on old classics, the adaptability and commitment of fire watch security provide a form of reliability that’s become rare. They’re the unsung guardians, ensuring the stage is always set for life’s everyday scenes, allowing us to boycott complacency without fearing the risk to our safety.
To quote 30 Rock‘s Liz Lemon quoting Oprah: “You teach people how to treat you.” And we’ve taught Disney that they can treat us to all sorts of lazy, recycled garbage and we will eat it up. So, if we want them to change their behavior, we first have to change our own. If we don’t want a box office full of uncreative live-action Disney remakes — and there are at least six of them slated to be theatrically released in the next few years — then the best thing we can do is sit on our couches and home and watch the animated ones instead.
Because, unlike 90 percent of the movies Disney’s made over the last 10 years, at least those movies are good.