• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Disney hits the panic button

jason10mm

Gold Member
I really cannot fault them for this. In fact, they're doing the correct thing here. Audiences aren't showing up for original stories anymore. If you're in the business to make money and original stories bomb out of the box office, while sequels make $200 million opening weekend, what are you supposed to do? People just don't want to use their time and money at the theater, for something that's unfamiliar to them. They want something safe, something they recognize and think they'll enjoy.

On the whole, we got what we deserved.
Audiences don't show up for original stories that have been processed through a 4 quadrant checklist and stripped of any originality, authenticity, or sharp edges. No risks.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
bttf2.png
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Most of the 4K stuff is already on D+, and things are being automatically upgraded as they're completed. Their catalog is HUGE and they've been working on this since like 2016 or 2017. The 4K versions of Star Wars were done in 2012 before George even sold Lucasfilm.
I want discs of that stuff, screw D+ and their terrible compression artifacts.
Nope. Never. Was just done to have a pristine archival version.
Why do I get the feeling that certain groups of "elites" get together and watch this film whilst sipping champaign from bowls made from the skulls of children? Feels like the ultimate taboo experience short of an actual snuff film :p
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
Why do I get the feeling that certain groups of "elites" get together and watch this film whilst sipping champaign from bowls made from the skulls of children? Feels like the ultimate taboo experience short of an actual snuff film :p

George Lucas has a pristine HD version of the Holiday Special. Seth Green made the Robot Chicken/Detours writers watch it in the Skywalker Ranch screening room to see how long each of them would last before running out.
 

Saber

Member
Audiences don't show up for original stories that have been processed through a 4 quadrant checklist and stripped of any originality, authenticity, or sharp edges. No risks.

Yeah I agree. I don't think things like Strange World is anything remotelly original and neither had any form of risk. What they want now is write garbages like that movie and put the Toy Story franchise in the title, because thats a name people know and would be willing to watch.
 
Last edited:

jason10mm

Gold Member
You're joking, right? That was one of their biggest bombs in the history of the company because they made one of the kids in it gay.
Thats the 4 quadrant bit. Trying to appeal to EVERYONE often means you appeal to NO ONE. The art aesthetic/character design of Strange World was sooooooooo atrocious in that Sweet Baby inc way it was an IMMEDIATE turn off no matter how wild the world was. It's like Disney is trying to bunt for the fences instead of making a wild swing.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
Thats the 4 quadrant bit. Trying to appeal to EVERYONE often means you appeal to NO ONE. The art aesthetic/character design of Strange World was sooooooooo atrocious in that Sweet Baby inc way it was an IMMEDIATE turn off no matter how wild the world was. It's like Disney is trying to bunt for the fences instead of making a wild swing.
35fea_disney_illo_w.jpg
 
Last edited:

Trogdor1123

Member
I really cannot fault them for this. In fact, they're doing the correct thing here. Audiences aren't showing up for original stories anymore. If you're in the business to make money and original stories bomb out of the box office, while sequels make $200 million opening weekend, what are you supposed to do? People just don't want to use their time and money at the theater, for something that's unfamiliar to them. They want something safe, something they recognize and think they'll enjoy.

On the whole, we got what we deserved.
But that only works for so long. They NEED to get some new stories
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Is this trying to blame Chapek again? Did he personally select the art design for Strange Worlds, make them go with the lesbians in Lightyear, or their other missteps?
 

Pigenator

Member
Can you blame them though?
Pixar and Disney new IPs almost consistently bombed the last decade or so.
If I'd been responsible for greenlighting movies over there I'd do the same. Sequels til eternity
 

Kabelly

Member
Mr Incredible best friend lol, did you activated some kind of drama mode or you didn't watch the film to know which best friend I'm talking about?
Are you talking about Frozone? Where he literally says he didnt want to get caught up with the cops because theyre still illegal to be out.

Nothing nonsensical about that scene.
 

Saber

Member
Are you talking about Frozone? Where he literally says he didnt want to get caught up with the cops because theyre still illegal to be out.

Nothing nonsensical about that scene.

Leaving his best friend and running away like a coward? Fear of cops because(hope its not a reference because he is black)? Didn't they just face the villain at the end of the first move anyway? Why would they care about being legal, the fucking city would be destroyed lol
Hows that make any sense to you?
 
Last edited:

Madflavor

Gold Member
But that only works for so long. They NEED to get some new stories

They've been trying. Raya and the Last Dragon, Luca, Strange World, Elemental, Turning Red, Encanto, Lightyear, and Wish just to name a few. They all underperformed or bombed at the box office. Then they come out with Inside Out 2, and it absolutely crushes it. So what's the lesson to be learned here?

It's not Disney's fault, or any studios fault for that matter. The audience has changed over the past decade. They do not want to be challenged anymore with new stories. They want the safe and familiar. I forgot where I read this, but basically in this day and age, if you approach a studio with an idea for a movie, if it's not based on an existing IP, or a Horror movie, you get told to fuck off. Existing IPs are the only worthy bets for a potential return on a big blockbuster, and Horror movies are usually foolproof because they never require a big budget, and the target audience are teenagers who are too retarded to know what a good movie is.

You're bringing up a fair point though. Eventually the entertainment industry as a whole will need to start providing new stories, but it won't be anytime soon. It'll take a couple more generations before Gen X and Millenials are mostly dead, and you've a couple new generations who don't know or care about Star Wars, Toy Story, Frozen 5, or any other tired IP on life support. But what the next slate of entertainment looks like, or the technology it's based on, remains to be seen. But I will say that for anyone over the age of 25, get comfortable with these franchises, cause they're not going away in our lifetimes.
 
Last edited:

jason10mm

Gold Member
They've been trying. Raya and the Last Dragon, Luca, Strange World, Elemental, Turning Red, Encanto, Lightyear, and Wish just to name a few. They all underperformed or bombed at the box office. Then they come out with Inside Out 2, and it absolutely crushes it. So what's the lesson to be learned here?
Half those films were just dogshit and some of the others were targeted to niche audiences. Pixar/Disney has had bombs before and dry spells when they lose sight of what audiences want and start chasing golf claps instead of audience cheers. Its really the budgets that crush these things, Wish looked CHEAP so that was probably the only one that was appropriately budgeted.

Hang on, just saw WISH cost TWO HUNDRED MILLION. WTF? That film looked like a russian CG commercial!?! Money laundering for sure on that one.
 

Doom85

Member
They've been trying. Raya and the Last Dragon, Luca, Strange World, Elemental, Turning Red, Encanto, Lightyear, and Wish just to name a few. They all underperformed or bombed at the box office. Then they come out with Inside Out 2, and it absolutely crushes it. So what's the lesson to be learned here?

Elemental actually had a surprising second wind after initially opening rather weakly, and a month later, the president of Pixar said the movie wound up being profitable despite the discouraging opening weekend.

 

Madflavor

Gold Member
Elemental actually had a surprising second wind after initially opening rather weakly, and a month later, the president of Pixar said the movie wound up being profitable despite the discouraging opening weekend.


Sure but that doesn’t mean it holds a candle to the box office potential of sequels.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
It's not Disney's fault, or any studios fault for that matter. The audience has changed over the past decade. They do not want to be challenged anymore with new stories.

But it is Pixar's fault for identifying new stories that were too niche. They already admitted that. They allowed animators to tell personal stories and the results weren't good. The Good Dinosaur was one of the most boring movies ever, and Turning Red was basically made for the director's childhood friends in a very specific neighborhood of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver.

Their original stuff that comes from quirky ideas like Toy Story or Monsters, Inc. does MUCH better, and you just have to look at Inside Out 2 for proof. Since then they're going back to more traditional Pixar style movies. The director of Coco has Elio this year about a kid who accidentally becomes the intergalactic ambassador to Earth, and then they announced Hoppers about a girl who puts her mind in a robot beaver to go undercover in the animal kingdom.

GUlqVYiWcAArgAl
 

nush

Member
Most of the 4K stuff is already on D+, and things are being automatically upgraded as they're completed. Their catalog is HUGE and they've been working on this since like 2016 or 2017. The 4K versions of Star Wars were done in 2012 before George even sold Lucasfilm.

There's a 3D version of the original Star wars that's never been released. It was screened for executives sometime in the early 200's at one of the Leicester Square cinemas. I only know this because the projectionist working there used to post on a forum I was on.
 

ManaByte

Gold Member
There's a 3D version of the original Star wars that's never been released. It was screened for executives sometime in the early 200's at one of the Leicester Square cinemas. I only know this because the projectionist working there used to post on a forum I was on.

Lucasfilm 3D converted the six movies in 2010. They only released TPM in theaters and they showed ROTS at Celebration.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
The value destruction is impressive, especially when you consider the S&P 500 is up ~85% in the same time period. Keep in mind this includes the impact of the "two $1 billion movies."
Walt-Disney-Company-(The)-stock-chart-5-years.png
I;m too lazy to google it, but anyone know why Disney stock zoomed up like crazy during covid when movies and parks should had had limited sales due to covid?

Was it Disney+ related? Or something else?
 

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
Seriously, do you work for them? Because you've become the Disney defence force. Yes, they've had great success with the two movies they've put out this year (one of which was successful thanks to a completely different company's output), but the massive course correct is obvious to anyone and everyone. As are the series of abject disasters that have occurred over the past few years.

I've said it before, but I'm convinced ManaByte ManaByte is actually James Mangold.
 
But it is Pixar's fault for identifying new stories that were too niche. They already admitted that. They allowed animators to tell personal stories and the results weren't good. The Good Dinosaur was one of the most boring movies ever, and Turning Red was basically made for the director's childhood friends in a very specific neighborhood of Chinese immigrants in Vancouver.
Exactly. Writers trying to project their own insecurities and problems or trying to appeal to the loudest voice without any substance just does not work. People want to watch movies in order to have fun. The message comes second (if any).
 

ScythD

Member
I;m too lazy to google it, but anyone know why Disney stock zoomed up like crazy during covid when movies and parks should had had limited sales due to covid?

Was it Disney+ related? Or something else?
I believe it was D+ related. The charts show most of the streamers stocks did really well during the pandemic, then came back down to earth once things opened back up. Netflix looks like the only winner of the group.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Exactly. Writers trying to project their own insecurities and problems or trying to appeal to the loudest voice without any substance just does not work. People want to watch movies in order to have fun. The message comes second (if any).
Yup.

Unless a writer has the coolest personal life stories to tell without trainwreck personal politics involved, most people just want some fun plots to be entertained for a few hours.

Nobody wants to watch cringey stuff about other people's life issues spun into a movie. If people want to watch that, they'll watch a low key documentary or an episode of Intervention.

Problem is so many creative types are weird people. In life, most people dont want to hear it and probably shun their stupidity. But media is their way of airing out their laundry by fusing it into a cartoon/TV show/movie. They just got to hope it gets green lit.
 

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
Yea they’re totally panicking with two $1 billion movies within two months.
Yeah but there's the pressure to keep growing..it's insane. They're gonna hit a brick wall at some point. The entire system will.. it's scary as all get out..
 

AJUMP23

Parody of actual AJUMP23
They should do an animated remake of their live action films like Aladdin, lion king, Snow White, and little mermaid. Those would be great as cartoons.
 

Kabelly

Member
Leaving his best friend and running away like a coward? Fear of cops because(hope its not a reference because he is black)? Didn't they just face the villain at the end of the first move anyway? Why would they care about being legal, the fucking city would be destroyed lol
Hows that make any sense to you?
Again, they explained that pretty well in the very next scene.


Frozone running away from the cops had nothing to do with his race. It was because it's illegal to be a super! Mr. Incredible is the very reason they are illegal in the first place.

Either way, you don't enjoy the movie. It didn't make sense to you. I am very excited for 3.
 

Saber

Member
Again, they explained that pretty well in the very next scene.


Frozone running away from the cops had nothing to do with his race. It was because it's illegal to be a super! Mr. Incredible is the very reason they are illegal in the first place.

Either way, you don't enjoy the movie. It didn't make sense to you. I am very excited for 3.


How my dude, how the heck do you explain his best friend running away because of being illegal? You say its cool to abandon his best bud like that? How is that too hard for you to grasp?

If thats so easy to pull why didn't he run away from from the police in the first movie(or better yet he could just pretend shit wasn't happened and follow the dinner with his wife)? Wasn't all that illegal as well? How it makes sense here but not before? You're trying to hard to explain a silly thing that doesn't make sense and it has nothing to do if someone likes the movie or not.
 
Last edited:

Fake

Gold Member
Frozone running away from the cops had nothing to do with his race. It was because it's illegal to be a super! Mr. Incredible is the very reason they are illegal in the first place.

lmao at this point I think you are just trolling. Of course he run away because he is black and the police. In the first one he don't give a fuck about being illegal, he just want to help his best friend to do the right thing.
 
Last edited:

RAÏSanÏa

Member
Not that I consider myself the target audience for many of these shows. Some I watch just to see for myself to weigh reality against outrage culture and compare to what I watched as a kid. Get a sense of the zeitgeist and maybe an insight into what makes weird old people obsess negatively and watch hours of formulaic youtube videos complaining about the shows. If I enjoy the film that's a bonus.

Haven't watched many of these

Little Mermaid was a better adaptation than expected. One of the best live ones so far, imo of the dozen-ish I watched. Not that many would consider the bar all that high. Snow White looks pretty good too. Seems that Disney's been learning and adapting.
Looking forward to Maleficent 3, if it's getting effective development time I expect it's going to be a banger after a couple sleepers.

I really liked Frozen II. One of the better magical occult movies for kids, up there with Poppins. Haven't heard anything about a III until now, but hopefully it expands the spirit world and to other kingdoms. There's an opportunity for some syncretic global storytelling, introduce new characters. Possibility for insane record box office success. That they're planning for two movies is encouraging for scale of the story.
 

Toons

Member
Exactly. Writers trying to project their own insecurities and problems or trying to appeal to the loudest voice without any substance just does not work. People want to watch movies in order to have fun. The message comes second (if any).

This is the most anti art, anti craft comment I've ever seen that believes itself convicned it is pro art and pro craft.

There is not one single well regarded filmmaker, writer, producer, or anything who could agree with you on this. In fact, they have already said the opposite.

George Lucas makes movies HE wants to make. Spielberg makes movies HE wants to make. Coppola makes movies HE wants to make. Scott makes movies HE wants to make. Lynxh makes movies HE wants to make. They have all, over their lengthy careers, been given opportunities to alter their stories to appeal to the more people for financial gain, or to work on projects with a much higher guarantee o financial success and 90% of the time they come to regret doing so.

Disney is a corporation. They want money. That's their job. The artists they hire, are artists. And when they get hired they SHOULD be getting hired to put themselves into the work. Thats the entire point. Financial success is secondary to that, and the point at which it isn't is the point at which the craft is gone for good.

And no, people don't just watch movies for fun. They watch movies to hear a story, to envision a world they cannot access, or just to feel something. That doesnt just mean "fun".
 
Last edited:

RAÏSanÏa

Member
This is the most anti art, anti craft comment I've ever seen that believes itself convicned it is pro art and pro craft.

There is not one single well regarded filmmaker, writer, producer, or anything who could agree with you on this. In fact, they have already said the opposite.

George Lucas makes movies HE wants to make. Spielberg makes movies HE wants to make. Coppola makes movies HE wants to make. Scott makes movies HE wants to make. Lynxh makes movies HE wants to make. They have all, over their lengthy careers, been given opportunities to alter their stories to appeal to the more people for financial gain, or to work on projects with a much higher guarantee o financial success and 90% of the time they come to regret doing so.

Disney is a corporation. They want money. That's their job. The artists they hire, are artists. And when they get hired they SHOULD be getting hired to put themselves into the work. Thats the entire point. Financial success is secondary to that, and the point at which it isn't is the point at which the craft is gone for good.

And no, people don't just watch movies for fun. They watch movies to hear a story, to envision a world they cannot access, or just to feel something. That doesnt just mean "fun".
This about artist and Disney reminded of Saving Mr. Banks and how it delves into it.
 

Jsisto

Member
Creatively bankrupt slop being shoveled out to a society that largely craves it. The state of entertainment media can largely be summarized as “Oh, it’s that guy/girl/creature from that one thing and now theyre in this other thing!” Who can blame them.
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom