Since its founding in 1923, Disney has stood alone in Hollywood in a fundamental way: its family-friendly movies, television shows, and theme park rides have always been targeted, at least in theory. EveryoneEnthusiasm avoided with potential political and cultural pitfalls.
The Disney brand is all about wishing the stars and finding true love and living happily ever after. If fairy tale castles are too subtle, Disney theme parks promise an escape from reality altogether with welcome signs that read, “Here you leave today and enter a world of tomorrow, tomorrow and fantasy.” Do it.”
Recently, however, real-world ugliness has been creeping into the Magic Kingdom. In this hyperpartisan moment, both sides of the political divide are pounding on Disney, which is threatening one of the world’s best-known brands—one that, to many, is a symbol of America itself—as it increasingly tries to navigate the changing entertainment industry.
In some cases, Disney has voluntarily gotten into cultural issues. Last summer, to thunderous applause from progressives and the far-right, Disney announced plans to have loudspeakers in its theme parks, ditching “ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls” in favor of “dreamers of all ages”. decided to. But the entertainment giant has also found itself dragged into the fray, as with a recent controversy over a new Florida law that restricts classroom instruction through third grade on sexual orientation and gender identity, among many things. does and has been labeled by opponents as “don’t say gay.”
At first, Disney tried not to take a side on the law, at least publicly, which prompted an employee rebellion. Disney then aggressively denounced the bill—only to find itself in the cross hairs of Fox News hosts and Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, who sent a fund-raising email to supporters saying it “woke Disney”. has “lost any moral authority to tell you what to do.” Florida lawmakers began threatening to repeal a 55-year-old law that essentially enables Walt Disney World to function as its own municipal government. (Disney was already with the governor on pandemic issues like vaccine mandates for employees.)
In trying to hurt anyone, Disney had lost all.
“The mission for the Disney brand has always been clear: Don’t do anything that might upset or confuse family audiences,” said the Norman Lear Professor of Entertainment, Media and Society at the University of Southern California and former Walt Disney. studio executive. “Fun for everyone. Nothing offensive. Let’s all be transformed with a magic wand. But today we’re so divided, so excited that even Disney is having a hard time getting us together.”
Avoiding socially divisive subjects, of course, in itself reflects a certain worldview. The namesake founders of the Walt Disney Company were, after all, anti-union conservatives. Main Street USA patriotism is on major display at Disney’s theme parks. The traditional Christmas story is told each December at Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California with candlelight processional events, Bible verses and all.
It took until 2009 for the company to introduce the Black Princess.
But in recent years, a remarkable change has occurred. Robert A. Iger, who served as chief executive from 2005 to 2020, continues to grow the world’s largest entertainment company thanks to its emphasis on diverse casting and storytelling. As he said at Disney’s 2017 shareholder meeting, referring to inclusion and equality: “We can take values ​​that we consider socially important, and actually change people’s behavior — giving people many more Get to accept the differences and cultures and races and all. Other aspects of our lives and our people’s lives.”
In short, entertainment as advocacy.
Mr. Iger was the one who put forward the global blockbuster “Black Panther,” which featured an almost entirely black cast and a powerful Afrocentric story. During her tenure, Disney refocused the “Star Wars” franchise around female characters. A parade of animated films (“Moana,” “Coco,” “Rae and the Last Dragon,” “Soul,” “Encanto”) featured a variety of races, cultures, and ethnicities.
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The result, for the most part, has been one hit after another. But a slew of Disney viewers have pushed back.
“Eternal,” a $200 million Disney-Marvel film, was “review bombing” in the fall because it featured a gay superhero kissing her husband, with online trolls flooding Internet movie databases with hundreds of homophobic one-star reviews. Were were In January, Disney was accused of smuggling into the stereotype by actor Peter Dinklage and others by moving forward with the live-action “Snow White” film—until it was revealed that the company had created the Seven Dwarfs digitally. Gone are the “magical creatures”. , “which, in turn, prompted complaints by others about the “erasing” of people with dwarfism.
Disney executives dismiss such incidents as storms in the teapot: Today in trend, tomorrow replaced by a new complaint. But even moderate online storms can be a distraction inside the company. meetings are held about how and what to answer; Desperate talent partners should be reassured.
As Disney prepares to launch its streaming service in 2019, it began a comprehensive review of its movie library. As part of an initiative called Stories Matter, Disney added disclaimers to content that the company determined contained “negative depictions or abuses of people or cultures.” Examples included the 1970s episode of “The Muppet Show” and the 1941 version of “Dumbo”.
“These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now,” the disclaimer read.
According to two current Disney executives, the Stories Matter team flagged other characters as potentially problematic, with the findings distributed to senior Disney leaders, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the confidential information. had spoken. One was Ursula, the villainous sea witch in “The Little Mermaid” (1989). The Stories Matter team warns that her dark color palette (lavender skin, dark legs) may be viewed through a racial lens; She’s also a “queer coded” character, with ways inspired by the mannerisms of a real-life drag queen.
According to officials, Tinker Bell was marked for caution because she is “body conscious” and jealous of Peter Pan’s attention, while Captain Hook exposed Disney to allegations of discrimination or prejudice against persons with disabilities. Maybe because he’s a villain.
At least some people inside Disney are concerned that such sensibility goes too far. One of the officials worried that viewing artistic creations through a “politically correct filter” could stifle creativity.
Disney declined to comment for this article.
This all comes at a perilous time for Disney, which is racing to remake itself as a streaming titan as technology giants like Amazon and Apple move deeper into the entertainment business and companies like Disney-owned ESPN. Traditional cable networks gradually wither away. Disney is also facing a disruptive change of guard, with Mr Iger stepping down as executive chairman in December.
Mr Iger occasionally spoke on hot-button political issues during his time as chief executive. His successor, Bob Chapek, decided (with support from the Disney board) to avoid weighing in on the state’s political battle. However, Disney lobbyists will continue to work behind the scenes, as they did with Florida law.
“Our Miscellaneous Stories” Huh Our corporate statements – and they are more powerful than any tweet or lobbying effort,” Chapek wrote in an email to Disney employees on March 7. Be it
In the case of Florida, the approach backfired, first with employee protests and walkouts and then with right-wing backlash. Fox News host Tucker Carlson said Disney had “a sexual agenda for 6-year-olds” and was “scary as hell”. Tweets with the #boycottDisney hashtag accumulated millions of impressions between March 28 and April 3, according to ListenFirst, an analytics firm.
Disney executives have long held the position that the boycott has minimal impact, if any, on the company’s business. Disney is such a giant (it generates nearly $70 billion in annual revenue) that its products are nearly impossible to avoid.
But the same vast reach that makes Disney hard to boycott makes it an increasingly visible part of the country’s cultural debate. Rarely does a month pass without some sort of dusting, usually with sexual identity and gender as the sign.
Last summer, “Muppet Babies,” a Disney Junior series for kids ages 3 to 8, slowly explored gender identity. Gonzo wore a gown in defiance of Miss Piggy’s instruction “that girls come as princesses and boys come as knights.” Out magazine wrote that the episode “sent a powerful message of love and acceptance to gender-differential kids everywhere!” And a far-right pundit blasted Disney for “advancing the trans agenda” on kids, starting an online brush fire.
Around the same time, some LGBTQ advocates were criticizing Disney over the Disney+ superhero show “Loki”. In the third episode of “Loki”, the title character briefly admitted on-screen for the first time what comic fans had long known: he is bisexual. But the handling of the information in the blink of an eye has angered some prominent members of the LGBTQ community. “It’s like a word,” Russell T. Davies, a British screenwriter (“Queer as Folk”), said during a panel discussion at the time. “It’s a ridiculous, ludicrous, weak gesture.”
The fight will undoubtedly continue: The Disney-Pixar film “Lightyear,” releasing in June, will feature a loving gay couple, while “Thor: Love and Thunder,” coming out in July, will feature a major LGBTQ character.
Last month, when Disney held its most recent shareholder meeting, Mr. Chapek was put on the spot by shareholders political left and right.
One person called on Disney to act for contributing legislators who have supported bills restricting voting and reproductive rights. Mr Chapek said Disney gave money to “both sides of the aisle” and was re-evaluating its donation policies. (He later withheld all contributions in Florida.) Another representative of a shareholder advocacy group then took the microphone and noted that “Disney has always represented a safe haven for children since its inception,” homophobic and Before delving into the transphobic comments and asking Mr. Chapek to “abandon politicization and gender ideology.”
In response, Mr. Chapek noted the opposite shareholder concerns. “I think all participants on today’s call can see how difficult it is to try to thread the needle amid the extreme polarization of political perspectives,” he said.
“We want Disney to be a place where people can come together,” he continued. “My opinion is, when someone walks down Main Street and comes into the gates of our parks, they put their differences aside and see what they have as a shared belief.” Disney A shared belief in magic, hopes, dreams and imagination.”
