Disney’s movie business is in financial decline after it decided to put wokeness ahead of entertainment.
Now the entertainment conglomerate is getting a wake-up call from a legend.
And Disney’s CEO was fuming when a director gave him one ultimatum about wokeness.
Legendary Disney director slams the company for focusing on a political message
Veteran filmmaker John Musker was the director for some of Disney’s biggest animated hits like The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Hercules, and The Great Mouse Detective.
He spoke out about the problems with Disney during an interview with Spanish newspaper El País at the Animayo International Summit in Gran Canaria, Spain.
Musker said that Disney needs to return its focus to the story and characters in its movies instead of pushing a political message.
“I think they need to do a course correction a bit in terms of putting the message secondary, behind entertainment and compelling story and engaging characters,” Musker said.
He pointed out Disney Studios executive Jeffrey Katzenberg was hard to deal with in the 1990s, but things had gotten worse.
As time went on there was more meddling from studio executives in movies.
“In the ’90s, we had Jeffrey,” Musker remarked. “He was an emperor, you know. But there weren’t 10 Jeffreys.”
“Now, you have too many people to satisfy,” Musker continued. “Before, we didn’t have 15 directors telling you how to make the movie.”
Musker directed the 2009 animated film The Princess and the Frog which featured Disney’s first black princess.
Critics of the company contend that was the era Disney began to shift gears to focus on wokeness.
“We weren’t trying to be woke, although I understand the criticism,” Musker said about the film.
Legendary Disney director says the company needs to return to what worked
For decades, an animated film released by Disney was almost guaranteed to be a surefire hit with audiences.
The company built a reputation with audiences for delivering entertaining family-friendly content.
Now that is all gone out the door to push a political agenda.
Toy Story spinoff Lightyear bombed with audiences after it featured a kiss between two female characters.
Last year, Pixar’s Elemental was a disappointment at the box office, but Disney noted that it featured the first nonbinary character that used they/them pronouns in the company’s history.
Musker said that Disney has an order of operations problem now.
They put the political agenda first and character development second.
“The classic Disney films didn’t start out trying to have a message. They wanted you to get involved in the characters and the story and the world, and I think that’s still the heart of it,” Musker said. “You don’t have to exclude agendas, but you have to first create characters who you sympathize with and who are compelling.”
Now Disney movies are woke indoctrination intent on pushing a political message with characters grafted onto it.
That is why the studio lost its magical touch with audiences and its movies continue to underperform at the box office.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
