Disney's problem isn't just that it is woke; it is also creatively dead

Hotair ^ | 07/14/2023 | David Strom

[SeekAndFind]

Another day, another example of Disney’s substituting a political message for creativity.

This example is from The Daily Mail, which puts a bit more meat on the bone regarding the already controversial live-action remake of “Snow White and the 7 Dwarves.”

The earlier controversy stems from Disney’s self-conscious hire of a Latina actress to play Snow White–an example of the fact that race-swapping is perfectly acceptable when doing so displaces a White actor, but “cultural appropriation” when a White actor plays a non-White character.

I found the earlier controversy to be an example of the tedious character of these racial debates because sometimes it matters–race swapping in JRR Tolkien stories makes no sense–while race swapping in other stories is utterly irrelevant. A Black James Bond? Who cares? Is the actor good? England is now a multiracial society and we have seen many James Bonds, none of whom look alike.

Race-swapping hobbits? Hobbits are literally a race already, as are elves and orcs, etc. Mixing in yet more races within races makes no sense, especially in a story set in what is clearly a medieval/European setting.

Are you sure those aren’t Biden appointees on the right?

— 🫃🏼💉🇺🇦Hollaria Briden, Esq. & Ally (@HollyBriden) July 14, 2023

A Snow White with darker skin literally makes no sense, of course, because she was quite literally Snow White, named after her abnormally White skin. “The fairest of them all,” I seem to recall. But whatever. My objection is not particularly that the races were swapped, but by how tediously predictable doing so was.

Snow White and the Unabomber


https://t.co/2wKV0kh0wP pic.twitter.com/LZdpiEy3p4

— Sunny McSunnyface (@sunnyright) July 14, 2023

Same with this next “controversial” decision: replacing the dwarves with…whatever. “Magical beings” of every race and height and gender. Peter Dinklage took umbrage that dwarves were stereotyped in the movie (shocking, I know!), so Disney decided to work with activist groups to come up with an alternative.

Again, whatever. More tediousness. The story comes second.

While I cringe at all the excessive “sensitivity” and the need not just for political correctness but also at the need to turn every creative enterprise into a struggle session run by critical theorists, all these controversies are a result of a deeper disease that Disney and much of Hollywood is suffering from.

Hollywood has lost its creative edge. They apparently have no new ideas, new stories to tell, and nothing with which to entertain us–so they default to political lectures.

Political lectures are boring. How many Soviet-era films have people ever rushed to see?

Having a political point of view is nothing new in movies, and I’ve watched plenty of left-leaning political movies that annoy me quite a bit but were entertaining and definitely worth watching. If you have a good story, it might be better or worse with different politics, but you have a GOOD STORY.

A good story well told covers many sins. I don’t rush out to see conservative movies (there are a few) because they have a good message, because message movies tend to suck.

Look at this controversy: everybody is focused on the wokeness; fine, whatever. Just as important is that Disney can’t come up with anything but a remake of a movie of which they are apparently ASHAMED. They declare Snow White to be toxic but are too creatively bankrupt to come up with anything but a race-swapped Snow White with an empowerment message that Princes are unnecessary appendages to a strong Latina woman.

Geez. If you dislike Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, make a different movie. You have billions of dollars, after all. But instead, Disney wants to live off the legacy of “white supremacy” while decrying it.

It’s like Ben and Jerry’s wanting everybody else to return “stolen land” but hanging on to its own in order to crank out cash, only worse. Ben and Jerry’s actually has an edible product; Disney is recycling what it claims to be its own trash.

That isn’t just hypocrisy, but pathetic.

Hollywood isn’t incapable of coming up with good stories, and good stories don’t even have to be complicated. Tom Cruise (whose religious beliefs seem utterly bizarre to me, but so what?) knows how to make a good movie. Disney? It recycles its own IP, injects idiotic political messages (Indiana Jones is a pathetic old man who will be upstaged by a personality-free girl boss), and begs you to part with your cash.

I wouldn’t even stream it if I could. Sounds awful, as does every Disney movie of late, and the box office receipts reflect that.

It’s not just that the politics are stupid and destructive; it’s that Disney has nothing else. They aren’t even creative enough to be decent propagandists.

The last great creative burst from Hollywood was in television, mostly on cable channels. The take was cynical, hating on everybody, and amoral for the most part. But it was worth watching. It wasn’t the message that drove the story, but the story and good acting.

This is the Kathleen Kennedyization of Hollywood. Kennedy is the woman who destroyed Star Wars, which was already pretty awful after The Empire Strikes Back. When Disney bought the Star Wars franchise from George Lucas, Kennedy took over the property. Immediately she produced The Force Awakens, which is just a remake of the first Star Wars with race and gender-swapped characters.

That’s it. Nothing new. New characters (more races and genders!), same story.

And that is Hollywood today. Lots of money but not a single new idea or story worth telling.

 

[MinorityRepublican]

Tom Cruise (whose religious beliefs seem utterly bizarre to me, but so what?) knows how to make a good movie.

Tom Cruise is crazy. But he's an artist. He's following a proven formula that's working. His audience loves him for it.

[workerbee]

It’s not just that the politics are stupid and destructive; it’s that Disney has nothing else. They aren’t even creative enough to be decent propagandists.

^^^soooo this!^^^

[PGR88]

Hiring a Latina to play Snowflake is race-swapping? How so? It is illogic like this that makes our side look ridiculous.

I don't believe anyone really cares about that. Certainly Snow White's race/nationality is irrelevent.

Its the archetypes that matter, which the Wokesters at Disney will destroy. Snow White must be a virgin. She must be an immature girl. She needs to go through malformed men and their bad habits (dwarfs who are grumpy, lazy, sneezy, etc...) before she can find a true prince. She must face the enmity and competition of other women (her stepmother). She must deal with the vanity of the mirror (self-image) and confront evil

Will Disney be able to make the story "woke," but keep the archetypes and themes that resonate with people? I highly doubt it.

[No.6]

>Woke and the death of creativity go hand in hand.

Apart from the obvious — that the entire point of ‘woke’ is destruction, lies, and ugliness — doing that process takes time, effort, and money.

They *have* to comb through the original line for line and frame for frame looking for every good thing so they can then invert it. They then *have* to hire and consult a bunch of DEI specialists to tell them what mix of what abominations must be included to meet the Current Thing, or else they’ll be devoured by the insane brigade. (People don’t go into gender studies to serve coffee — they do it to become little Stazi bullies)

Then all the regular talent in graphics, sound, production, etc. etc. get sucked up into this vortex because they have to try and make up for actual quality with production ‘value.’

So even if someone could sneak an actual good new idea in, where would they find all the people to make it happen?

“Forget about your silly whim; it doesn’t fit The Plan!” — Priest of Syrinx, 2112.

[dsrtsage]

It started when they morphed mickey into lemmiwinks

[Liz]

Equity activists are outraged over the disappearance of ‘white guilt’ that justified DEI’s existence
after Disney, Netflix, Warner Bros, and others lose money, force out their high-paid loser DEI chiefs
The Blaze ^ | July 12, 2023 | Carlos Garcia
Posted on 7/13/2023, 7:57:28 AM by Twotone

EDITED-—Racial equity activists are outraged after several large companies dropped their diversity, equity, and inclusion consultants......after huge company losses.

The outrage was documented in a report from the Los Angeles Times that noted the exits of DEI experts at Disney, Netflix, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Warner Bros’ Discovery.

“I wake up every day trying not to be a cynic, but this is frightening,” Vic Bulluck of the NAACP Hollywood bureau ignorantly stated.

“Hollywood seems to be sending a message that these programs that were designed to (gag) “give more access to African Americans” are no longer needed.”

The report noted that all of the DEI chiefs dismissed were black women.

Business strategist Kim Crayton claimed that she predicted that the corporate support of DEI programs would be short-lived.

“2020 was the year that we were definitely making strides — but there wasn’t any strategy, there wasn’t any plan,” she explained.

“It was a PR moment — corporate blackface,” she added. “I told people at the time: ‘White guilt isn’t going to last.’”

Disney, Netflix, and Warner Bros. Discovery told the Los Angeles Times that these criticisms were inaccurate and that they were still committed to the cause of equity and diversity.

Crayton facetiously went on to say claim that DEI consultants were too busy “having to deal with white people’s feelings” to make any lasting change about inequity.

“If you don’t have the autonomy, the resources or the authority to make changes, it won’t work,” she said speaking in a total vacume, without a scintilla of factual proof. “Many of these women spend the majority of their time “navigating white people’s feelings’ — and you cannot do the work if you have to do that.”

Former NBC Universal diversity chair Paula Madison put her own biased spin on it.

“In many instances, other than receiving humongous salaries, the person in those roles has no power,” Madison explained. “These DEI officers are just treading water — and sometimes they are drowning. These things were never designed to be successful.”

The exasperation of DEI proponents was mirrored by that of LGBTQ activists who complained that corporations had been backing off from their support of the far-left movement during the very lucrative Pride Month.

[Beowulf9]

But fits the new Oscar rules.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Disney is creatively dead because it’s focus is on propaganda, not on creating artistic content. Propaganda is meant to indoctrinate, not to enlighten or entertain.

[Spok]

The whole entertainment industry is intellectually bankrupt. It’s because this entire generation of writers knows nothing but video games and comic book characters, and they’re going to be replaced by AI. It will be barely noticed.

[Spok]

Remember in 1984 when Winston was thinking about his friend that was rewriting the language; Newspeak? As he was talking about about how language would be simplified and people wouldn’t have to think choosing the right word, Winston realized Big Brother would be coming for him because he was too creative. Government must throttle thinkers-they’re too dangerous. That’s where we’re headed.

[South Dakota]

Nominating someone is easy...getting the one you want confirmed is the hard part.

[coydog]

Stephen Barnes kind of visited that theme in his novel, Lion's Blood. It's an alternate colonial America in which Africans were the settlers and plantation owners and they had white slaves from a less advanced Europe. He does a quite good job of making the could=have-beens and what-ifs sound plausible. It's a way better take on the idea than whatever Hollywood would do with it.

[Bubba_Leroy]

It has reached the point where you have to assume that Disney wants to lose money. Every woke movie they have released has bombed at the box office. So, what do they do? “Hold my Bud Light and watch this!”

Dirt Brown and the Seven Woke Transvestites, coming soon to a theater near you!

[thecodont]

The reason, at least in part, is because liberalism removes morality. Without clear morality, you can’t have clear heroes and villains. Without that simple basis of heroes and villains, you cannot create storylines that involves heroes and villains.

That’s the real reason for the dearth of new material in Hollywood, I think.

I think that's a pretty good summary.

[FLT-bird]

These are directly tied to one another. The wokeratti are untalented hacks hoping to hide their lack of imagination, creativity or talent behind wokeness.

Everybody has noticed by now that the Woke can’t create anything. They can’t come up with any new stories anybody is the least bit interested in. All they can do is take old stories other people created and try to subvert them by substituting whoever scores the highest in the Oppression Olympics for a Straight White Male in those old stories.

I’m sure its only a matter of time before they recast Superman as a Brown, Transexual, Vegetarian, Furry or recast Captain Cook as a Black, Female, Disabled, Communist setting sail from subsaharan Africa to explore the world. This kind of thing is all they are capable of. Its why nobody watches their movies anymore.