It did work well for Once Upon A Time, with the evil queen considering a Sarlaac to dispose of an enemy, and Emma posing as "Princess Leia" while in the past in fairy tale world.
Sometimes things are reasonably easy to explain. Disney purchased successful franchises and decided to change everyone of them for the ‘modern audience’. This changed the very essence of each franchise from what made it successful in the first place. It’s like buying a handbag company and trying to convince men to use handbags, while making them undesirable for women to use and actively pissing off women at the same time.
Throwing the EU in the trash was the most perplexing. Studios pay big money to adopt just one best selling novel for it's built in audience. SW had dozens of best selling novels, hundreds of comics, and decided not to use any of them. It's like they paid 4 billion just to use the name Star Wars. Even the theme park is just generic sci fi stuff.
@@clogs4956 But not enough, and that's the illusion. The majority aren't buying, and don't even like said "handbags" and the ones that do will ignore the "handbag" for a nice "Rucksack." No one's digging my "handbags?".....quick push the release date back!!
The big question is whether the original IP is damaged by their degrading of the content. That would be bad, because it would hit Disney shareholders by having to write down the value of the assets - of which they paid huge prices for.
The irony is they bought these brands in part because their audience was TOO female and they wanted to attract boys and men - but this happened right before the "modern audiences" trend, which overrode their business sense. I'm confident that the dollar will eventually win out, but the brands will be severely (maybe irreperably) damaged in the process.
What's crazy is that I always loved Star Wars and Marvel a lot more than the Disney Princess movies. But I've stopped watching new Star Wars & Marvel content because I don't like the direction they've taken. So, I think this goes deeper than just boys vs girls. There's an ideological bent at Disney that's sucking the life out of these properties.
I've heard that 20th Century Fox leadership was livid when they found out that Lucas had sold Star Wars to Disney without them even knowing he was planning on selling. I personally think that Star Wars would have been far better off being owned by Fox, and if they'd had it, they'd probably still be independent today. That would have been far better for our overall media landscape, too.
@@bradlees5997 fun fact: did you knew that Fox was going to have a greater kids content when in 1993 it makes a deal with Nick to produce movies. But because Viacom and Paramount merged, Fox was not able to distribute the movies, but if Fox and Nick did really team up and maybe merge up, Disney+ would have a greater content of Fox movies.
Even Coca-Cola learned (albeit the hard way) not to mess with a formula that works. But it seems Disney’s heck-bent on forcing the New Cokes of Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar down our throats, despite how much we’re throwing up.
Similar to what they did with Thums Up in India. When Coke and Pepsi returned to India after the liberalization of the Indian economy in 1992, some of the popular local brands where not able to complete on the national scale and were purchased by Coke and Pepsi. Thums Up was made by Parle and they sold to Coke. Coke removed Thumbs Up (which had a 85% market share at the time) but soon realized that people would turn to Pepsi instead of Coca-Cola, were Thums Up withdrawn from the market. Instead, they decided to use Thums Up as a rival to Pepsi. At that time, Coke had about 60.5% share of the Indian soft-drink market but found out that if it removed Thums Up, it would remain with only 28.7% of the market, hence Thums Up was re-launched and they targeted the 30- to 40-year-old category by making Pepsi to look like a kiddy drink.
Wow that was spot on. They did that here in Oz. They killed pretty much all the locals and some of them made a much nicer drink that wasn't full of so much sugar and caffeine and crap.
Unfortunately, this is a self-correcting problem. In US history, the society becomes wimpified every 80 years or so and then the effeminate leadership gets us into a crisis war that reasserts the value of the masculine. .Revolutionay War, Civil War, WWII - all spaced 3 generations apart with a effete culture preceding a major war then a revived masculine culture. Then the post war revival of the masculine hero - Daniel Boone/Davey Crocket, George Custer/Wyat Earp, George Patton/Audie Murphy. We are heading toward WWIII.
Funny all the men that say these things, look like the very demusculaisist men. The sexism is strong not the men. Femininity is not a weaknis otherwise no humans would exist becouse it needs more strang to press a little human out of a body any men ever had! They tested men, they cryed stop becouse they can not handle the pain women go throught! So being feminin is much stronger in taking shit, men can only put out but are unable to take shit.
Great insight, as always. One thing you touched on that I want to add to is that feminism attacked the Disney Princesses as being “bad role models for little girls” and Disney suddenly had the need to “fix” what wasn’t broken in the first place. Hell, I grew up on the Disney Renaissance (The Little Mermaid is the first animated movie I remember seeing in the theater). Those Princesses were my introduction to classic fairy tales. I have ALWAYS seen through the BS of that “bad role model” argument. Besides, it discounts the entire tradition of fairy tales and folklore and what those stories mean to a culture (setting aside the so-called “Disneyfication” of such tales - I can enjoy both Disney’s Little Mermaid and Andersen’s original story with the less-than-happy-ending. All depends on what I’m looking for in a story in a given moment). Disney is what happens when activists complain about something and a company tries to implement everything the activists want in a show of goodwill, but the activists will never be satiated. Activism took over the Princess brand, and the cancer spread from there.
There's an interesting article floating around out there that I can't find again... I think it was Time or Newsweek or something like that... analyzing the success of the Disney Princess brand. What the brand managers found when they studied why the Princesses were so popular is that it wasn't the dresses and things so much as the themes of friendship and cooperation. So, y'know, things modern left-wing feminist activist types don't understand.
Chrissy, I would never say there were not bad ideas by men or anything like that, so I hope you can give what I say a chance, cause I want to add to what you said so well. I was raised to strive to be more than you are, sure I am not going to be Conan or Aragorn or Roosevelt but the striving makes the journey of value. This striving is makes do our best in life, to be the best we can. In school we talked about this with pre sexual revolution courtship, men did not get to have sex until they showed they could be responsible, not be an alcoholic, clear a farm, whatever. A woman had to show that she could cook, be responsible, make sure she was pretty enough that a man wanted her, etc. I think the 'Fat is good!' 'Lazy is good!' 'Not giving a carp about how I look is good!' are terrible things that have grievously hurt both men and women, in the most obvious way our terrible health. But the lack of striving may be a worse loss for humanity in the long run.
I wore out the VHS tapes of the Disney Renaissance films. I loved them as a kid. I think many adults don't give kids enough credit for their intuitions. Yea, they're just kids, but they see and say things that adults may miss, so their input is valuable. They just don't have the experience to really know why some things work and others don't. Your point is a good illustration of that. Thanks for sharing.
That's so funny, my co-host and I were just talking about how Disney isn't comfortable with boy brands and turns them into girl brands. The show is Critique Corner, if you'll forgive me shilling it slightly
This is what I’ve felt too. Politics of Disney aside, their strategy strategy seems to be trying to create a whole new batch of “princesses” in Marvel, Star Wars, etc. Funny thing is, they have shown themselves to be more even handed in the recent past. The Pirates Franchise for example. Or animated features like Lion King and Emperor’s New Groove managed to steer clear of princessification. Which leads to thinking that the “princess” culture is more of a post-2012 development. We are now seeing the end point of that culture finally fully taking over the host organism.
You know you could be onto something. And i want to pint out that a movie happened in 2013 tha tmade an insane amount of money and completely changed Disney for good or bad: Frozen. Till that movie disney princess were a part of the disney tapestry but after Elsa plowed through boxoffice like a train...well seem they tried to get another "Elsa" cost what it would cost becaise littelr girl spend...and make adult spend...a lot
@Mundo do Palhaço hmm did not watched it but from what I saw around, is more like "animal planeteers" even the personality matches. Honestly I think Is more like that they have few original ideas and constant need to put out stuff that lead to this situations, as eventually you will have to rely on whatever you have at hand at the moment.
Some of it may be a lack of understanding how to write masculinity. This thought came to me recently as I was chatting about Avatar: The Last Airbender with others. There was a very good essay done recently on Iroh and how he represents the positive traits of masculinity. And I also commented that you could reframe Airbender through Sokka's eyes and it's the story of him wanting to be a man, learning to be a man, and then essentially taking a leadership position among men. That's his arc over 3 seasons. Seeing this comment made me think about if people even know how to write a positive story about masculinity in the modern age. And while Chato framed Star Wars and Marvel as "boys" franchises I don't think they are. At least not the stuff from Disney. They're more gender neutral. I think maybe Black Panther's original movie (with all the prequel work in the other movies) might be the only boy/man specific storyline as T'Challa is trying to step into his father's shoes and learn what it means to be king. But most of the plot lines are more gender neutral go on adventures kind of thing. And there's nothing wrong with that. But it means the market may actually be being underserved even before you get to princess culture, and that's a problem. Avatar also helped me to envision this as you have Katara on a female empowerment, nurturing, connected to mom plotline, you have Aang on a kind of gender neutral world savior plotline, and you have Sokka on the journey to become a man. And they're all kind of subtle in that no one tells you that this was what it was all about during the show. Anyway, as a woman, I might be blind to some of these things, but it seems like there's not a lot of positive male role models who are put out there specifically as "here's how to be a man." And while there are lots of ways to be a man, I'm sure, as one female character doesn't represent all women, we're not getting a lot of competing views on the topic that aren't inherently sexist, particularly in children's media where modeling behavior would be ideal.
Not really. Padme from the star wars prequels resembles a disney princess more than Rey. If they really wanted to make these new female characters into "princesses" they would have given them more than one outfit, and preferably an outfit that doesn't look like a potato sack 💀. The princess branding wasn't even a thing until the year 2000, and there were really only 8 princess characters (if you want to stretch that definition and include mulan) by that point. These new female characters are less so about being marketable toward girls and more so about functioning as vanity projects for female writers/producers.
Disney has really known only two eras of creative success, when Disney himself was alive and later when Michael Eisner took over and really made it a powerful brand. It was successful not because it was a girl’s brand, but because it was a children’s brand, that was true in both of those eras. In no way has Disney been a child focused company for almost the past two decades. I imagine within the next 15 years Disney will sell its Lucasfilm and Marvel rights, tap back into its original assets (Mickey, Donald, etc), and will become a successful company again. It’s actually a great opportunity for an investor as a turnaround.
part of the problem is there has been a huge decline in people having children since Disney originally became a successful family brand during the post war baby boom. Which adds to the brand confusion, as they now seem to mostly cater to adults nostalgic for their childhood, or maladjusted millennials who refuse to grow up. There aren't enough children and big families anymore for Disney to recapture their former glory solely as a brand for children.
Mickey (and other old Disney stuff) is starting to roll out of copyright protection. Disney is going to have real competition soon as small studios start making good stuff using Disney's own stuff.
I think DeSantis made it personal and they won't back down no matter just to refuse to admit defeat. Disney is such a large company I doubt they will completely go under in our life time.
To be honest I don’t think you are right. Disney wasn’t just for children, they were for everyone, and honestly being more mature isn’t a bad thing at all also I’d argue that all of those “adult” Disney movies are immature as hell. They seem more like something and edgy teen would write on a wattpad as a practice. It’s not that the idea of being more mature of adult oriented is bad is that the execution of was weary poor.
One of the first things aspiring writers are told is, "No one has ever bought a book to be converted". Meaning: as a writer, you must tell a compelling story with your message organically and unobtrusively woven into it. It is ironic that this basic truth has been lost. Or writer training is not what it used to be.
Chato says it. Current Disney is going further with the "Disneyfication" by turning they already feminized properties into the next step, the "we need no man" properties. Going from the third wave of feminism to the fourth.
There are aspects of the original Little Mermaid, and most of the Disney traditionally animated movies, that are problematic to modern leftists. I think that one of the reasons Disney has been leaning so hard into live action remakes, is that it's a way to remove the problematic elements and still sell the product. Eventually the new versions will replace the originals.
This is my biggest problem with Disney+, the lack of content. Disney bought like 90000 films and shows like 90 of them on their channel. All that gigantic library of work from other creators is just... gone
Not to mention they don't even have the full collection of their own original IP's. When I initially subscribed to Disney+ (before the politics got ridiculous--I'm long-since unsubbed), I was excited to finally get to complete shows I'd only seen a few episodes of or had missed out on completely. The Replacements and The Spectacular Spider-Man were two of the primary ones, both originally airing on Disney channels. The Replacements had only 2 of their 4 seasons on the platform, and there was no Spectacular Spider-Man whatsoever. And that's only two shows.
@@Emarella fun fact: did you knew that Fox was going to have a greater kids content when in 1993 it makes a deal with Nick to produce movies. But because Viacom and Paramount merged, Fox was not able to distribute the movies, but if Fox and Nick did really team up and maybe merge up, Disney+ would have a greater content of Fox movies.
Why did it all disappear? “Barack knows that we are going to have to make sacrifices; we are going to have to change our conversation; we’re going to have to change our traditions, our history; we’re going to have to move into a different place as a nation.” - Michelle Obama
I appreciate your intelligent and experienced commentary. At 64 years old, I am battered by what they have done and unsure as to why it happened. Your videos help me. Have you ever seen another time, historically, where this has happened? Where the media seems to hate the fans and they produce movies that are impossible to watch?
@@CallMeChato When The Force Awakens came out in 2015, the thought process was "Don't fuck with the fans". Now, they've completely dropped the "Don't" and "with" parts of that phrase and dare people to complain.
I am 58, so I'm close in age to you. I suggest that this period in entertainment culture is similar to the early to mid 1970's, when the era of cowboy and war movies representing traditional American values was replaced by an increasingly nihilistic era of anti-hero movies. Some of the movies from the anti-hero era are considered classics, but most have just been forgotten. None of them gave the audience a feeling of positivity or empowerment as they left the theater. It seems to me that the turning point to better times was the release of the original Star Wars in 1978, which could be why the cultural marxists who started infiltrating Disney in the 1990's, and took over the company in the 2000's, seem to hate the original Star Wars as much as they do. It doesn't represent their values.
When you can't send people with torches to burn your enemies business down, when you can't hold mass book burnings, just buy them, and the rights for them, then change them so they're unrecognizable, it's absolutely no different.
It’s so funny you mention Ahsoka! When I watched the trailer, I commented that Disney had ‘really streamlined their genderswapping. Men are just the bad guys now; super easy!!’ 😆 Thanks Chato! ✌️
I worked for M&A champ EA for many years and it never ceased to amaze me how they would acquire a new company (or on a smaller scale, hire an individual who was an expert in their field) in order to shore up some area of in which they were deficient and then immediately proceed to tell them how to do their job, usually insisting that they do it in the way that already wasn't working well for EA. I could only shake my head.
Kind of like the Activision-Blizzard merger which has pretty much run off every meaningful Blizzard employee, destroying a once great company in the process.
@@burningphoneix In the Pandemic's case, what happened is that the studio's toxic management was killing the company. EA fired the management and kept the talent.
Thank you for clearing that up for me. I hate to say it but the take away from this is that all our favorite IPs are doomed unless Disney sells them off.
I remember being very excited when Disney bought Lucasfilm. At that time, their work on Marvel was looking good, Pixar was doing well and their animated work still had the magic. The lead up to TFA was exciting and when I left the theater after seeing the movie I was excited to see the continuing adventures of Rey and company despite having reservations about the depictions of Luke, Leia and Han. I figured it would lead to something momentous, and if you remember there were a million theories about Snoke and who exactly Rey was....there was buzz. Looking back now, a decade later and I feel nothing but revulsion for Disney.
lol, I remember when Disney bought Lucasfilm I was somewhat excited too (never was much of a Star Wars fan, but I liked it) and I thought to myself "well, they can't do anything worse than the prequels." Boy was I proven wrong.
I left the movie theatre after midnight opening of TFA totally deflated. It felt off from the first five minutes. Despite all the build up and excitement, it fundamentally failed at every single point in the movie.
There were some subtle signs. 1. They didn’t do a very good job of building their Muppet acquisition. They bought it in 2004 and produced a couple of forgettable films, Muppet Babies and Muppet show reboots and a few specials. It’s basically a dead IP at this point. 2. They have done nothing with Winnie the Pooh in the last 20 years on the big screen and in the last ten on tv/video/streaming. That’s two big IP acquisitions that they mismanaged.
I was surprised they bought it in the first place, surprised that Lucas sold it and was sceptical that a large company like Disney would have a good enough understanding of Star Wars to be able to make a success of it (there is a tendency to write off Star Wars as being about the special effects and music and to forget that while George Lucas is trying to tell stories to children there is still a lot of depth to his stories and characters). However I still thought they'd probably still try to make decent Star Wars films up until we were shown a photo of those woman wearing their 'force is female' t-shirts. From that point it was obvious that they had an agenda and I have only been surprised about how bad it got, not that it was going to be bad.
@@Akm72 But KK(the he one wearing the shirt) was appointed co-chair of Lucasfilm by Lucas. She produced ET, Temple of Doom, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park. She should know how to produce a good film.
I remember my first M&A as a 20-something structural designer for an engineering firm. The words that came out of the mouth of the leadership was, "this ia a great day for us hear as we have come to an agreement with our biggest competitor." Those words now when I look back was the beginning of the end of a very talented group of engineers, designers, and drafters. By the end of the whole merger not a single member (janitors to senior partners) of my company survived going on to other companies cities and countries, as the culture of the dominate firm was the polar opposite of ours. Everytime I see a company getting ready to M&A I leave without a beat, as I know it rarely succeeds. By the way that firat M&A I went through neither firm exists now as the combined firms failed four years afterwards. So, really Disney will be the same and proof is it's fight with Florida. They are a dying empire.
Florida has nothing to do with acquistions. On another note, what you need to do if an acquisition of your employer is coming is get yourself some shares: the buyer is likely to overpay.
Something similar happened to me where the ompany was purchased. I sensed that my department got locked down so much that some people could not actually do their work. In the meantime, the advertising department became lot more people. I suspected that my department will be removed in the near future and I looked for other work. Less than two years later, the entire department was removed. My former employer had to stick around for 5 years as per contract. He sent me a message later that he also left.
Disney can only raise resort and theme park prices so much to absorb the losses for their terrible content. At this rate, and with their avowal to stay the course, how long will it take for the company go bankrupt?
All great points, and I'd add that "Princess movies" don't necessarily mean bad entertainment. The originals of Beauty&The Beast, Mulan and Frozen were all good films with universal appeal. It's only been relatively recently that "Princess movies" or "girls' entertainment" have become a prescribed set of boring tropes about flawless protagonists slay-queening their ways to empowerment.
Absolutely nailed it. How Lucas didn't see this coming is nuts. He said pubicly that Disney was the only one he wanted to sell to. Terrible negotiating strategy also. Lucas is also to blame here, sadly.
Btw, there are 3 things that define my childhood and now appear to me as a strange fever dream in my memories: SCTV, Bizarre, and Mr. Canoehead. Who would have thunk? Also Hee Haw. TV was my babysitter.
I remember when then first hints of the Lord of the Rings movies (Peter Jackson) came out, there was both elation and trepidation as people prayed "Please don't let it be Disney". Everyone knew that if Disney had done the LOTR movies, Gollum would have been turned into a comic relief sidekick (Probably played by Jim Carey). We all knew that Disney poisons everything it touches. That has not changed.
I always knew that the Disney princesses were evil, lol! I never thought that I would live to see the day where I would hate Star Wars and Marvel, but Disney has proved me wrong.
This is the first time I've heard this perspective applied to Disney's acquisitions, and it resonates. Integrating a new company/culture into an existing one can be difficult, expensive, and downright ugly. But in many industries, it's relatively easy to prevent outsiders from seeing that drama. But Disney is in the business of creating and selling big budget, complex projects to as many people as possible. They want attention, and they're getting it, for better and for worse.
Great video! Growing up, my grandmother was an English professor. She didn't quite have the vocabulary or patience for young kids, and she spoke her mind. She HATED Disney with a passion. She didn't want me watching Disney movies. Mostly because of the way they "bastardized the Brothers Grimm" and other stories. If I had an interest, she'd get me, or read me, the actual story. So, I've had that in my mind since I was 5. I tell ya, you don't make any friends in second grade telling everybody they're "willfully ignorant" (before I even knew what it meant, of course.) There were times, though, it felt like I was the only kid who knew the truth: that Disney doesn't really care about the source material, and all the kids around me singing along to the catchy songs were caught up in a joyful lie. Which is why none of this is shocking to me, either. ...and yes, I have enjoyed a Disney movie or two throughout life. I'm not made of stone. But there's always an asterix of various size in the back of my head.
Fantasia is a masterpiece, one of Disney's best if not their best, I love Pixar from 1995 to 2010 probably more than Disney, there is a good reason about why J. R. R. Tolkien didn't want Disney to bought the rights of his works and adapting them, if only George Lucas learned about that Tolkien's story.
I still say that KK was the last “finger” from Lucas to Disney. He knew what she was, who she was…she had been around for 35 years, boiling in the background wanting to show “the boys” how she could do it. He could sell Star Wars to Disney knowing that she would just destroy everything. He knew and he was right.
That's a 4D chess move right there. Become a multi-millionaire by selling your space opera IP to a megacorporation just to buy it back later for pennies on the dollar.
That's what I want to believe. And after being inundated with corporate sludge, the prodigal king returns and promises more SW content while putting dirt in the eyes of every prequel hater. Not even thrawn could come up with a more brilliant plan.
I doubt that Lucas will ever come back to SW. Setting up Kennedy as a ticking time bomb is an interesting idea though. It's a bit conspiratorial, but a fun one ))
Now I want a story with a group of female assassins like the Kill Bill one but with Disney Princesses code names, and that's just from the title. As a Power Rangers fan, Disney doesn't know how to handle "boy" brands. When they ended up owning Power Rangers (they didn't actually want it, long story), they really didn't know what to do with it. So they gave almost complete control to the Executive producers, and curiously, that resulted in some of the most creative and fun Power Rangers seasons. But they ran the franchise into the ground because they didn't know how to market it, how to air it, or how to incorporate it into their bigger catalog. It was the peak of PR storytelling (IMHO) but also the lowest the brand has ever been. Power Rangers couldn't be turned into a full "Girl Power" show because it has the constrain of the original Japanese Sentai footage that is spliced with the Western scenes. That's what keeps the cost of a show like Power Rangers relatively low. But the Japanese teams always have men, and men are always the leaders and most powerful rangers, so they couldn't have scenes of an all girl Western team splice with Japanese footage of what are clearly men. So they just... froze and ignored they even owned Power Rangers.
@@vioveo7440 Power Rangers and the Bionicle franchise both suffer from very limited female representation. I, a boy who grew up around the turn of the millennium, was never a Power Rangers fan. However, I loved Bionicle and still do! Even so, as a kid, I realized it was very weird that _literally only 1/6th of the characters were female!_ I daresay that Gali, Nokama, Hahli and all the other female Bionicle characters I can think of, are rad as hell, but there's still very few of them. I actually initially thought that Lewa, Toa of Air, was female (he's not) because my kid brain couldn't comprehend that there was only one girl on the team. That, and the fact that the toys were marketed to boys, meant most girls were not interested in them at all back in the day.
My back is also spazzing. Hope you feel better soon. Back pain is no joke. Princesses are not inherently bad but when you shoehorn it into everything then you’ve shrunk your fan base.
I hope your back feels better soon. I'd be interested to know if any girls and women started watching Disney Star Wars because of these women characters. Also, how many fans of Star Wars before Disney have turned away from Disney Star Wars?
@@dronesclubhighjinks Thanks. I’m a woman and I was a Star Wars fan and Marvels comic fan before they feminized the brands and made it crap. I know my hubby and son checked out after the Last Jedi.
Cant start the day without 2 wireless tens machines...one on each side of my lower back. It won't get rid of the back pain forever...but it masks it for a while
Disney lacking a clear identity is indeed an interesting point. From Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and others now when I think about Disney it is mostly from the financial aspect, shareholders, tickets sold, target audiences (which apparently are never me), but not about storytelling. Of somehow the storytelling moved to their internal corporate power plays. Now that I think about it the only Disney product I am interested now are some old Donald Duck comic books from last century.
I'm glad you expanded on the Princess Problem you hinted to in a previous video, stream or something. I had never really seen Disney as a "Girl Brand" but once you said that it made so much sense. Was also great to have M&A's described. I don't think people really get why they happen all the time. One I don't think you mentioned (that isn't really relevant for Disney often) is someone needing to have a "look what I did this quarter" when they show up to a quarterly board meeting.
Side note, dunno if you're a trekkie, but your insight and commentary about Picard Season 3 compared to previous kurtzman trek would be good stuff. I'd love to know why you think management at Paramount hasn't given Terry Matalas the keys to the kingdom after all of this.
Old Disney was a family brand, and it kept a lot of that spirit up to the Renaissance. Of course boys liked Hercules and Aladdin and what not. But it as it went on became a "family and/or girls" brand. The boy only part was lost to the years. Then eventually it kinda stopped being a family brand as well.
To be fair to the upcoming Ahsoka show, and only the upcoming Ahsoka show, there are few male characters because it's a sequel series to Rebels. And being a sequel to Rebels, you'll remember or not(spoilers!), that all the male characters except Rex and Zeb sacrificed themselves. Kanan saved them from an exploding fuel depot and Ezra hyperspaced himself and Thrawn into the Unknown Reaches. The whole point of the show is going to be the hunt for Ezra and the return of Thrawn.
That thumbnail could be a movie I'd unironically watch. All the kingdoms are attacked and the princesses have to arm themselves and hold out against an undead horde. Make it like an old Tarantino movie.
No, that is adultification. Tarantino zombies are not kid monsters or fairy tale monsters. The basic invasion defense idea is not bad, and you could have the princesses in squads with different themes and jobs. But it would have to be fairy tale monsters, of a degree of scary that would be appropriate for kids. Otherwise, Disney would be making another mistake.
@suburbanbanshee The Heartless perhaps? The Disney princes and princesses have to hold out against a Heartless assault until the Keyblade wielders reinforce them.
The now commonplace misandry in Disney products I've often thought comes from "Disappointed Princess Syndrome", in which women disappointed their lives didn't turn out to be princess-quality blame it on men and take it out on them in media.
I somehow feel less angry at Disney. Disney isn't a willful sentient entity. It is a corporate manifestation hard-coded with a corporate identity and culture. The machine only produces what it knows.
Disney princess movies preach to little girls that they're perfect the way they are, and that anyone who doesn't think so is a hater and trying to keep them down. They tell little girls that rules are made for other people, and they are meant to break the rules, and break the mold. They tell little girls that they are worth a prince, and nothing less. Not only are they only worthy of a prince, they're actually settling for the prince because he's from the imperfect world that is telling them to change. This is why women are the way they are now.
If I may add another example of Disney commiting M&A back in the day, is Power Rangers. But unlike with their current acquisitions, Disney back then realized that they couldn't do much else with PR, and let it go back to Haim Saban.
Who then, made it way worse by doing the opposite of Disney. Ignoring where the series has gone and growing up and instead just trying to recreate the first season.
💯Fantastic video! Highly recommended for anyone considering or involved with M&A. Unfortunately, most of us will never be able to impact the "Culture" question as that is set at the board or corporate officer level before the papers are signed. Even then, the window to make that decision is awfully narrow. Once lines of business cross-pollinate, they bring their dominant corporate culture, and the damage is done. This video does an excellent job of avoiding the cultural questions and looking at the raw dynamics. Culture eats strategy, indeed. As for the loss of the hero's journey, it looks like it must come from new creatives. I look forward to what I hope will be an inevitable rebirth from some unlooked-for space far from the zeitgeist.
I guess I always liked the boy brands better (and I also had liked boy bands too) as a kid. As a little girl, maybe I wanted more girls in stuff but really **I** wanted to be that girl. Little me probably wouldn't have minded Rey until they started bashing Luke. Then little me would have been mad because little me **adored** Luke Skywalker. He wasn't my first fictional crush-that honor belongs to Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon-but Luke was always my favorite. Leia was ok to little me, but I like Luke better. I also liked Padme better than Leia when the prequels came out.
Imagine having the IP's of Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilms, the amount of money that could be made is endless. How a company turned it into a heaving mass of crapola will be studied for years in business classes.
All Disney needs to do is keep strong masculine heroes fighting alongside the women, rather than destroying, deconstructing, or excluding them. Simple. A great recent example of what Disney should keep doing is Avatar: The Way of Water.
An extremely thought provoking thesis. I can easily see how Disney princess culture can be used in the current environment to infiltrate boy-focused brands; and how some non-creative people with good or ill intent could use the present chaos as a ladder to gain unmerited power. Although these types of power grabs appear to be nothing new in Hollywood, it seems different in some way. Maybe one day you could explain this. Many thanks
I know what you mean about culture. I was at MGM when Sony bought them. There's a reason that M&A didn't last long and Sony was sued by their partners. Bandwidth was also a huge problem of the Sony/MGM aquisition. Executives just dumped huge piles of MGM on their already overworked Sony middle mangement. And since those middle managers weren't at all invensted in their new MGM responsiblities, those newly purchased cash cows fell by the wayside.
If you see Lucasfilm as what it actually was, an indepdent company, it makes total sense. Compare it to music. It's like the indie rocker got signed to a giant label. You know what happens. Yeah they might sell more records but without a doubt the art suffers.
"Watches Chato wince from backpain.* Getting old sucks, doesn't it? Believe me, I'm there with you. Last month I thought my knee cap was going to swell right off. I had to wear a warmed leg-wrap for a week.
Star Wars has lost my 14 year old Star Wars obsessed son!! We just had this DISNEY PRINCESS conversation after the latest Mandalorian episode. We are both hate watching at this point. When the boys and target audience are feeling it...ooops! Big F**kinOops!
"It's a mergers and acquisitions story -- I can see you're filled with excitement" Those of us who watch Valiant Renegade are certainly listening. =) I love the fact that he livestreams Disney earnings calls. Although I do wait for the clips of those...
I think I can honestly say without hyperbole Chato that this was your best video to date (maybe not the funniest, but definitely the best), and I absolutely love your TV Guide vids. I know you're not the most religious person but I am reminded of the wisdom of Solomon in the book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Scriptures "Without vision the people perish (Proverbs 29:18, NIV translation)." The biggest issue I see with Disney's mergers and acquisitions phase is this: They basically had no plan for the companies/brands/IP's that they bought, other than a few vague ideas I'll bring up. Part of the issue was that two of the big companies they acquired, namely Pixar and Marvel, were at that point almost entirely self regulating. Marvel had hit on what story they were telling (Disney bought them when they were just entering phase two and were starting to formally lay out the elements of the Infinity Stone arc they were going to tell). Pixar, which they had bought earlier, was still running of their original creative brain trusts outlines for such films as Finding Nemo, Monster's Inc., The Incredibles and Wall-E. What they means is that they bought companies that more or less ran themselves, and those companies knew what they were doing and they didn't need any kind of plan or organization from Disney proper. At that point all Disney had to do was help out with financing, marketing and distribution. Then we saw Disney acquire/merge with such companies as Jim Henson Studios, LucasFilm and 20th Century Fox. As near as I can tell they bought them because they could, not because they had any serious idea what to do with them. The most public disaster is LucasFilm, but I know for a fact that a lot of people at Fox, especially their movie division, are beyond mad at Disney and how they've run things. They also find themselves in a very weird catch-22 with Fox Sports and ESPN, because Fox Sports has upped their game and gained viewership, but that's almost entirely been at the expense of ESPN, rather than any kind of market growth with Fox. The fact is that Fox Sports is just slightly less woke than ESPN, so a lot of disgusted ESPN viewers have switched over to Fox in protest. So Disney is now cannibalizing itself when it comes to the live sports television and news, and they seem to have zero inclination in stopping the bleeding there (ESPN is in deep trouble, and ESPN+ isn't helping with anything). The other reason I think they merged with Fox is because TCF at that point still held the rights to X-Men, Fantastic Four and Dare Devil. This was just as the Infinity Arc was concluding and I think they thought if they could reacquire the movie rights for those comics they could bring those characters into the MCU and keep the gravy train going. So far that hasn't worked out, and by the time they get to the X-Men proper (Victoria Alonzo should have been fired immediately after she said they should change the name of the team to "the mutants') there may not be much left in the way of an audience for the MCU. I also think Disney pretty much tanked Fox's New Mutants and Dark Phoenix movies (or at least they didn't help). Next we move on to JHP, where they've had multiple fights with Brian and Heather Henson (and it's not lost on me that they've been unable to gain any traction with Muppet movies since Brian Henson left over "creative differences") as well as Frank Oz (Ms. Piggy), Dave Goelz (Gonzo) and Steve Whitmire (Beaker). With a few exceptions at this point JHP is basically a defunct brand, and I don't think Disney has the slightest clue what to do with them. That brings us back to LucasFilm. I honestly thought when Disney bought LucasFilm they were overpaying because they paid more for Lucasfilm than they paid for Marvel. Now, people could say at the time that Star Wars was a bigger, more iconic brand and LucasFilm was the more venerable studio than Marvel Studios was at that point, and all of that was entirely true. There was a but though, and that but was this, Marvel was a functioning studio that had already made money and had a bunch of new movies in the pipeline, they also had several animated shows across various channels and Marvel Comics was still going fairly strong with all of their titles. LucasFilm, other than Lucas Arts and their games (which we'll come back to) and the Clone Wars show, was pretty much defunct. They had no movies in the works and a number of their properties were entirely dormant. Among the first things Disney did when they took over was shut down Lucas Arts and completely jettison the old Expanded Universe novels, as well as can George's scripts for episodes 7, 8 & 9. When they threw out the expanded universe and said none of it was no longer canon, I knew they were in trouble and this would blow up in their face. We're also now at a weird point where Kathleen Kennedy is trying to gaslight everyone by saying they're going to bring in stories from the novels when she said earlier they didn't have novels to go off of. Anyways, great observations sir, TLDR: Great video, and Disney has no idea what the hell they're doing.
This makes so much sense. No one with as much dismal failure as Kathleen Kennedy could stay in her position this long if it were not an ideological appointment, rather than an economic or artistic one.
the Disney princess was the stupidest trope ever. We will always remember Walt's big movies, had nothing to do with that theme, and he hated it. Now they cant do anything else without that theme, and the whole ship will go down like that. Why couldnt Rey just be a nobody ??? Noooo they had to make her royal somehow. Making every Marvel hero into a princess.. ugh. Sad.
While I enjoy many other entertainment commentary channels, I believe your unique perspective is the most informative. Consequently, I think it provides the best fodder for contemplating solutions.
Congratulations Chato, you have presented and entire semester of business school in 9 minutes. The principles you presented are not just applicable to Disney. Is there a name for corporate myopia? This video should be required viewing at every university business school and corporation. I would recommend starting with the makers of Bud Light.
There was once a time ( like in my childhood...eons ago ) when Disney stood for creativity and magic. Anticipating what Disney would do next. Now, its just acquisitions and brand marketing, and destroying icons loved by all generations of people who love movies. Harrison Ford, on an interview years ago, wanted Han Solo to die in the first Star Wars, by sacrificing herself for his friends- Luke and Leia. Not for the force and some hokey, old religion. The same skeptical Han who only cared about himself, well, maybe also Chewy. It would have been the perfect cinematic turn of character in the movie. To have an aging Han be unceremonially stabbed by a light-saber weilding nobody villain is anti- climactic. It fits Disney's lack of care for creative quality.
Just when Harrison Ford thought he would never play Han Solo again, they called him for Episode 9 (as if that movie couldn't be less salvageable), imagine how much they paid him for just being there for a few minutes. And so we never got a Luke, Han and Leia reunion.
Wow, I'd never thought about the cancer we see around us in these terms. Now that you point it out it all makes sense now. Could it be that the clowns in Disney couldn't see that this wouldn't work out well for them ?
I hope your back pain goes away soon! Thank you for this video explaining your perspective. I would love to know how many girls and women have become fans of Disney Star Wars because of Rey or Reva or any other strong female Disney-created character (not Leia). Idk why but girls and women tend not to be very interested in science fiction so I would be pretty surprised if anybody started watching Disney Star Wars, because of these "strong" women characters.
Science fiction that includes relationships or family saga elements or faux historical intrigue - that is very popular with women. Disney is not giving that to any of their shows, and particularly not to Star Wars.
"Princess culture eats everything" doen't explain the way the old heroes were humiliated and their fans were insulted. If the new Captain America had been introduced as the niece of the old one who pledged to carry on his mission, she might be the heartthrob of teenage boys everywhere.
Certainly a perspective I couldn't have encountered on my own. Thank you for that. However, its been my experience that large messy failures are rooted in large messy multivariable problems. I think its very likely ever theory out there is part of the problem.
I don't really understand why you'd think that. Plenty of classic Disney movies I'd say are more geared towards boys...Pinnochio, The Sword In The Stone, The Black Cauldron and so on, and Pixar movies like Toy Story and Cars are much more guy-centric too. It's only more recently (especially since the 'metoo' crap) that 'strong women' are being shoehorned into every situation, mostly where they don't belong.
I'm 66, trust me there was a time but after Walt died in 1966 and Roy in 1971 it became obvious that male leads were being thinned out. They were being replaced by bumbling fools who were always saved by their strong long suffering wives/girlfriends. If you look at a complete list of Disney films by year it's painfully obvious.
Beautifully explained... Paul, you have done it again! 😢😢😢😢😢 A few tears for the heroes lost and let's ignore the present while we wait for a brighter tomorrow!
Wow, very insightful. I will give this serious thought. I didn't know about the "corporate culture angle". I'd seen my company get bought multiple times and each time it failed. I thought it failed because the buying conglomerate didn't understand my industry (semi conductors) but maybe it was the difference in corporate culture. This explains a lot (not the awfulness of She Hulk or Star Wars Episode 8) but it explains a lot. Thank you.
Disney destroyed afternoon cartoons for boys in the 80s. They took over an entire channel option with Duck Tales and multiple other wimpy shows. A young boy is going to pick GI Joe, Transformers, Thundercats, and TMNT 99% of the time over Duck Tales etc., and the boys who didn’t were given the side-eye from their peers. Disney is for girls and soft boys.
Disney’s goal is the expand the audience base in majority male audience genres by bringing in girl boss Disney princesses to appeal to those who wouldn’t normally watch such shows. Previously, the women/girls that saw Star Wars/Marvel…were largely taken to such movies by Boyfriends/husbands/fathers. Disney is banking on that guys will keep showing up to beloved shows while it creates a new generation of fans…thereby growing the pie. Disney is calculating that in the long run it will get a larger audience of a new generation. And ignores the audience that made StarWars and Mwrvel so enormously profitable. Disney is learning that guys do not want WNBA StarWars/Marvel
The thing is that this strategy tends to fail as it alienates the old audience as it pivots towards the new one. The people are only going to stick around for so many attempts before they realize it's not for them. You really see this happening the most with video games the most as almost everyone is hopping onto action oriented games. Square-Enix is probably the biggest disaster in that respect as they released 6 or 7 action RPGs in the last year and they were all disasters, even the ones based on older franchises that were of a different genre. Final Fantasy 16 is basically their big gamble it and it looks ready to crash and burn in Japan before it is out. Sega had to relearn this decision quite a few times in the last 10 years with with Valkyria Chronicles, Sakura Wars, and most recently, the Sonic the Hedgehog game. But, the Yakuza games from Sega seemed to be the pivoting point where they took in feedback from their April Fools' Joke and were able to split the series into Yakuza and Judgment. Sega seems to have gotten it for now until some clown decides to stray far off and Sega needs a reminder to be slapped in the face..
I have an even hotter take: Disney didn't ruin Star Wars... Star Wars ruined Disney. Despite the controversy and artistic failures towards the end of Michael Eisner's run as CEO, Disney still came out of its Renaissance Era with a pretty strong brand identity. You knew what Disney was, you knew what to expect, and it was a juggernaut of movies, TV shows, theme parks, retail stores, Broadway productions, and cruise lines. But then Eisner was ousted and replaced by Bob Iger, a talentless accountant who proceeded to transition the Walt Disney Company Ltd. into a high-end IP management firm. Thus began the M&A of other brands which, in turn, diluted the Disney brand. There was Pixar, a brand that focused on very modern settings and themes, as well as holding strong male friendships at their films' emotional cores. Then Marvel, a brand focused on very modern settings and themes, with its cadre of "realist" male heroes (by contrast with the more "mythic" heroes of DC). Then Lucasfilm, which wasn't a modern brand but certainly a dead one... Star Wars was ALREADY dead and creatively bankrupt after the prequel trilogy. And finally 20th Century, a brand with no identity whatsoever, presumably bought for its film library which has yet to materialize on Disney+ and to regain Marvel characters they're doing nothing with... So it seems that WDC really just acquired it because Iger couldn't help himself. And all of these brands have been stuffed into what Disney Stores remain, stuffed into theme parks, and stuffed onto Disney+ with no sense of what actually works. I mean, I get a laugh out of seeing "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad," and "Alien" all sandwiched together in the horror section of Disney+, or "Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier" a stone's throw from "Ravenous" in the western section, but the overall effect is to dilute the Disney brand. Michael Eisner declared the "Disney Decade," but Iger has been the "Anything-But-Disney Decade." Now here's the punchline to the story: because Disney acquired all these brands that don't fit with their brand and the results have been what one would expect, everyone hates DISNEY for it. "Disney ruined Marvel! Disney ruined Star Wars!" Those were already terrible brands that Disney never should have touched, and now Disney is the one getting flak for it. Nobody talks about Lucasfilm destroying Star Wars, or Marvel destroying Marvel. It's always blaming Disney for it. Star Wars ruined Disney.
The best joke when Disney bought Star Wars was that Leia was now a Disney princess.
Little did we know that it wasn't a joke.
From Princess to Disney Princess.
They bought Fox so Max Clinger is also a Disney princess.
It did work well for Once Upon A Time, with the evil queen considering a Sarlaac to dispose of an enemy, and Emma posing as "Princess Leia" while in the past in fairy tale world.
Then they insisted that "General Leia" is a promotion
@@mightybluespider Sounds like a *demotion* from chief-of-State.
Sometimes things are reasonably easy to explain. Disney purchased successful franchises and decided to change everyone of them for the ‘modern audience’. This changed the very essence of each franchise from what made it successful in the first place.
It’s like buying a handbag company and trying to convince men to use handbags, while making them undesirable for women to use and actively pissing off women at the same time.
Hate to say it, but I think ‘men’ are buying handbags these days… and we’re pissed off, but not quite because it’s only a handbag thing.
Throwing the EU in the trash was the most perplexing. Studios pay big money to adopt just one best selling novel for it's built in audience. SW had dozens of best selling novels, hundreds of comics, and decided not to use any of them. It's like they paid 4 billion just to use the name Star Wars. Even the theme park is just generic sci fi stuff.
@@clogs4956 But not enough, and that's the illusion. The majority aren't buying, and don't even like said "handbags" and the ones that do will ignore the "handbag" for a nice "Rucksack." No one's digging my "handbags?".....quick push the release date back!!
The big question is whether the original IP is damaged by their degrading of the content. That would be bad, because it would hit Disney shareholders by having to write down the value of the assets - of which they paid huge prices for.
The irony is they bought these brands in part because their audience was TOO female and they wanted to attract boys and men - but this happened right before the "modern audiences" trend, which overrode their business sense. I'm confident that the dollar will eventually win out, but the brands will be severely (maybe irreperably) damaged in the process.
That's what's so ironic: Disney was unable to appeal to boys 12-20 so they picked up two brands that managed to pull it off. Then Disney guts them.
💯 facts
What's crazy is that I always loved Star Wars and Marvel a lot more than the Disney Princess movies.
But I've stopped watching new Star Wars & Marvel content because I don't like the direction they've taken.
So, I think this goes deeper than just boys vs girls. There's an ideological bent at Disney that's sucking the life out of these properties.
Disney’s acquisition of Marvel, Lucasfilm and 20th Century-Fox now looks more like a Mafia hit job to me.
They had a brand thaty appealed to boys, but they axed it. Tron Uprising.
I've heard that 20th Century Fox leadership was livid when they found out that Lucas had sold Star Wars to Disney without them even knowing he was planning on selling. I personally think that Star Wars would have been far better off being owned by Fox, and if they'd had it, they'd probably still be independent today. That would have been far better for our overall media landscape, too.
And now Disney owns Fox, so.....
I’m not so sure. Mean dark fate and dark pheonix and Charlie’s angels 2018 were all fox films.
@@hitandruncommentor Charlie's Angels was fun.
Some of the greatest films of all time, including all original 6 Star Wars films were Fox productions
@@bradlees5997 fun fact: did you knew that Fox was going to have a greater kids content when in 1993 it makes a deal with Nick to produce movies. But because Viacom and Paramount merged, Fox was not able to distribute the movies, but if Fox and Nick did really team up and maybe merge up, Disney+ would have a greater content of Fox movies.
If Disney was Coca-Cola, they would buy Canada Dry and make it taste like Coca-Cola.
Or worse, they would add Quinine and make it taste like tonic water. Yuck!
Cana-Cola?
Even Coca-Cola learned (albeit the hard way) not to mess with a formula that works.
But it seems Disney’s heck-bent on forcing the New Cokes of Star Wars, Marvel and Pixar down our throats, despite how much we’re throwing up.
Similar to what they did with Thums Up in India. When Coke and Pepsi returned to India after the liberalization of the Indian economy in 1992, some of the popular local brands where not able to complete on the national scale and were purchased by Coke and Pepsi. Thums Up was made by Parle and they sold to Coke. Coke removed Thumbs Up (which had a 85% market share at the time) but soon realized that people would turn to Pepsi instead of Coca-Cola, were Thums Up withdrawn from the market. Instead, they decided to use Thums Up as a rival to Pepsi. At that time, Coke had about 60.5% share of the Indian soft-drink market but found out that if it removed Thums Up, it would remain with only 28.7% of the market, hence Thums Up was re-launched and they targeted the 30- to 40-year-old category by making Pepsi to look like a kiddy drink.
Wow that was spot on. They did that here in Oz. They killed pretty much all the locals and some of them made a much nicer drink that wasn't full of so much sugar and caffeine and crap.
The femeninization and de-masculinization of our culture is very broad, way beyond the entertainment industry.
Unfortunately, this is a self-correcting problem. In US history, the society becomes wimpified every 80 years or so and then the effeminate leadership gets us into a crisis war that reasserts the value of the masculine. .Revolutionay War, Civil War, WWII - all spaced 3 generations apart with a effete culture preceding a major war then a revived masculine culture. Then the post war revival of the masculine hero - Daniel Boone/Davey Crocket, George Custer/Wyat Earp, George Patton/Audie Murphy. We are heading toward WWIII.
yeah it's Jewish Cultural Marxism
It is virtually everywhere, from the pentagon to some products you buy.
@@manoz6194 or Confucianism if you're Asian
Funny all the men that say these things, look like the very demusculaisist men. The sexism is strong not the men. Femininity is not a weaknis otherwise no humans would exist becouse it needs more strang to press a little human out of a body any men ever had! They tested men, they cryed stop becouse they can not handle the pain women go throught! So being feminin is much stronger in taking shit, men can only put out but are unable to take shit.
Great insight, as always. One thing you touched on that I want to add to is that feminism attacked the Disney Princesses as being “bad role models for little girls” and Disney suddenly had the need to “fix” what wasn’t broken in the first place. Hell, I grew up on the Disney Renaissance (The Little Mermaid is the first animated movie I remember seeing in the theater). Those Princesses were my introduction to classic fairy tales. I have ALWAYS seen through the BS of that “bad role model” argument. Besides, it discounts the entire tradition of fairy tales and folklore and what those stories mean to a culture (setting aside the so-called “Disneyfication” of such tales - I can enjoy both Disney’s Little Mermaid and Andersen’s original story with the less-than-happy-ending. All depends on what I’m looking for in a story in a given moment).
Disney is what happens when activists complain about something and a company tries to implement everything the activists want in a show of goodwill, but the activists will never be satiated. Activism took over the Princess brand, and the cancer spread from there.
There's an interesting article floating around out there that I can't find again... I think it was Time or Newsweek or something like that... analyzing the success of the Disney Princess brand. What the brand managers found when they studied why the Princesses were so popular is that it wasn't the dresses and things so much as the themes of friendship and cooperation. So, y'know, things modern left-wing feminist activist types don't understand.
@@CoryTheRaven Ironically, masculine strengths are the only meaningful strengths, to a feminist.
so well said and great points. Please, don't lose your enthusiasm for good storytelling and also being able to see through BS.
Chrissy, I would never say there were not bad ideas by men or anything like that, so I hope you can give what I say a chance, cause I want to add to what you said so well.
I was raised to strive to be more than you are, sure I am not going to be Conan or Aragorn or Roosevelt but the striving makes the journey of value. This striving is makes do our best in life, to be the best we can. In school we talked about this with pre sexual revolution courtship, men did not get to have sex until they showed they could be responsible, not be an alcoholic, clear a farm, whatever. A woman had to show that she could cook, be responsible, make sure she was pretty enough that a man wanted her, etc.
I think the 'Fat is good!' 'Lazy is good!' 'Not giving a carp about how I look is good!' are terrible things that have grievously hurt both men and women, in the most obvious way our terrible health. But the lack of striving may be a worse loss for humanity in the long run.
I wore out the VHS tapes of the Disney Renaissance films. I loved them as a kid. I think many adults don't give kids enough credit for their intuitions. Yea, they're just kids, but they see and say things that adults may miss, so their input is valuable. They just don't have the experience to really know why some things work and others don't. Your point is a good illustration of that. Thanks for sharing.
That's so funny, my co-host and I were just talking about how Disney isn't comfortable with boy brands and turns them into girl brands. The show is Critique Corner, if you'll forgive me shilling it slightly
Subscribed.
Like “Speaker Corner” back in the day? Go Muchmusic!
@@davidstair9657 Ah, fond memories.
“Co-host” aka Mom
This is what I’ve felt too. Politics of Disney aside, their strategy strategy seems to be trying to create a whole new batch of “princesses” in Marvel, Star Wars, etc. Funny thing is, they have shown themselves to be more even handed in the recent past. The Pirates Franchise for example. Or animated features like Lion King and Emperor’s New Groove managed to steer clear of princessification. Which leads to thinking that the “princess” culture is more of a post-2012 development. We are now seeing the end point of that culture finally fully taking over the host organism.
You know you could be onto something. And i want to pint out that a movie happened in 2013 tha tmade an insane amount of money and completely changed Disney for good or bad: Frozen. Till that movie disney princess were a part of the disney tapestry but after Elsa plowed through boxoffice like a train...well seem they tried to get another "Elsa" cost what it would cost becaise littelr girl spend...and make adult spend...a lot
Lion Kings cartoon The Lion Guard is prime example of princessification.
@Mundo do Palhaço hmm did not watched it but from what I saw around, is more like "animal planeteers" even the personality matches. Honestly I think Is more like that they have few original ideas and constant need to put out stuff that lead to this situations, as eventually you will have to rely on whatever you have at hand at the moment.
Some of it may be a lack of understanding how to write masculinity. This thought came to me recently as I was chatting about Avatar: The Last Airbender with others. There was a very good essay done recently on Iroh and how he represents the positive traits of masculinity. And I also commented that you could reframe Airbender through Sokka's eyes and it's the story of him wanting to be a man, learning to be a man, and then essentially taking a leadership position among men. That's his arc over 3 seasons.
Seeing this comment made me think about if people even know how to write a positive story about masculinity in the modern age. And while Chato framed Star Wars and Marvel as "boys" franchises I don't think they are. At least not the stuff from Disney. They're more gender neutral. I think maybe Black Panther's original movie (with all the prequel work in the other movies) might be the only boy/man specific storyline as T'Challa is trying to step into his father's shoes and learn what it means to be king.
But most of the plot lines are more gender neutral go on adventures kind of thing. And there's nothing wrong with that. But it means the market may actually be being underserved even before you get to princess culture, and that's a problem.
Avatar also helped me to envision this as you have Katara on a female empowerment, nurturing, connected to mom plotline, you have Aang on a kind of gender neutral world savior plotline, and you have Sokka on the journey to become a man. And they're all kind of subtle in that no one tells you that this was what it was all about during the show.
Anyway, as a woman, I might be blind to some of these things, but it seems like there's not a lot of positive male role models who are put out there specifically as "here's how to be a man." And while there are lots of ways to be a man, I'm sure, as one female character doesn't represent all women, we're not getting a lot of competing views on the topic that aren't inherently sexist, particularly in children's media where modeling behavior would be ideal.
Not really. Padme from the star wars prequels resembles a disney princess more than Rey. If they really wanted to make these new female characters into "princesses" they would have given them more than one outfit, and preferably an outfit that doesn't look like a potato sack 💀. The princess branding wasn't even a thing until the year 2000, and there were really only 8 princess characters (if you want to stretch that definition and include mulan) by that point. These new female characters are less so about being marketable toward girls and more so about functioning as vanity projects for female writers/producers.
Disney has really known only two eras of creative success, when Disney himself was alive and later when Michael Eisner took over and really made it a powerful brand. It was successful not because it was a girl’s brand, but because it was a children’s brand, that was true in both of those eras. In no way has Disney been a child focused company for almost the past two decades. I imagine within the next 15 years Disney will sell its Lucasfilm and Marvel rights, tap back into its original assets (Mickey, Donald, etc), and will become a successful company again. It’s actually a great opportunity for an investor as a turnaround.
part of the problem is there has been a huge decline in people having children since Disney originally became a successful family brand during the post war baby boom. Which adds to the brand confusion, as they now seem to mostly cater to adults nostalgic for their childhood, or maladjusted millennials who refuse to grow up. There aren't enough children and big families anymore for Disney to recapture their former glory solely as a brand for children.
Mickey (and other old Disney stuff) is starting to roll out of copyright protection. Disney is going to have real competition soon as small studios start making good stuff using Disney's own stuff.
Disney will never let Lucasfilm and Marvel go, even at 10% of their current value.
I think DeSantis made it personal and they won't back down no matter just to refuse to admit defeat. Disney is such a large company I doubt they will completely go under in our life time.
To be honest I don’t think you are right. Disney wasn’t just for children, they were for everyone, and honestly being more mature isn’t a bad thing at all also I’d argue that all of those “adult” Disney movies are immature as hell. They seem more like something and edgy teen would write on a wattpad as a practice. It’s not that the idea of being more mature of adult oriented is bad is that the execution of was weary poor.
There’s nothing wrong with Disney princesses. I for one, love them. But there’s something wrong with trying to make EVERYTHING fit that mold.
You love Fake Princesses?, okay
Like putting A square peg in A round hole.
Bingo.
Princesses are fine.
But not everything should be.
Of course it's just a money thing so I can't really blame them too much.
Wait until corporate says they were trans pre-op all this time, and yes, bigger than yours.
The Problem of does not come from that, but from this company and moreover look they are managed to destroy their own Princess.
One of the first things aspiring writers are told is, "No one has ever bought a book to be converted". Meaning: as a writer, you must tell a compelling story with your message organically and unobtrusively woven into it. It is ironic that this basic truth has been lost. Or writer training is not what it used to be.
The problem with that hypothesis is that Disney 's princesses - The Little Mermaid - are also being destroyed by Disney.
Chato says it. Current Disney is going further with the "Disneyfication" by turning they already feminized properties into the next step, the "we need no man" properties. Going from the third wave of feminism to the fourth.
Destroying what left of Western Civilization is their goal.
Ya, but now they can sell black and white Arial. Double the merchandise
They've been destroying the princesses
There are aspects of the original Little Mermaid, and most of the Disney traditionally animated movies, that are problematic to modern leftists. I think that one of the reasons Disney has been leaning so hard into live action remakes, is that it's a way to remove the problematic elements and still sell the product. Eventually the new versions will replace the originals.
This is my biggest problem with Disney+, the lack of content. Disney bought like 90000 films and shows like 90 of them on their channel. All that gigantic library of work from other creators is just... gone
Not to mention they don't even have the full collection of their own original IP's. When I initially subscribed to Disney+ (before the politics got ridiculous--I'm long-since unsubbed), I was excited to finally get to complete shows I'd only seen a few episodes of or had missed out on completely. The Replacements and The Spectacular Spider-Man were two of the primary ones, both originally airing on Disney channels.
The Replacements had only 2 of their 4 seasons on the platform, and there was no Spectacular Spider-Man whatsoever. And that's only two shows.
I thought some of those films could be watched on Hulu. Unfortunately, I'm not sure
I got Disney plus for bluey and only bluey for my kids, once they outgrow it I'll drop it
@@Emarella fun fact: did you knew that Fox was going to have a greater kids content when in 1993 it makes a deal with Nick to produce movies. But because Viacom and Paramount merged, Fox was not able to distribute the movies, but if Fox and Nick did really team up and maybe merge up, Disney+ would have a greater content of Fox movies.
Why did it all disappear? “Barack knows that we are going to have to make sacrifices; we are going to have to change our conversation; we’re going to have to change our traditions, our history; we’re going to have to move into a different place as a nation.”
- Michelle Obama
I appreciate your intelligent and experienced commentary. At 64 years old, I am battered by what they have done and unsure as to why it happened. Your videos help me. Have you ever seen another time, historically, where this has happened? Where the media seems to hate the fans and they produce movies that are impossible to watch?
There has always been incompetent leader ship, but I’ve never seen an organization take their eyes off the prize as badly.
@@CallMeChato When The Force Awakens came out in 2015, the thought process was "Don't fuck with the fans". Now, they've completely dropped the "Don't" and "with" parts of that phrase and dare people to complain.
I am 58, so I'm close in age to you. I suggest that this period in entertainment culture is similar to the early to mid 1970's, when the era of cowboy and war movies representing traditional American values was replaced by an increasingly nihilistic era of anti-hero movies. Some of the movies from the anti-hero era are considered classics, but most have just been forgotten. None of them gave the audience a feeling of positivity or empowerment as they left the theater.
It seems to me that the turning point to better times was the release of the original Star Wars in 1978, which could be why the cultural marxists who started infiltrating Disney in the 1990's, and took over the company in the 2000's, seem to hate the original Star Wars as much as they do. It doesn't represent their values.
I know a time where this happened before. It was propaganda movies in Nazi Germany. You had to support them or else...
When you can't send people with torches to burn your enemies business down, when you can't hold mass book burnings, just buy them, and the rights for them, then change them so they're unrecognizable, it's absolutely no different.
Can't stop thinking about a Michael Bay Star Wars now.
Imagine the space battles...
In the 2000’s I would have cringed but now? Take my money.
Linkin Park with lightsabers! Let's f... go!!
Holdo maneuvergasm
It’s so funny you mention Ahsoka! When I watched the trailer, I commented that Disney had ‘really streamlined their genderswapping. Men are just the bad guys now; super easy!!’ 😆
Thanks Chato! ✌️
Worse, they seem to have given Ahsoka one of Luke's storylines.
I worked for M&A champ EA for many years and it never ceased to amaze me how they would acquire a new company (or on a smaller scale, hire an individual who was an expert in their field) in order to shore up some area of in which they were deficient and then immediately proceed to tell them how to do their job, usually insisting that they do it in the way that already wasn't working well for EA. I could only shake my head.
Ha.
Kind of like the Activision-Blizzard merger which has pretty much run off every meaningful Blizzard employee, destroying a once great company in the process.
RIP Bullfrog, Westwood , Pandemic, DICE , Maxis, Bioware and probably a dozen more companies I'm forgetting.
@@Spongemonkey26 It merely accelerated what was already happening.
@@burningphoneix In the Pandemic's case, what happened is that the studio's toxic management was killing the company. EA fired the management and kept the talent.
Thank you for clearing that up for me. I hate to say it but the take away from this is that all our favorite IPs are doomed unless Disney sells them off.
Time to make new ips, welcome to the iron age.
I remember being very excited when Disney bought Lucasfilm. At that time, their work on Marvel was looking good, Pixar was doing well and their animated work still had the magic. The lead up to TFA was exciting and when I left the theater after seeing the movie I was excited to see the continuing adventures of Rey and company despite having reservations about the depictions of Luke, Leia and Han. I figured it would lead to something momentous, and if you remember there were a million theories about Snoke and who exactly Rey was....there was buzz. Looking back now, a decade later and I feel nothing but revulsion for Disney.
lol, I remember when Disney bought Lucasfilm I was somewhat excited too (never was much of a Star Wars fan, but I liked it) and I thought to myself "well, they can't do anything worse than the prequels." Boy was I proven wrong.
I left the movie theatre after midnight opening of TFA totally deflated. It felt off from the first five minutes. Despite all the build up and excitement, it fundamentally failed at every single point in the movie.
There were some subtle signs.
1. They didn’t do a very good job of building their Muppet acquisition. They bought it in 2004 and produced a couple of forgettable films, Muppet Babies and Muppet show reboots and a few specials. It’s basically a dead IP at this point.
2. They have done nothing with Winnie the Pooh in the last 20 years on the big screen and in the last ten on tv/video/streaming.
That’s two big IP acquisitions that they mismanaged.
I was surprised they bought it in the first place, surprised that Lucas sold it and was sceptical that a large company like Disney would have a good enough understanding of Star Wars to be able to make a success of it (there is a tendency to write off Star Wars as being about the special effects and music and to forget that while George Lucas is trying to tell stories to children there is still a lot of depth to his stories and characters).
However I still thought they'd probably still try to make decent Star Wars films up until we were shown a photo of those woman wearing their 'force is female' t-shirts. From that point it was obvious that they had an agenda and I have only been surprised about how bad it got, not that it was going to be bad.
@@Akm72 But KK(the he one wearing the shirt) was appointed co-chair of Lucasfilm by Lucas. She produced ET, Temple of Doom, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park. She should know how to produce a good film.
I remember my first M&A as a 20-something structural designer for an engineering firm. The words that came out of the mouth of the leadership was, "this ia a great day for us hear as we have come to an agreement with our biggest competitor." Those words now when I look back was the beginning of the end of a very talented group of engineers, designers, and drafters. By the end of the whole merger not a single member (janitors to senior partners) of my company survived going on to other companies cities and countries, as the culture of the dominate firm was the polar opposite of ours. Everytime I see a company getting ready to M&A I leave without a beat, as I know it rarely succeeds. By the way that firat M&A I went through neither firm exists now as the combined firms failed four years afterwards. So, really Disney will be the same and proof is it's fight with Florida. They are a dying empire.
like the stock broking world - there is an old saying that there is no such thing as a merger, it is always a takeover
And Bob Iger is responsible for killing it and everything in its blast radius.
Florida has nothing to do with acquistions.
On another note, what you need to do if an acquisition of your employer is coming is get yourself some shares: the buyer is likely to overpay.
my company took over several companies. we took their customers and fired their employees.
Something similar happened to me where the ompany was purchased. I sensed that my department got locked down so much that some people could not actually do their work. In the meantime, the advertising department became lot more people. I suspected that my department will be removed in the near future and I looked for other work. Less than two years later, the entire department was removed. My former employer had to stick around for 5 years as per contract. He sent me a message later that he also left.
When put into this context everything starts to make a lot more sense
Disney can only raise resort and theme park prices so much to absorb the losses for their terrible content. At this rate, and with their avowal to stay the course, how long will it take for the company go bankrupt?
Longer than you would like thanks to massive esg investment by blackrock and vanguard ( black rock controls 9 trillion dollars )
Those franchises were bought by the company that make Princess for Little girls , and Confuse Boys .
The result is exactly what we could expect .
All great points, and I'd add that "Princess movies" don't necessarily mean bad entertainment. The originals of Beauty&The Beast, Mulan and Frozen were all good films with universal appeal. It's only been relatively recently that "Princess movies" or "girls' entertainment" have become a prescribed set of boring tropes about flawless protagonists slay-queening their ways to empowerment.
Mulan and Frozen are girl bosses
@@mistersparkles1842 they're so good but sadly becomes very bad in recent remake. Like the infamous 2020 mulan
Mulan was garbage
Absolutely nailed it. How Lucas didn't see this coming is nuts. He said pubicly that Disney was the only one he wanted to sell to. Terrible negotiating strategy also. Lucas is also to blame here, sadly.
Btw, there are 3 things that define my childhood and now appear to me as a strange fever dream in my memories: SCTV, Bizarre, and Mr. Canoehead. Who would have thunk? Also Hee Haw. TV was my babysitter.
I remember when then first hints of the Lord of the Rings movies (Peter Jackson) came out, there was both elation and trepidation as people prayed "Please don't let it be Disney". Everyone knew that if Disney had done the LOTR movies, Gollum would have been turned into a comic relief sidekick (Probably played by Jim Carey). We all knew that Disney poisons everything it touches. That has not changed.
I always knew that the Disney princesses were evil, lol! I never thought that I would live to see the day where I would hate Star Wars and Marvel, but Disney has proved me wrong.
"Charlies Angels in Spandex, with Nick Fury as Bosley" 🤣😂 Claasic!!! ( which, of course I intend to steal...ahem...I mean pay homage to...)
This is the first time I've heard this perspective applied to Disney's acquisitions, and it resonates. Integrating a new company/culture into an existing one can be difficult, expensive, and downright ugly. But in many industries, it's relatively easy to prevent outsiders from seeing that drama. But Disney is in the business of creating and selling big budget, complex projects to as many people as possible. They want attention, and they're getting it, for better and for worse.
Great video! Growing up, my grandmother was an English professor. She didn't quite have the vocabulary or patience for young kids, and she spoke her mind. She HATED Disney with a passion. She didn't want me watching Disney movies. Mostly because of the way they "bastardized the Brothers Grimm" and other stories. If I had an interest, she'd get me, or read me, the actual story. So, I've had that in my mind since I was 5.
I tell ya, you don't make any friends in second grade telling everybody they're "willfully ignorant" (before I even knew what it meant, of course.) There were times, though, it felt like I was the only kid who knew the truth: that Disney doesn't really care about the source material, and all the kids around me singing along to the catchy songs were caught up in a joyful lie. Which is why none of this is shocking to me, either.
...and yes, I have enjoyed a Disney movie or two throughout life. I'm not made of stone. But there's always an asterix of various size in the back of my head.
Fantasia is a masterpiece, one of Disney's best if not their best, I love Pixar from 1995 to 2010 probably more than Disney, there is a good reason about why J. R. R. Tolkien didn't want Disney to bought the rights of his works and adapting them, if only George Lucas learned about that Tolkien's story.
My perception of Disney movies has never been thr same since reading the original Little Mermaid.
I still say that KK was the last “finger” from Lucas to Disney. He knew what she was, who she was…she had been around for 35 years, boiling in the background wanting to show “the boys” how she could do it. He could sell Star Wars to Disney knowing that she would just destroy everything. He knew and he was right.
That's a 4D chess move right there. Become a multi-millionaire by selling your space opera IP to a megacorporation just to buy it back later for pennies on the dollar.
That's what I want to believe. And after being inundated with corporate sludge, the prodigal king returns and promises more SW content while putting dirt in the eyes of every prequel hater.
Not even thrawn could come up with a more brilliant plan.
@@MK_ULTRA420 not millions, billions.
I doubt that Lucas will ever come back to SW.
Setting up Kennedy as a ticking time bomb is an interesting idea though. It's a bit conspiratorial, but a fun one ))
In the past disney had enough sense to separate their more adult brands from their family friendly stuff with the touchstone division
Yeah but now we have underage girls twerking in Disney movies so it cancels out.
Now they try to put adult themes everywhere and touch kids.
@@mr.awesome6011 "Leave alone the gyrating asian girl!"
At least with the old princess movies you still had the prince or love interest who was a good guy.
Now I want a story with a group of female assassins like the Kill Bill one but with Disney Princesses code names, and that's just from the title. As a Power Rangers fan, Disney doesn't know how to handle "boy" brands. When they ended up owning Power Rangers (they didn't actually want it, long story), they really didn't know what to do with it. So they gave almost complete control to the Executive producers, and curiously, that resulted in some of the most creative and fun Power Rangers seasons. But they ran the franchise into the ground because they didn't know how to market it, how to air it, or how to incorporate it into their bigger catalog. It was the peak of PR storytelling (IMHO) but also the lowest the brand has ever been.
Power Rangers couldn't be turned into a full "Girl Power" show because it has the constrain of the original Japanese Sentai footage that is spliced with the Western scenes. That's what keeps the cost of a show like Power Rangers relatively low. But the Japanese teams always have men, and men are always the leaders and most powerful rangers, so they couldn't have scenes of an all girl Western team splice with Japanese footage of what are clearly men. So they just... froze and ignored they even owned Power Rangers.
All the Millennial girls I knew growing up hated Power Rangers for some reason, same with Bionicles.
@@MK_ULTRA420 really? It is literally my favorite show ever!
Sounds about right
@@MK_ULTRA420 Really? Bionicle used to be one of my favorite franchises.
@@vioveo7440 Power Rangers and the Bionicle franchise both suffer from very limited female representation. I, a boy who grew up around the turn of the millennium, was never a Power Rangers fan. However, I loved Bionicle and still do! Even so, as a kid, I realized it was very weird that _literally only 1/6th of the characters were female!_
I daresay that Gali, Nokama, Hahli and all the other female Bionicle characters I can think of, are rad as hell, but there's still very few of them. I actually initially thought that Lewa, Toa of Air, was female (he's not) because my kid brain couldn't comprehend that there was only one girl on the team.
That, and the fact that the toys were marketed to boys, meant most girls were not interested in them at all back in the day.
My back is also spazzing. Hope you feel better soon. Back pain is no joke.
Princesses are not inherently bad but when you shoehorn it into everything then you’ve shrunk your fan base.
I hope your back feels better soon. I'd be interested to know if any girls and women started watching Disney Star Wars because of these women characters. Also, how many fans of Star Wars before Disney have turned away from Disney Star Wars?
@@dronesclubhighjinks Thanks. I’m a woman and I was a Star Wars fan and Marvels comic fan before they feminized the brands and made it crap. I know my hubby and son checked out after the Last Jedi.
TENS devices work, just don't put the electrodes on a sore neck. Trust me on this.
Cant start the day without 2 wireless tens machines...one on each side of my lower back. It won't get rid of the back pain forever...but it masks it for a while
@@AL-ws5yi thank you for letting me know! A heatpad might help your back and Voltaren too. Good luck!
Disney lacking a clear identity is indeed an interesting point. From Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and others now when I think about Disney it is mostly from the financial aspect, shareholders, tickets sold, target audiences (which apparently are never me), but not about storytelling. Of somehow the storytelling moved to their internal corporate power plays. Now that I think about it the only Disney product I am interested now are some old Donald Duck comic books from last century.
I'm glad you expanded on the Princess Problem you hinted to in a previous video, stream or something. I had never really seen Disney as a "Girl Brand" but once you said that it made so much sense.
Was also great to have M&A's described. I don't think people really get why they happen all the time. One I don't think you mentioned (that isn't really relevant for Disney often) is someone needing to have a "look what I did this quarter" when they show up to a quarterly board meeting.
Side note, dunno if you're a trekkie, but your insight and commentary about Picard Season 3 compared to previous kurtzman trek would be good stuff. I'd love to know why you think management at Paramount hasn't given Terry Matalas the keys to the kingdom after all of this.
Old Disney was a family brand, and it kept a lot of that spirit up to the Renaissance. Of course boys liked Hercules and Aladdin and what not. But it as it went on became a "family and/or girls" brand. The boy only part was lost to the years. Then eventually it kinda stopped being a family brand as well.
To be fair to the upcoming Ahsoka show, and only the upcoming Ahsoka show, there are few male characters because it's a sequel series to Rebels. And being a sequel to Rebels, you'll remember or not(spoilers!), that all the male characters except Rex and Zeb sacrificed themselves. Kanan saved them from an exploding fuel depot and Ezra hyperspaced himself and Thrawn into the Unknown Reaches. The whole point of the show is going to be the hunt for Ezra and the return of Thrawn.
That thumbnail could be a movie I'd unironically watch.
All the kingdoms are attacked and the princesses have to arm themselves and hold out against an undead horde.
Make it like an old Tarantino movie.
No, that is adultification. Tarantino zombies are not kid monsters or fairy tale monsters.
The basic invasion defense idea is not bad, and you could have the princesses in squads with different themes and jobs.
But it would have to be fairy tale monsters, of a degree of scary that would be appropriate for kids. Otherwise, Disney would be making another mistake.
Robot Chicken did one where the princesses go to war against each other.
@suburbanbanshee The Heartless perhaps? The Disney princes and princesses have to hold out against a Heartless assault until the Keyblade wielders reinforce them.
Try _Pride & Prejudice & Zombies_
It's kinda like that, not great or anything, but worth one watch.
Especially, if you've read Austin's novel )))
I feel you Chato. A portable TENs unit got me through many bad days
Congratulations on a brilliant video and the 100K Paul! Very well deserved.
Another first-time watcher from the Drinker here. It is almost scary how the insanity now makes some sense.
The now commonplace misandry in Disney products I've often thought comes from "Disappointed Princess Syndrome", in which women disappointed their lives didn't turn out to be princess-quality blame it on men and take it out on them in media.
How these businesses can ostracize half their customer base and expect to make a profit is beyond me.
I somehow feel less angry at Disney. Disney isn't a willful sentient entity. It is a corporate manifestation hard-coded with a corporate identity and culture. The machine only produces what it knows.
Disney princess movies preach to little girls that they're perfect the way they are, and that anyone who doesn't think so is a hater and trying to keep them down. They tell little girls that rules are made for other people, and they are meant to break the rules, and break the mold. They tell little girls that they are worth a prince, and nothing less. Not only are they only worthy of a prince, they're actually settling for the prince because he's from the imperfect world that is telling them to change.
This is why women are the way they are now.
If I may add another example of Disney commiting M&A back in the day, is Power Rangers. But unlike with their current acquisitions, Disney back then realized that they couldn't do much else with PR, and let it go back to Haim Saban.
Who then, made it way worse by doing the opposite of Disney. Ignoring where the series has gone and growing up and instead just trying to recreate the first season.
My cats absolutely love this channel for post-dinner calm down time. They find Chato's voice soothing...
💯Fantastic video! Highly recommended for anyone considering or involved with M&A. Unfortunately, most of us will never be able to impact the "Culture" question as that is set at the board or corporate officer level before the papers are signed. Even then, the window to make that decision is awfully narrow. Once lines of business cross-pollinate, they bring their dominant corporate culture, and the damage is done.
This video does an excellent job of avoiding the cultural questions and looking at the raw dynamics. Culture eats strategy, indeed. As for the loss of the hero's journey, it looks like it must come from new creatives. I look forward to what I hope will be an inevitable rebirth from some unlooked-for space far from the zeitgeist.
Thanks
I've not seen a video that connects all the dots without veering into culture war verbage. Amazing and eye opening!! Thank you so much for this.
I guess I always liked the boy brands better (and I also had liked boy bands too) as a kid. As a little girl, maybe I wanted more girls in stuff but really **I** wanted to be that girl. Little me probably wouldn't have minded Rey until they started bashing Luke. Then little me would have been mad because little me **adored** Luke Skywalker.
He wasn't my first fictional crush-that honor belongs to Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon-but Luke was always my favorite. Leia was ok to little me, but I like Luke better. I also liked Padme better than Leia when the prequels came out.
"Charlie's Angels in Spandex" is an excellent summary.
My pain with what Disney did with Star Wars is a bit lower on the back.😊
Imagine having the IP's of Marvel, Pixar and Lucasfilms, the amount of money that could be made is endless. How a company turned it into a heaving mass of crapola will be studied for years in business classes.
That is the question
The best overview and summary of what has happened to this "confused" company that has lost its way. Very well done. Thanks!
It is not often that I agree with everything someone says… but I agree with everything you just said.
Call Me Chato: this channel is PURE GOLD! I really, really appreciate the insights and context presented here. LOVE this guy!
All Disney needs to do is keep strong masculine heroes fighting alongside the women, rather than destroying, deconstructing, or excluding them. Simple. A great recent example of what Disney should keep doing is Avatar: The Way of Water.
"Charlies Angels in spandex" ROFLMAO!! Perfect and absolutely true.
An extremely thought provoking thesis. I can easily see how Disney princess culture can be used in the current environment to infiltrate boy-focused brands; and how some non-creative people with good or ill intent could use the present chaos as a ladder to gain unmerited power. Although these types of power grabs appear to be nothing new in Hollywood, it seems different in some way. Maybe one day you could explain this. Many thanks
I know what you mean about culture. I was at MGM when Sony bought them. There's a reason that M&A didn't last long and Sony was sued by their partners.
Bandwidth was also a huge problem of the Sony/MGM aquisition. Executives just dumped huge piles of MGM on their already overworked Sony middle mangement. And since those middle managers weren't at all invensted in their new MGM responsiblities, those newly purchased cash cows fell by the wayside.
If you see Lucasfilm as what it actually was, an indepdent company, it makes total sense. Compare it to music. It's like the indie rocker got signed to a giant label. You know what happens. Yeah they might sell more records but without a doubt the art suffers.
"Watches Chato wince from backpain.* Getting old sucks, doesn't it? Believe me, I'm there with you. Last month I thought my knee cap was going to swell right off. I had to wear a warmed leg-wrap for a week.
Star Wars has lost my 14 year old Star Wars obsessed son!! We just had this DISNEY PRINCESS conversation after the latest Mandalorian episode. We are both hate watching at this point. When the boys and target audience are feeling it...ooops!
Big F**kinOops!
Congrats on 100,000 subscribers our fav former network executive Chato!
"It's a mergers and acquisitions story -- I can see you're filled with excitement"
Those of us who watch Valiant Renegade are certainly listening. =)
I love the fact that he livestreams Disney earnings calls. Although I do wait for the clips of those...
I think I can honestly say without hyperbole Chato that this was your best video to date (maybe not the funniest, but definitely the best), and I absolutely love your TV Guide vids. I know you're not the most religious person but I am reminded of the wisdom of Solomon in the book of Proverbs in the Hebrew Scriptures "Without vision the people perish (Proverbs 29:18, NIV translation)."
The biggest issue I see with Disney's mergers and acquisitions phase is this: They basically had no plan for the companies/brands/IP's that they bought, other than a few vague ideas I'll bring up. Part of the issue was that two of the big companies they acquired, namely Pixar and Marvel, were at that point almost entirely self regulating. Marvel had hit on what story they were telling (Disney bought them when they were just entering phase two and were starting to formally lay out the elements of the Infinity Stone arc they were going to tell). Pixar, which they had bought earlier, was still running of their original creative brain trusts outlines for such films as Finding Nemo, Monster's Inc., The Incredibles and Wall-E. What they means is that they bought companies that more or less ran themselves, and those companies knew what they were doing and they didn't need any kind of plan or organization from Disney proper. At that point all Disney had to do was help out with financing, marketing and distribution.
Then we saw Disney acquire/merge with such companies as Jim Henson Studios, LucasFilm and 20th Century Fox. As near as I can tell they bought them because they could, not because they had any serious idea what to do with them. The most public disaster is LucasFilm, but I know for a fact that a lot of people at Fox, especially their movie division, are beyond mad at Disney and how they've run things. They also find themselves in a very weird catch-22 with Fox Sports and ESPN, because Fox Sports has upped their game and gained viewership, but that's almost entirely been at the expense of ESPN, rather than any kind of market growth with Fox. The fact is that Fox Sports is just slightly less woke than ESPN, so a lot of disgusted ESPN viewers have switched over to Fox in protest. So Disney is now cannibalizing itself when it comes to the live sports television and news, and they seem to have zero inclination in stopping the bleeding there (ESPN is in deep trouble, and ESPN+ isn't helping with anything). The other reason I think they merged with Fox is because TCF at that point still held the rights to X-Men, Fantastic Four and Dare Devil. This was just as the Infinity Arc was concluding and I think they thought if they could reacquire the movie rights for those comics they could bring those characters into the MCU and keep the gravy train going. So far that hasn't worked out, and by the time they get to the X-Men proper (Victoria Alonzo should have been fired immediately after she said they should change the name of the team to "the mutants') there may not be much left in the way of an audience for the MCU. I also think Disney pretty much tanked Fox's New Mutants and Dark Phoenix movies (or at least they didn't help).
Next we move on to JHP, where they've had multiple fights with Brian and Heather Henson (and it's not lost on me that they've been unable to gain any traction with Muppet movies since Brian Henson left over "creative differences") as well as Frank Oz (Ms. Piggy), Dave Goelz (Gonzo) and Steve Whitmire (Beaker). With a few exceptions at this point JHP is basically a defunct brand, and I don't think Disney has the slightest clue what to do with them.
That brings us back to LucasFilm. I honestly thought when Disney bought LucasFilm they were overpaying because they paid more for Lucasfilm than they paid for Marvel. Now, people could say at the time that Star Wars was a bigger, more iconic brand and LucasFilm was the more venerable studio than Marvel Studios was at that point, and all of that was entirely true. There was a but though, and that but was this, Marvel was a functioning studio that had already made money and had a bunch of new movies in the pipeline, they also had several animated shows across various channels and Marvel Comics was still going fairly strong with all of their titles. LucasFilm, other than Lucas Arts and their games (which we'll come back to) and the Clone Wars show, was pretty much defunct. They had no movies in the works and a number of their properties were entirely dormant. Among the first things Disney did when they took over was shut down Lucas Arts and completely jettison the old Expanded Universe novels, as well as can George's scripts for episodes 7, 8 & 9. When they threw out the expanded universe and said none of it was no longer canon, I knew they were in trouble and this would blow up in their face. We're also now at a weird point where Kathleen Kennedy is trying to gaslight everyone by saying they're going to bring in stories from the novels when she said earlier they didn't have novels to go off of.
Anyways, great observations sir, TLDR: Great video, and Disney has no idea what the hell they're doing.
This makes so much sense. No one with as much dismal failure as Kathleen Kennedy could stay in her position this long if it were not an ideological appointment, rather than an economic or artistic one.
the Disney princess was the stupidest trope ever. We will always remember Walt's big movies, had nothing to do with that theme, and he hated it. Now they cant do anything else without that theme, and the whole ship will go down like that.
Why couldnt Rey just be a nobody ??? Noooo they had to make her royal somehow. Making every Marvel hero into a princess.. ugh. Sad.
So main takeaway: NEVER make anything or work for Disney. And never let them buy you and/or your IPs.
Na.
Sell it for a couple of billion, and smile all the way to the bank.
Well done! You summed up the current state of Disney... and the entertainment industry in general.
One day, Chato, you will have to tell us the whole story of the Daimler-Chrysler debacle.
The way Chrysler has been passed around and in various partnerships they are the “town bicycle” of the auto industry.
While I enjoy many other entertainment commentary channels, I believe your unique perspective is the most informative. Consequently, I think it provides the best fodder for contemplating solutions.
I appreciate that!
Chato never fails to inform and entertain. He's basically the Andy Rooney of TH-cam! (IMO of course) 😁
Congratulations Chato, you have presented and entire semester of business school in 9 minutes. The principles you presented are not just applicable to Disney. Is there a name for corporate myopia? This video should be required viewing at every university business school and corporation. I would recommend starting with the makers of Bud Light.
There was once a time ( like in my childhood...eons ago ) when Disney stood for creativity and magic. Anticipating what Disney would do next. Now, its just acquisitions and brand marketing, and destroying icons loved by all generations of people who love movies. Harrison Ford, on an interview years ago, wanted Han Solo to die in the first Star Wars, by sacrificing herself for his friends- Luke and Leia. Not for the force and some hokey, old religion. The same skeptical Han who only cared about himself, well, maybe also Chewy. It would have been the perfect cinematic turn of character in the movie. To have an aging Han be unceremonially stabbed by a light-saber weilding nobody villain is anti- climactic. It fits Disney's lack of care for creative quality.
Just when Harrison Ford thought he would never play Han Solo again, they called him for Episode 9 (as if that movie couldn't be less salvageable), imagine how much they paid him for just being there for a few minutes. And so we never got a Luke, Han and Leia reunion.
Wow, I'd never thought about the cancer we see around us in these terms. Now that you point it out it all makes sense now. Could it be that the clowns in Disney couldn't see that this wouldn't work out well for them ?
100k!! Congrats on arbitrary milestone achievement!! Well deserved growth.
Thanks for all your efforts.
I hope your back pain goes away soon! Thank you for this video explaining your perspective. I would love to know how many girls and women have become fans of Disney Star Wars because of Rey or Reva or any other strong female Disney-created character (not Leia).
Idk why but girls and women tend not to be very interested in science fiction so I would be pretty surprised if anybody started watching Disney Star Wars, because of these "strong" women characters.
Science fiction that includes relationships or family saga elements or faux historical intrigue - that is very popular with women.
Disney is not giving that to any of their shows, and particularly not to Star Wars.
@@suburbanbanshee thank you for explaining!
You hit 100K subscribers. Congratulations!
Interesting hypothesis. Also, get well soon.
These are clear FACTS!
"Princess culture eats everything" doen't explain the way the old heroes were humiliated and their fans were insulted. If the new Captain America had been introduced as the niece of the old one who pledged to carry on his mission, she might be the heartthrob of teenage boys everywhere.
Certainly a perspective I couldn't have encountered on my own. Thank you for that. However, its been my experience that large messy failures are rooted in large messy multivariable problems. I think its very likely ever theory out there is part of the problem.
I am 50 years old and I have never known a time when Disney wasn’t a girl’s brand.
Treasure Planet.
I don't really understand why you'd think that. Plenty of classic Disney movies I'd say are more geared towards boys...Pinnochio, The Sword In The Stone, The Black Cauldron and so on, and Pixar movies like Toy Story and Cars are much more guy-centric too. It's only more recently (especially since the 'metoo' crap) that 'strong women' are being shoehorned into every situation, mostly where they don't belong.
The Lion King
They did right with Mirimax..
There were other issues however.
I'm 66, trust me there was a time but after Walt died in 1966 and Roy in 1971 it became obvious that male leads were being thinned out. They were being replaced by bumbling fools who were always saved by their strong long suffering wives/girlfriends. If you look at a complete list of Disney films by year it's painfully obvious.
Beautifully explained... Paul, you have done it again!
😢😢😢😢😢 A few tears for the heroes lost and let's ignore the present while we wait for a brighter tomorrow!
What’s wrong with Princess Wolverine & they thems amazing healing trans powers? 😵💫
They will cgi the hair do into a tiara
My question is: If Wolverine had a sex change, would he heal back into his dead self? That would be a cruel twist of fate!
Congratulations for hitting the 100K subscribers, Chato! Here's to that K changing into an M in the near future, because your content deserves it!
Interesting take. So, in short;
Disney is now a prin-cesspool.
Don't forget that every company, including Disney, is beholden to Blackrock's ESG scores for bonds and (just recently) investing 401k's
Wow, very insightful. I will give this serious thought. I didn't know about the "corporate culture angle". I'd seen my company get bought multiple times and each time it failed. I thought it failed because the buying conglomerate didn't understand my industry (semi conductors) but maybe it was the difference in corporate culture. This explains a lot (not the awfulness of She Hulk or Star Wars Episode 8) but it explains a lot. Thank you.
Your commentary is on a whole different level…amazing insight. And you make it entertaining as well. Tip of the hat to you, sir!
Disney destroyed afternoon cartoons for boys in the 80s. They took over an entire channel option with Duck Tales and multiple other wimpy shows. A young boy is going to pick GI Joe, Transformers, Thundercats, and TMNT 99% of the time over Duck Tales etc., and the boys who didn’t were given the side-eye from their peers. Disney is for girls and soft boys.
What often happens in a Merger, is that one faction basically wars with and pushes out the other faction. I've seen it firsthand!
Disney’s goal is the expand the audience base in majority male audience genres by bringing in girl boss Disney princesses to appeal to those who wouldn’t normally watch such shows. Previously, the women/girls that saw Star Wars/Marvel…were largely taken to such movies by Boyfriends/husbands/fathers. Disney is banking on that guys will keep showing up to beloved shows while it creates a new generation of fans…thereby growing the pie. Disney is calculating that in the long run it will get a larger audience of a new generation. And ignores the audience that made StarWars and Mwrvel so enormously profitable. Disney is learning that guys do not want WNBA StarWars/Marvel
The thing is that this strategy tends to fail as it alienates the old audience as it pivots towards the new one. The people are only going to stick around for so many attempts before they realize it's not for them.
You really see this happening the most with video games the most as almost everyone is hopping onto action oriented games. Square-Enix is probably the biggest disaster in that respect as they released 6 or 7 action RPGs in the last year and they were all disasters, even the ones based on older franchises that were of a different genre. Final Fantasy 16 is basically their big gamble it and it looks ready to crash and burn in Japan before it is out. Sega had to relearn this decision quite a few times in the last 10 years with with Valkyria Chronicles, Sakura Wars, and most recently, the Sonic the Hedgehog game. But, the Yakuza games from Sega seemed to be the pivoting point where they took in feedback from their April Fools' Joke and were able to split the series into Yakuza and Judgment. Sega seems to have gotten it for now until some clown decides to stray far off and Sega needs a reminder to be slapped in the face..
Best context yet! This one clarifies my thoughts so well.
Mr. Chato certainly deserves to get to 100K subscribers, and beyond!
I have an even hotter take: Disney didn't ruin Star Wars... Star Wars ruined Disney.
Despite the controversy and artistic failures towards the end of Michael Eisner's run as CEO, Disney still came out of its Renaissance Era with a pretty strong brand identity. You knew what Disney was, you knew what to expect, and it was a juggernaut of movies, TV shows, theme parks, retail stores, Broadway productions, and cruise lines. But then Eisner was ousted and replaced by Bob Iger, a talentless accountant who proceeded to transition the Walt Disney Company Ltd. into a high-end IP management firm. Thus began the M&A of other brands which, in turn, diluted the Disney brand.
There was Pixar, a brand that focused on very modern settings and themes, as well as holding strong male friendships at their films' emotional cores. Then Marvel, a brand focused on very modern settings and themes, with its cadre of "realist" male heroes (by contrast with the more "mythic" heroes of DC). Then Lucasfilm, which wasn't a modern brand but certainly a dead one... Star Wars was ALREADY dead and creatively bankrupt after the prequel trilogy. And finally 20th Century, a brand with no identity whatsoever, presumably bought for its film library which has yet to materialize on Disney+ and to regain Marvel characters they're doing nothing with... So it seems that WDC really just acquired it because Iger couldn't help himself.
And all of these brands have been stuffed into what Disney Stores remain, stuffed into theme parks, and stuffed onto Disney+ with no sense of what actually works. I mean, I get a laugh out of seeing "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter," "The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad," and "Alien" all sandwiched together in the horror section of Disney+, or "Davy Crockett: King of the Wild Frontier" a stone's throw from "Ravenous" in the western section, but the overall effect is to dilute the Disney brand. Michael Eisner declared the "Disney Decade," but Iger has been the "Anything-But-Disney Decade."
Now here's the punchline to the story: because Disney acquired all these brands that don't fit with their brand and the results have been what one would expect, everyone hates DISNEY for it. "Disney ruined Marvel! Disney ruined Star Wars!" Those were already terrible brands that Disney never should have touched, and now Disney is the one getting flak for it. Nobody talks about Lucasfilm destroying Star Wars, or Marvel destroying Marvel. It's always blaming Disney for it. Star Wars ruined Disney.
Your takes are very intelligent and well thought out!
👏
The intention from the beginning was always to switch the "boy-brands" into "girl-brands". This wasn't some organic thing that happened.
Not true. They are on record saying they wanted boy brands to compliment the princess brand. Just couldn't keep their grubby paws off them.