Disney Needs ‘Course Correction’ Away From Political Messaging, Says ‘Little Mermaid’ and ‘Aladdin’ Director

Where “political messaging” apparently means having racialized characters. [Recently we saw Pixar’s movie Turning Red criticized for not being “relatable”](https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/turning-red-review-pulled-1.6377614) because it told a universal coming-of-age story through the lens of a Chinese-Canadian character.

> “We weren’t trying to be woke, although I understand the criticism,” Musker said of “The Princess and the Frog.”

People who call things “woke” are telling on themselves when they talk about the supposed political messages in non-political things.

There’s nothing wrong with diversity. A live action Princess and the Frog could be neat, especially if they expand human Tiana’s role, as opposed to mostly frog stuff. That being said, a lot of people like the characters to look the way they did in the original version. Most of the disney remakes made sure to hire actors that resembled the animated versions. But they didn’t do that for The Little Mermaid for some reason.

Political messaging is definitely part of their problem, but not the only thing going on. Alienating parts of their fan base through social media, actors/actresses alienating audiences with their own comments, modernizing movies in ways that fans aren’t interested in, creating live actions or remakes where the originals are being spat on as marketing for the new one, being direspectful to the silver and golden ages of Disney that were the foundations for the entirety of all cinema, sequels, lowering quality to save money, being out of touch with the fan base, dismantling what people love about the original in adaptations, so on and so forth.

The problem with controversy to sell tickets is that people are no longer engaging with it – bad press is no longer good press. Between the economy and the over staturation of every entertainment market, no one wants to see things that arent in their interests. People definitely don’t want to see things where the creatives behind it have done everything in their power to alienate the customer theyre hoping to retain.

In regards to the “woke” part of it all, those who believe in the phrase comprise at least 25% of America. Probably has an upwards limit of 40%. That’s a lot of people you’ve told not to see your film. We can say “good we dont want them to” all you want, but it turns out you’re losing 25 to 40% of ticket sales. Are you trying to make good movies, make profits, or sell your messaging because I dont think you get all three.

Gay and Black people exist. Deal with it.

I think they’ve accidentally put themselves in a position where they’re now going to be accused of political messaging no matter what.

If the original Little Mermaid or Aladdin films were released this year, Disney would be accused of ramming strong female leads down our throats.