Oh my god I hate Disney and I can’t lie. This will be another certified grumpy ramble from me.
Let me say first, while I watched some of their animated canon as a kid including the Renaissance films I was always more into other things. I do NOT really hold heavy Disney nostalgia. It just doesn’t work on me. There isn’t a special “Disney magic” for me because tbh I think they’ve always had more misses than hits with quality. They have a few great films in there and I just seperate them from the stupid brand because I hate Disney yada yada.
If anything I fell for Nintendo ”magic” but my point is simply that I don’t have some deep nostalgia for Disney, I just can’t relate to that and I’ve been annoyed with them for YEARS now. Increasingly so over the last decade. People getting sick of their brands is kinda vindicating, though it is sad that Disney continue running them into the ground.
So aside from the movies themselves- even as a kid, the company struck me as kinda cold and scummy. I noticed how there was so much Disney stuff I simply couldn’t afford, stuff we would have had to rebuy, all the toys branded with the Disney logo, some of their really boring mascots like Mickey and Donald who just felt homogenous and like they had zero personality or edge, The Disney Channel, DisneyWorld existing, etc. and yes I was a kid and didn’t grasp it but I could realise it was different from other companies. Like even when you have other toy brands, this isn’t great either, but at least a ton of those like Bratz had a clear goal/identity/audience (generic as a lot of it was) instead of total grey mush. Looney Tunes have ALWAYS been cooler than Disney’s shorts and I don’t understand why this is even a debate.
I guess it’s more “how other companies present themselves”, realistically, but Disney basically helped commodify nostalgia and make that their entire brand so much more and in a way so much more widely accepted than so many companies. Every brand wants a property people are deeply nostalgic for so this isn’t a uniquely Disney thing, but as far as I’m concerned, they’re one of the worst about it. The situation is complex actually because modern habits and platforms contributed too, but I think with large-budget movies spiralling further into remakes, nostalgia etc. Disney helped HEAVILY with the push. They definitely did with franchising given their Marvel universe dealio, you guys remember how much it sucked when every single movie tried to set up a universe? Remember Dark Universe? I think most attempts aren’t that blatant anymore but that there’s still been a shift toward trying to make more and more spinoffs, reboots, prequels, etc. and that they come faster. LoTR and GoT have spinoff shows now, and Harry Potter is getting a show, and then compare that to the decades these reboots/spinoffs often took in the past. Like I’m not saying you didn’t get really fast cheap reboots but it was nothing like it is now, damn Disney are good at selling but damn do I hate where they lead the industry.
Disney BRANDING is everywhere and has increased tons even since I was a kid- every merch stand is half-filled by cheap Disney-branded schlock like Funko Pops and for a while there the Tsum-Tsums. At least back in the day it was contained to specific shelves. They take up space in the streaming market with Disney+ and some of the gall they’ve had with that platform. Earlier you had the Vault strategy. Etc. Now these are very good for business for them but these things have such a PRESENCE since so many people love or say they love Disney and it’s everywhere and with them in particular this gets so hard to ignore. As an aside with the streaming age monoculture / pop culture has steadily faded away, and some of the only remaining rungs are stuff like the Marvel movies which Disney owns, so Disney still gets bought up a lot in searching for common topics and I’m sick of it.
That they can just BUY so many entertainment properties is depressing too. What made me actively dislike them was a combination of that and that the Marvel franchising was annoying. They take the charm/wonder out of brands they buy in general by over-saturating them and making them lean more on nostalgia/repeats (this even happened to Pixar
I know Pixar wasn’t perfect anyway but there’s a clear divide- Coco was good though, Soul and Turning Red had bits I liked). Simpsons has been in the dumps for decades but there’s something extra-depressing when you see Homer in a Mickey hat to celebrate that acquisition as if we should celebrate monopoly. Disney’s newer 3D films have been EXTREMELY hit or miss with more misses as time goes on (There’s a bigger gap between Moana and Encanto than Tangled and Wreck-It Ralph for example). Maybe this is a very biased view and there’s stuff they haven’t touched that I don’t realise but yeah even aside from acquiring other studios you have the live action remakes.
They’re also responsible for the current state of copyright law which is arguably one of the most disastrous things to have ever happened for creative pursuits, careers, etc.- certainly in the modern age. So yeah. Screw Disney.
I like a tiny selection of their films, but with their aggressive branding, purchasing power, terrible creative decisions, gross PR, and general stifling of creativity I’m honestly more driven to actively avoid their products. Really though I don’t have to do that anyway because other than the occasional animated movie none of it appeals to me anyway. Sorry for the whole rant. You have no idea how tired I have been of this company for sooo long now. Tbh I think it started around the time of Frozen which I thought was kinda crappy but nobody would shut up about it. Then Marvel discourse became more annoying / toxic and I very quickly became sick of that brand as well and the new Star Wars trilogy happened around the same time (never been into Star Wars but just saying that debate was also toxic).
