It is all connected, in a way. The success of their films and streaming directly ties to developments in the parks. The parks have been so conservative with new additions lately because they're using its profits to prop up their other divisions. Universal is announcing a whole new ambitious, immersive park to eat Disney's lunch right off their plate, and Disney's biggest response they can muster is retheming Splash Mountain. That's all because they can't afford a bigger response because their films are flopping.
The biggest difference between Eisner and Iger is that Mikey knew that he needed to protect The prestige of the cinematic animated features in order to keep the machine running. He went for the cash grab by making the straight to video sequels and the TV shows. Iger very arrogantly assumes the audience will be there no matter what, failing to realize that he is demeaning the prestige of the main studio with this cynical strategy.
I worked on the marketing for Frozen. It was frustrating because that was when Disney was only interested in a male audience. Even though people showed up for The Princess and the Frog, boys didn't, so as far as they were concerned anything with "princess" in it was poison. That's how Rapunzel became Tangled and why Flynn Ryder was suddenly the star of the show. With Frozen they were determined to make kids think it was Ice Age with Magic Snowmen. We were forbidden even to talk about the sisters, even though "Let it Go" had gotten a huge reception at D23 and, um, that's what the movie was about.
This is a really interesting insight into how marketing works behind the scenes; a lot of people aren't aware of the strange directions that are given by companies to their advertising and marketing teams based on what is and is not "doing well" according to their data and overall reception. Probably slightly unpopular opinion, but I don't hate the direction of the one-word titles since they're easier to remember and unique enough to stand out when compared to projects derived from stories within the public domain.
@@JustDuckDoinStuff True story: when they showed a preview reel of Frozen at D23, everyone had to surrender their cell phones at the door. One fan ran back from that screening to her hotel and recorded "Let it Go" word for word, note for note, from a single hearing. So we all thought, okay, this is how big this song is going to be. Everybody's going to be obsessed with Elsa. Then the directive came down that the star of the teaser campaign was gonna be Olaf and his detachable head. We were literally told "We don't want people to know this is a musical." In hindsight I think it was better to let people discover how great the songs were, but that was not intentional.
This was my very first thought. I experienced and noticed it as a consumer, but I'm so glad somebody who was actually involved on the production/marketing side said it.
@@Amazingtacomaniac It boiled down to two beliefs: 1) girls will go to Disney movies regardless but boys have to know there's something for them; 2) boys tend to buy more merch than girls. The success of Frozen actually helped challenge both assumptions.
The larger issue is also how these sequels tend to not have the smoothest productions. Frozen 2 infamously didn’t have its story line up until the very last minute and Incredibles 2 lost a year of production when they moved it forward a year. The fact that these sequels did well means that Disney won’t see the production problems as something to fix since they are still going to make money. This can also bleed into their original films since Wish also had a lot of behind the scenes issues. I have every right to believe that Moana 2 might be in a similar situation too and Disney just sees it as a feature not a glitch. Disney should be letting their talent make the best projects they can, not pressure them to rush out mediocrity for the sake of shareholder and quarterly expectations.
This! I like Frozen 2 overall, prefer the songs to the original even, and love the art... however I have a few gripes with the story and feel like if they hadn't had to rush the film they could have made an amazing sequel. Watching the behind the scenes documentary was super enlightening. I have always felt like Moana could use a sequel, but with how quickly it is being pushed to theaters I am concerned for the story!
@@rettathompson1222the worst part of frozen 2 is how Olaf hijacks it and tells unfunny jokes. He used to actually be funny in the first one but in 2 he just becomes the annoying comic relief sidekick
Ralph Breaks The Internet coincided with the departure of John Lasseter and his controversy. I would love to revisit the worldbuilding of Arcade Toy Story.
The only thing I disagree with is that I don't think Wish was a risk. Wish was bland and it felt like it tried to capture the essense of every other Disney princess movie at once, so it ended up as a very cookie cutter esque, boring movie. I'm so sad that Disney is getting the wrong message from Wish's failure; instead of making sequels they need to be making "risky" original movies because those are the ones that get attention. Sure, a huge chunk of Disney's classic films were based off of other stories and characters, but they were original enough with such great storytelling that whenever people think of fairytales like Snow White and Cinderella, and even newer ones like Rapunzel and the Princess and the Frog, they think of Disney's versions of those stories. Disney NEEDS to take more risks because playing it safe isn't working for them anymore
Play safe it's no longer profitable anymore It would be easiee to learn from the mistakes from wish and move with Penélope the adaptatión of the Princess and the pea and bluebeard
I'm all for sequels only when there's a good story to be told, but I much prefer the "series" method that Aladdin, Tangled, and Big Hero 6 got. I feel like Zootopia, Frozen and even Encanto could make for brilliant TV shows, and because Moana 2 started as a series... I'm cautiously optimistic.
Zootopia would make an excellent series with the world building. It’s the only one that I’ve always wanted more from. Looking forward to the sequel, still. Maybe they’ll bring back the Spy ideas.
@Amp661 except for the fact that walt himself expressed how the concert feature was something he wanted to be a continuous work so your opinion on the matter is kinda irrelevant
I think the issue with Disney is the same as with many publicly traded companies: They are slaves to their stock price. The market is addicted to quarterly growth and any company that doesn't feed that addiction gets punished. It's a proven fact. If a CEO holds firm they get fired. Bob Iger wants to keep his job so he does what the market demands, not what's in the best interest of the fans. We are the ones that make them rich but their legacy and creativity are secondary. Owning stock is one of the lowest levels of investments you can have in a company. It takes more effort to box up your memorabilia then to sell 10,000 shares. As long as the stock market rules creativity will always be a lower priority.
Which is why Disney shouldn't have shareholders. Nobody should and when I take over Disney I won't be CEO but Owner the way sports teams have owners. Disney will be an autocracy and I won't answer to anyone but Walt himself.
Disney needs to take risks like it once did when the company was starting. Yes a 2d animated film is very expensive, the technology has become obsolete, but maybe it would bring a lot of disney fans back.
The entire film industry right now is afraid to take risks. First, They know they cannot make up a bomb at the physical media sales, and a single title won't make up that lost revenue on streaming. Sequels and Franchises are going to reduce that risk, because namebrand can sell at the Box, and franchise binging can sell at the Stream. Second, Disney wants shovel media to fill their content void for their streaming service, similar to when they started the Disney Channel. Its no coincidence that the first sequel to Disney Animation (exception of Rescuers), was in the 90s when Disney had a need to fill timeslots on cable. Sequels are going to happen, if only because of Disney+, the hope is that they actually maintain quality in the world building the originals have (looking at you Ralph). Look at the 2023 top 10 Box Office hits, 1. Barbie (New Franchise starter), 2. Mario (Franchise), 3. Oppenheimer (only "risk" but still a part of the Nolan library), 4. Guardians (MCU franchise), 5. Fast X (franchise), 6. Spider-man (franchise), 7. Little Mermaid (Disney franchise), 8. Mission Impossible (franchise), 9. Elemental (Original, but Pixar library), 10, Antman (MCU Franchise). Even the Disney "Bombs" will sell on stream to the added namebrand library or franchise, and further can make up in merchandise of some sort. All of the recent news about endless sequels is further added from the recent pandemic which sent industries into a panic to mitigate risks and survive the global economic crash. Hopefully we'll see a renaissance in a few years in culture, stories, novelties, and the risks that those come with.
it's not impossible to bring back 2D, they showcased it during their Disney 100 short. Funny enough plenty of overseas studios in Eurpoe and Asia still embrace 2D animated movies. So it is possible for Disney to embrace 2D again, I just feel they're playing it too safe. More risks are needed!
@21:05 When you said "Disney needs to remain innovators" and the Innoventions theme was playing in the background...I got a little choked up honestly. Bravo.
And the problem with the sequels is that they’re always to box office successes. No theater budget Atlantis or Princess and the Frog sequels(and yes 2D should be a priority), instead we get Frozen 4: Olaf May Need Glasses.
While Walt did cave on that, eventually, it's still a key point: the guy just wasn't a fan of revisiting old projects. Heck, a big reason Disneyland got started was because he was getting...well, not exactly sick of movies, but he was just kind of obsessed with no getting stuck doing one thing.
@@jmn327 He never “caved.” The first theatrical sequel to a Disney feature was Rescuers Down Under, produced decades after Walt’s death. As was recently said, he would be spinning in his grave like a drill bit if he knew what had become of his legacy.
@@KhurtKhave669 Three Little Wolves is a Silly Symphony cartoon. Released on April 18, 1936, and directed by Dave Hand. It was the third Silly Symphony cartoon starring the Three Little Pigs.
@@taffysaur Three Little Wolves is a Silly Symphony cartoon released on April 18, 1936, and directed by Dave Hand. It was the third Silly Symphony cartoon starring the Three Little Pigs.
Wish didn't bomb because it was an original concept. It bombed because it wasn't a fleshed out story and contained a cast of underdeveloped, forgettable characters. In an age with so many options lazy storytelling isn't going to cut it.
That I can kinda see. I mean I just watched for the first time and I didn't have a problem with it. In fact I really liked it, but I do need a couple of rewatches to understand the problems. Not saying your wrong, just laying down my first thoughts now that I've seen it.
10:29, you know, this shot in the teaser is fascinating to me. In the final version, Kristoff doesn't have a sword, and who is Anna attacking? I know a lot changed during development... but it's intriguing none the less.
@@ttintagel well you just said you let the public dictate the morality. I’m confused - are you trying to tell Me I’m free to have my own opinion? Gee, thanks!
Walt Disney wasn't a fan of sequels. He'd rather leave his films be a timeless standalone, and then "move on to other things." The way Iger is handling sequels is only proving Walt right!
I think Disney’s just in a slump point again. I’m in my 40s, so this is round 3 of my lifetime. You had The Brave Little Tailor/The Rescuers era, then the Original Renaissance. Then some fall off until Tiana and Rapunzel, then some downtime…then Frozen times. Perhaps the next CEO will Mikey Eisney it, and the parks and movie divisions will experience the best Disney sequel of all time: The Disney Renaissance: The Sequel: Part 2: Electric Boogaloo: Back 4 More
Yes! My kids were all depressed about Disney movies falling off - like it was permanent - and we went through the historic list of hims and they realized just how many streaks of bad movies they've made in the past (and why the renaissance was such a big deal).
Yeah this is what I have been saying for the last several years. We just need someone to come in and not be afraid to take risks and do something new and different. They are sticking too much to a tired formula right now because historically in Hollywood sequels and remakes are safe because there is already somewhat of an audience. Which I'm hoping they will come to realize is actively biting them in the arse and losing them more money than they are gaining.
Financial slump sure I could see Disney making a comeback especially if they continue to rely on name recognition by making more sequels to past films and if general audiences never get tired of the constant milking of acquired franchises like Marvel & Star Wars. From a quality standpoint I personally think the company is permanently damaged from the acquisitions that have done nothing but give Disney access to more franchises that they can run into the ground and exploit for money while forgetting about making new franchises and stories that can be fondly remembered.
"Jungle Book 2" and "Return to Neverland" were released theatrically in the U.S., despite not being canonical Disney classics and sharing many similarities with the direct-to-video sequels of that time period.
Iger gets a lot of credit as a shrewd negotiator, and his acquisitions were so splashy that they gave him a reputation as a brilliant business mind. But now we see that nobody anywhere Disney has a single ounce of actual genuine creativity
FYI: Disney released Return to Neverland in theaters, this was intended to be direct to video. Also Doug's 1st movie (originally direct to video) was given a proper movie score and then released theatrically.
The only problem Disney has is Bob Iger, just about everything else stems from his decisions, his disinterest or ignorance of his own company's history, his need to spend spend spend, and the total inability to listen or acknowledge what we the fans want from this company. And that last bit isn't even that hard, Eisner's whole shtick was trying to find the balance between classic nostalgia and new innovations.
@OffhandDisney I think he's always been this way really, he just made more of an effort in the pre-Fox purchase era when he still had political dreams. And now that's all gone, he's not going to bother to pretend like he actually cares. And that's why people look back fondly on Eisner, despite his flaws. He actually made an effort, he didn't need to look for a higher job because he had that at Disney. As bad as some of the sequels were in his day, they were all just supplemental to the movies and TV shows at the time, they were never expected to compete with anyone except other straight to video releases at the video store.
@@OffhandDisneyI think you could also partially blame Chapek for this too. I still trust Iger somewhat. I think the only sequels worth doing are at least Moana 2 and some of the frozens. I don't think we need toy story 5 or zootopia 2
Iger wrote Disney into a corner with all the acquisitions, so now they’re justifying a nearly exclusive profit focus as necessary to cover the cost of those acquisitions. They’re not letting their creatives create, even though that’s what he said he would do when they ousted chapek. It’s still just executives dictating what they think will make the most money and forcing the creatives into that box. I miss new.
Love to see you cover this topic. I don’t really think this is gonna save Disney’s behind as much as they think it will, but let’s see. I don’t really think many of these need sequels, minus Inside Out 2. I see where Moana could go next, but seeing who’s onboard, I’m more worried it’ll go a route like Ralph Breaks The Internet and just be bad. We’ll see how this plays out in 3-4 years. I just know I’m not really looking forward to them minus Inside Out 2…
@@OffhandDisneyI feel like Moana 2 and some of the frozen sequels at least have a point to being made. Mostly to explore other areas that haven't been touched on yet.
This is hopefully just a lull similar to the lack of super blockbusters in the 1970s. But I feel like super blockbuster film weren’t really a thing until the 1990s. Whatever happened to Disneys original live action films like Herbie the Lovebug , Treasure Island, etc. now the live action stuff are just remakes of animated hits. Too bad.
TY for covering this. In the 90s I was puzzled to why they were locking down classics and charging extra for special editions, all while rolling out sequel after sequel of newer sort of meh stuff.
Very refreshing Dallin! The extensive amount of research you did on this really made it! I am enlightened! A perceptive and well presented rant, as in this case, is sincerely better than no rant at all! Your sense of appropriateness is growing moment by moment, grasshopper! I do believe you may have just plucked the pebble from our collective hand! The near divinity of the end card is the proof on par with the star created as Tinkerbell taps her wand on the top spire of Cinderella's Castle! Bravo maestro! 🤗
I never understood why they rarely make short films for their franchises continuation instead of big theatrical releases. Making feature films is a lot more of a difficult and tiring process. With high quality shorts they can continue the stories with not as much expectations yet be experimenting with the technology on a smaller yet impacful scale. Yes I know Frozen had this approach to Frozen 2. But if they dedicated their time to other IPS then I don't see what would go wrong. I'm speaking of shorts that have a run time of 15-20 min.
I can't tell if they are just trying to suck every penny out of their franchises or if they are just straight up out of ideas for new content. Or maybe both. It really is sad to see Disney doing pretty much nothing but sequels and live action remakes. We need new content.
@@Kyle_Leinen That gets complicated, though... Disney also poorly advertised almost all of the recent box office flops. They are also currently doing injustices to original films like Soul, Turning Red, and Luca by only releasing them in theaters for one week each.... They already got a rough start by being released during the pandemic directly to Disney+ and now backtracking them into theaters is getting lukewarm reception and, once again, poor advertisement outside of the Disney echo-chambers like D23. They either went too hard and high stakes like they did with Wish, or they put in little to no effort like they did with Strange World. Their entire strategy is what's killing their box office performance on top of an already dying movie theater industry. Their best bet would be to pivot to exclusively releasing features on streaming and advertising it on social media, but we all know they won't do that because they see dollar signs in the box office just enough to keep investing in that route.
I think this is just Disney in a rut theatrically. Chapek moved Pixar to D+, ruined Marvel and released bad films like Strange World. Star Wars & LucasFilm was already broken. This is Disney trying to get some cheap wins with popular franchises to try and get them back on stable ground to then try original ideas because outside of Elemental, which wasn’t a hit to start, their other films that have been originals (Strange World, Luca, Turning Red, Soul, Wish, Haunted Mansion) all were either shoved onto D+ or were released and failed theatrically due to a variety of factors. This is Disney trying to get the machine back and working is all. Is it a lot of sequels? Absolutely, but it’s also probably necessary tbh to get Disney back on track. It’s a process. I think they’ve improved the quality, especially in their output theatrically last year and are working on trying to turn the tide after the failures of the Chapek regime.
Strange World was greenlit in 2017, three years before Chapek became CEO. If five years is the average between a movie starting production and being released, we won’t see any of the films he approved until next year.
@@DrFranklynAnderson The film Strange World began production in 2017, yes. The actual writing, casting and recording of the film didn’t happen until 2022, of which Bob Chapek would’ve had say on the film and could have directed it into a different way than what the original creators may have wanted. You’re not wrong, but a lot of the issue with Strange World still falls on Chapek.
Let me correct myself. I misread what I was reading. The trailer came out in 2022. The recording of dialogue would’ve probably started in 2020/2021 when we were in the transition between Iger and Chapek. Chapek is still involved, and it’s his decision to release it in the end. He could’ve went full Zaslov and cut it like a Batgirl movie for a tax write off if he wanted to.
@@dougjackson3890 And be called “the guy who canceled the first Disney cartoon with an openly gay kid?” Pretty sure that’s enough to get you drawn and quartered in Hollywood. 😉
I don't care how much money Frozen makes, it's still disorganized, really poor storytelling (and boring). And Olaf may be the most annoying Disney character every made.
I'm all in hearing you discuss the peoplemover Haunted Mansion and the glorious Living with the Land. New Disney movies are so "designed by committee" and based off successes in the past, many lack the heart and charm of the older movies. In addition, the animation is so overly polished/ plastic like. There are many techniques in 3d animation currently that would give some charm and texture.
You know which risk Disney needs to take (but that will never happen) ? They need to step on their ego and close Disney plus. They can't allow risks right now because that platform is a money black hole. Close it, cut the expanses, sell the streaming rights to another platform to create new income , start reinvesting parks revenue into parks and use profit to take the time needed to make new movies instead on rushing to always have new stuff ready to stream. Disney needs to step away from streaming and make the release of new Disney content an event again, and not just a home Friday night watch.
I feel like Disney is not looking into why Wish did bad. Like if they looked at videos like this, which are all over the internet, they would know where to fix themselves. They seem to equate original to poor performance. We want the new stories and people would see them if they were advertised right and had amazing original music and a genuine good story. The people who love disney care about those things. The sequels are fine, I usually enjoy them. But it’s been such a long time since we’ve had a good genuine story that didn’t feel like they were grabbing for cash.
The world of Wreck It Ralph has so much potential to build upon and exploring the arcade games we've witnessed in the first movie and their characters in the form of tv show spin offs and movies. But no we got Breaks the Internet.
Audiences forced Disney's hand when Strange World, Elemental and Wish did not perform well at the box office. Now Disney needs to go with sure-fire sequels that will hit.
This is going to be like the '90s and early 2000s all over again with the direct-to-video sequels, only this time, it's in theaters and I believe streaming services as well. And I'm not looking forward to that.
Just because a narrative has always been there doesn't make it immune from critique. Especially if it's from an ideology that has proven to be divisive, immoral, and terrible at storytelling.
There's also a big difference between the narrative being there and them coming out and telling parents that they are going to focus on showing it to your kids. I know people that have completely abandoned Disney because of it.
@@shaggytallboy4982 Thank you! Even Iger has mentioned this, in the past it was a good story with a "message" now some of the movies feel like a "message" disguised as a story.
I would really love for Disney to get Tom Hanks to come back and play Walt in a movie about the building of Disneyland, and what all Walt went through to make it a reality, similar to Saving Mr. Banks. So many people don't realize or know the story of everything Walt did and taking risks to make his dream of Disneyland a reality.
Disney Animation and Pixar, as well as the live action department and the parks, need to take influence from Disneynature. Since 2009, they’ve been releasing original nature documentaries in theaters and on streaming, and, for the most part, they’ve been great. They’re continuing Walt’s legacy of the True Life Adventures.
Not a big fan of direct sequels but the idea of new movies that take place in an existing franchise's "universe" with new cast of characters sounds appealing. For example, I really liked the idea of Metro exploring the lives in trains in the Cars universe but was sad to only learn about it because it was cancelled. The Planes movies weren't half bad either. Maybe they'll do something with boats, who knows.
It's not just Wish, though. Their last four original movies were Wish, Strange World, Encanto, and Raya and the Last Dragon. Only one of the last four original movies they released was successful at the box office. I don't think it's a coincidence, either, that all of the upcoming sequels are based on the four year block of successes they had prior to their recent failures. I'm not saying it's a good way to run the studio, but I think blaming it entirely on Wish is kind of missing the bigger picture.
As much as I'm not a huge fan of constant sequels, I can't blame disney for playing it safe after all of their original movies failing recently and fear of a buy out encroaching.
Personally, since Covid hit everything, I have not seen a movie in a theater. I cancelled my Disney +, so I have not seen anything related to a show or movie. I haven’t seen any of the sequels, nor do I miss them. I just enjoy the parks and all the info, good or bad, related to the parks.
Disney actually did release a few Disney MovieToon produced sequels to theaters as wide releases. Return to Never Land, The Jungle Book 2, The Tigger Movie, Piglet's Big Movie, and Pooh's Heffalump Movie.
to be fair. the past couple original movies released by disney animation studios were thoroughly ignored by the public, despite being pretty solid (for strange world) and really good (for wish). so while it is definitely a problem that they have this many sequels, it was my immediate thought too, like…i get it.
@@Kyle_Leinen Elemental made money, eventually. The bigger point is "do I need to see this in a theater (and spend more money) or wait 3 to 4 month and watch it on Disney + (which I am already paying for)?"
The public at large ignored both Strange Worlds & Wish because they were bad. You seem to be in the minority since you liked them but the majority disagrees with you.
Something that I’ve yet to see mentioned with this wave of sequels is that these specific franchises are either in the parks or planned for the parks. So, I would argue that this does still relate to the parks as a topic. There’s definitely a choice being make-albeit nuanced-as to what is receiving sequels and I would not be shocked to see this perpetuated with a sequel to other well-received or attractions-driven films like Encanto, Coco, and Princess and the Frog, or even more villains-themed films or shows. This can be evidenced by Disney’s plans to expand the parks with these franchises involved. Toy Story and Star Wars are what’s keeping people coming to Hollywood Studios park, Moana has a new attraction in EPCOT, Arendelle is opening in international park locations to considerable fanfare with rumors of it eventually coming stateside to expand the Frozen parkiverse™️ further, and Tough to Be a Bug is being rethemed to Zootopia. It wouldn’t be out of the question for them to have a quick money grab plan to invest in films that will get fans old and new to the parks and, of course, to sell as much merchandise as humanly possible. Unfortunately we’re in the bottom line era of Disney so with each box office flop we’ll continue to see more guaranteed wins in theaters, in merchandising, and in the parks. TLDR; prepare for more sequels related to any and all blue sky concepts.
If a movie never has a sequel, People demand sequels. If A movie gets a sequel people complain about too many sequels. The important thing is that a TV pilot is not a movie. Sequels are not bad. Its important to make parts for stories that have some thing to say. Also avoid offending people with BS attempts to be unoffensive
22:44 For one thing, *Disney,* of all companies, seem to once again be "leaders" of the production progress of "keeping things safe and only taking a risk when needed." I shouldn't be too worried about that practice..., *but I will know when Disney flops once again* (like I haven't seen them flop too many times already!).
I'll never forget when Fozen had its first main trailer, they literally said in bold letters that it's the next biggest movie since The Lion King. So, we were already preprogrammed this was going to be big. And it worked! It's not brought up much but an excellent piece of marketing
The loss or implosion of John Lassiter, however you want to frame it, was a rough loss in terms of quality and originality coming out of animation. Someone had a fascinating video, I wish I could remember who, basically pointing out that whichever IP Bob Iger turns his personal attention to, begins to tank shortly thereafter. Marvel continued to do well under Disney because Iger was preoccupied with Star Wars. When that was no longer the case, it began to change for the worse.
In addition to dumb corporate executive meddling, a lot of this feels like diversion tactics for their involvement in funding violent groups for certain ongoing conflicts.... Like holding a shiny object going "oooh look at this new thing, you dont wanna pay attention to our other dealings"
I feel like for the last few years every other big animation studio is innovating in the kind of ways Disney used to: for example movies like Spider-verse and The Bad Guys that push CGI animation into new directions not seen before. Pixar have had some bangers with Turning Red, Soul and Luca (and even Elementals was better than I expected) but Lightyear was rubbish. I wouldn't mind the sequels so much if there was original movies in-between them but their future slate looks bleak atm in that respect. Once they get bored of live action remakes and sequels (AKA they stop making bank) I suspect they will learn the wrong lesson AGAIN and start doing crossover movies. All the princesses in Ralph 2 spawned a ton of merch related to that scene alone, so that feels like just a taste of what they'd do there. :/
This was a great video Dylan! Dave with Fresh Baked, when the Star Wars hotel closed, also expressed his concerns that Disney's failures might lead them to not taking risks. So sad.
The funny thing is, you look at the films with the biggest box office returns this year (save for Mario Bros, which was going to be a home run no matter what) all of them share a mutual quality: well...quality. Barbie, Oppenheimer, Guardians 3, and Across the Spider-Verse all were acclaimed movies by the critics and general public and made at reasonable budgets, yet only Guardians 3 was a Disney film. With even more entertainment options and so many streaming services available, movies need to be both extremely high-quality and experiences. These lazy sequels will likely be neither, and they aren't going to succeed as much as prior sequels nor even Disney's other projects. The Little Mermaid remake should be an indicator of it.
Oh no I’m mad at Disney, and I’m mad specifically at Bob Iger and the current team AT Disney and all the dumb decisions they’ve just decided to accept as okay for this company. With all that’s happened with the past year, and the only good thing we got was their REAL 100th anniversary tribute with “Once Upon A Studio”, they don’t even acknowledge their mistakes and literally said recently they’re just throwing out whatever sticks just to make back what they lost. If that’s not ignorance of their mistakes, then they need to starting worrying about their future at Disney, and yeah, I think we as a fanbase should worry, too.
I rarely go to movie theaters anymore, even when I love the movies. The shopping malls don’t seem to be thriving anymore, with or without movie theaters. However, I don’t love all the live action remakes Disney has made to date. I’m holding out to see Wish when it comes to Disney +, but I heard it was good even though it didn’t do well at the box office.
How well did Lightyear do? Wish and other new movies and some sequels flopped because of Disney’s message in the movie. Make a good entertaining young child to older child movie and you make money. Look at Mario it made huge money
12:10 How could you not like Ralph 2?? It was so good, a great interpretation of this emergence of the social media verse, and the character development!
@@mafeuk completely not sarcastic. :) What did you not like? The internet manifested as a physical world? The fun riffs on social media like Twitter birds flying around? That Disney gave the writers free liberty to mock their own princesses? ("Merida's from another studio." :D) Penelope's love for gritty car races. Ralph's character development mirroring parents raising kids in this new fun but dangerous metaverse? Perhaps it matters where you are in life. For me, I have kids and Ralph's experience mattered to me. And I knew life before the internet existed, so I greatly appreciated how the story illustrated the metaverse.
I think that its a bigger picture problem where the state of the world right now is so expansively accessible to everyone that the constant feed we have is overwhelming the average viewer as a whole- and that influences what we want to see right? So Disney does this thing where it's like hey lets be inclusive by adding certain aspects of what we are exposed to through public and social media- but then they completely warp it for fear of backlash from any perspective. This gives writers a difficult time creating stories we all love and want to see because theyre restricted AND writer's strike probably heavily influenced the content we've seen as of late from disney. All in all- Disney as a company is scared and is making all the wrong moves to fix their problems. All we want is a well-written, well-animated, well-structured story with originality all over it. They don't seem to get that and it's just costing them so much more than how much it would if they just paid people properly or just generally paid attention.
The problem is, that nobody wants to watch the original movies they made. Wish or Strange Worlds. A few years ago I loved the Nutcracker and the Four Realms - a perfect Christmas fairy tale, but it seemed not to have made any money. So they do what makes money, and that is sequels. People go to the cinema, buy a ticket and watch sequels. And as long as they do, and not go and watch original stories, Disney will continue to make sequels. The paying fans are the ones who decide that. If you want more originals, go and watch the originals that come out!
Realistically speaking, a film as bad as wish should never exist if the people working are actually skilled at what they do. Wish exists because The head of Disney got involved and forced the hands of the creatives to do what they thought was most profitable. When it enevtably fails because of ideas from the greedy corporates, they don't blame themselves, they blame the artists for failing to make a profit with their ideas. Where they'll then punish the artists and then continue o with their bad ideas in the pursuit of money.
I just don’t understand the concept of a mandalorian movie when they already have the TV show, don’t get me wrong I love the mandalorian but, when does the movie take place? Will the show pick up after the movie? Just doesn’t make sense tbh
"Disney is playing it safe" hit the nail on the head. Really has been since Eisner. Iger just seemed to want to buy everything first go around for easy projects"
There will not be a reduction in Disney sequels until they either hit a saturation point or a large climax and create fatigue among the average theater consumer.
I think the difference with sequels today to sequels in the 90s/00s is we now live in a cinematic universe world where every brand is trying to have a franchise instead of one good movie so this feels different. Like Frozen did so well they want to build out a universe for their stories instead of the one off and make them all official and canon with a in theater release which is very different from how the sequels direct to VHS were, they were outsourced in animation and rarely had all the original voices and were trying to make a few bucks not to build on the "canon" storyline for the characters. Sequels today are building out the characters more and the official story. I do want them to be good, that is something to argue for, but I am not mad at all the sequels.
Not to mention about Frozen, Club Penguin having two parties themed around it. Cruiselines mentioned, yes! I'll say it again. Disney's been building up to play it safe for a while. Hence reviving Phineas and Ferb, Wizards, etc. Hence the Club Penguin promos. The least safe they've been, dare I say it, would be "direct to D+ Pixar films".
Now that Wish is on Disney+ and after I waited for so cause I was supposed to see it in theaters, I actually really like it. I think a lot of people are taking this movie for granted is because the theatrical release occurred after the wake from the SAG-AFTRA & WGA strikes. Nothing saying that it was the contributing factor but the timing is what I'm focusing on. With Disney+, the timing was probably more flexible for the company to handle. So when I watched it last night, I enjoyed it as much as I originally thought and with the story (while probably average) it seems like a love letter to the past 100 years of Disney Storytelling. So say what you will, but I love Wish.
Frozen 1 Teaser: ❄☃Haha silly reindeer and snowman fight over carrot haha slip on ice! 😄😄
Frozen 2 Teaser: Death comes for us all.
Frozen 3 Teaser: *Elsa puts on space helmet and flies into the sun
Frozen 5 Teaser: Literally just Elsa making a merch store and making billions of dollars
Frozen 6: olaf sees his entire family get murdered, continuing his villan arch.
Frozen 7: everyone freezes and it's completely over 🤷🏻♂️
@@bdbdbd774 Frozen 8: heat wave. Everyone’s back. But… Olaf 😟
You know the sequels are an issue when THE PARKS youtubers have to talk about it.
It is all connected, in a way. The success of their films and streaming directly ties to developments in the parks. The parks have been so conservative with new additions lately because they're using its profits to prop up their other divisions.
Universal is announcing a whole new ambitious, immersive park to eat Disney's lunch right off their plate, and Disney's biggest response they can muster is retheming Splash Mountain. That's all because they can't afford a bigger response because their films are flopping.
@@Vantastic789 And I oop-
@@Vantastic789 I cannot wait for Epic to open 🤯
I was confused too!
@@bdbdbd774 yeah I can't wait for more Universal rides to put me in the hospital during a trip.
The biggest difference between Eisner and Iger is that Mikey knew that he needed to protect The prestige of the cinematic animated features in order to keep the machine running. He went for the cash grab by making the straight to video sequels and the TV shows. Iger very arrogantly assumes the audience will be there no matter what, failing to realize that he is demeaning the prestige of the main studio with this cynical strategy.
Wish did awful at the box office. He’ll soon see fans won’t be there no matter what
None of this would’ve happened if they still had Peoplemover in Disneyland
Facts.
Coming soon Peoplemover The Movie!
fr
@@GLJoshdamn that movie would do better than Wish😂
'The first Toy Story movie since 2019", Bob Iger really didn't want to say Toy Story 5......
Yah, that was such a weird way to phrase it
I guess Lightyear doesn't count.
I worked on the marketing for Frozen. It was frustrating because that was when Disney was only interested in a male audience. Even though people showed up for The Princess and the Frog, boys didn't, so as far as they were concerned anything with "princess" in it was poison. That's how Rapunzel became Tangled and why Flynn Ryder was suddenly the star of the show. With Frozen they were determined to make kids think it was Ice Age with Magic Snowmen. We were forbidden even to talk about the sisters, even though "Let it Go" had gotten a huge reception at D23 and, um, that's what the movie was about.
This is a really interesting insight into how marketing works behind the scenes; a lot of people aren't aware of the strange directions that are given by companies to their advertising and marketing teams based on what is and is not "doing well" according to their data and overall reception. Probably slightly unpopular opinion, but I don't hate the direction of the one-word titles since they're easier to remember and unique enough to stand out when compared to projects derived from stories within the public domain.
@@JustDuckDoinStuff True story: when they showed a preview reel of Frozen at D23, everyone had to surrender their cell phones at the door. One fan ran back from that screening to her hotel and recorded "Let it Go" word for word, note for note, from a single hearing. So we all thought, okay, this is how big this song is going to be. Everybody's going to be obsessed with Elsa. Then the directive came down that the star of the teaser campaign was gonna be Olaf and his detachable head. We were literally told "We don't want people to know this is a musical." In hindsight I think it was better to let people discover how great the songs were, but that was not intentional.
This was my very first thought. I experienced and noticed it as a consumer, but I'm so glad somebody who was actually involved on the production/marketing side said it.
Interesting. Why boys in particular for an obviously sister/princess centric film?
@@Amazingtacomaniac It boiled down to two beliefs: 1) girls will go to Disney movies regardless but boys have to know there's something for them; 2) boys tend to buy more merch than girls. The success of Frozen actually helped challenge both assumptions.
Not just Disney but Hollywood in general. They just won’t let franchises end
The larger issue is also how these sequels tend to not have the smoothest productions. Frozen 2 infamously didn’t have its story line up until the very last minute and Incredibles 2 lost a year of production when they moved it forward a year. The fact that these sequels did well means that Disney won’t see the production problems as something to fix since they are still going to make money. This can also bleed into their original films since Wish also had a lot of behind the scenes issues. I have every right to believe that Moana 2 might be in a similar situation too and Disney just sees it as a feature not a glitch. Disney should be letting their talent make the best projects they can, not pressure them to rush out mediocrity for the sake of shareholder and quarterly expectations.
This! I like Frozen 2 overall, prefer the songs to the original even, and love the art... however I have a few gripes with the story and feel like if they hadn't had to rush the film they could have made an amazing sequel. Watching the behind the scenes documentary was super enlightening. I have always felt like Moana could use a sequel, but with how quickly it is being pushed to theaters I am concerned for the story!
@@rettathompson1222the worst part of frozen 2 is how Olaf hijacks it and tells unfunny jokes. He used to actually be funny in the first one but in 2 he just becomes the annoying comic relief sidekick
Frozen 2 had a lot of incredible deleted scene songs!
Ralph Breaks The Internet coincided with the departure of John Lasseter and his controversy. I would love to revisit the worldbuilding of Arcade Toy Story.
@@HeroicSheperdfunny how you can remove someone from the company they resurrected and he is never charged and no one knows what he actually did. 🤔
Cinderella III is one of those rare sequels that is actually good.
My wife loves Cinderella 3. It's surprisingly not bad.
@@OffhandDisney It was one of my favorites growing up.
@@OffhandDisney it's good because it goes bat shit insane by the end and the prince actually has a character compared to the original
I agree. I love that movie, and I think it's one of the best Disney sequels created.
Good sequels aren't rare, like ... at all. I would name them all, but I would probably die of natural causes before I finished.
If I recall, when Frozen III was announced last year, Chris Buck a/or Jennifer Lee were unaware the film had been greenlit.
😶
Light googling and I can’t find a source, but wouldn’t be surprising to announce anything to help with the stock/proxy battle seems to be the MO.
i don't think there's any source on them being unaware, but yes it was announced last year.
How could that possibly be the case, Jennifer Lee is the literal, actual CCO of Disney Animation.
@@atkinbp04 Knowing my luck, it was probably on some random Twitter post without a source.
The only thing I disagree with is that I don't think Wish was a risk. Wish was bland and it felt like it tried to capture the essense of every other Disney princess movie at once, so it ended up as a very cookie cutter esque, boring movie. I'm so sad that Disney is getting the wrong message from Wish's failure; instead of making sequels they need to be making "risky" original movies because those are the ones that get attention. Sure, a huge chunk of Disney's classic films were based off of other stories and characters, but they were original enough with such great storytelling that whenever people think of fairytales like Snow White and Cinderella, and even newer ones like Rapunzel and the Princess and the Frog, they think of Disney's versions of those stories. Disney NEEDS to take more risks because playing it safe isn't working for them anymore
So we're you expecting Scorsese tier writing for Wish lol?
Play safe it's no longer profitable anymore It would be easiee to learn from the mistakes from wish and move with Penélope the adaptatión of the Princess and the pea and bluebeard
I'm all for sequels only when there's a good story to be told, but I much prefer the "series" method that Aladdin, Tangled, and Big Hero 6 got.
I feel like Zootopia, Frozen and even Encanto could make for brilliant TV shows, and because Moana 2 started as a series... I'm cautiously optimistic.
Disney needs to make a dumbo Sequel and a Third Bambi film of the book Bambi's Children by Felix Salten.
Zootopia would make an excellent series with the world building. It’s the only one that I’ve always wanted more from. Looking forward to the sequel, still. Maybe they’ll bring back the Spy ideas.
Disney needs to make a dumbo Sequel and a Third Bambi film of the book Bambi's Children by Felix Salten.
We’re gonna fall into another era of “Squishing nine pilots into a feature” movies again I can feel it
@@JumperTV33buddy cop series set in zootopia sounds AWESOME. There’s so much of the world they can expand on too!
I wish disney would do a Fantasia 3 instead, the people yearn for a high art experimental film with cool music and animated vignettes
@Amp661 pfft fantasia a pointless sequel
@Amp661 except for the fact that walt himself expressed how the concert feature was something he wanted to be a continuous work so your opinion on the matter is kinda irrelevant
I think the issue with Disney is the same as with many publicly traded companies: They are slaves to their stock price. The market is addicted to quarterly growth and any company that doesn't feed that addiction gets punished. It's a proven fact. If a CEO holds firm they get fired. Bob Iger wants to keep his job so he does what the market demands, not what's in the best interest of the fans. We are the ones that make them rich but their legacy and creativity are secondary.
Owning stock is one of the lowest levels of investments you can have in a company. It takes more effort to box up your memorabilia then to sell 10,000 shares. As long as the stock market rules creativity will always be a lower priority.
Which is why Disney shouldn't have shareholders. Nobody should and when I take over Disney I won't be CEO but Owner the way sports teams have owners. Disney will be an autocracy and I won't answer to anyone but Walt himself.
Don’t you hate that every aspect of our lives is dictated by white collar gambling?
Disney needs to take risks like it once did when the company was starting. Yes a 2d animated film is very expensive, the technology has become obsolete, but maybe it would bring a lot of disney fans back.
And the irony here is that Disney is the one who innovated that medium before becoming partially responsible for making it obsolete.
The entire film industry right now is afraid to take risks.
First, They know they cannot make up a bomb at the physical media sales, and a single title won't make up that lost revenue on streaming. Sequels and Franchises are going to reduce that risk, because namebrand can sell at the Box, and franchise binging can sell at the Stream.
Second, Disney wants shovel media to fill their content void for their streaming service, similar to when they started the Disney Channel. Its no coincidence that the first sequel to Disney Animation (exception of Rescuers), was in the 90s when Disney had a need to fill timeslots on cable. Sequels are going to happen, if only because of Disney+, the hope is that they actually maintain quality in the world building the originals have (looking at you Ralph).
Look at the 2023 top 10 Box Office hits, 1. Barbie (New Franchise starter), 2. Mario (Franchise), 3. Oppenheimer (only "risk" but still a part of the Nolan library), 4. Guardians (MCU franchise), 5. Fast X (franchise), 6. Spider-man (franchise), 7. Little Mermaid (Disney franchise), 8. Mission Impossible (franchise), 9. Elemental (Original, but Pixar library), 10, Antman (MCU Franchise).
Even the Disney "Bombs" will sell on stream to the added namebrand library or franchise, and further can make up in merchandise of some sort.
All of the recent news about endless sequels is further added from the recent pandemic which sent industries into a panic to mitigate risks and survive the global economic crash. Hopefully we'll see a renaissance in a few years in culture, stories, novelties, and the risks that those come with.
If you want to take risk you got to have enough money. Look what happened to Cinderella due to the film's they came before it where packaged films
it's not impossible to bring back 2D, they showcased it during their Disney 100 short. Funny enough plenty of overseas studios in Eurpoe and Asia still embrace 2D animated movies. So it is possible for Disney to embrace 2D again, I just feel they're playing it too safe. More risks are needed!
They took risks with Encanto
@21:05 When you said "Disney needs to remain innovators" and the Innoventions theme was playing in the background...I got a little choked up honestly. Bravo.
And the problem with the sequels is that they’re always to box office successes. No theater budget Atlantis or Princess and the Frog sequels(and yes 2D should be a priority), instead we get Frozen 4: Olaf May Need Glasses.
Okay but he should go with contacts.
@@OffhandDisney I don’t think his insurance can pay for them
Can’t wait for Frozen 5: Sven Has Overages On His Yearly Taxes
@@anth636or Frozen 6: The Search For More Money
@@anth636 Frozen six: we ran out of ideas
Walt Quote:"You can't top Pigs with Pigs. " 18:17
While Walt did cave on that, eventually, it's still a key point: the guy just wasn't a fan of revisiting old projects. Heck, a big reason Disneyland got started was because he was getting...well, not exactly sick of movies, but he was just kind of obsessed with no getting stuck doing one thing.
@@jmn327 Walt didn't cave on that, Walt died. And it was all downhill from there.
@@jmn327 He never “caved.” The first theatrical sequel to a Disney feature was Rescuers Down Under, produced decades after Walt’s death.
As was recently said, he would be spinning in his grave like a drill bit if he knew what had become of his legacy.
@@KhurtKhave669 Three Little Wolves is a Silly Symphony cartoon. Released on April 18, 1936, and directed by Dave Hand. It was the third Silly Symphony cartoon starring the Three Little Pigs.
@@taffysaur Three Little Wolves is a Silly Symphony cartoon released on April 18, 1936, and directed by Dave Hand. It was the third Silly Symphony cartoon starring the Three Little Pigs.
Wish didn't bomb because it was an original concept. It bombed because it wasn't a fleshed out story and contained a cast of underdeveloped, forgettable characters. In an age with so many options lazy storytelling isn't going to cut it.
That I can kinda see. I mean I just watched for the first time and I didn't have a problem with it. In fact I really liked it, but I do need a couple of rewatches to understand the problems. Not saying your wrong, just laying down my first thoughts now that I've seen it.
10:29, you know, this shot in the teaser is fascinating to me. In the final version, Kristoff doesn't have a sword, and who is Anna attacking? I know a lot changed during development... but it's intriguing none the less.
This isn't unique to Disney by any means. Big Hollywood has been intellectually and creatively bankrupt for decades.
Not to mention morally bankrupt.
@@timgriffin639 I'm content to leave any moral questions up to the audience, as long as the movies are actually interesting.
@@ttintagel Oh ok....I don't. I'm willing to take a stand for what I believe in.
@@timgriffin639 Me, too, which is why I take ownership over my own media consumption instead of trying to run everybody else's.
@@ttintagel well you just said you let the public dictate the morality. I’m confused - are you trying to tell Me I’m free to have my own opinion? Gee, thanks!
Walt Disney wasn't a fan of sequels. He'd rather leave his films be a timeless standalone, and then "move on to other things." The way Iger is handling sequels is only proving Walt right!
ALLADIN AND THE KING OF THEIVES DESERVES MORE RESPECT
Especially when Robin Williams Reprised his voice Role as The Genie I wish we had an Aladdin 4 but not now because Robin is gone
Amen! 👏
I think Disney’s just in a slump point again. I’m in my 40s, so this is round 3 of my lifetime. You had The Brave Little Tailor/The Rescuers era, then the Original Renaissance. Then some fall off until Tiana and Rapunzel, then some downtime…then Frozen times. Perhaps the next CEO will Mikey Eisney it, and the parks and movie divisions will experience the best Disney sequel of all time: The Disney Renaissance: The Sequel: Part 2: Electric Boogaloo: Back 4 More
Yes! My kids were all depressed about Disney movies falling off - like it was permanent - and we went through the historic list of hims and they realized just how many streaks of bad movies they've made in the past (and why the renaissance was such a big deal).
Yeah this is what I have been saying for the last several years. We just need someone to come in and not be afraid to take risks and do something new and different. They are sticking too much to a tired formula right now because historically in Hollywood sequels and remakes are safe because there is already somewhat of an audience. Which I'm hoping they will come to realize is actively biting them in the arse and losing them more money than they are gaining.
Financial slump sure I could see Disney making a comeback especially if they continue to rely on name recognition by making more sequels to past films and if general audiences never get tired of the constant milking of acquired franchises like Marvel & Star Wars. From a quality standpoint I personally think the company is permanently damaged from the acquisitions that have done nothing but give Disney access to more franchises that they can run into the ground and exploit for money while forgetting about making new franchises and stories that can be fondly remembered.
Electric boogaloo 😂😂😂😂
"Jungle Book 2" and "Return to Neverland" were released theatrically in the U.S., despite not being canonical Disney classics and sharing many similarities with the direct-to-video sequels of that time period.
Iger gets a lot of credit as a shrewd negotiator, and his acquisitions were so splashy that they gave him a reputation as a brilliant business mind. But now we see that nobody anywhere Disney has a single ounce of actual genuine creativity
"Song of the South 2: Remus' Revenge"
FYI: Disney released Return to Neverland in theaters, this was intended to be direct to video. Also Doug's 1st movie (originally direct to video) was given a proper movie score and then released theatrically.
jungle book 2 as well
I definitely enjoyed Peter Pan Return to Neverland. ❤
The only problem Disney has is Bob Iger, just about everything else stems from his decisions, his disinterest or ignorance of his own company's history, his need to spend spend spend, and the total inability to listen or acknowledge what we the fans want from this company. And that last bit isn't even that hard, Eisner's whole shtick was trying to find the balance between classic nostalgia and new innovations.
It's weird because this is the same Iger that saw the Disney Company through some of it's best years. What changed?
@@OffhandDisney his success got the best of him, and he let it get to him.
@@OffhandDisneyHis Ego
@OffhandDisney I think he's always been this way really, he just made more of an effort in the pre-Fox purchase era when he still had political dreams. And now that's all gone, he's not going to bother to pretend like he actually cares.
And that's why people look back fondly on Eisner, despite his flaws. He actually made an effort, he didn't need to look for a higher job because he had that at Disney. As bad as some of the sequels were in his day, they were all just supplemental to the movies and TV shows at the time, they were never expected to compete with anyone except other straight to video releases at the video store.
@@OffhandDisneyI think you could also partially blame Chapek for this too. I still trust Iger somewhat. I think the only sequels worth doing are at least Moana 2 and some of the frozens. I don't think we need toy story 5 or zootopia 2
You have really been on a roll with the early videos lately.
This is also what happens when Disney relies on IP too much.
19:16 Dont you dare put that hypothetical dodgeball in Apollo’s hands!
Iger wrote Disney into a corner with all the acquisitions, so now they’re justifying a nearly exclusive profit focus as necessary to cover the cost of those acquisitions. They’re not letting their creatives create, even though that’s what he said he would do when they ousted chapek. It’s still just executives dictating what they think will make the most money and forcing the creatives into that box. I miss new.
Love to see you cover this topic. I don’t really think this is gonna save Disney’s behind as much as they think it will, but let’s see. I don’t really think many of these need sequels, minus Inside Out 2. I see where Moana could go next, but seeing who’s onboard, I’m more worried it’ll go a route like Ralph Breaks The Internet and just be bad. We’ll see how this plays out in 3-4 years. I just know I’m not really looking forward to them minus Inside Out 2…
Ralph Breaks the Internet really shook me with how bad these potential sequels could be.
@@OffhandDisneyI feel like Moana 2 and some of the frozen sequels at least have a point to being made. Mostly to explore other areas that haven't been touched on yet.
I'm up for any film to have a test at a sequel.. If Inside Out 2 has an agenda behind it then I'm not interested..
This is hopefully just a lull similar to the lack of super blockbusters in the 1970s. But I feel like super blockbuster film weren’t really a thing until the 1990s. Whatever happened to Disneys original live action films like Herbie the Lovebug , Treasure Island, etc. now the live action stuff are just remakes of animated hits. Too bad.
Walt put his house on the line for Snow White, now we can't even get Disney's current corporate overlords to put a fourth of their salary on the line
At least Zootopia has so many stories that can be told within such an expansive world.
TY for covering this. In the 90s I was puzzled to why they were locking down classics and charging extra for special editions, all while rolling out sequel after sequel of newer sort of meh stuff.
Very refreshing Dallin! The extensive amount of research you did on this really made it! I am enlightened! A perceptive and well presented rant, as in this case, is sincerely better than no rant at all! Your sense of appropriateness is growing moment by moment, grasshopper! I do believe you may have just plucked the pebble from our collective hand! The near divinity of the end card is the proof on par with the star created as Tinkerbell taps her wand on the top spire of Cinderella's Castle! Bravo maestro! 🤗
I never understood why they rarely make short films for their franchises continuation instead of big theatrical releases. Making feature films is a lot more of a difficult and tiring process. With high quality shorts they can continue the stories with not as much expectations yet be experimenting with the technology on a smaller yet impacful scale. Yes I know Frozen had this approach to Frozen 2. But if they dedicated their time to other IPS then I don't see what would go wrong. I'm speaking of shorts that have a run time of 15-20 min.
I'm primarily here for Peoplemover content but always enjoy whatever you make. You may have even convinced me to watch Frozen 2.
I can't tell if they are just trying to suck every penny out of their franchises or if they are just straight up out of ideas for new content. Or maybe both. It really is sad to see Disney doing pretty much nothing but sequels and live action remakes. We need new content.
They provided new content with Strange World, Elemental and Wish, and they performed below par at the box office forcing Disney back to sequels.
@@Kyle_Leinen That gets complicated, though... Disney also poorly advertised almost all of the recent box office flops. They are also currently doing injustices to original films like Soul, Turning Red, and Luca by only releasing them in theaters for one week each.... They already got a rough start by being released during the pandemic directly to Disney+ and now backtracking them into theaters is getting lukewarm reception and, once again, poor advertisement outside of the Disney echo-chambers like D23.
They either went too hard and high stakes like they did with Wish, or they put in little to no effort like they did with Strange World. Their entire strategy is what's killing their box office performance on top of an already dying movie theater industry. Their best bet would be to pivot to exclusively releasing features on streaming and advertising it on social media, but we all know they won't do that because they see dollar signs in the box office just enough to keep investing in that route.
I think this is just Disney in a rut theatrically. Chapek moved Pixar to D+, ruined Marvel and released bad films like Strange World. Star Wars & LucasFilm was already broken. This is Disney trying to get some cheap wins with popular franchises to try and get them back on stable ground to then try original ideas because outside of Elemental, which wasn’t a hit to start, their other films that have been originals (Strange World, Luca, Turning Red, Soul, Wish, Haunted Mansion) all were either shoved onto D+ or were released and failed theatrically due to a variety of factors. This is Disney trying to get the machine back and working is all. Is it a lot of sequels? Absolutely, but it’s also probably necessary tbh to get Disney back on track. It’s a process. I think they’ve improved the quality, especially in their output theatrically last year and are working on trying to turn the tide after the failures of the Chapek regime.
I mostly blame this on Chapek's regime tbh. He clearly was in over his head and made terrible decision after terrible decision.
Strange World was greenlit in 2017, three years before Chapek became CEO. If five years is the average between a movie starting production and being released, we won’t see any of the films he approved until next year.
@@DrFranklynAnderson The film Strange World began production in 2017, yes. The actual writing, casting and recording of the film didn’t happen until 2022, of which Bob Chapek would’ve had say on the film and could have directed it into a different way than what the original creators may have wanted. You’re not wrong, but a lot of the issue with Strange World still falls on Chapek.
Let me correct myself. I misread what I was reading. The trailer came out in 2022. The recording of dialogue would’ve probably started in 2020/2021 when we were in the transition between Iger and Chapek. Chapek is still involved, and it’s his decision to release it in the end. He could’ve went full Zaslov and cut it like a Batgirl movie for a tax write off if he wanted to.
@@dougjackson3890 And be called “the guy who canceled the first Disney cartoon with an openly gay kid?” Pretty sure that’s enough to get you drawn and quartered in Hollywood. 😉
I don't care how much money Frozen makes, it's still disorganized, really poor storytelling (and boring). And Olaf may be the most annoying Disney character every made.
I'm all in hearing you discuss the peoplemover Haunted Mansion and the glorious Living with the Land. New Disney movies are so "designed by committee" and based off successes in the past, many lack the heart and charm of the older movies. In addition, the animation is so overly polished/ plastic like. There are many techniques in 3d animation currently that would give some charm and texture.
Cinderella III was a master piece. Genuinely loved it so much when I was a kid. I think I rewatched it more than the original
You know which risk Disney needs to take (but that will never happen) ?
They need to step on their ego and close Disney plus. They can't allow risks right now because that platform is a money black hole.
Close it, cut the expanses, sell the streaming rights to another platform to create new income , start reinvesting parks revenue into parks and use profit to take the time needed to make new movies instead on rushing to always have new stuff ready to stream.
Disney needs to step away from streaming and make the release of new Disney content an event again, and not just a home Friday night watch.
Love the mini rant! Spot on! But, people movers and living with the land.
I did enjoy this as well
We need sequels to those. Those are the sequels we need.
I feel like Disney is not looking into why Wish did bad. Like if they looked at videos like this, which are all over the internet, they would know where to fix themselves. They seem to equate original to poor performance. We want the new stories and people would see them if they were advertised right and had amazing original music and a genuine good story. The people who love disney care about those things. The sequels are fine, I usually enjoy them. But it’s been such a long time since we’ve had a good genuine story that didn’t feel like they were grabbing for cash.
I actually like most Disney sequels, even Cars 2, however I absolutely hated the sequel to Wreck It Ralph. One of the worst movies i’ve ever seen.
Definitely! Who doesn't like continuation or another Journey story. :)
The world of Wreck It Ralph has so much potential to build upon and exploring the arcade games we've witnessed in the first movie and their characters in the form of tv show spin offs and movies. But no we got Breaks the Internet.
Audiences forced Disney's hand when Strange World, Elemental and Wish did not perform well at the box office. Now Disney needs to go with sure-fire sequels that will hit.
"Won't someone think of the Cruise Lines please?!" 😂
This is going to be like the '90s and early 2000s all over again with the direct-to-video sequels, only this time, it's in theaters and I believe streaming services as well. And I'm not looking forward to that.
Just because a narrative has always been there doesn't make it immune from critique. Especially if it's from an ideology that has proven to be divisive, immoral, and terrible at storytelling.
There's also a big difference between the narrative being there and them coming out and telling parents that they are going to focus on showing it to your kids. I know people that have completely abandoned Disney because of it.
@@shaggytallboy4982 Thank you! Even Iger has mentioned this, in the past it was a good story with a "message" now some of the movies feel like a "message" disguised as a story.
And it’s absolutely harmed the company. You can hate it as much as you want, but it’s a giant elephant in the room that some don’t acknowledge.
Disney should make a movie on Oswald, Sound and Color. Take the risk Disney
I would really love for Disney to get Tom Hanks to come back and play Walt in a movie about the building of Disneyland, and what all Walt went through to make it a reality, similar to Saving Mr. Banks. So many people don't realize or know the story of everything Walt did and taking risks to make his dream of Disneyland a reality.
The messaging has not always been there. Most of us waiting for the phase to end.
Agreed
Disney Animation and Pixar, as well as the live action department and the parks, need to take influence from Disneynature. Since 2009, they’ve been releasing original nature documentaries in theaters and on streaming, and, for the most part, they’ve been great. They’re continuing Walt’s legacy of the True Life Adventures.
Not a big fan of direct sequels but the idea of new movies that take place in an existing franchise's "universe" with new cast of characters sounds appealing. For example, I really liked the idea of Metro exploring the lives in trains in the Cars universe but was sad to only learn about it because it was cancelled. The Planes movies weren't half bad either. Maybe they'll do something with boats, who knows.
It's not just Wish, though. Their last four original movies were Wish, Strange World, Encanto, and Raya and the Last Dragon. Only one of the last four original movies they released was successful at the box office. I don't think it's a coincidence, either, that all of the upcoming sequels are based on the four year block of successes they had prior to their recent failures. I'm not saying it's a good way to run the studio, but I think blaming it entirely on Wish is kind of missing the bigger picture.
As much as I'm not a huge fan of constant sequels, I can't blame disney for playing it safe after all of their original movies failing recently and fear of a buy out encroaching.
The true reason of why the original ideas failed it's because they don't have much creativity and passion that it needs to become a beloved classic
I am worried if the stories are not strong enough to be enjoyable for all, then Disney is in trouble in the future.
Disney has a Bob Iger problem. The company desperately needs new leadership that isn’t focused on anything other than entertainment not politics.
More like focusing more on passion and creativity than money
Personally, since Covid hit everything, I have not seen a movie in a theater. I cancelled my Disney +, so I have not seen anything related to a show or movie. I haven’t seen any of the sequels, nor do I miss them. I just enjoy the parks and all the info, good or bad, related to the parks.
Disney actually did release a few Disney MovieToon produced sequels to theaters as wide releases. Return to Never Land, The Jungle Book 2, The Tigger Movie, Piglet's Big Movie, and Pooh's Heffalump Movie.
to be fair. the past couple original movies released by disney animation studios were thoroughly ignored by the public, despite being pretty solid (for strange world) and really good (for wish). so while it is definitely a problem that they have this many sequels, it was my immediate thought too, like…i get it.
People always complain about new content and when Disney delivers (Strange World, Elemental, Wish), audiences didn't go forcing Disney's hand.
@@Kyle_Leinen Elemental made money, eventually. The bigger point is "do I need to see this in a theater (and spend more money) or wait 3 to 4 month and watch it on Disney + (which I am already paying for)?"
The public at large ignored both Strange Worlds & Wish because they were bad. You seem to be in the minority since you liked them but the majority disagrees with you.
Something that I’ve yet to see mentioned with this wave of sequels is that these specific franchises are either in the parks or planned for the parks. So, I would argue that this does still relate to the parks as a topic. There’s definitely a choice being make-albeit nuanced-as to what is receiving sequels and I would not be shocked to see this perpetuated with a sequel to other well-received or attractions-driven films like Encanto, Coco, and Princess and the Frog, or even more villains-themed films or shows. This can be evidenced by Disney’s plans to expand the parks with these franchises involved.
Toy Story and Star Wars are what’s keeping people coming to Hollywood Studios park, Moana has a new attraction in EPCOT, Arendelle is opening in international park locations to considerable fanfare with rumors of it eventually coming stateside to expand the Frozen parkiverse™️ further, and Tough to Be a Bug is being rethemed to Zootopia.
It wouldn’t be out of the question for them to have a quick money grab plan to invest in films that will get fans old and new to the parks and, of course, to sell as much merchandise as humanly possible. Unfortunately we’re in the bottom line era of Disney so with each box office flop we’ll continue to see more guaranteed wins in theaters, in merchandising, and in the parks. TLDR; prepare for more sequels related to any and all blue sky concepts.
If a movie never has a sequel, People demand sequels. If A movie gets a sequel people complain about too many sequels.
The important thing is that a TV pilot is not a movie. Sequels are not bad. Its important to make parts for stories that have some thing to say.
Also avoid offending people with BS attempts to be unoffensive
22:44
For one thing, *Disney,* of all companies, seem to once again be "leaders" of the production progress of "keeping things safe and only taking a risk when needed." I shouldn't be too worried about that practice..., *but I will know when Disney flops once again* (like I haven't seen them flop too many times already!).
I'll never forget when Fozen had its first main trailer, they literally said in bold letters that it's the next biggest movie since The Lion King. So, we were already preprogrammed this was going to be big. And it worked! It's not brought up much but an excellent piece of marketing
The loss or implosion of John Lassiter, however you want to frame it, was a rough loss in terms of quality and originality coming out of animation. Someone had a fascinating video, I wish I could remember who, basically pointing out that whichever IP Bob Iger turns his personal attention to, begins to tank shortly thereafter. Marvel continued to do well under Disney because Iger was preoccupied with Star Wars. When that was no longer the case, it began to change for the worse.
In addition to dumb corporate executive meddling, a lot of this feels like diversion tactics for their involvement in funding violent groups for certain ongoing conflicts....
Like holding a shiny object going "oooh look at this new thing, you dont wanna pay attention to our other dealings"
Bob Iger has an Addiction to Sequels. They can't do anything Original anymore. 3:19
I think they can, it's just sequels are more safe. At least with the live-action remakes coming out it didn't effect the output of WDAS. These do.
Strange World and Encanto continue not to exist
@@anth636 Encanto was actually good though. Strange World was mid
I feel like for the last few years every other big animation studio is innovating in the kind of ways Disney used to: for example movies like Spider-verse and The Bad Guys that push CGI animation into new directions not seen before.
Pixar have had some bangers with Turning Red, Soul and Luca (and even Elementals was better than I expected) but Lightyear was rubbish. I wouldn't mind the sequels so much if there was original movies in-between them but their future slate looks bleak atm in that respect.
Once they get bored of live action remakes and sequels (AKA they stop making bank) I suspect they will learn the wrong lesson AGAIN and start doing crossover movies. All the princesses in Ralph 2 spawned a ton of merch related to that scene alone, so that feels like just a taste of what they'd do there. :/
I hope this year is a good year for the studio but the sheer amount of sequels kinda concerns me
didn't Walt also say you can't top pigs with pigs? great video- I've been concerned for quite a while
Mr Limpet is in the Disney World version as well. It is behind you as you come into the scene. You have to crank your head around the clam to see it.
Walt Disney (1966): “I don't believe in sequels.”
Disney Now: Sequels are the only way to go!
This was a great video Dylan! Dave with Fresh Baked, when the Star Wars hotel closed, also expressed his concerns that Disney's failures might lead them to not taking risks. So sad.
The funny thing is, you look at the films with the biggest box office returns this year (save for Mario Bros, which was going to be a home run no matter what) all of them share a mutual quality: well...quality. Barbie, Oppenheimer, Guardians 3, and Across the Spider-Verse all were acclaimed movies by the critics and general public and made at reasonable budgets, yet only Guardians 3 was a Disney film. With even more entertainment options and so many streaming services available, movies need to be both extremely high-quality and experiences. These lazy sequels will likely be neither, and they aren't going to succeed as much as prior sequels nor even Disney's other projects. The Little Mermaid remake should be an indicator of it.
Oh no I’m mad at Disney, and I’m mad specifically at Bob Iger and the current team AT Disney and all the dumb decisions they’ve just decided to accept as okay for this company. With all that’s happened with the past year, and the only good thing we got was their REAL 100th anniversary tribute with “Once Upon A Studio”, they don’t even acknowledge their mistakes and literally said recently they’re just throwing out whatever sticks just to make back what they lost. If that’s not ignorance of their mistakes, then they need to starting worrying about their future at Disney, and yeah, I think we as a fanbase should worry, too.
I rarely go to movie theaters anymore, even when I love the movies. The shopping malls don’t seem to be thriving anymore, with or without movie theaters.
However, I don’t love all the live action remakes Disney has made to date. I’m holding out to see Wish when it comes to Disney +, but I heard it was good even though it didn’t do well at the box office.
I rarely go to the cinema anymore because people have forgotten how to act in public.
I think we all wanted Bob Iger to save us from Bob Chapek bringing Disney downhill, but now things are just looking worse
How well did Lightyear do? Wish and other new movies and some sequels flopped because of Disney’s message in the movie. Make a good entertaining young child to older child movie and you make money. Look at Mario it made huge money
12:10 How could you not like Ralph 2?? It was so good, a great interpretation of this emergence of the social media verse, and the character development!
I hope you're being sarcastic
@@mafeuk completely not sarcastic. :) What did you not like? The internet manifested as a physical world? The fun riffs on social media like Twitter birds flying around? That Disney gave the writers free liberty to mock their own princesses? ("Merida's from another studio." :D) Penelope's love for gritty car races. Ralph's character development mirroring parents raising kids in this new fun but dangerous metaverse?
Perhaps it matters where you are in life. For me, I have kids and Ralph's experience mattered to me. And I knew life before the internet existed, so I greatly appreciated how the story illustrated the metaverse.
@@KevinThurman Gotcha
Ain't no way anyone can even remotely "like" Breaks the Internet...
I think that its a bigger picture problem where the state of the world right now is so expansively accessible to everyone that the constant feed we have is overwhelming the average viewer as a whole- and that influences what we want to see right? So Disney does this thing where it's like hey lets be inclusive by adding certain aspects of what we are exposed to through public and social media- but then they completely warp it for fear of backlash from any perspective. This gives writers a difficult time creating stories we all love and want to see because theyre restricted AND writer's strike probably heavily influenced the content we've seen as of late from disney. All in all- Disney as a company is scared and is making all the wrong moves to fix their problems. All we want is a well-written, well-animated, well-structured story with originality all over it. They don't seem to get that and it's just costing them so much more than how much it would if they just paid people properly or just generally paid attention.
Well said. Disney used to feed and be fed by a broader monoculture. Now everything is much more scattered, but I think it’s possible breakthrough.
The problem is, that nobody wants to watch the original movies they made. Wish or Strange Worlds. A few years ago I loved the Nutcracker and the Four Realms - a perfect Christmas fairy tale, but it seemed not to have made any money. So they do what makes money, and that is sequels. People go to the cinema, buy a ticket and watch sequels. And as long as they do, and not go and watch original stories, Disney will continue to make sequels. The paying fans are the ones who decide that. If you want more originals, go and watch the originals that come out!
Then the audience is the problem and needs their tastes dictated to them. When I take over Disney, I will ban sequels.
Realistically speaking, a film as bad as wish should never exist if the people working are actually skilled at what they do. Wish exists because The head of Disney got involved and forced the hands of the creatives to do what they thought was most profitable.
When it enevtably fails because of ideas from the greedy corporates, they don't blame themselves, they blame the artists for failing to make a profit with their ideas. Where they'll then punish the artists and then continue o with their bad ideas in the pursuit of money.
I just don’t understand the concept of a mandalorian movie when they already have the TV show, don’t get me wrong I love the mandalorian but, when does the movie take place? Will the show pick up after the movie? Just doesn’t make sense tbh
Everything in the Filoniverse has to be tied to absolutely everything else. Even if it takes massive retcons to do it.
I really enjoyed this video and I’d love to hear more of your perspective on the route that Disney has taken in their film/streaming ventures :)
Another great video, Dalin; you could do more of this!
"Disney is playing it safe" hit the nail on the head. Really has been since Eisner. Iger just seemed to want to buy everything first go around for easy projects"
Encanto wasn’t safe
@@DORAisD34D I think they got lucky with Encanto. The synopsis reads like it was written in a boardroom.
Because despite ecanto being a success nobody went to go see wish so I really don't know what people expected.
There will not be a reduction in Disney sequels until they either hit a saturation point or a large climax and create fatigue among the average theater consumer.
I think the difference with sequels today to sequels in the 90s/00s is we now live in a cinematic universe world where every brand is trying to have a franchise instead of one good movie so this feels different. Like Frozen did so well they want to build out a universe for their stories instead of the one off and make them all official and canon with a in theater release which is very different from how the sequels direct to VHS were, they were outsourced in animation and rarely had all the original voices and were trying to make a few bucks not to build on the "canon" storyline for the characters. Sequels today are building out the characters more and the official story. I do want them to be good, that is something to argue for, but I am not mad at all the sequels.
At least 90s-2000s Disney didn't pretend their direct to video sequels were some special event.
The last time I watched a new Disney film, WAS Frozen 2. Says alot to be honest.
Same here
My last Disney movie I saw was Elemental
Same
This was a well thought out piece. You had a story to tell and you told it. 👍
Walt Disney is rolling in his grave. He’d be disappointed if he saw what Disney has become.
Not to mention about Frozen, Club Penguin having two parties themed around it.
Cruiselines mentioned, yes!
I'll say it again. Disney's been building up to play it safe for a while. Hence reviving Phineas and Ferb, Wizards, etc. Hence the Club Penguin promos.
The least safe they've been, dare I say it, would be "direct to D+ Pixar films".
Now that Wish is on Disney+ and after I waited for so cause I was supposed to see it in theaters, I actually really like it. I think a lot of people are taking this movie for granted is because the theatrical release occurred after the wake from the SAG-AFTRA & WGA strikes. Nothing saying that it was the contributing factor but the timing is what I'm focusing on. With Disney+, the timing was probably more flexible for the company to handle. So when I watched it last night, I enjoyed it as much as I originally thought and with the story (while probably average) it seems like a love letter to the past 100 years of Disney Storytelling. So say what you will, but I love Wish.