Disney is banking on a password crackdown and spate of sequels as it pushes to make its streaming business profitable.

The company, which is under pressure as audiences move away from traditional pay-TV and cinema, said it was on track to meet its goals after new subscribers and price rises helped to narrow losses in its streaming business.

  • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    People shit on Disney for only doing sequels, yet when they release original properties like they have the last 2 years, people ignore them and don’t watch them. No wonder they go to sequels, viewers clearly don’t want to gamble on new stuff. And all the people bitching about Disney only doing sequels, don’t watch Disney movies anyways

    • MrVilliam@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      I get what you mean, but I really feel like the quality of original stuff is not up to the standard that they were putting out 30 years ago. I just rewatched Lion King the other day and I couldn’t believe how well it holds up. Every performance ranges from great to fantastic, every song is really good, the score is fucking phenomenal, the animation truly pushed the boundaries for the time, and the story and dialogue are straight up Shakespeare. Encanto and Onward are good, but they’re not Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Lion King, and Beauty and the Beast good.

      At the end of the day, Disney is not in the business of making art this century; they’re in the money making business. They make a product, not art. It’s more profitable to make something that’s just good enough to get people’s money, and that’s all they actually care about. Remember that with every culture war stance they take. They don’t actually give a shit about LGBTQ rights or representation, they just know that they can get extra attention and sales from barely doing anything, and it’s not far enough to alienate the Chinese market. Win-win. When they fight that dorky Florida meatball, understand that they’re not on your side; they’re on their side. If they could have it their way, they would own all media and distribution, and you’d never see another movie or TV show again without first forking over everything they can get out of you.

      • zaph@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        and the story and dialogue are straight up Shakespeare

        Well it is a cartoon animal version of Hamlet.

      • mctoasterson@reddthat.com
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        6 months ago

        Excellent points. Disney couldn’t care less about the groups it claims to support. Their actions are more in line with co-opting identity groups to sell them back to you as a commodity. This fact really ossified for me when visiting Epcot a while back. I realized that many of their recent (and planned future) films are literally designed around ethnicities or cultures so they can have tie-in IP in the world showcase at Epcot, driving more merch and premium ride sales.

        There is always an ulterior motive.

        • MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          I wouldn’t have minded the references if the movie was good. It wasn’t and the songs were subpar.

          In the past ten years, I thought Big Hero 6, Zootopia, Moana, and Encanto were good. Raya, Strange World, and Wish were not for me… and those were three of the last four Disney animated original movies.

          For Pixar, they’ve been hit or miss for me too. I liked Inside Out, Coco, Soul, Luca, and Elemental. Didn’t care for The Good Dinosaur, Onward, Turning Red, or Lightyear.

          But sequels can be hit or miss too.

          One of the best animated movies I’ve seen in recent years (apart from Spider-Man) is The Mitchells vs. the Machines. It’s completely hyper, but original and funny.

            • MeekerThanBeaker@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              I definitely am not the target audience for Turning Red. I admit that. And kids probably didn’t like Soul as much as adults. But if Disney/Pixar wonders why they aren’t getting the numbers they used to, they need to target the four quadrant audience, but more importantly have better writing overall.

              Kids like a lot of things… sometimes things that are truly awful. I used to be a kid who liked awful stuff growing up too. You can have a monkey character who says “poop” every other word and kids would find that hilarious. Doesn’t make it good. I’m not the target audience for Bluey, but I can tell it’s better than most things out there.

              Also, it’s definitely subjective. I’ve watched a lot of movies and television so I can see more unoriginality than others. I used to like the Knock Knock joke about the banana and orange… and the chicken crossing the road. But now, what else is new? How many stories about a character turning into an animal to learn a lesson do we need?

            • Doof@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              There is plenty of things Ioved as a kid that I can look at objectively look at now and say if it was good or not. I’m not sure if a kids enjoyment says much about quality; I used to think Gex was better than Mario.

                  • NoSpiritAnimal@lemmy.world
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                    7 months ago

                    Your first comment on this thread, after I remarked that the Disney movies that OP didn’t like are the Disney movies my kids liked, and you responded that kids are not a good judge of quality.

                    You were speaking on Disney, apparently not knowing what you’re speaking about.

      • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Wish, soul, onward, elemental, Luca, reya, strange world, Ron’s gone wrong. I would add Encanto and turning red but those actually became popular, at least Encanto did