
Since a young age, I have considered myself a Disney fanatic. Holding the television hostage every Sunday morning while I watched yet another Disney Channel showing of the original animated Aladdin, I - much like every other kid that grew up on these films - thought the Mickey Mouse company could do no wrong. However, as time progressed and the rotation of repeated narratives only continued to fester, the general opinion of young adult fans began to sour. When the company announced a line of over two dozen remakes for classic animated films, public opinion hit a new low. Fans have since flooded social media in a torrent of anger as each remake has been released. However, it is critical to recognize that these remakes represent the shortcomings of the company to balance the legacy of success with attempts to reach a more diverse movie-going audience.
The Walt Disney Company was founded in 1923, telling stories primarily based upon the Grimms’ Fairy Tales, a collection of folklore based in Western Europe. Two decades later with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the animation studio hit peak popularity, captivating the imagination of its then almost exclusively Western audience. Spearheading the “Disney process”, the company was able to secure its position as a titan in Hollywood. Yet demographics, as well as Hollywood, changed over time. As time progressed and globalization began to connect Hollywood with the non-Western world, the studio had an incentive to begin to tell stories set outside of the Western perspective. In this process, the company released the film Aladdin in 1992, featuring the first non-White protagonist in the company’s history since the 1962 Jungle Book. It became a smash hit across the world; however, the film was far from perfect in its representation of Arabic culture. From stereotyping to blatant misrepresentations, the movie largely demonized the culture it was meant to celebrate.
With the advent of social media, the generation that grew up on the original animated films has gained a deeper than ever understanding of cultural issues. Disney’s half-baked attempts at representation would no longer be celebrated. This is where the live-action remakes were supposed to act as a panacea for the problems of Disney’s past, balancing the traditional Disney process with a more authentic representation of the cultures the stories were derived from. While the remakes may be a home run success at the box office, the company’s attempt at having their cake and eating it too ultimately failed. With lower critical ratings than the originals they derive from, the remakes - by Disney standards - cannot be considered critical successes. It is not enough to be a commercial success in the shadow of Disney’s legacy, instead it is expected that each film would redefine a generation of young children; however, with the low public regard to these films, the Disney company appears to have fallen short on this promise of excellence.
If Disney wanted to make films that represent the diverse movie-going audience, the company should have sought out new narratives that better highlight the cultures they are meant to represent, as they did with the 2017 release of Coco. If Disney wanted to make films that followed the nostalgic Disney process, the company should have maintained the form of the original films, as they did with the release of Toy Story 4. However, because Disney attempted these two endeavors simultaneously, the products produced were messy and without a clear direction, leaving fans - young and old - disappointed. Written by Matthew Mandell | Staff Writer
Comments