Disney’s The Marvels not only crashed and burned at the box office but became the most significant failure in the history of the MCU.
Less than two weeks after the release of The Marvels, Disney’s Wish has already collapsed at the theaters. All of that is on top of the multiple “bombs” the studio put out over the last year-plus.
All of these begs the question: “What kind of wrong-headed thinking is happening in the House of the Mouse?”
We now have at least a partial answer to that increasingly relevant question. At least about Wish and its failure at the box office. And remember, Wish Disney hoped to have a massive success to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the “Walt Disney Company.”
Unfortunately, woke Disney has already let Walt Disney the man down in many ways. This embarrassing failure is but one more.
Once upon a time, Disney animation was known worldwide for producing literal “Works of Art.” Today, the studio is known for producing “Works of Woke.” Politics over storytelling now seems to drive the C-Suite.
The “Film Threat” site and its two reviewers recently reported – which has since been picked up by multiple YouTube channels with millions of viewers -- that certain Disney animators – past and present – reached out to them to reveal that “Wish was a disaster behind the scenes.” In large part, according to the animators, due to activism and a woke agenda bigfooting the film's theme and the hiring process.
I have long said that I don't care if someone is straight, gay, trans, black, white, brown, faith-based, or is an atheist. If that person is -- based entirely upon talent and expertise - the best person for the job, they deserve it. Period.
The inverse of that being that if a woke company -- say Disney -- decides to weigh identity politics far more heavily than talent and expertise during the hiring process, then they -- and potentially the communities they seek to promote -- will eventually pay a very steep price with regard to the abysmal quality of the product they continually churn out.
Well, as we now see week after week, for Disney, that bill continually comes due. So much so that the satirical site The Babylon Bee just put out this headline: “Disney Awarded Defense Contract After Producing More Bombs than Lockheed Martin.”
While the headline is funny, the situation is beyond sad because this is a business – and perception – catastrophe entirely of Disney’s own making. They have seemingly made the deliberate decision that woke job placement must come before actual talent.
Back in the day, Walt Disney certainly understood that screenwriters, directors, and actors had to be hired based on their talent. The creative field has lifted the human spirit for centuries. That said, not everyone can write. Not everyone can direct. Not everyone can act. Not everyone can sing. Not everyone can paint.
While those skills can be taught, they are often hardwired into certain people at birth. And even when taught, it can take years of training before a student can perform professionally.
It is neither fair to an audience or even the job applicant to infer but never entirely admit: “We are hiring you based upon identity politics rather than talent. Good luck writing, directing, or acting in the movie. We are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to produce and market.”
As Disney continually pushes identity politics before talent, it’s more than fair to surmise that were he magically still with us, Walt Disney, the man, would never be hired by the far-left executives running his once revered creation into the ground.
Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official and author of the book The 56 – Liberty Lessons from Those Who Risked All to sign The Declaration of Independence