The 7 Deadly Sins of Disney

The 7 Deadly Sins of Disney

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today, were diving deep into seven modern problems with The Walt Disney Company.

#7: The Remake Factory

We have seen Disney transform across a multitude of eras from the Gold, Silver, and Bronze ages to the Renaissance, Post-Renaissance, and Revival eras. While some claim that the Revival era is still going, we beg to differ, as the conglomerates output over the past decade has been questionable at best. For what few originals we do get, they are not given enough marketing and have often shown to be half-hearted attempts. But remakes of the classics? Those have become a dime a dozen, and they seem to be the only idea Disney wants to get behind. Notice how much marketing Lilo & Stitch, The Lion King, Snow White, and every other remake received within the last several years compared to original movies like Encanto or even Wish, which got little to no marketing outside of word of mouth. As with the movies themselves, many of them either lack the character development, the magic and wonder of the visuals, or completely miss the point that their original stories were trying to tell. When you have a producer like Joe Russo looking to TikTok as inspiration for a Hercules remake, theres no questioning it - the Revival era ended sometime after 2014 when they went all in on remakes like Maleficent. Since then, we have been living in the Lazy Cashgrab Remake era.

#6: Sympathetic Villains

The purpose of a villain or antagonist is to challenge the protagonist throughout the heros journey. They are meant to test the heros strength, their way of thinking, their beliefs, their willpower, everything they know. While they can be written in a way to be sympathetic, Disney has been flubbing this several times. The 2021 prequel Cruella was a big example of this whole misunderstood villain approach and why its completely unnecessary. A horrible childhood and constantly being the underdog does not justify Cruellas heinous actions towards animals in any way, shape, or form. The point of villains like Cruella is not to be relatable. They are supposed to challenge viewpoints of the storys messaging. A good example of this is Abuela Madrigal in Encanto. Because Mirabel is the only family member without a special gift, Abuela treats her rather unfairly. However, part of Abuelas tenacity stems from the Madrigal familys role in being the towns problem-solvers. They all possess abilities that make life perfect for everyone. When someone like Mirabel poses as a possible threat to dismantling that perfect life, sure, someone in Abuelas position might be more scathing towards that individual, even though its wrong. Thankfully, Abuela realizes this by the end of the movie and makes amends with Mirabel. THAT is a sympathetic villain. Believable reasons make sympathetic villains, not phoned-in excuses.

#5: Begging for Brownie Points

Adding to the frustration of Disneys movies within the last decade is the complete lack of representation in their movies and attention to certain cultures. Whenever Disney has put in a character that fits within certain minorities, they are often delegated to being a supporting or background character. Its not even their inclusion or lack of significant roles thats the biggest part of the problem - its how the company has noticeably treated inclusiveness both in public and, from whats been reported, behind closed doors. In 2022, Lightyear received a ton of flak for showing a kiss between two women. Almost expectedly so, many governments had problems with this brief kiss, but within the United States and Canada, grifters latched onto this half-second moment and put Disney on blast. The corporation cut the scene from the movie initially before Disney and Pixar staff sent an open letter to leadership, convincing them to put it back in weeks before Lightyears release. While then-CEO Bob Chapek would voice his support over the scenes inclusion, one source speaking to IGN alleged that Disney viewed the scene as the reason for Lightyears poor financial performance. Between this and the half-hearted attempt at confirming LeFou as gay in 2017, Disney has shown to be indecisive when it comes to supporting minorities, let alone their own support in their teams respective visions. Do we even need to mention the onslaught of harassment John Boyega, Gal Gadot, Rachel Zegler, Kelly Marie Tran, and many other actors have received over the years just for being minorities? Of them all, Gadot was the one who got any kind of backing from Disney as she received security during Snow Whites production. The rest mostly have had to fend for themselves.

#4: Unbeatable Lawsuits

It is no secret that Disney has employed some of the best, yet most dangerous legal teams any company could ever own. The conglomerate has had an extensive history when it comes to pulling legal loopholes and keeping image-damaging lawsuits out of the public eye as much as possible. These lawsuits go as far back as 1956 when Kirk Douglas and his kids were being recorded for a show without their consent while visiting Walt Disney himself at his California home. Then, you have the decades of discrimination, gender inequality within numerous branches of the corporation, and accusations of plagiarism, many cases in which are settled outside of court for unknown reasons or suddenly dropped the minute allegations arise. And lest we forget about the lawsuit in 2024, where Disney tried to use their own Terms & Conditions agreements for Disney+ to get out of a case involving a wrongful death that took place at Disney Springs in Florida. Disneys legal team are definitely experts when it comes to working the justice system in their favor, that much is clear. But the lengths theyre willing to go to get out of things have certainly made them more suspicious than the Magic Kingdom leads on.

#3: Cancel City, Population: Too Many

One point we touched on earlier was how risk-averse Disney has been over the past decade, favoring remakes over anything original and promising. This has been especially evident in their TV department as weve seen a litany of shows get unceremoniously canceled or forced to end just when things were getting good. Some shows that have become victim to Disneys cancel-happy spree include Star vs. The Force of Evil, Andor, The Owl House, Renegade Nell, The Muppets Mayhem, and The Mysterious Benedict Society. If a reason is ever given, its either budget cuts or low viewership, but therein lies the problem with Disney, along with many other companies within entertainment: how do you expect your product to make money if you dont advertise and promote it? Yes, marketing costs as much as it costs to put the production together, usually. However, its worth questioning what was the point in greenlighting the production if you arent going to get behind it and try to get people to support it. How do you expect anyone to even know about your product if you wont even so much as talk about it? But sure, lets keep throwing money at the live-action remakes that botch our original material and further devalue the brand.

#2: Crossover Obsession & Perversion

In all honesty, it can be pretty cool seeing how stories will try to weave into one another through subtle nods and references. Its what made the Pixar Theory a neat concept to think about. Unfortunately, Disney has seemingly turned Easter eggs and references into practically an annoying necessity for their products made only for lore junkies and fanboys. No matter what you watch, be it Star Wars, Marvel, or your average Disney movie, the references are so on-the-nose these days that they cant even be considered Easter eggs. As for the crossovers in general, its gotten so egregious within Marvel and Star Wars products that it feels like youll never get full context behind standalone stories unless youve seen the majority of the movies and shows, if not all of them. Because everything has to tie into some cinematic universe, it feels as if not one character is allowed to have their own thing. There just isnt a good reason behind that approach, especially when your post-Avengers crossover event isnt panning out because of how mediocre most of the movies and shows are. And since were finally talking about Marvel and Star Wars products

#1: The Marvel & Star Wars Dairy Farm

Upon acquiring Marvel and Lucasfilm in 2009 and 2012, respectively, one would hope a company like Disney would take note of how special the two companies and their IPs were. Were not going to sit here and say that everything has been awful since Avengers: Endgame and Rise of Skywalker. We have seen some impressive gems from both brands like Andor, Agatha All Along, WandaVision, the first two seasons of The Mandalorian, X-Men 97, and Deadpool & Wolverine. However, for every gem weve seen from Disney, there have been way more feeble lumps of coal than any entertainment company should be putting out. Secret Invasion, The Book of Boba Fett, The Marvels, The Acolyte, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Eternals were such massive blunders that they leave a bigger, uglier mark on the brands than the better shows do. Its gotten so bad that its caused many to begin questioning the leadership and quality control going on at Disney. This isnt a Kathleen Kennedy problem either, despite what some may tell you. This is an output problem where so many projects are getting greenlit that whatever turns out mediocre or worse significantly impacts the overall image of the brand and winds up overshadowing the more quality products. In Disneys case, so much of the output has wound up doing just that on top of ballooning their budget costs. What Disney has failed to realize is that not every character, event, or little plot detail needs its own show or movie. Above all, we dont need a new one every week or even every month or every few months. When you let IPs breathe a little and let creatives do what they need to do, you can end up with something as great as Andor or X-Men 97. You can make great productions without trying to forcibly set up the next big cinematic crossover event or assaulting fans with a movie that references this show that spun off from this other show that requires you to watch a trilogy of movies to understand anything. Treat your IPs with care, and the fans will show up and be excited. Keep milking them with unnecessary products, though, and you tarnish two of your biggest pillars and cause people to leave.

All that said, which deadly Disney sin do you find the most frustrating? Let us know down in the comments.