Posted in: Disney, Movies | Tagged: bob chapek, bob iger, disney, strange world

Disney Board Member Thought Strange World Was "Too Polarizing"

A new article alleges that a member of the Disney board told Bob Chapek not to release the animated film Strange World because it would be "too polarizing."

To say that things at Disney have been a bit rocky might be the understatement of the century. The company that once seemed too big to fail has been failing quite a lot lately, and because there are billions of dollars on the line, everyone is trying to find someone to blame. It isn't as simple as there is one villain hidden within the House of Mouse that cast members need to slay like a dragon, and everything will be okay again. It's so much more complicated than that, and everything that has gone down with Bob Chapek and Bob Iger has just made it even worse. It was the wrong time to retire, and it also seemed like Iger really didn't prepare Chapek nearly enough to take on this role. Now Iger has returned, and Chapek has left, but the bitter taste in people's mouths from the last three years or more has yet to go away. Disney released many movies this summer, and none of them really lit the world on fire in the way they were likely hoping or banking on. Many details about this mess of a situation have been detailed in a long piece done by CNBC with a lot of information on the chaos hiding behind the Disney Magic. One of the eyebrow-raising allegations concerns the animated film Strange World. The movie did not do well, losing Disney $200M, and the reviews weren't great either. It also became another stupid culture war talking point because Ethan, the teenager from the film, has a crush on a male-presenting character instead of a female-presenting character. Apparently, that, much like the brief scenes from Lightyear, was enough to make people lose their damn minds. The article alleges that Director Safra Catz, Oracle's CEO and a board member, told Chapek not to release the movie because it would be "too polarizing."

"Separately, board member Catz privately told Chapek he was making a huge mistake releasing the animated movie "Strange World," which featured an openly gay character. Catz, who was on former President Donald Trump's transition team, told him the movie was too polarizing and not up to Disney's quality standards. She warned a poor performance wouldn't play well with the board. Catz declined to comment. But Chapek and other Disney studio executives knew they'd have to release the movie. The last thing Disney needed was to anger the LGBTQ community again."

Whether or not Strange World is up to quality standards is a different conversation; it was a mid-tier Disney movie in a time following the pandemic when no studio could handle losing even a single dollar, but the fact that a board member on Disney thinks that a male presenting character liking someone else who is male presenting is "too polarizing" is stupid, but the even more depressing thing is circumstance makes Catz look right. The loudest people with the worst opinions on the internet got a hint of LGBTQIA+ representation in a kid's film and loudly loud their damn minds. Both films they did this with, Lightyear and Strange World, seem to indicate that they were "too polarizing," and the representation is the issue. That ignores the confusing marketing for Lightyear, the non-existent marketing for Strange World, COVID-19, and both films are not very good.

Strange World: Summary, Cast, Release Date

Jake Gyllenhaal (The Guilty, Spider-Man: Far from Home) lends his voice to Searcher Clade, the son of a steadfast explorer. The original action-adventure journeys deep into an uncharted and treacherous land where fantastical creatures await the legendary Clades, a family of explorers whose differences threaten to topple their latest—and by far— most crucial mission. Helmed by Don Hall (Oscar®-winning Big Hero 6, Raya and the Last Dragon) and co-director/writer Qui Nguyen (co-writer Raya and the Last Dragon), and produced by Roy Conli  (Oscar®-winning Big Hero 6, Tangled), Strange World was released November 23rd, 2022.

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