Politics aside, Disney’s current movies and shows have just not been enjoyable.
Even on a surface level it isn’t hard to admit Disney’s recent movie and show options have been big CGI-covered remakes of their own classics, or overworked products of someone else’s IPs they bought for the sum of a small country’s worth.
I have no problem with looking at old things a new way, experimenting with ideas, or thinking with edgy or sometimes controversial creativity. Disney did that several times in the past. Yet, they did it for the sake of storytelling. Here are some example’s of Disney’s experimental gambles that work:
Disney meets Dali
In 1945 surrealist Salvador Dali and Walt Disney were teamed up to work on something that never came to fruition in either of their lives. In 2003, the eerily beautiful Destino was completed for the traveling animation showcase, Animation Show of Shows.
Donald Loves America
The patriotism of Walt Disney was at its peak in World War II. Walt Disney contributed everything from nose art concepts to war mascots like the WASP’s Fifinella, to many pieces of pure, wartime propaganda. One of the most famous was the Donald Duck short “Der Fuehrer’s Face”. Donald has a nightmare of being a Nazi soldier. Yes, it might seem a little rough today, but we were at war, and we were going to win!
Horror for Gen X Kids
I’m going to pop ahead to the late 70s and into the 80s, when Disney started getting a little dark..and we Gen X kids and teens loved it. Today, many of these movies are overlooked, but they are still some of coolest presentations of family style horror (at least for you teens and up) out there. For a generation who grew up with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Goosebumps, Disney gave us creepy fun like their version of Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, the Bette Davis film The Watcher in The Woods..and the horrifying fantasy, Return to Oz.
…and Fantasia
The visual feast of classical music interpretations, Fantasia wasn’t a big hit in 1940. Today, it is considered one of the masterpieces in motion picture history. I might be one of the few people who enjoyed the 2000 version, but it was what it was: just a fun little tribute to the first. The original is still amazing, and the finale with contrasting pieces of Mussorgsky’s “Night on Bald Mountain” and Schubert’s “Ave Maria” one of the most beautiful and peaceful looks at how good overcomes evil. No computer-tinged eye candy can touch this.
The problem isn’t “experimentation” or trying something new. The problem is trying the same thing again and again without the need for imagination. The Walt Disney Company’s soul used to be fully in imagination. I hope that can return to the big and small screens once again.