The latest Disney animation release, Strange World, massively tanked at the box office in the days following the film’s release. The meager 35 reviews that the critics followed up with on Rotten Tomatoes after the film’s early screening was mostly disastrous and amounted to an overall 74% rating on the film critic website.
Globally, Strange World picked up steam for becoming the first animated Disney movie to feature an openly gay mixed-race protagonist at its center and because of the negligence of its marketing by Disney — two factors which are too coincidental in their causal relation to be ignored as chance.
Now, the fans have taken up an issue with how the production house mismanaged the release of the movie and openly attributed its allegedly intended failure to be linked to the representation of the LGBTQ+ community.
Disney Fans Call Out Execs For Mishandling Strange World
Disney’s years in the industry have been defined by its indomitable animated classics. The decades since the 1950s which witnessed movies like The Lion King, The Lady and the Tramp, Pinocchio, and so many more have constituted a subgenre within the production house that has been claimed to possess animation magic. But with shifts in management and the increasingly demanding social atmosphere, Disney somewhere along the way began losing its acquired magic in the process of pandering to the masses and reaching a wider global audience.
This trend then follows in the wake of films like Strange World which features enough diversity to be called out by the lesser tolerant demography. Fans on Twitter and other social media platforms have attributed this fear of being criticized as the reason why the House of Mouse and its executives strangely stayed away from marketing one of its most innovative and visionary animated films in recent history.
There exists another side to this debate that accredits the failure of Strange World to the exit of Bob Chapek from his stead as CEO and the return of Bob Iger to the company. The replacement at the highest level of Disney’s management could have led to a lack of attention directed toward one film’s release. But that still does nothing to explain why a marketing strategy for Strange World would not already be in place for the crew to execute after the film released its first official trailer in late September.
Fans Accuse Disney of Intentionally Tanking Strange World
Websites have plastered numerous reasons for the failure of Strange World to launch successfully in its global demography. One of the reasons that stand out is the animated movie’s overarching ambition and its pedagogic environmental politics that overshadow the more simplistic humor that defines a Disney classic. The family-friendly ecological drama fails because it tries too hard to explain its symbolism and metaphors instead of leaving it up to the audience’s interpretation and the crude humor comes off as cringey rather than adorable when placed within the context of the otherwise visually enchanting film.
The fans, however, have their fair share of problems with the poor and negative reception of the film and all of the aforementioned reasons work as ripple effects of the one major shock which was delivered by Disney’s internal crew in their intentional mishandling, low marketing, and soft launch of Strange World.
Saw Strange World and I'll be damned, Disney Animation actually had a character that wasn't just lip service for online articles but now I wonder if that is the reason for the weak marketing/merch for this film. My theory: the execs want this film to go under the radar pic.twitter.com/OV3YgHPRQ5
— Saberspark (@Saberspark) November 25, 2022
Personally I thought the movie was solid. Setting was fun & creative, plot was serviceable (tho it included some modern Disney tropes) & the characters were more enjoyable than I expected. Solid pacing, never felt bored. Overall a fine film that isn't as bad as ratings imply imo
— Saberspark (@Saberspark) November 25, 2022
Saw the low rating, and I decided to look at the reviews… do homophobes seriously have nothing else better to do? pic.twitter.com/GV5XsBTGZO
— RadStarFather (@father_rad) November 25, 2022
I love how everyone becomes a movie critic the minute two boys kiss each other, we’re really going backwards with progress this year huh
— Deán The Ram 🔜 ANW’23 (@Bleatjio) November 25, 2022
I’ve seen a huge increase in ads the last few days & wonder if the lack of ads was a Chapek move and Iger’s trying to last-minute course correct…with animation delay time, this movie would’ve def been started under Iger and Mr. “Don’t Say Gay” might’ve been more keen to bury it
— Molly Jeanne Music (@mollyjeanne615) November 26, 2022
Seen quite a few people speculating that they want this to flop so they can blame it on the queer rep and have an excuse to not do that anymore. Sad thing is, that's entirely believable
— They/Thember (art in pinned thread!) (@EmbertheUnusual) November 25, 2022
Unfortunately, there may be no way of proving these claims as substantial truths but considering how Disney has been increasingly facing criticism for soft launching its more inclusive films, as compared to the ones that are not, draws some attention toward the production house’s tactics (or the lack thereof) with regards to Strange World‘s promotion.
Strange World starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Jaboukie Young-White, Lucy Liu, Dennis Quaid, and Gabrielle Union is now playing in theatres.
Source: Twitter
