Board 8 > Been a little depressed since seeing Strange World

(+) Yeah! (+)

I saw the teaser for Disney's latest animated film many months ago. It looked kinda cool but after never seeing it more than a couple of times I sort of forgot about then. Then suddenly over the Thanksgiving holiday I decided to check the theater schedule and saw something called "Strange World" was showing and I actually had to look it up to realize what it was. A lot of people probably know Genny and I are Disney buffs, having seen every single film in the main canon at least once, not to mention the fact these films served as the building blocks of our eventual relationship. So even if I don't always agree with what Disney might be doing, they'll always be important to me and that's especially true for their animated canon.

Once we got into the theater and the previews were rolling, Genny decided to show me a short video on the film we were about to watch. We disturbed no one since despite seeing this on Monday after the holiday weekend we were the only people in the entire theater. I didn't even realize this film had a proper trailer, as I had never saw it despite frequenting the movies several times monthly. Maybe I just missed it I guess since perhaps they'd not advertise Strange World in horror films or other things we tend to see, but to see absolutely no trailer for a main Disney film feels strange to me. Anyway... we watched the film. I thought it was good. Easily above average and all. I wouldn't go out and call it great or lifechanging, but it was enjoyable and likable for me. I liked the cast of characters and the animation was really well done.

I made the mistake of reading, and continue to read into, public reaction to this film. And by that I mean what you can find on the internet. The movie was review bombed at IMDb and other places, and apparently even the trailer was bombarded with dislikes even though YouTube has removed dislikes from it's main platform. The reason for it generally seems to be this "anti-woke" movement. Obviously, I've known about this sort of thing for a really long time now and it isn't "news" to me or anything, but for whatever reason this just hits home to me more than most things because of how connected I am to these movies. I feel sadness for the artists involved, and just for the movie as a product itself. Disney themselves failed to market this even a little bit and I can't help but think it's all tied to what is essentially one of the lead protagonists being gay. It's not a huge point in the movie, but unlike Disney's other gay characters this one is a star of his film. I feel like them not putting effort behind this film is either out of fear from backlash they'd receive from the Right or their way of simply failing on purpose so they don't have to do it again.

I don't know, it's been on my mind a lot. Again it's not some awakening I've had about the evils of this world but it is something I wanted to vent about a little. To know there are so many people, and presumably younger people since so much of this is online based, who throw hate behind something because of a gay character, or because perhaps of an interracial marriage or perhaps because the film deals with environmentalism is depressing to me. I'm trying to disassociate the film with these feelings so I can look back on it and enjoy it, because I did, but I'm finding it difficult.

Did anyone else even go see this movie?

I know of it, and I've seen the posters on the movie theater.

Same as you, I haven't seen this movie be marketed, can't remember watching the trailer, and I certainly didn't know it was already out (since I hadn't seen updates on it, I assumed it was a December release).

That being said, will probably take the kids to see it sometime this month.

Never heard of it until this very moment. Seeing the topic title, my first thought was Cool World, and was wondering why anyone would be watching that at all, much less make a topic about it.

Yeah Disney pretty much intentionally made this movie flop. They had several opportunities to market it throughout the year(Including their major D23 event among them) and took none of them. Quiet release with as little marketing as possible. I didn't even know it was out til after it hit theaters.

I see commercials for this pretty regularly on tv. I guess that's where they put their marketing budget because I saw more commercials for this than Black Panther.

Did not know thr main character is gay though, that might actually get us to go see it (my wife isn't typically into Sci fi so we weren't planning to).

I feel like I've seen ads for this movie, not exactly a blitz but I'm fairly strongly aware it exists

I dunno if I exclusively know about this movie because I follow Jaboukie on Twitter and hes in it or not, but thats definitely been most of my exposure to it existing

Yeah I try to follow upcoming films when I can but I never heard of this one until it was in theaters, and didn't hear actual talk until it was actual LGBT people frustrated that Disney would directly choose not to market it like they do literally every other movie they put out

I saw the trailer before Wakanda Forever (which I saw on Thanksgiving), but I didn't know it had a gay lead until this topic.

I was aware this movie was coming out but the ads did nothing for me. I think 100% of the reactions and discussion Ive seen are about Disney not marketing the movie and not how good/marketable the movie is.

but yeah getting the vibes that Disney prefers to take the lumps quietly on this one.

Maniac64 posted...

I see commercials for this pretty regularly on tv. I guess that's where they put their marketing budget because I saw more commercials for this than Black Panther.

Did not know thr main character is gay though, that might actually get us to go see it (my wife isn't typically into Sci fi so we weren't planning to).

Disney has an onslaught of marketing at their disposal that they typically pull out through their releases(Including an entire television network). They pulled out...none of the stops. It got a token commercial on TV and pretty much nothing else.

I havent seen the film yet and will likely not until its on Disney+ so Im part of the problem (although I dont have kids and yet still lack free time) but this does speak to something thats really been bothering me which I almost made a topic about before seeing this one.

Online fandom has just become completely toxic. Of course this is something that has been a very long time coming, its not a new phenomenon. However, it feels like it has gotten a lot worse over the last year or so, especially with regards to any kind of discussion of how something performs.

If something does not do especially well, even if it doesnt fail but does kind of okay, it was not only a terrible bomb, but it happened because it was woke (meaning theres a minority in it). People yell get woke, go broke as if it means anything or is accurate. Furthermore, everything thats not a smashing success is bad. To these people to succeed you just have to make good movies and to them, good means totally in line with their hard-right worldview. Anything that doesnt immediately gets targetted, for review bombing but also for brigading of comments sections.

Of course, this also applies to things which are successful it arent even out yet. Whatever is a convenient title to rile up the mob. For instance the backlash to Rings of Power before it even aired only because it had a number of characters played by non-white actors. This is especially bad if its an established IP, which people show an unhealthy degree of attachment to - rather than just accepting that any franchise might have some entries you like and some you dont, anything they disagree with has ruined the whole thing. Which not only means they have to complain whenever that franchise comes up, worse they feel it gives them licence to harass people involved.

Lastly there is the hatedom, fans who only follow something to hate it and let others know how much they hate it. Obviously this does nothing but spread arguments and make online discussion spaces less fun. This is a really unhealthy way to interact with something and only makes people unhappy.

Now, all of this doesnt actually have a meaningful effect on business. Most people arent even aware of any of this happening and just go to see movies or whatever. However, it does make online fandom spaces utterly insufferable. These people werent the reason Strange World had a poor marketing campaign or failed at the box office, Disney has long struggled to sell animated adventure movies (see Treasure Planet bombing exactly 20 years before) but it is impossible to avoid them in any discussion of this film.

All of this is to say a lot of the fun of discussing media online has been sucked out by weirdos who need everything they dont like to fail just to fit their ideology. Which they will repeat every time they get the chance. Its horrible.

I think you might be reading too much into disney killing the movie because of gay themes, if they really cared that much about what lead paint-eating troglodytes from backwoods Alabama think they probably wouldn't have made the movie in the first place.

To me, the movie just does not seem that appealing compared to recent films by disney/pixar, (though my interest has gone up recently after hearing about the gay thing), and I probably will not see it in theaters. Reviews are a bit lukewarm as well.

Just ignore the dipshits trying to spin their bigoted narrative, they are no longer in the majority in this country and they are trying to make up the difference by screaming really loudly.

Maniac64 posted...

Did not know thr main character is gay though, that might actually get us to go see it

PrinceKaro posted...

To me, the movie just does not seem that appealing compared to recent films by disney/pixar, (though my interest has gone up recently after hearing about the gay thing),

maybe I'm too heteronormative, but this seems like a weird reason to get excited about a movie

I really don't care too much about early reviews. If it's a really a good and entertaining movie, then it will endure the test of time.

And certainly, the controversy over this film might draw more attention to it over time. It might just turn out to be a cult classic as time goes by.

It probably is still better than the worst of the bargain bin tier movies, or maybe it would be a good idea to bundle it with other Disney classics.

DeepsPraw posted...

maybe I'm too heteronormative, but this seems like a weird reason to get excited about a movie

Dude, we're well aware of your views on LGBTQ people, you don't have to paint it up as anything else.

I also never heard of this movie until this topic, which didn't really surprise me because I'm not a huge movie guy and don't really stay up to date on what's coming out, but seeing that it was a Disney movie really threw me for a loop. Even I've never been ignorant of a Disney release before iirc

I saw the trailers and thought it looked entirely boring and generic

I dont think a third of the country refusing to see it because of a homosexual lead helped the movie by any stretch, but compare it with many other Disney movies and the trailer made it look like something you could find as a kids direct to Netflix movie

FWIW, dan murrell gave this movie a negative review and he's far from anti-woke. i don't think the backlash the movie is getting is entirely because of the anti-woke idiots (though that is a big part of it, of course).

Mr_Lasastryke posted...

FWIW, dan murrell gave this movie a negative review and he's far from anti-woke. i don't think the backlash the movie is getting is entirely because of the anti-woke idiots (though that is a big part of it, of course).

I think the problem is the movie is both Woke and not great.

its a bad combination

Well yeah thats part of what I was rambling on about. If a film isnt the best (even if its just okay) or if it doesnt do well the online nutters take that to mean that it is entirely because its woke, whatever that mean. They then use that as an excuse to push their extreme worldview into fandom spaces. It sucks.

LightningStrikes posted...

Well yeah thats part of what I was rambling on about. If a film isnt the best (even if its just okay) or if it doesnt do well the online nutters take that to mean that it is entirely because its woke, whatever that mean. They then use that as an excuse to push their extreme worldview into fandom spaces. It sucks.

I think there are two separate things here

1. A movie is bad because it is woke
2. A movie didnt make as much money because it is woke.

The first one is completely ridiculous and people have been throwing that accusation around for decades. It isnt even worth arguing about.

The second one however has merit. A third of the US and many countries around the world refuse to support progressive films.

The reason why crappy kids movies can make money and this mediocre Disney movie isnt is because of the latter point

masterplum posted...

A third of the US and many countries around the world refuse to support progressive films.

The reason why crappy kids movies can make money and this mediocre Disney movie isnt is because of the latter point

Yeah, Strange World's failure had nothing at all to do with its middling quality and complete lack of advertising. It's just people refusing to watch it because there's a gay character.

Surprised to hear the advertising has been low because I've seen plenty of billboards and street ads for it, some video ads but maybe lower than usual. Also following jaboukie lol. I just wasn't interested because it looks boring. And if I'm wrong I'd just catch it on Disney+ later.

I guess the argument is that Disney didn't advertise it because of the gay themes? I'd believe it easily, Disney has the power to sell whatever they want really, but also they've made other baffling decisions with Pixar movies recently too so who knows.

The anti-woke crowd is annoying in general and its all over the place online for like every new game and tv/movie release. Theyre such pathetic people.

Xeybozn posted...

Yeah, Strange World's failure had nothing at all to do with its middling quality and complete lack of advertising. It's just people refusing to watch it because there's a gay character.

Did you see how much money minons made

The quality isn't the main issue. Marketing is probably the biggest, but quality is a distant third

It isn't some homophobic take that people not buying something means it makes less money

HeroDelTiempo17 posted...

Surprised to hear the advertising has been low because I've seen plenty of billboards and street ads for it, some video ads but maybe lower than usual. Also following jaboukie lol. I just wasn't interested because it looks boring. And if I'm wrong I'd just catch it on Disney+ later.

I guess the argument is that Disney didn't advertise it because of the gay themes? I'd believe it easily, Disney has the power to sell whatever they want really, but also they've made other baffling decisions with Pixar movies recently too so who knows.

I don't think the issue is the advertising was low. I've seen ads

The issue is the advertising is bad. I've seen free movies on Netflix that seemed more interesting

So from what I'm hearing, the advertising was mainly centered on television ads? Which a fair chunk of the population don't see now because we're in an age of streaming and cutting cable. So basically the demographic that got the biggest advertisement push were older individuals that would have a higher chance of being more....hesitant to a film with a gay main lead. Meanwhile mostly younger demographics that don't really have cable anymore, like me, barely saw anything for the film outside of "oh yea, I guess it's a new Disney movie coming out at some point." Also the demographics more likely to think having a main character representation like that is neat, even if it's corporate Disney mandated.

Like from what I know of the film, it does seem like a fairly generic story don't get me wrong. But even that can have merit if it's fun enough, hell The Bad Guys is a fairly generic story but Dreamworks really sold the characters and animation through a massive Twitter/online push and presence, and it ended up being a very fun movie and it did good numbers! I never saw anything even remotely close to that with this movie.

Bane_Of_Despair posted...

So from what I'm hearing, the advertising was mainly centered on television ads? Which a fair chunk of the population don't see now because we're in an age of streaming and cutting cable. So basically the demographic that got the biggest advertisement push were older individuals that would have a higher chance of being more....hesitant to a film with a gay main lead. Meanwhile mostly younger demographics that don't really have cable anymore, like me, barely saw anything for the film outside of "oh yea, I guess it's a new Disney movie coming out at some point." Also the demographics more likely to think having a main character representation like that is neat, even if it's corporate Disney mandated.

Like from what I know of the film, it does seem like a fairly generic story don't get me wrong. But even that can have merit if it's fun enough, hell The Bad Guys is a fairly generic story but Dreamworks really sold the characters and animation through a massive Twitter/online push and presence, and it ended up being a very fun movie and it did good numbers! I never saw anything even remotely close to that with this movie.

This all seems accurate,

TV ads aimed at parents seems fine for the average kids movie. But older people are also going to skew homophobic

I don't think the ads mention a gay character though. Like, if you haven't seen Strange World and hate it for that then you're probably way into online "anti-woke" stuff to begin with.

There has never been a shred of evidence that gay characters have an impact on box office performance. Look at how many woke films have been massive successes also. Yes, there are some viewers who wont go but how many of those were the audience anyway?

In fact if you look at Strange World it is skewing unusually *old* for s Disney film. The problem is kids and young people arent interested, because they did a bad job of selling the film.

I saw a trailer for the movie once or twice, and I don't remember anything about a gay character in it.

It nobody knew about the movie, then how would they know to avoid seeing it due to a character's orientation?

My view may also be anecdotal but this feels like a case where the backlash isn't as great as it's being implied.

The backlash is absolutely nothing to do with the film failing. Its purely an online thing.

Oh no I don't think whatever ads there were advertised "HEY LOOK WE'VE GOT A MAIN GAY LEAD HERE", I'd say that Disney just under advertised it in general, it failed at the box office and now the excuse "It bombed because it went "woke"" can be grasped at by those who wish to do so. It's just interesting that in recent years, Disney has been pretty much on their A game with pushing their movies and making sure people know about them and it feels like they did much less with this one. Was it just because they thought there wasn't as much of a "hook" for it as other movies? That it would get some right-wing backlash claiming it was setting up to "groom kids" or whatever if it had gotten a much stronger push in advertising when they found out about the gay main lead? It could be purely coincidental, they already apparently took it out of theaters in countries in the Middle East, Africa and China because of the regulations there about queer representation. So they were going to lose money on this no matter what, at least compared to their other movies.

HanOfTheNekos posted...

I saw a trailer for the movie once or twice, and I don't remember anything about a gay character in it.

It nobody knew about the movie, then how would they know to avoid seeing it due to a character's orientation?

My view may also be anecdotal but this feels like a case where the backlash isn't as great as it's being implied.

Right Wing news

I don't think the target audience for the movie watches Right Wing news

HanOfTheNekos posted...

I don't think the target audience for the movie watches Right Wing news

Parents of children? They absolutely do

in fact Im pretty sure conservatives have more children

Right wing news is basically every major news media in America at the very least. Whats left that isnt owned by a rich Republican?

Nobody watches any news except extremely old people. It's sad how many excuses some people in this topic are coming up with to be homophobic.

I've honestly just given up on supporting Disney at this point. They have this unique opportunity to market more diverse movies and potentially help shift public opinion, but instead they want to do the absolute bare minimum.

MacArrowny posted...

Nobody watches any news except extremely old people. It's sad how many excuses some people in this topic are coming up with to be homophobic.

Am I hispanicphobic for pointing out that In the Heights didn't make money because inner-city well educated hispanic is an extremely tiny targeted demographic?

masterplum posted...

Am I hispanicphobic for pointing out that In the Heights didn't make money because inner-city well educated hispanic is an extremely tiny targeted demographic?

Do you think Dear Evan Hansen didn't make money because suburban white people with depression is an extremely tiny targeted demographic?

Edit: did WORSE than In the Heights, because suburban whites is a smaller demographic than inner-city well-educated hispanics?

MacArrowny posted...

Nobody watches any news except extremely old people.

Yeah, parents of young children are themselves too young to be watching network/cable news.

The people with young children now are milennials and even some older Gen Zers. I really, really dont think that has anything to do with it, especially taking into account the many family films with LGBT characters that succeeded. The Beauty and the Beast remake had a whole controversy about a blink and you miss it gay scene yet made $1.3 billion dollars. And again, older audiences are actually the ones that turned up to Strange World! The fact is you really dont have a shred of evidence.

And yes, ascribing somethings failure to the presence of minorities without evidence is in fact -phobic, as it feeds into hateful narratives. Take In the Heights for instance, a movie that came out mid-pandemic and outperformed other musicals released at the same time. Yet you were like well I guess people dont want movies about inner city hispanic characters. That is bad actually, yes. People do in fact go to see movies about people that arent them. That is part of the whole point of film.

The fact is except for the very highest level cinema is in dire straights financially, having still not recovered from the pandemic with the cost of living crisis also not helping. The fact is despite a full reopening the industry is still going to end up about 30% behind 2019 in terms of box office with barely more films released than 2020 and 2021. Its very bad in general right now.

It's a good point that Disney has always struggled to sell their adventure films within the Disney canon, good examples of that being Atlantis and Treasure Planet, the latter of which Strange World has been compared to heavily. Both movies were poorly marketed and will go down as major box office failures, they are also both adventure themed films and also happen to feature a father/son narrative at the center of their respective stories.

The film failing to make money isn't what worries me, it's more about how all the criticism that's easily located online skews towards the film's "wokeness". Two of the top results for simply searching the movie's title on YouTube are videos by Ben Shapiro and Ryan Kinel. And as I said people have gone out of their way to tank the score on IMDb, which is very much unlike other films that are simply flops at the box office. Flopping at the box office doesn't usually also come along with review bombs on sites like that, most of which are all comments about hate. Even if you find the film "middling", it's hard to say Strange World is a bad movie if you actually watch it. I could see people not really caring for it, but it's hard for this movie to invoke a feeling of dislike for it unless you have an agenda.

Again, this movie just made me remember how many people in the world aren't good. People can say those are the minority and they're just yelling really loudly, but elections happen all the time that are proof like half of people suck. If 48% of people such it's hard for me to say that's a minority just because it's slightly smaller than half.

A lot of online reviews are pointing to poor audience ratings online and those are incredibly disingenuous with how few people have actually seen the film. We know why those skew so low and it has very little to do with quality.

Leafeon13N posted...

A lot of online reviews are pointing to poor audience ratings online and those are incredibly disingenuous with how few people have actually seen the film. We know why those skew so low and it has very little to do with quality.

The cinema score however is based solely on people who saw the movie in theaters and is the lowest Disney animated movie history

masterplum posted...

The cinema score however is based solely on people who saw the movie in theaters and is the lowest Disney animated movie history

As if Disney hasn't used its machine to skew this in the past.

LightningStrikes posted...

The fact is except for the very highest level cinema is in dire straights financially, having still not recovered from the pandemic with the cost of living crisis also not helping. The fact is despite a full reopening the industry is still going to end up about 30% behind 2019 in terms of box office with barely more films released than 2020 and 2021. Its very bad in general right now.

This needs to be I'm bold. Movie theaters are hurting right now.