What's with Disney's Movie Themes Lately?

Has anyone else noticed how a lot of the new Disney and Pixar movies lately just don't seem to... sit right? I finish the movie and don't feel as satisfied and amazed as I used to be with Disney movies.

Obviously, some of that could be blamed on me getting older and having higher expectations for movies than I used to, or being nostalgic about the older stuff. You could say that. But the more I think about it, the more I think it's the themes of the movies that I'm not liking.

Now THIS film was a masterpiece

First, let's talk about themes. Themes are so important in every story. What's the takeaway you want the audience to have from this story? If you want the movie to be on their mind all day, what message do you want them to be pondering as they do? What mark do you want to leave on them? The theme is that message and mark.

A good theme will impact the audience in a serious way, making them reconsider the way they think about something or sometimes even changing their lives. Think about A Christmas Carol. That book had an immediate impact. The world saw an almost instantaneous upswing in charitable giving and recognition of the Christmas season in general, right after the book was published.

On the other hand, if a story's theme is weak or(horrors) nonexistent, the story just doesn't work as well. Sure, you'll still have a story, maybe even a good story, but there's no point to it. There's no message or theme carrying the story. It's just empty.

For example, ever watch Strange Magic? I thought that movie sounded so cool, but when I watched it, it was a supreme disappointment. Not only was it a supreme cringe fest of poor writing and a hideous mashup of pop songs that didn't match, but they couldn't seem to decide on a theme. The story danced all over the place with different messages and themes, and then they finally landed with a tacked-on theme in one of the last scenes, literally spoken aloud by one of the characters. As in 'you know what I learned?' kind of situation. It hurt me. Don't be like them.

So, Pixar and Disney. What's with their themes lately? Something there is just not sitting right with me, and on further thought, I think it's their iffy themes and values they're putting into their stories. Let's look at a few examples of movies that didn't 'sit right' with me.

Toy Story 4

Oof, this is the big one for me. Toy Story 4 was a movie 9 years in the making, and what we got was a wreck, really. I would have to dip into multiple subjects if I was trying to describe everything that went wrong. We could talk about how creepy it was that Woody's voice box got ripped out. We could discuss Forky and his constant obsession with throwing himself away because he's 'trash' and how that is almost a direct parallel to suicide. We could even talk about how hard the movies have worked to develop Buzz as a character, only to turn him into some sort of stupid comic relief for all of movie number four. 

But as much as all that irks me, I'm more caught up in the ending. The whole Toy Story franchise puts a value on staying true to your purpose and staying by the side of the children you're looking after because they need you. And then in movie number four, once they get to the end, Woody just goes 'meh, I'm gonna throw it all out and go with Bo Peep'. What the heck. And let's be honest, Bo Peep wasn't the greatest in Toy Story 4 either. It seemed to me that not only was the theme of Toy Story 4 not a very strong or even very... moral, I guess? But it also went against everything that all the other movie themes stood for. Most of the movie just seemed to be backtracking everything they'd said previously, and that doesn't sit right with me.

Ralph Breaks the Internet

This is where we start to see a common thread in a lot of these movies. It's sort of odd how a lot of the new movies seem to have almost the same uncomfortable theme. I do wonder if they were written by the same people, or worked on by the same group.

In Wreck it Ralph 2, the story surrounds Ralph, who is the best of friends with a little racer girl he met in movie 1, and he has essentially no other friends. The main theme of the movie is him watching her grow apart from him and seeking out other things, which could have been done really well. But no. Instead the writers of the movie created it so that we're watching Ralph constantly suffer more, and then they place the blame on his attitude rather than the suckiness of the situation. Ralph makes a great speech at the end about how you don't own your best friend and you have to be there for them whatever decisions they make, which once again could have been a great sentiment. But it seemed to me that the movie was trying to tell me that people have no right to feel pushback against things that are hard, and that it's your responsibility to let someone go. I don't know, something about that just didn't feel right to me.

Frozen 2

Yet again, Disney seems to be going back on everything that they did in the previous movie. I'm still trying to get over the little clip where Elsa looks back on her Let it Go days and seems to want to disown her involvement in the literal song of the decade. Dude.

In Frozen 1, Elsa works so hard to find where she wants to be and who she wants to be. She settles beautifully at a place right between 'go live on a mountain alone' Elsa and 'hide away in my castle because no one knows I have powers' Elsa by becoming a beautiful, elegant ice queen in her own kingdom. It was gorgeous. Movie 2 seems to go something like this: 'In Frozen 1, you watched Elsa run off on her own and find her place, now, in Frozen 2, watch Elsa run off on her own and find her place.' And just like the first movie, Elsa is constantly leaving Anna behind to struggle on her own. In essence, what I'm saying is that Frozen 2 was just a reiteration of Frozen 1 in a different setting. But with an ending that I didn't like as much.

Similar to Ralph Breaks the Internet, Elsa's final decision, her new truth(aka the movie theme), is to leave all her previous responsibilities and the people who love her in the name of being her 'true self'. Granted, Anna made such a lovely queen, and I was glad to see her find a place of her own, but why did Elsa have to abandon everything that previously seemed to be perfect? Disney seems to have a common thread lately of creating movies where the main character leaves behind everyone they love in a quest for fulfillment, which majorly rubs me the wrong way.

Instead, what I propose Disney should be doing is finding a balance between doing the things you love and doing things for the ones you love. Disney used to put such a spotlight on taking care of the people around you and doing things in the name of love, whether that love is for your family, friends, found family, or love interest. And all that seems to be rapidly disappearing.

So here ends my rant on how Disney movie themes are giving up love in the name of self. The movie themes rubbed me the wrong way, but I hope this post didn't rub you the wrong way. I'd love to talk with all of you if you have any further insight or even more examples of what I'm talking about! I love a good discussion.

Everyone have a good week, and I'll be back with another post soon. <3