Mickey Mouse, Cinderella, Darth Vader, Iron Man, Peter Pan and Hannah Montana. Among many others, these names formed the basis of what most of us call our childhood.
“[Disney] was a big part of being a 2000s kid,” Colorado Mesa University (CMU) digital filmmaking freshman John Schreiner said. “Disney Channel, Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, that’s what there was.”
As influential and important Disney was to the childhood experiences of many of us, there is a growing disillusionment of the renowned entertainment company in 2020.
“I hate Disney,” Schreiner said.
Disney has not been without its controversy, especially with its most recent film, the live action remake Mulan. In fact, in a survey of 23 randomly selected CMU students, 78.3 percent said there was a problem with the movie.
These problems ranged from cultural appropriation, supporting a monopoly such as Disney, Mulan being a cash grab and Disney supporting China despite either their internment camps of Muslims or police violence.
“When [Disney] was first starting to plan everything, and it first got announced, I was like ‘Okay, it’s just another cash grab remake,’” Schreiner said. “So I wasn’t planning on watching it from the beginning. But then, people started telling me about all of the other stuff going on with it. Everything from [Disney] filming right in that same region where all the internment camps are, and that alone, with Disney being such a massive company, that shouldn’t happen. It shouldn’t.”
Despite Disney’s 195.3 billion dollar market worth, little has been done by the Mouse House to truly make the world a better place, while more and more people are calling for Disney to step up.
“[Disney] is a huge company, they have huge reach, especially in media, you always have to make sure you’re in the right,” Schreiner said.
The growing distaste for Disney’s actions also seems to partially reflect in its popularity.
According to CNBC News, Disney+ forecasts a subscription count between 60 and 90 million by 2024. Comparing this to Netflix’s subscription total of 158 million subscribers as of October 2019, Disney is clearly not the most sought out streaming service on the market.
“God no. No [I don’t have Disney Plus],” Schreiner said. “I don’t plan on paying for a service that gives me very specific titles, rather than something like Hulu or Netflix that gives me everything.”
From the survey mentioned earlier, only 8.7 percent of participants said they planned on paying the $30 fee to watch the Mulan remake before its release to the general Disney+ platform on Dec. 4, 2020.
“Okay, Disney is in a bad place physically and morally, but financially, they’re making bank, and they don’t seem to really care about what’s going on,” Schreiner said.
With official sales numbers for Mulan yet to be released from Disney, many boycotting the film are hoping that a unified rejection of the film will financially impact Disney enough to create a change.
“It’s a pain but they have to do something,” Schreiner said. “They have enough money that they could do something.”
