Hexed

[The Disneynerd]

Next fall, Disney Animation will release “Hexed,” an original film about an awkward teenager who discovers that he’s a wizard. “He’s pulled into a world of magic and realizes, oh, these are his people,” Mr. Bush said. “Spoiler,” he added. “Mom, who’s also trying to figure herself out, is tied to him. So it’s a mother-son buddy comedy.”

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/busi ... -bush.html

Im expecting this to do Strange World & Wish numbers. There doesnt seem to be some sort of charm or striking uniqueness to both the visual world and the overall synopsis. Its just a mix of modern IPs and most strikingly The Owl House.

What i was thinking lately is that the filmmakers at WDAS are constantly looking back at its legacy, desperately trying to make movies that are not too bold or different from their catalogue. Parallels to the little mermaid documentary i rewatched recently where Jeffrey Katzenberg was critizising the crew worrying "what would Walt Disney do and how would Ariel compare to Cinderella and Aurora?" and him telling them "We're not Walt, we have to be US and find our own way" and push forward. I mean imagine Mermaid not having thst bold Broadway Pop Soundtrack or Ariel having a more classic and conservative personality like Aurora yikes. Seems like nowadays the studio completely abondened that mindset and only wants to capture the essence of the past. Just throwing a boy as a protagonist to a mediocre setting and repetitive arc and storyline wont make them win their male audiences. If theyre so desperate with their legacy and a potential male audience, why cant they use their brains and draw Inspiration to Aladdin or their other successful male led successful musicals?! I guess the company forgot atp that Aladdin was the lead in his self titled movie with only Jasmine "Disney princessifying" the brand with her leading the Marketing the last few decades.

If Gigantic would have been released in 2018 (and untoubtfully been a success), they would have been reminded that male Fairytales exists and work too... RIP Gigantic

[Disney's Divinity]

I'm not sure what I expect box office-wise. It's more interesting than Strange World, but a wizard story doesn't feel "Disney," tbh, even though I'm personaly open to it even if I'd be more interested if it was a musical. Wish's numbers were likely a reflection of Stramge World, which means the numbers here will be more on Wish. I could see a slight gain from Wish's numbers, but not by much. I was more optimistic about Wish going into thst film because I didn't think one misfire (SW) would have that much of an impact that they couldn't come back from. But I think to a degree Wish also took some of the anger over the Snow White and TLM racebending since the protagonist was a character of color as well. I know I had conservative relatives who would roll their eyes when I talked about the film since I was excited by the concept art and all that, saying things like of course the lead had to be a poc because everything at the time (even remakes like Snow White and TLM where the characters had specific looks or story details that were abandoned to make room for a poc protagonist) had to feature a poc as the lead. It wasn't just a Disney-specific thing, but more generally aimed at the film industry at the time, although Disney did have more of a bull's-eye on them.