Is Disney's Revival Era Over?

[DisneyEra]

You say this as if Pixar didn't release 7 sequels over the past decade and only 4 original films.

But Pixar sequels make money. Ralph 2 made less money than Cars 2.

[estefan]

I'm not sure how shutting WDAS down helps anyone, especially when they just hired a new creative head. I really dislike this attitude that if a movie or animation studio isn't doing something to someone's liking, they should be shut down. I remember a lot of this talk about Sony Animation after The Emoji Movie, with animation fans saying the studio should shut down, because of their output. And then, one year later, SPA releases Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which becomes widely beloved and acclaimed and even wins them an Oscar.

If Disney Animation didn't shut down after Walt Disney's death, after The Black Cauldron flopped, after Home on the Range and Chicken Little affected the brand among audiences, there is no way it will shut down when their films are getting strong reviews, positive audience admiration and solid box-office returns.

[DisneyFan09]

It's sad how few Disney fans care about WDAS's output. Even though it's a limited sample, I think it's indicative of the overall disposition within the fandom. People may be Frozen or Zootopia or Moana fans but they aren't WDAS fans. Disney is to blame for this lack of interest and awareness. WDAS need to be marketed as its own brand the way Pixar or Marvel is.

Yeah, it's truly a pity. Due to how WDAS has created a new legacy for themselves with their current streak, one would assume that there was more interest in their upcoming projects. It may be naive to assume this, but considering now that Lasseter's gone and the constant criticism of his derivative stock components, it would be tempting to assume that the interest for the upcoming projects was bigger. But nah.

[JTurner]

I'm not sure how shutting WDAS down helps anyone, especially when they just hired a new creative head. I really dislike this attitude that if a movie or animation studio isn't doing something to someone's liking, they should be shut down. I remember a lot of this talk about Sony Animation after The Emoji Movie, with animation fans saying the studio should shut down, because of their output. And then, one year later, SPA releases Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which becomes widely beloved and acclaimed and even wins them an Oscar.

If Disney Animation didn't shut down after Walt Disney's death, after The Black Cauldron flopped, after Home on the Range and Chicken Little affected the brand among audiences, there is no way it will shut down when their films are getting strong reviews, positive audience admiration and solid box-office returns.

Yeah, sorry, but I don't see how closing down WDAS helps either. I for one think that it definitely needs a shake up, but not a shutdown.

[Disney's Divinity]

WDAS will be fine. WIR2 did better than it had a right to do, and that was mostly due to Princess Power lifting it.

Zootopia 2 and Frozen 2 will do gangbusters, and Zootopia 3 and Frozen 3 are surely in the lineup (even if they don't say it), too. I'm sure there will be another original film along with Dragon Empire in the coming years. Franchise potential was the reason Disney axed hand-drawn animation and jumped into 3D; they're getting exactly what they wanted. WDAS is not going to shut down now.

[DisneyEra]

So basically WDAS plan for the 2020s is just to mimic Dreamworks Animation from the late 2000s Frozen is they're Shrek & Zootopia is they're Madagascar But what happens After they burn through the Frozen/Zoo sequels. They gonna turn Moana in to How to train your Dragon? I don't see Tangled & BH6 getting sequels now with they're TV series still ongoing. Of course the studio won't shut down, but they're no longer a priority for the Company as a whole. They're a distant 5th place behind The MCU/Pixar/Star Wars & the Live-action remakes, which I believe to be they're shadow replacement. Hopefully at D23 in 4 months ALL this will be addressed at a panel. If they announce new features "let alone 1" I'll give them credit & admit I was wrong. But if they have nothing but sequel after sequel, I knew all along & rest my case

[DisneyEra]

So starting in 2020, Live-Action Disney will have 10 features thru 2022, while Pixar gets 5 features. Meanwhile, WDAS gets a whooping 3 features during that same frame. Proof that WDAS is no longer a big priority for The Walt Disney company as a whole. Will be shocked if WDAS releases 2 of those 3, most likely 1 will be cancelled.

[JeanGreyForever]

Definitely one of them will be a sequel (Zootopia 2) and I wouldn't be shocked if one of the others was also another sequel (Frozen 3 or Zootopia 3). Maybe we'll get one original movie and that's a big if.

[Jules]

WDAS will be making one movie a year. What's so strange about that?

[Disney's Divinity]

WDAS will be making one movie a year. What's so strange about that?

I don't get it either. The live-action films seem divided between remakes, Star Wars, Marvel, and FOX, too. No surprise there will be so many.

I think PIXAR and WDAS are trading off phases. While WDAS was mostly putting out original films, PIXAR was mostly concerned with sequels. While WDAS is now in a sequel phase, PIXAR is more focused on original films again. They'll switch around in time; there is very little difference between the studios anymore for me to differentiate between one and the other.

[Jules]

I think PIXAR and WDAS are trading off phases. While WDAS was mostly putting out original films, PIXAR was mostly concerned with sequels. While WDAS is now in a sequel phase, PIXAR is more focused on original films again. They'll switch around in time; there is very little difference between the studios anymore for me to differentiate between one and the other.

I think you hit the nail on the head there.

I am far more worried about Blue Sky's fate than WDAS. Blue Sky employees must be feeling awful not knowing for sure what will happen to them following Nimona. Disney's ambiguity probably makes things even more painful.

[estefan]

One movie worth mentioning on the Fox schedule is "Ron's Gone Wrong", part of a distribution deal they have with a new British animation studio called Locksmith Animation. I was unsure if Disney would remain committed to releasing the Locksmith titles, so it's good to see that still on the schedule.

With the "Bob's Burgers" movie also scheduled for next year, Disney is currently set to release five animated films next year. Although I wonder what that untitled Pixar film is. Since it's supposedly opening next summer, it's curious it hasn't been announced yet, although we will probably hear something around the time "Toy Story 4" or D23 rolls around.

[Sotiris]

One movie worth mentioning on the Fox schedule is "Ron's Gone Wrong", part of a distribution deal they have with a new British animation studio called Locksmith Animation. I was unsure if Disney would remain committed to releasing the Locksmith titles, so it's good to see that still on the schedule.

I think that's one partnership they need to drop. They have too many in-house animation studios as is, they don't need a partnership with a third party studio. Before the acquisition, it made sense for Fox to try to divesify in theatrical animation since Blue Sky titles kept underperforming. Now, that's not needed. When it comes to theatrical releases, they have WDAS, Pixar, Blue Sky, and Fox Animation. They will barely be able to accommodate their own product, let alone distribute somebody else's films.

[singerguy04]

Disney doesn't necessarily use the "era" system the fandom does (although the company has made reference more than a few times), but I've been considering lately that I think we have left "The Revival Era" as some of us refer it to.

I think Raya and the Last Dragon's digital release, as well as the rise of streaming performance which catapulted Encanto, has officially kicked off a new era of WDAFs. I can't really imagine the theater going experience ever fully going back to the way it was pre-pandemic and I think that will directly effect animated projects moving forward which in another way is a new beginning.

What do you guys think? What should we call this new era? Is it too soon to tie a name to it?

[Farerb]

I have said the same before, but it's becoming more apparent now. I have heard people referring to this new era as "The Streaming Era" (which is honestly true not just to Disney).

There's also a debate whether Ralph 2 and Frozen II belong in this era or the previous one, meaning if you consider it to just be about streaming then they belong to the Revival Era, and the fact that both are sequels of Revival movies.

However, if you want to look at the overall unabashed commercialization of Disney, which pretty much started in 2017 with the Beauty and the Beast (they honestly have always been commercialized but not as they were during 2017-2022 with sequels, remakes, Star Wars, MCU, Disney+ etc...), then both Ralph 2 and Frozen II belong to the new era.

To be honest, I'm not a fan of the direction the company is headed (and Hollywood in general for that matter), everything feels so franchise driven, or even worse, corporate driven. Every new movie lacks originality or true creativity, everything has to fit into The Brand™ so it could be marketed, franchised and be sold again and again, thus making all the movies feel the same and be completely generic with no soul or passion. It just makes the studios feel more like factories rather than places where art is made, and that's true to the streaming era since they need to keep making new "content" all the time in order to sustain the service.

[singerguy04]

I totally agree in that I'm not a fan of the direction entertainment is headed. I am a fan of the MCU, and I don't think their product is bad but I've wondered if viewing their content is starting to feel like a chore rather than viewing pleasure. I feel at times obligated to watch their content to see the overall story. Then again, I'm also the person who cant watch a certain episode of a TV program without starting from the beginning and binging the whole thing. Is there really that big of a difference?

For me, personally, I'd say "The Revival" begins with Tangled and ends with Frozen II. Which I know is a bit controversial because people like to start with Meet the Robinsons, but I think history doesn't show Disney really hitting a stride again until Tangled. I think from Fantasia 2000 to Princess and the Frog, things were a bit more experimental and non-cohesive... which in a way makes those films cohesive. Frozen II has its own legs and is the highest grossing WDAS film to date. I think the growth to that point from the studio combined with the historical context of the pandemic and shift to streaming plus the drop off from Raya lends to the cut off being there.

I don't mind "The Streaming Era" but streaming probably isn't going to be going anywhere soon and feels like if we called "The Renaissance" the "Home Video Era". Maybe "The Dawn of Streaming Era"? Maybe that just sounds like a Planet of the Apes title. (As now I'm imagining walking along a deserted beach and finding a Platinum Edition DVD and screaming aloud the quote from the end of the original film when he finds the statue of liberty )

[Disney's Divinity]

I can't remember if it was here or over at blu-ray.com while DVDizzy was down during one of the forum outages, but I've said prior that I believe this Era could later become the Streaming Era as Disney moves further and further away from theatrical releases and consolidates their domination of streaming over Netflix and so on. If hand-drawn animation eventually gets revived via streaming, that will also make the name suitable. It sounds like the best name since it's really just more of the Revival and you can't simply call it "The Revival II." Unless they just wanted to start titling the eras as "Lasseter Era" and "Lee Era."

For me, the Revival begins with TP&TF or perhaps Bolt. Meet the Robinsons fits more alongside the weirdness of films like Treasure Planet, Lilo & Stitch, Atlantis, HOTR, etc. than the rest of the Revival. To me, a lot of the zaniness begin to disappear with Bolt (which would've fit along the former as American Dog) and TP&TF being streamlined into a same-iness and factory pipeline-feel that I associated with Lasseter. Only with Lee's ascension has the studio been branching out and trying new things again. I think the Lee Era could feasibly have a claim to calling itself "2nd Renaissance" the way some tried to call the Revival that to begin with--despite nothing about the Revival feeling adventurous or new in the slightest--if WDAS keeps branching out (successfully) and taking more risks under Lee. (More diversity is one of those risks, too.) Wish is already giving us an aesthetic they've never tried with their 3D films.

I still suspect someday PIXAR will also be folded into WDAS. I feel like Lasseter was the only thing keeping the companies separate, and now he's gone... If you sit the two films' current releases beside one another, they both seem to be in the same territory of trying new things--both aesthetically, narratively, in diversity, etc. Turning Red and Luca both feel more like WDAS films than prior PIXAR films...which may be part of the reason I like them. I actually got them in the mail today and was re-watching Turning Red, and there were several things that made me think of Tangled and Frozen. The scene after her mother humiliates her by confronting the guy at the store with her drawings where she shifts between moods reminds me of Rapunzel having the bipolar reaction once she leaves the tower. And then of course Mei trying not to feel emotion because it triggers the "curse" is just like Elsa trying to fight her emotions because of what she thinks is a curse. Even the fact that the film is focused heavily on female characters and relationships feels like a WDAS thing... Luca wanting to leave his oppressive parents for a dream on land is very '90s Disney (but so is Coco, I suppose), but also Ghibli-esque, I admit. Both of those films feel more like WDAS than PIXAR's schtick of filtering various concepts through a bureaucratic lens.

[Angeldude98]

So as we all Disneyphiles know, the Walt Disney Animation Studios films can be divided into several ages/eras of Disney Amination:

1) The Golden Age (1937-1942)
2) The Package Film or War Years (1943-1949)
3) The Silver Age (1950-1967)
4) The Dark Age (1968-1988)
5) The Reinassance (1989-1999)
6) The Depression (2000-2008)
7) The Revival (2009-2019)

However, it seems that starting in 2020 Disney has entered in a new era, The Disney Slump... As starting with 2020's "Raya and the last Dragon" to this year's "Wish", Disney doesn't seem to hit it right, with the notable exception of 2021's "Encanto" of course, which so far seems to be the only hit . And then there's 2022's "Strange World", one of Disney's weirdest films and its biggest flop since 2002's "Treasure Planet". And although personally I loved "Wish" (it has a real VILLAIN again, yay!), it seems to not be doing that well, adding to the slump. Hopefully it can still pull through. What are your thoughts on this? Has The Disney Revival era ended and are we in The Disney Slump era now?

[carolinakid]

How about the “Go Woke, Go Broke” age? The Slump Age works fine too, but it doesn’t quite indicate how much of this was a self inflicted wound by Disney deliberately turning its back on its base- families with children- in favor of a progressive activist agenda aimed at little kids.

[D23ExpoVisitor25]

How about the “Go Woke, Go Broke” age? The Slump Age works fine too, but it doesn’t quite indicate how much of this was a self inflicted wound by Disney deliberately turning its back on its base- families with children- in favor of a progressive activist agenda aimed at little kids.

No, I would prefer to call it the Experimental Age.