#disney nerds

[themousefromfantasyland]

I miss the old Disney

I think that's a phrase everyone can relate to these days. There's been a lot of discussion about old Disney x new Disney. Still, I feel it's too easy to say that today's Disney is bad and that the movies you grew up with were the best. Despite the many duds, Disney still releases decent movies from time to time.

But I think I agree with the feeling that Disney isn't the same anymore. I feel like the magic is fading, and I have my suspicions about why.

Make no mistake, Disney was never innocent. Disney has always been a greedy corporation, guilty of shameful and shady business practices, more so than the rest of Hollywood. Even so, they knew how to create a brand that was all about optimism, hope, and dreams. And I feel the reason the magic seems to be fading is because Disney has diluted this brand irreparably.

Disney always had a charm that no other studio had. Its films had a storybook touch. They seemed like fantastic adventures through enchanted lands. No wonder so many of them were based on children's books, legends, and fairy tales. Disney transformed almost the entire Western canon of children's literature into a film catalog.

But the executives were never content with just storybook films. They always wanted the success that other studios had. So, through a series of acquisitions over the decades, Disney went from being a company with a huge brand focused on children's fantasies to becoming a complete mass media conglomerate. Marvel, Star Wars, 20th Century Fox, the Muppets, Disney had to have it all, it needed to be everything to everyone.

And now they are exactly that. A mass media empire. When everything is Disney, nothing feels uniquely Disney.

Disney cares more about Marvel, 20th Century Studios, and Star Wars than it ever cared about Walt Disney Animation Studio, the animation division that started it all. At least it could be worse, they could be like Pixar, constantly being undervalued.

The company makes no effort to maintain the essence of the brand, the fantasy that gave rise to the company, and now the magic seems to be dying, being crushed by the weight of everything else.

Could you honestly tell me what Disney represents anymore? Just a big company that produces everything.

Where have the fairy tales gone? Disney has not retold a traditional fairy tale since Frozen Where are the romance stories? We haven't had one since 2013. Where are the grand villains? We haven't had a good one since Mother Gothel in 2010.

The tropes, stories, and genres that built Disney are ridiculously ignored and forgotten now.

It would be one thing if the company were revolutionizing things, but they remain stuck with remakes and live-action sequels, so they always play it safe. And the worst part is that "safe" for Disney doesn't mean returning to the genres and stories that made them famous, but rather remaining stuck with the formulas that worked in the late 2010s.

Even a generic princess movie would be a breath of fresh air considering the stories we're stuck with now. Sincerity without irony, fairy tale archetypes without apology, magic.

And what irritates me even more is that nobody is making these kind of stories anymore. There are some really good animated films being made these days. I'd say they're a hundred times better than the Disney and Pixar films that are currently being produced. But none of them are that specific type of fairy tale, fantasy film that made me love Disney in the first place.

Disney nowadays produces films that any other studio could have produced and that many other studios have been producing even better. So, where's that magic touch that made them special for so many of us?

It's awful to be orphaned from a genre of stories that even the company that made a fortune at its expense no longer believes in.

I just want to feel that magic again, if not from Disney, from anyone else.

@ariel-seagull-wings @thealmightyemprex @the-blue-fairie @mask131 @tamisdava2 @princesssarisa @theancientvaleofsoulmaking @maimoncat

[aurora-light-blog]

Disney’s Nerd “Donald Duck”

[eurynome827]

Disney movie you’d watch with Seb?

UUUGGGHHHHH how am I supposed to pick just one?? Not only do I want to watch a whole bunch of Disney movies with him, but I want to go to Disney World with him and Evans. I can absolutely picture me and Evans crying at the fireworks and Seb just shaking his head at us. It is VIVID in my brain. You better believe when all the Tangled lanterns get projected onto the castle that Evans and I are singing I See The Light with all our hearts and Seb is super embarrassed at having to deal with the Disney nerds.

I have clearly not thought about this AT ALL.

(if I had to pick one right now, I'd say let's watch The Shorts Collection on Netflix, because I think he would love Paperman as much as I do.)

[themousefromfantasyland]

I HATE THIS MEME SO MUCH

Listen, I am a textbook case of Disney Adult, but you have to be crazy to consider films where the POC characters stay an animal for 90% of the runtime and films with exaggerated and inaccurate versions of Non-western cultures as good examples of diversity.

And the inclusion of Song of the South dismisses the whole point of this meme by principle.

@ariel-seagull-wings @thealmightyemprex @the-blue-fairie @princesssarisa

[themousefromfantasyland]

I kinda like Descendants, but the whole franchise is almost a rip-off from Mattel’s Ever After High. Said that I think Auradon is such a cool concept.

One of the most difficult parts about Disney’s fanfics is that, while crossovers between Disney characters are super common in canon media, it’s hard to write them in fanfics because some of them live hundreds of years apart. Some solve the problem by depicting the characters living in the Disney Parks or modern-day settings, but that almost always forces the loss of the settings that their films originated from.

Auradon solves that because it’s essentially a patchwork of all the countries and lands from Disney films in a single continent, and better, it gives the continent a name that doesn’t completely suck.

Of course, that creates its problems, especially about historical periods, but they can be hand-waved pretty easily with a few changes in the source material. Maybe Mulan didn’t come from actual China, but a similarly named empire in a parallel world that has magic. That would even explain some anachronisms in the original film. Maybe Arthur didn’t come from England but from a magical land named Camelot. England could instead be the name of the land that Alice, Wendy, Basil, and Jane are from. With a few changes, Cruella could fit into that land as well.

Here’s a map from Auradon from one of the Descendants’ supplement materials, and beyond the frustration I have that none of these locations were used in anything, here are a few observations.

The first thing to note is that Arendelle is indeed part of Auradon, and it is close to Weselton. It’s also a very strange decision to put these lands so up North, but still super close to Agrabah, which is only separated from them by what appears to be the Great Wall of China. It seems that in Auradon, the areas inspired by Arabic and Chinese folklore are located way up North.

Ariel and Eric’s kingdom appears to be close to Notre Dame, that in this universe appears to be also the name for the whole city, completely dissociating it from Paris. There’s also a certain Melody’s Castle near Ariel and Eric’s castle, which could confirm that Melody exists in the Descendants’ universe.

Neverland is way up north, close to Auradon’s coast and near the Great Wall of China. So, Neverland is close to China in this world.

There’s a certain Bayou de Orleans on this map. I don’t know if this confirms that New Orleans exists in this universe, or if Tiana came from a fairy tale kingdom that kinda resembles New Orleans.

And to finish, my favorite geographical abnormality in this map. The only thing that separates Snow White’s kingdom, a German-inspired land, from Mulan’s China is a chain of mountains, one of which is Mount Olympus, from Mediterranean Hercules. And never forget that in Auradon the so-called Scandinavian Mountains are up north of China’s Wall.

[littlewomenpodcast]

I and Emma are a living proof that you can not complete Disney song challenge without cracking up!

[aurora-light-blog]

Disney’s Nerd Minnie Mouse. I sketched it, and my sister painted it.

[aurora-light-blog]

Disney Nerds “Daisy Duck”. I sketched this, and my sister painted it.