Or maybe I don’t. It’s only a teaser, and I’ve given up assessing teasers because they usually tell nothing. Maybe I don’t have to give this desecration of Walt’s legacy the time of day. Half the internet has probably already said everything that’s need to be said, surely.
I have just under two hours to get a post out, I didn’t sleep well last night, and this movie may be the biggest example of how modern Disney is failing?
Fine.
I’m not kidding when I say that this movie is the biggest example of Disney’s current failings. As I went over in the article comparing how Walt Disney started the company and Bob Iger is ruining it, Snow White And The Seven Dwarfs essentially made Walt Disney Pictures. It may have started with a mouse, but Walt helped bring cartoons beyond shorts played during a matinee showing and showed what you can do with animation. He embraced new technologies and made his legacy with this movie. Meanwhile, thanks to the media pecking order in Hollywood, Iger is pushing for live-action replacing animation, and creating movies that are shells of the former works. To this point the oldest films they ruined were Pete’s Dragon by creating from all appearances an original movie using the name, and Cinderella, the only movie under Walt’s tenure until now. (I guess you could make the case for Maleficent, Disney’s attempt to cash in on Wicked‘s success.) I haven’t even heard that either movie was terrible, so it’s gotten worse and worse with these live-action demakes.
So now that Disney has continued to distance itself from the very format that the company was founded on, how bad is this teaser? You know how teasers are supposed to drum up interest in the movie? This is doing the opposite.
BW Media Spotlight 
Superheroes Are Outsiders, Too
I was listening to my favorite wake-up podcast this morning, and the topic of why so many modern writers seem more interested in the villains than the heroes. One theory given is that they see the villain as the “outsider”, much like themselves, ostracized from society and the rules of morality. Of course they also kill people, destroy property, and steal things so I guess there’s another connection there, but during the discussion it was brought up that the superheroes of the DC and Marvel universes are themselves outsiders. Heck, Batman once created a team literally called The Outsiders.
The difference of course is that superheroes are heroes. They don’t kill the people they don’t like, they help everybody in need and believe in the sanctity of human life. They don’t destroy other people’s stuff or steal what doesn’t belong to them (granted I don’t know how you steal something everyone agrees you own) because they don’t covet their neighbor’s stuff (to paraphrase the 10 Commandments), at best maybe wanting one of their own. Superheroes don’t believe in treating other people like garbage because they do maintain not so much the world’s morality, as that seems to be getting harder to find in a world demanding blood because you don’t fawn over the same TV show they do, as their own, and it’s one that seeks to make the world a better place for everybody, not just those of the collective.
I know something about being an outsider, which some of you out there won’t believe of a straight white male, because that’s because you only look at the surface. I was bullied. Nobody in my family discusses storytelling the way I do and even when I share the politics of a particular family member I don’t know how to get my opinion across while talking like I can while writing. Then there’s my temper. I would love to be Clark Kent/Superman, but if I’m honest with myself I’m more Bruce Banner/Hulk, depending on what they’ve got Bruce and Hulk doing now. I’m shy. I’m socially awkward. I don’t have the highest self-esteem. At nightclubs it was the women looking for a one-night stand and me the one looking for something past a post-breakfast shower. I know something about being an outsider even among my peers and loved ones, and let me tell you: if somehow you don’t think superheroes are outsiders simply because they help people, let’s check out my favorite superheroes and let me show you they’re not within our societal norm…and it’s a good thing, too.
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Posted by ShadowWing Tronix on August 13, 2024 in DC Spotlight, Marvel Spotlight and tagged commentary, superheroes.
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