馃攳
How Disney Ruined Culture - YouTube
Channel: Wisecrack
[0]
this video is brought to you by
[1]
wondershare filmora 10.
[6]
[Music]
[8]
what's up wisecrack michael here and i'm
[10]
back in a heavily sanitized wisecrack
[12]
studio
[13]
please people wear your freaking mask
[16]
anyway
[16]
today i've got disney on my brain and
[18]
not just because my nostalgic mom keeps
[20]
sending me this photo
[23]
and who can blame me they basically own
[26]
or license
[26]
everything i love and everything i hate
[30]
and that's not to mention the new season
[32]
of the mandalorian because they own
[34]
star wars also x-men that's right they
[36]
own the x-people
[38]
and just take a gander at the top
[40]
grossing films last year and you'll be
[41]
greeted by one name
[43]
and one name only see from endgame to
[45]
aladdin from frozen 2 to toy story 4
[48]
disney made 7 of the top 10 highest
[50]
grossing films of 2019
[51]
and while this feat is impressive even
[53]
for the big mouse
[54]
it's not exactly something new in fact
[57]
many of the
[58]
top 50 highest grossing films of all
[60]
time were either
[61]
made by or later bought by disney now
[64]
maybe for some of you this doesn't
[65]
matter as long as you get that marvel
[67]
cinematic goodness injected into your
[69]
eyeballs a few times a year
[70]
and i totally get it but what if i told
[73]
you that disney's ever broadening
[75]
artistic reach is actually
[76]
bad for culture and not just because
[79]
they made the worst
[80]
star war how let's find out in this
[82]
wisecrack edition on how disney ruined
[85]
culture
[85]
and i guess spoilers ahead for films you
[87]
absolutely saw if you were ever a child
[90]
but before we get into it i wanna give a
[91]
shout out to this week's sponsor
[92]
wondershare filmora
[94]
we've all been picking up new hobbies
[95]
since early march and if you're thinking
[97]
about starting your own channel then you
[98]
should check it out
[100]
wondershare filmora is a simple to use
[102]
video editing program which is
[103]
comparable and more affordable than
[105]
other big brands you might know
[107]
filmora isn't just for simple edits
[108]
either since it includes advanced
[110]
features like chroma keying video
[112]
stabilization and speed duration
[113]
clipping here at wisecrack until
[115]
recently we haven't been able to shoot
[116]
in our regular studio with fancy cameras
[119]
and lights
[119]
but editing with wondershare filmora we
[122]
could combat some of our issues
[123]
the new update includes some awesome key
[126]
features like color match keyframing
[127]
motion tracking and audio ducking
[129]
so you can create a professional looking
[131]
video the best part is that the
[133]
interface is user friendly
[135]
so you don't have to worry about
[136]
spending too much time googling
[138]
tutorials
[138]
click the link in the description to
[140]
check it out for yourself if you comment
[142]
on our pinned comment you could win a
[143]
license to get the software for free so
[145]
let us know what you would create in
[147]
filmora now
[149]
back to the show in the past few decades
[151]
disney has gone from an industry giant
[153]
to an absolute behemoth acquiring
[155]
everything from the muppets to pixar to
[157]
marvel to star wars to most recently
[160]
21st century fox
[161]
of course disney's game of hungry hungry
[163]
hippos but for intellectual property
[165]
goes
[166]
way back to the beginning according to
[168]
the company's own telling founder walt
[169]
disney moved to los angeles almost a
[171]
hundred years ago with and i quote
[173]
a lot of hopes but little else how
[176]
wholesome
[177]
four years later disney got his first
[178]
taste of success with oswald the lucky
[181]
rabbit
[181]
the only catch when disney tried to make
[183]
another round of these cartoons he found
[185]
out that his distributor had gone behind
[187]
his back and poached all of his
[188]
animators
[189]
worse upon reading the fine print of his
[191]
contract disney realized he didn't even
[193]
own the rights to oswald his distributor
[196]
did and thus like a super
[198]
villain's origin story our intrepid
[199]
young walt vows to never get screwed
[201]
again or as disney.com puts it he saw to
[204]
it that he owned
[205]
everything that he made after that
[207]
disney set up shop in a studio that is
[208]
five minutes away from wisecrack
[210]
headquarters
[211]
and is now a high-end grocery store here
[214]
he created his most
[215]
iconic character from then on disney
[217]
became a veritable creative and
[219]
financial powerhouse by 1937 it would
[221]
break all box office records with the
[223]
release of snow white and the seven
[225]
dwarves
[225]
early on though the success was
[227]
predicated on a simple formula
[229]
find an existing story make it as cute
[231]
and wholesome as possible to maximize
[233]
your potential audience
[234]
and then dive into your scrooge mcduck
[237]
sized money pool
[238]
of course you might think this is fine
[240]
after all pop culture is by definition
[242]
entertainment aimed at the largest
[244]
possible audience and disney definitely
[246]
had one thing
[248]
an aesthetic you know round faces saucer
[251]
eyes big goofy grins and if the kids
[253]
love
[254]
it how could it be bad but as we've
[256]
mentioned before
[257]
disney's reign of cuteness was not a
[258]
happy accident or mere coincidence
[260]
walt was basically ruthless in his quest
[262]
to make all things adorable and in the
[264]
process disney has spent the last 100
[266]
years acquiring stories
[268]
adapting them and ultimately twisting
[270]
their original artistic intentions
[272]
beyond recognition
[273]
all of which is to say is all this
[275]
cuteness actually super
[277]
uncute but to see the disney method in
[279]
action let's dissect an early example
[282]
pinocchio for the uninitiated the story
[284]
revolves around the titular puppet who
[286]
just wants to be
[287]
a real boy as the magical blue fairy
[289]
tells him his wish will be granted if he
[291]
proves to be brave
[292]
truthful and unselfish and someday you
[295]
will be a real boy
[296]
a real boy but pinocchio's not about
[299]
that life he runs away from home joins a
[301]
puppet show and
[302]
lies to the blue fairy about it which
[304]
famously leads to this
[307]
the fairy lets him off the hook but
[309]
pinocchio doesn't stay out of trouble
[310]
for long he soon whisked away on an
[312]
all-expense trip to the dubiously named
[314]
pleasure island
[316]
there pinocchio and his resort buddies
[318]
engage in all sorts of vices from
[319]
drinking to smoking to gambling
[321]
only to find out that they're turning
[323]
into donkeys
[324]
but with the help of his cricket
[326]
companion pinocchio narrowly escapes
[328]
only to learn that his daddy got lost at
[331]
sea looking for him it says here he
[333]
uh he went looking for you and uh he was
[335]
swallowed by a whale pinocchio then
[337]
sacrifices his little wooden life to
[339]
save the old man from the literal belly
[342]
of the whale
[343]
but lo and behold now that pinocchio is
[345]
good he's brought back to life by the
[347]
blue fairy
[348]
but this time as a real boy and everyone
[351]
lives happily ever after
[353]
if only life was that easy but what if i
[356]
told you that the author of pinocchio
[358]
carlo colotti
[359]
never intended for his story to give
[361]
children that warm fuzzy feeling and
[363]
that once disney had bought their rights
[365]
to the story
[366]
the company whitewashed pinocchio to fit
[368]
the big mouse's cutesy aesthetic
[370]
if you have any doubt then i present to
[371]
you the original ending of colodi's
[373]
pinocchio without loss of time
[375]
they tied his arms past a running noose
[378]
round his throat and
[380]
hung him to the branch of a tree called
[382]
the big oak a tempestuous
[384]
northerly wind began to blow and roar
[386]
angrily
[387]
and it beat the puppet from side to side
[391]
making him swing violently like the
[392]
clatter of a bell ringing for a wedding
[395]
and the swinging gave him atrocious
[397]
spasms it's really bad
[399]
his breath failed him and he could say
[401]
no more
[402]
shut his eyes opened his mouth stretched
[406]
his legs and gave a long shutter
[408]
and hung stiff and insensible
[413]
you heard right kolodi had pinocchio
[416]
gruesomely hanged
[417]
this inspired so much angry fan mail
[419]
that his editor demanded he bring the
[421]
puppet back to life and continue the
[423]
series
[424]
which he begrudgingly did in collodi's
[426]
defense though pinocchio being hanged
[428]
was pretty much
[429]
par for the course it's hard to see in
[431]
disney's version but pinocchio was
[433]
intended to be a tongue-in-cheek albeit
[435]
bleak
[435]
morality tale the simple moral be good
[438]
or suffer throughout the story we see a
[441]
mean-spirited and rude pinocchio
[443]
a stand-in for all misbehaving children
[445]
robbed starved stand
[447]
and also his legs get sawed off but
[449]
we're not supposed to feel especially
[451]
sorry for him his actions cause
[453]
all of his suffering oh and if that
[455]
wasn't enough collodi also heaped on the
[457]
psychological abuse making pinocchio at
[459]
one point think he had killed geppetto
[461]
and the blue fairy which i didn't even
[464]
know was possible
[465]
and while you and i growing up in a
[467]
media diet full of high saturated disney
[470]
cuteness might find the story repulsive
[472]
it's pretty run of the mill if you're
[473]
familiar with old german folklore
[475]
more recently we've seen similarly
[477]
gothic tones in children's books like
[478]
lemony snicket's a series of unfortunate
[480]
events
[481]
now let's be fair maybe you don't want
[483]
your kid's bedtime story ending in
[485]
gruesome death
[486]
but there's still something unsettling
[488]
about the way a media giant like disney
[490]
can take a beloved fairy tale
[492]
purge it of its original intentions and
[494]
thus rewrite the narrative in our
[496]
collective memories
[497]
instead of saying faithful to kalodi's
[499]
artistic intention
[500]
disney did what it would continue to do
[502]
for decades buy a story
[504]
bleach it in a caustic vat of cuteness
[506]
and pump it out in exchange for
[507]
cold hard cash gone were the dark
[510]
satiric overtones and in their place
[512]
were syrupy lions like this
[514]
thank you m'lady he deserved to be a
[517]
real boy as for pinocchio himself he
[519]
went from being
[520]
a total frat pro to the naive piece of
[522]
pine we know and loved today
[524]
in the process his character design
[526]
underwent similar changes with walt
[527]
disney scrapping the angular designs
[529]
found in collodi's story
[531]
for a character model that can best be
[533]
described as what would happen if mickey
[535]
mouse had a baby with a tree
[537]
obviously collodi's estate was kind of
[539]
pissed with his grandson suing disney's
[541]
italian distributor for infringing on
[543]
the moral copyright of the story
[545]
now i know what you're thinking it's an
[547]
adaptation artists are allowed to adapt
[549]
and sure
[550]
they are plenty of great art exist
[552]
because someone took an existing story
[554]
and made it their own
[555]
sometimes undercutting the original like
[557]
pride and prejudice but
[558]
add zombies more seriously something
[560]
like there will be blood took the first
[562]
few pages of upton sinclair's equally
[565]
awesome book oil
[566]
and basically threw away everything else
[568]
but nobody would accuse paul thomas
[570]
anderson of whitewashing oil and i don't
[573]
think pratt and prejudice in zombies has
[575]
somehow cheapened
[576]
the jane austen novel maybe part of the
[578]
difference lies in formula
[579]
and scale pta hasn't created a billion
[582]
dollar industry by stripping stories of
[584]
their content and replacing them with a
[586]
deranged daniel day lewis
[591]
disney on the other hand regularly takes
[593]
stories like pinocchio or sleeping
[594]
beauty or hell the hunchback of notre
[596]
dame
[597]
and throws them into the commercial meat
[599]
grinder worse
[600]
they've been doing this pretty
[601]
consistently for the past hundred years
[604]
seriously if you were to put all the
[606]
disney films on a spinning wheel
[607]
whatever you'd land on would likely be
[610]
an adaptation in which the original
[611]
story has been blanched artistically
[613]
ground down and pumped out as a cute
[615]
little disney sausage
[616]
actually why don't we just spin that
[618]
wheel and find
[619]
out ah yes the 1989 classic the little
[622]
mermaid
[623]
timeless story in which a young mermaid
[625]
makes a faustian bargain with a sea
[626]
witch to gain legs so she can win the
[628]
hand of a hunky prince
[630]
based on the hans christian andersen
[631]
tale of the same name
[633]
disney's retelling strips the story of a
[635]
lot of its darker and more religious
[637]
overtones in the big mouse's version
[639]
we're treated to a love story that ends
[640]
with a happily ever after the prince
[642]
ultimately realizes that he really digs
[645]
this mermaid the mermaid frees herself
[647]
from the sea witch's curse
[648]
the prince harpoons said sea witch and
[650]
all is basically right with the world
[653]
the message true love saves all but the
[656]
source material
[657]
isn't nearly as happy or uplifting
[659]
that's because anderson flatly rejected
[662]
this message
[662]
first of all his story portrays love
[664]
primarily as
[665]
suffering for example anderson's mermaid
[668]
doesn't just give away her voice in
[669]
exchange for legs
[670]
but also endures the pain of being
[673]
stabbed
[674]
every time she takes a step nevertheless
[676]
she delights in dancing for the prince
[678]
and making him happy what's more
[680]
in anderson's telling the prince never
[682]
returns the mermaid's affection
[683]
instead he marries a local princess so
[686]
yeah
[687]
rough deal but there's a reason for this
[689]
anderson wanted the mermaid to be saved
[692]
not by love but by sacrifice at the
[695]
start of the story the mermaid despairs
[697]
not just because she's half fish but
[698]
also because she doesn't have a soul and
[701]
won't be able to chill with her prince
[702]
in heaven
[703]
in fact the whole bargain with the witch
[705]
revolves around ariel
[706]
gaining a soul if she manages to kiss
[708]
her true love
[710]
but as anderson explained to a friend he
[712]
never wanted the mermaid to gain a soul
[714]
simply because she fell in love
[716]
with a straight up hunk he thought such
[718]
an ending would be explicitly
[719]
wrong in short anderson would have
[722]
despised disney's ending in which a kiss
[724]
and a strategic boat crash
[726]
saves the day see in anderson's tale the
[729]
mermaid saves the day with a christ-like
[731]
sacrifice where she gives up her life
[733]
and love to save the prince
[735]
and lo and behold she's rewarded for her
[737]
good deeds and turned into a gentle
[739]
spirit
[740]
if she helps mankind for the next 300
[742]
years she'll be rewarded
[744]
with a soul hooray well according to
[747]
anderson this is the more
[748]
natural more divine path though it
[751]
probably wouldn't have jacked up
[752]
disney's 1989 stock prices
[754]
and at this point we could keep rambling
[756]
off examples the
[758]
real pocahontas is not a story about the
[760]
freedom to love who you choose
[762]
it's about colonists kidnapping a native
[764]
american woman and murdering her husband
[766]
the original sleeping beauty is
[767]
literally about a woman being
[769]
non-consensually impregnated in her
[771]
sleep and giving
[772]
birth to twins also in her sleep now
[774]
we're not going to say disney should be
[775]
making more films about assault because
[777]
that'd be horrible
[778]
however the general disney meat grinder
[781]
which polishes off any rough and
[783]
unsavory edges
[784]
comes with consequences in the case of
[786]
pocahontas it's a very shitty history
[788]
lesson that some people might never
[790]
question
[791]
but that's just the first of many ways
[793]
that disney's storytelling might
[794]
actually be a major disservice for
[796]
developing young minds
[798]
that's because most of the stories
[799]
disney adapts are fairy tales
[801]
and while these stories may often be
[803]
dark and complex and vaguely disturbing
[806]
they also offer children a symbolic
[808]
template for understanding the world
[810]
for example in a children's cancer
[812]
clinic researchers found that patients
[813]
were able to use
[814]
fairy tales to express and cope with
[816]
their anxieties one child
[818]
for example identified with the big bad
[820]
wolf in little red riding hood
[822]
venting his frustration and anger by
[824]
drawing an oversized wolf with
[826]
massive teeth another child drew a
[829]
comically tiny wolf as an expression of
[831]
confidence and bravery in the face of
[833]
his struggles
[834]
here we see how the darkness of fairy
[836]
tales can actually offer a light to
[838]
children confronting adversity
[839]
but disney often strips these fairy
[841]
tales of their bite
[842]
instead inserting a bland wholesome
[845]
narrative as we saw with pinocchio and
[846]
the little mermaid
[847]
and ironically in the process disney's
[850]
developed new narratives that are in
[852]
their own rights potentially quite
[853]
destructive as psychologist susan darker
[856]
smith points out
[857]
young girls who identify with characters
[858]
like cinderella or belle from beauty and
[861]
the beast are more likely to end up in
[862]
abusive relationships as adults while
[865]
interviewing victims of domestic abuse
[867]
darker smith found that many identified
[868]
with the heroines of these stories in
[870]
which
[870]
love conquers all believing that if
[873]
their love is strong enough they can
[874]
change their partner's behavior
[876]
of course the reality is tragically
[878]
different ironically by peddling a
[880]
convenient narrative in which all the
[882]
world's problems can be solved by true
[884]
love
[885]
disney fails to give children any tools
[886]
for navigating real life problems
[889]
and that was kind of the whole point of
[890]
fairy tales to convey the darker and
[892]
crueler aspects of
[893]
life so as to better prepare children
[895]
for the realities of adulthood
[897]
of course this all begs the question
[899]
should disney care
[900]
according to the legendary and
[902]
incendiary free market economist milton
[904]
friedman
[905]
definitely not he argued that companies
[908]
don't have the same responsibilities
[909]
that people do
[910]
a person might have a responsibility to
[912]
be a nice neighbor
[913]
or recycle while a company's only
[916]
responsibility
[917]
is to make more money and friedman's
[919]
definition of corporate responsibility
[921]
has pretty much become gospel
[923]
in other words disney will only do what
[926]
is required to make the most amount of
[928]
money
[928]
regardless of the social consequences
[930]
it's the capitalist raison dead of
[932]
companies the world over and it explains
[935]
why disney operates a cuteness factory
[937]
indeed when disney went dark in the
[939]
1970s and 80s
[940]
it put out a series of grimmer edgier
[942]
films like the black cauldron
[944]
that were huge box office failures and
[946]
nearly brought about the collapse of the
[948]
great empire of mouse
[950]
the so-called disney renaissance of the
[951]
90s was a major course correction back
[954]
into the sentimental cuteness that has
[955]
sustained the company ever since
[957]
and it's no wonder cuteness after all
[960]
has a very particular way of
[962]
hijacking our brains and more
[964]
importantly it's cells
[966]
studies have shown that cuteness
[967]
increases our concentration
[969]
a useful trick to make sure humans pay
[971]
close attention to their adorable young
[973]
or you know pay more attention to a
[975]
dysfunctional snowman
[976]
even more telling when volunteers were
[978]
hooked up to an mri machine and
[980]
bombarded with cute images their nucleus
[982]
accumbens also known as the pleasure
[984]
center of the brain
[985]
lit up and started pumping out dopamine
[987]
in other words when viewers saw mickey
[990]
mouse's adorable body bob
[991]
up and down on screen 100 years ago they
[993]
were unwittingly receiving the first
[995]
micro doses of disney branded brain
[998]
candy
[998]
interestingly enough the phenomenon of
[1000]
cuteness being used for potentially
[1002]
nefarious purposes
[1003]
has a name cultural theorist joshua paul
[1006]
dale calls it
[1007]
evil cute and while dale specifically
[1009]
cites gambling machines that use cute
[1011]
cartoon kittens as an example
[1012]
it's not hard to argue that disney's
[1014]
precious animated friends might also
[1016]
qualify in the end cuteness is just a
[1019]
means for disney to pad its bottom line
[1021]
regardless if it's telling stories that
[1023]
are ultimately good for children
[1025]
and while you might not be too
[1027]
devastated to hear that disney sabotaged
[1029]
your favorite 16th century tale about a
[1031]
naughty sentient puppet
[1032]
the disney vacation of storytelling
[1034]
becomes more viscerally upsetting when
[1036]
the big mouse starts screwing around
[1038]
with more iconic cultural works you
[1040]
catch my drift
[1041]
ever since disney acquired the
[1042]
universe's most beloved franchise
[1044]
fans have increasingly despaired at the
[1047]
creative choices that resulted
[1048]
the last trilogy began with sentimental
[1050]
fan service befitting
[1052]
of disney it seemed to briefly flirt
[1054]
with darkness and complexity in the last
[1055]
jedi suggesting star wars wouldn't fall
[1057]
completely into the pits of cuteness
[1059]
and then this
[1062]
that's right disney quickly course
[1064]
corrected and opted for a sweet
[1066]
conclusion based on a magical kiss
[1067]
romantic sacrifice and of course
[1069]
everyone you care about is jedi royalty
[1072]
now ray skywalker
[1073]
all of which is to say there's no
[1075]
property or franchise which disney won't
[1077]
find a way to wrap its cute little
[1079]
tentacles
[1080]
around so what happens now honestly
[1083]
probably nothing good as disney
[1085]
continues to grow which it's almost
[1086]
certainly going to do
[1088]
it's reasonable to worry that we'll see
[1089]
an expansion of their blanket philosophy
[1091]
of cuteness and as we've seen in the
[1093]
past that cuteness probably comes at the
[1095]
expense of story nuance and morality
[1098]
it definitely makes us nervous for the
[1099]
future of a franchise like x-men
[1101]
it's hard to imagine disney signing off
[1103]
on something as subversive as logan and
[1105]
as disney continues to gobble up more
[1108]
and more of the media we love we're
[1109]
worried that there won't be space for
[1111]
grittier
[1112]
darker stories for grown up fairy tales
[1115]
if you will
[1115]
but what do you guys think is our
[1117]
loathing for the disney empire totally
[1119]
reasonable and warranted
[1120]
or do we sound like overly quarantined
[1123]
haters let us know in the comments
[1125]
as always huge thanks to our patrons for
[1127]
your support hit that subscribe button
[1128]
like it's a fairy tale you're ready to
[1130]
ruin for buckets of money and as always
[1132]
thanks for watching later
[1137]
[Music]
[1140]
[Applause]
[1143]
[Music]
Most Recent Videos:
You can go back to the homepage right here: Homepage