Posts Tagged ‘Kathleen Kennedy’

Why Disney Fails: Their Blindness To Real Geek Culture

Tuesday, June 13th, 2023

Here’s a nice, short rant from Paul Chato (who I’d not heard of before) on why Disney’s social justice re-imagining of classic franchises fail: It’s not just their woeful ignorance of their own franchise, it’s the woeful ignorance of the vaster connected universe of fandom/geekdom/nerdom.

  • “The thing that really ties those of us who grew up reading comic books together is not the primary properties like Superman, Batman, Spider-man, or even Lord of the Rings, but the peripheral stuff or peripheral interests. When we talk to each other, we’ll also reference video games, anime, manga, computers, astronomy, network protocols, synthesizers, cars.”
  • Put a bunch of us nerds together, even complete strangers, into a room, well, Heaven help you, and soon we’ll be talking about Cowboy Bebop or Akira Kurosawa, or NES, Atari, ColecoVision, Ultraman, Kirby, Adams, McFarland, Studio Ghibli, second breakfasts, Plan 9 From Outer Space, Fireball XL5, Scooby-Doo, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Matrix (only the first one), Terminator, Blade Runner, Aliens, Herge, Miller, Robert E. Howard, Harryhausen, Lasseter, good scotch. Has anyone heard Kathleen Kennedy talk about any of those things? Of course not, and I can hear you laughing.

  • That’s a pretty good name check list, though I’d add Robert A. Heinlein and H. P. Lovecraft (among others).

    But it’s an interesting point: Social justice showrunners are woefully ignorant of vast swathes of knowledge held by the fandoms they hold in such withering contempt.

    An End To Wokeness at Disney?

    Thursday, September 3rd, 2020

    Starting to look like Social Justice Warrior news will dominate the posts this week, but let’s talk about a lighter SJW issue today, namely the possibility that getting the woke out of positions of power at Disney may be “priority one for management,” at least according to “YouTuber Overlord Doomcock.”

    “According to a source who has been reliable in the past, the shit is about to hit the fan at Disney. I am being told that getting the SJWs out of Disney is priority one.”

    He continues, “Mandated by the sudden realization that cliches are cliches for a reason and a new understanding at the highest level that “Get Woke Go Broke” is no longer just a slogan.”

    He then adds, “Yes, you heard me right. As incredible as it sounds, my source boldly claims that Disney is now only concerned with one thing, profitability.”

    “The proclamation is about to be sent out from on high to every corner of the enchanted kingdom. Disney is a for-profit business moving forward. And from here on out the customer comes first. The woke part is over because the mouse has awakened with a terrible hangover and its a new day at Disney,” he states.

    Doomcock then details that Disney employees and anyone on their payroll will begin treating their fans with respect.

    He states, “My source tells me that huge policy changes are about to be made at Disney. Bad mouthing fans, no matter what they say or what side they are on, will no longer be tolerated. That goes for everyone that works for Disney. Everyone including Brie Larson, including the Lucasfilm Story Group, and everyone that Kathleen Kennedy ever hired.”

    Longtime Star Wars fans have been bitching about how Lucasfilms president Kennedy destroyed the franchise starting with The Last Jedi.

    Now Disney appears to be willing to hit the reset button:

    “In Episode 13 of Season 4 of Star Wars Rebels, in an episode titled A World Between Worlds, they introduced the idea of The Veil of The Force. The Veil of The Force is a mystical dimension of The Force that connects all of time and space.”

    He added, “Inside The Veil, you see flashbacks of past events and events that have yet to occur. This Veil could apparently be used to fix Star Wars. Although this particular insider declined to go into details regarding how exactly this could be used to save Star Wars.”

    Snip.

    Another insider then detailed to Doomcock that The Veil could be used to make the entire Disney Sequel Trilogy an alternate timeline.

    Doomcock explains, “During another encounter with another insider, this insider revealed the secret plan to save Star Wars. He or she alleged that The Veil of The Force was going to be used to make the entire Sequel Trilogy an alternate timeline and reclassify the sequels as Star Wars Legends.”

    Doomcock then details that his source confirmed this plan, “Alerted to this as a possibility, my source began to dig dipper. Eventually, this confirmation was provided by someone deep inside the organization, who alleged that indeed that indeed there is a plan to fix Star Wars using The Veil of The Force.”

    Back to the profitability issue:

    As for why this policy change will be implemented, Doomcock says his source told him that “the economic realities of 2020 coupled with the decline in returns of properties like Star Wars have combined to sober executives up. They realize that fans have been driven away from their precious franchises in droves by identity politics.”

    He continues, “Now it is time to get back to business. Time to remember the old adage, ‘The customer is always right.’” The investors and executives are now trying to repair the damage that has been done.”

    Is all this just wishful thinking? Possibly. And it is labeled rumor. But after the death of founder Walt Disney, the company has pretty consistently focused on profitability, and the SJW is clearly getting in the way of that overarching goal.