Disney's Post-Revival Era

[Farerb]

Something that I've been thinking about a lot lately, but do you think there have been a new era at Disney for a few years now?
I know that when people discuss eras, they usually mean the animated films, and if we look at the new animated film of the recent years: Ralph Breaks the Internet, Frozen II, Raya and the Last Dragon and Encanto... They are not really on the same level of quality as their predecessors: The Princess and the Frog, Tangled, Frozen, Zootopia, Moana, etc... I think that the thing that really established this new era is learning that Musker and Clements left for Warner Animation.

But it's not just the animation studio, we can see this new era affecting other aspects of the company. The Revival saw the releases of the DAC on Blu-ray, but now it seems that they are focusing more on streaming and they don't really care about home media anymore (they've barely released anything on 4K for example).

If during the Revival, the remakes were more sparse and were more about giving a new take like Alice, Maleficent, Cinderella and The Jungle Book. Now they are more shot-to-shot and more frequent.

I don't really follow park news, but I understand that there have been changes there as well, and for the worse.

So what do you think? Are we at a new era?

[Ben]

The Disney of old entered a new era when Iger bought Marvel and Star Wars. Faith in "Walt Disney" quickly waned after that, and now Disney is basically the company that makes Marvel and Star Wars movies and television programs for a service called Disney+ that only has a scant regard, recollection or reverence for some guy named Walt.

I’m not even sure we ever had a "revival", rather than just an ongoing succession of perfectly fine, commercially successful animated movies that built off the back of the Renaissance period, in which innovation, experiments and technical progression was as much as important as the stories and talent involved. As well as the obvious hand-drawn films, that period gave us stop-motion, CGI, the CAPS system, Deep Canvas, and a huge explosion of creative and technology breakthroughs.

Where have those all been during a "revival" of same old same old stories, sequels and franchise remakes? We are certainly *well* into a new era, but I’m not sure it’s anything worth actually "celebrating" for anything more than being a new Disney that really has fed into its own streaming service to the detriment of anything but feeding that monster and making more and more money.

[EricJ]

I think we're at a break BETWEEN eras, when an old rank of animators left just around the same and/or time as a Renaissance finally stumbled--
And there was a brief dark-ages in the middle while they were trying to get their old groove back, and it ended up looking too old, until a revolutionary new pet-project of storytelling came out and wiped the strategies back to formula again:

The first Dark Ages was after the war, with package movies trying to dig the studios back into features again, until Cinderella came along in the 50's.
Then things were going along fine until Walt got lazy with Sword in the Stone, and the Ron Miller era never quite got its vibe back until things came crashing down with Black Cauldron.

The 90's Renaissance brought it back with Great Mouse Detective and Little Mermaid, and they were living high on the Lion King hog until we got the one-two punch of Pocahontas and Hunchback.Which brought on a very slow and lean late-90's/early-00's, until Tangled became the real start of the Lasseter era 10's...Which started to lose its mojo after losing John Lasseter, and we'll be lucky if anyone remembers Moana in another five years.

So, right now, we're in the Fourth Dark Age, where they're trying to get more mileage out of a rapidly aging Frozen, and sequels to their 10's-Renaissance hits, until somebody gets back to the Walt-era business of It's the Story, Stupid. We've already lost the old 90's guard, with Musker&Clements and Glen Keane defecting to other studios. And Encanto's not too bad yet, which means the stumble is going to be further down the road.

[Daniel]

Considering the Moana series is coming out in 2024, I'm sure a lot of people will remember. Even without it.

So much wrong and again so much that has been covered before.

[Farerb]

we'll be lucky if anyone remembers Moana in another five years.

And yet here you are, still talking about it.

[Peasse]

The concept of "eras" in the context of Disney is often used to describe periods of time when certain creative and business trends dominate the company's output. While there is no universally agreed-upon definition or timeline for these eras, it is common for people to associate Disney eras with significant shifts in storytelling, animation styles, or business strategies.

[EricJ]

And Encanto's not too bad yet, which means the stumble is going to be further down the road.

A full year before Strange World. My psychic powers amaze even me.

(Although I've heard an unsubstantiated fan theory wondering whether Strange World may have originally been a half-baked project for Fox BlueSky that was upgraded by their corporate owners, and originally intended for Will Ferrell as the adventurer super-dad.
That would certainly explain a lot--and, if so, why they're not going to try that again--but I shouldn't raise my hopes about anything so unconfirmed.)