Strange World

[EricJ]

Treasure Planet was billed as "Treasure Island in space". Pretty easy to work out what the story is from that.

If they had billed it as that--or stuck with the first trailer of Jim cool-sail-surfing--maybe.
But Atlantis gave Disney a sudden case of cold feet about promoting a sci-fi adventure, so most of Treasure's opening weekend ads showcased the wacky physical gags out of context, most involving Doppler or the farty-creature, with no helpful clue about what tied them all together.

I knew what that was about, and here, I STILL can't figure out why a funny dog is being carried away by cute blobby-things that a guy says he wants to merchandise.
(Cold feet from "Lightyear", maybe?)

[Ben]

It’s Treasure Island, in space.

[Dacey]

Both BH6 and Encanto won Oscars. Of course Disney is going to reference them in marketing.

All of the trailers for Treasure Planet sold it as “Robert Louis Stevenson’s greatest adventure as it has never been seen before!”

Once again I have no idea what self-created version of history Eric is referring to.

[Daniel]

Also the "I want to merchandise it" line is referring to Splat.

[Ben]

"Disney charmer has the makings of a new classic"…!

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 1235265887

Was not expecting that! Good news.

[Farerb]

The movie currently has 72% with a rating of 6.6, Disney Animation's lowest since Meet the Robinsons, even lower than Frozen II. Though right now there are only 39 reviews and it can change.

[Evergreen]

"Disney charmer has the makings of a new classic"…!

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movie ... 1235265887

Was not expecting that! Good news.

I should be seeing it tomorrow, can't wait to discover for myself. I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to be good. Anything's possible, once you move past the messages coming from media and so on who have an ax to grind against the film (and Disney itself) in some cases.

[Ben]

Well it was also good to see the studio doing the good old promotional stuff: just came back from a restaurant and passed a bus emblazoned with the logo on the side!

[EricJ]

The movie currently has 72% with a rating of 6.6, Disney Animation's lowest since Meet the Robinsons, even lower than Frozen II. Though right now there are only 39 reviews and it can change.

And yet the now largely unliked Raya & the Last Dragon (which the Parks are going on a new Tiana-like marketing push to keep her from ending up like Moana) has a 94%...
Keep in mind most of the reviews are driven by opening week zeitgeist--Everyone wanted Robinsons to fail, since it was "supposed" to happen to Lasseter at this point in the Eisner drama.

Here, a lot of the grumbling about Disney's theatrical-vs.-streaming policies and lack of promotion is driving the critical opinion on Strange World, but according to recent business news, Iger's FIRST job in detoxifying the company after Chapek was to clean house in the Entertainment division, and put out a directive that "Storytelling should be the direction of projects in the company".

[Dacey]

Raya is not largely unliked.

Moana was a huge success.

People were not rooting for MTR to fail.

[Ben]

All those things *did* happen, Dacey…in Eric's own strange world…

[Farerb]

I just checked and it has the lowest audience score since Chicken Little!

[Farerb]

Box Office: Disney’s ‘Strange World’ Grosses Disappointing $800,000 in Previews
https://variety.com/2022/film/news/box- ... 235440770/

[Farerb]

For Disney Animation, Thanksgiving Weekend Is Now a Cry for Help
https://www.indiewire.com/2022/11/disne ... 234784950/

[Dacey]

Cry for help? Disney Animation still has the majority of Thanksgiving weekend records. And this is only happening with Strange World because Disney is beating themselves with Wakanda Forever.