Disney has nearly singlehandedly built the Cuteness Industrial Complex and it's a bad thing
you can't hardly come across a movie with anything to say anymore, the morals of these movies are invariably something mainstream and harmless, and ultimately they don't explore any deep topics at all. The Mandalorian, for instance, may seem like it's touching on serious, gritty themes, but they're just that, themes. Ultimately the Mandalorian has absolutely nothing, morally, to say to the audience.
It's not just Star Wars either, it's basically every bit story they've ever gotten their hands on. They just take folktales, inject a huge amount of bulbous eyed adorable critters and remove any controversial or substantial lessons to be learned, replacing them with kid friendly alternatives, and then release it back out to the world for tons and tons of money. Then they buy another studio and repeat the process with the next set of stories.
Disney movies rarely if ever have ANYTHING to say. There's always a happy ending, the power of love always overcomes everything, and dark themes give them just enough spice to skirt by and pretend to be edgy, despite not actually having a stance at all on the story being told.
And it's actually sensitized us, culturally, without us noticing it. Star Wars in particular, through the lens of droids, has an avenue to explore loads of very compelling stories that would provide an allegory to social inequalities in the world today, but instead equal rights for droids is treated like a throwaway joke character, and droids occupy this weird middle ground of simultaneously sapient and disposable. It's honestly pretty fucked up, actually.
And many of the good guy characters, most all of them, in fact, just accept this and nobody who brings it up is treated seriously. There's seriously a lot of story potential here, as well, but it'd all be too risky, so instead they just give us a starcrossed lovers redemption arc and throw a truly mindnumbing number of superweapons at the audience over and over again, because they can't be asked to tell a story that isn't just cut and dry good guys vs bad guys.
Of the top 10 highest grossing movies of 2019, 7 of them were Disney movies. They have a practical monopoly on our culture, and the lessons that these movies contain are increasingly empty.
It is absolutely a good thing to laugh at chuds who get mad about Star Wars having a female lead, or there being black representation. Their reasons for disliking the new trilogy of movies are based in hatred and it's completely worthy of ridicule, but that doesn't mean that these movies are actually SAYING anything just because they have a degree of representation.
The story does not drill deeply into any pressing questions at all, because it needs to preserve the convenience of black and white good guy vs bad guy, and the entire universe is made less compelling because of it. Instead, a considerable amount of cuteness is injected into the movies, the stakes are repeatedly raised to levels that break the believability of the world, a beloved character is killed off just to help preserve the stakes, and happy endings are guaranteed after a heroic sacrifice.
The original trilogy and even the prequels had far more to say about society, more to say about what it means to be a villain or a hero. Kylo Ren is an absolute joke of a character by comparison, and it's all excused because, what? An even bigger space battle, an even rounder droid? These are fine movies, sure, but they're awful stories, and it's time we admit that.
@starwall The one moment of hope is when i was briefly able to read it as a metatextual story *about* being a star wars sequel trilogy, the story being about the fiction. Which, to be clear, also isn't necessarily saying anything important, but it is at least an explored concept of interest.
Yeah that narrative didn't pan out into anything substantive either.
@starwall the most insulting instance of that was the rectonning of rey's lack of heritage in the third film.
it read as nothing more than sheer contempt for anyone who enjoyed elements of the prior film that worked.
@witchfynder_finder @starwall Jenny Nicholson has a great video about that film, and one of the main points she made was that instead of making episode 9, JJ. Abrams decided to make his own episode 8 that also had to end the trilogy.
@swiff @starwall Yup. Also he clearly has no respect for ANY of the other stories being told in the universe. Poe already had an established backstory explaining how he joined the Resistance but JJ didn't know or care about that so he just invented his own, honestly pretty racist, story for Poe instead of respecting work that had come before.
@swiff @witchfynder_finder @starwall I regard the sequel trilogy as a build-up to Jenny Nicholson's Palpatine impression.
Worth every penny.
@starwall the only part of this I disagree with at all is that Disney had to "inject cuteness" into a series that started with R2D2 and culminated the first trilogy with Ewoks. Cuteness is a core part of the Star Wars brand and always has been.
@robotcarsley You're right about that, but they surely did inject cuteness into a whole hell of a lot of folktales collectively known as the Disney princess movies, and even a real story about colonialism in the case of Pocahontas, and it's been in no small part the origin of their massive commercial success. It's their entire business model, and they're treating Star Wars no differently
@robotcarsley They had an opportunity here to look more critically at the Star Wars universe and begin to unravel it, socially, and tell the stories therein. But instead they took the easy road, and it's just wasted potential
@starwall I mean, any star wars film would have to preserve that anyway
@a_breakin_glass @starwall they’re fun questions to ask, but it really seems like a lot to expect out of a franchase that has never really been very deep at all except in the extended universe media (novels, comics, clone wars/rebels).
the movies exist for exactly one purpose: selling toys, and have been from the very beginning. if the story has ever been compelling that’s a side effect
@starwall representation isn't justice
@starwall Old ones: all about the chosen one New ones: working together is the way♥
The actual story of the new trilogy of Star Wars movies doesn't actually explore any big questions, like, are droids sapient, and if so, do they actually deserve equal rights? If one stormtrooper can lose their loyalty, why not many more, why are all the rest still treated as conveniently expendable? Just why would anybody in their right mind actually want to fight for the First Order anyways, besides just growing up indoctrinated by a fascist cult?