Disney gets woke, and soon could go broke

The Walt Disney group has had it. They have made a corporate decision to compromise with ideologies that destroy civilization, not build it up. In current slang, the company has “gotten woke.” And when they do that, they set in motion their own going broke.

History of Disney

The Disney company began, of course, with Walt Disney (1901-66) and his brother Roy (1893-1971). In 1923 they founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, which later took Walt Disney’s name exclusively. The other name changes mean precious little; the big thing to remember is that the Walt Disney company stood for quality content that appealed to innocence.

Disney is most famous for its cartoon characters, like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and all their friends. But they also produced original cartoons from children’s stories from a variety of courses. They of course included Wilhelm and Jakob Grimm (Snow White, Cinderella, et al.) and J. M. Barrie (Peter Pan). Eventually they branched out into live-action film. They paid well and thus produced some of the most memorable films in the Western world. In this they drew from sources like Jules Verne (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea) and P. L. Travers (Mary Poppins).

Then in 1966, Walt died. His brother Roy kept the company going, with the same philosophy, until his death in 1971. A long succession of Chairmen of the Board, Chief Executive Officers, and Presidents followed. Michael Eisner made his big splash with Disney’s first-ever original cartoon, The Lion King.

And then came Bob Iger. And with him, the pathway to woke disaster.

Bob Iger and his Woke Bully Cadre

Bob Iger took over as Chief Executive Officer, the only post that means anything, in 2005. He saw Chairmen of the Board come and go. So what he said, went.

No one seems to know exactly when Bob Iger started assiduously recruiting persons from, shall we say, alternative lifestyles. But by the time he finally stepped down as CEO, he had thoroughly salted Disney with “creatives” and executives who wanted a complete break with Walt Disney’s original wholesome image. Of course, to those people the word wholesome is either a curse word, or a word they seek to redefine. Exit wholesome; enter woke – which is now a passive participle, not the simple past tense it once was.

Disney actually started experimenting with films “on the edge” in 1984, when they formed Touchstone Films. Since 2016, we hear of Touchstone no more. The difference is that Touchstone produced “restricted” content for adults only. Today all parts of Disney produce woke content – for children.

In parallel with this, Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2013, and installed a new president, Kathleen Kennedy, to replace its founder, George Lucas. Kathleen Kennedy came to Lucasfilm with an excellent reputation. Furthermore, she told George Lucas that she would take care of the beloved franchise he created, Star Wars. But from the beginning she betrayed him.

The full scope of that betrayal is out-of-scope here. Why? Because it is a distraction from what Bob Iger did. And even his successor can’t stop it now.

Disney goes full woke – and here is the evidence

Bob Chapek took over as CEO of Disney in 2020, though Bob Iger was still Chairman of the Board. Then this year, Bob Iger left the company, apparently for good, and Susan Arnold took the chair. Followers of the Lucasfilm Civil War held out hope that these two officers would turn things around at Lucasfilm and Disney as a whole. But with the latest evidence, we must say: no such joy.

First, on March 29, a Zoom conference call took place among several ranking Disney creative executives. Somehow a journalist named Christopher F. Rufo obtained footage of the conference – and shared it with the public on Twitter.

The gist: one day after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) signed the anti-grooming bill – the Parental Rights in Education Act – these creatives were openly talking about a “not-so-secret gay agenda” at Disney. This included:

• Having characters of the same sex kiss on screen, and
• “Track” the number of “gender non-conforming” characters in Disney projects,

and all this on programming for children. As further evidence, consider a recent remake of the movie Cheaper By the Dozen. The latest movie has multiple political messages that are at best distracting, and at worst demeaning to up to half the audience.

That, is grooming. And to go along with that, voice-over announcers in Disney parks no longer greet visitors with

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, dreamers of all ages!

“Gender neutrality” means refusing to recognize any distinction between male and female.

Further evidence:

All this came out in the Christopher Rufo excerpts. But the company’s public statements make it worse. Disney made this statement on its official Twitter account on Sunday:

Florida’s HB 1557, also known as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law. Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that. We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country.

And what about families with small children who just want to have a good time? Sorry, Mr. Chapek. But you can support the LGBTQ+ community, or you can support normal families. You can’t support both. The LGBTQ+ community exists to groom. Because they know that, unless they groom, they die out. As simple as that.

Does everyone in the employ of Disney feel that way? No. But they’re afraid to talk – except anonymously. An insider using the pen name Ethan L. Clay said flatly that this kind of thing breaks every rule of quality creation by which creatives at the company have lived since its founding. He further described what has happened to Disney as “institutional capture.”

A new Disney competitor

“Ethan L. Clay” holds out little hope that he and his fellow moles can weather this storm. But he and his buddies might soon have another place to go.

Daily Wire Productions made a name for themselves in news and commentary. Then they opened their own film production company – and actress Gina Carano, a casualty of the Lucasfilm Civil War, signed on to make a film of her own.

Then last Wednesday, declaring that

The magic has left the kingdom.

Daily Wire productions announced a $100 million three-year initiative to produce children’s programming that discerning parents can trust.

The scandal, of course, is that this should even be a consideration. But now that it is, someone is stepping up to do something about it. The announcement came from Jeremy Boreing, who shares with Ben Shapiro the duties of a CEO at Daily Wire.

All CNAV can say in answer, Mr. Boreing, is this: you can’t stop with movies and series. Even the theme parks are not safe, if the Christopher Rufo videos are any indicator. (To say nothing of the March Sadness sting that bagged four Disney employees involved with pedophilia.) You’re going to have to develop theme parks, or buy some of them out. Which might be possible. Governor DeSantis is talking about revoking the self-governance privilege from Walt Disney World. If he does that, the place goes bust.

Disney once stood for quality and family friendliness. Not anymore. So someone has to take its place.

About the image

“File:Walt Disney Studios Alameda Entrance.jpg” by Coolcaesar is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0

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