Backroads ponders media troubles again

[Backroads]

Today I took the kids to see the new Pixar film, Elemental.

Not Pixar's best, but it was basically a prettily animated rom-com and I like rom-coms.

Now, I head it had a certain woke issue. I checked the media review sights, and frankly, they generally seemed bewildered. Your non-binary animated element character is who?

I haven't been happy with many of Disney's directions lately, but I think I'm offended on behalf of the woke crowd here. You can't just declare a random animation with no lines or characterization your first non-binary character. The closest thing to practical "wokeness" was the immigrant storyline.

Kids enjoyed the movie and I don't think there was anything untowards for them to understand. Mostly because Disney thinks an off-screen declaration a celebration of something.

[NeuroTypical]

Glad to hear it - the movie looks interesting and I'm a sucker for pretty animation and characters feeling things.  Is there singing?

[Backroads]

10 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

Glad to hear it - the movie looks interesting and I'm a sucker for pretty animation and characters feeling things.  Is there singing?

No singing, tragically. I think songs would have been a nice touch.

[Ironhold]

3 hours ago, Backroads said:

Today I took the kids to see the new Pixar film, Elemental.

Not Pixar's best, but it was basically a prettily animated rom-com and I like rom-coms.

Now, I head it had a certain woke issue. I checked the media review sights, and frankly, they generally seemed bewildered. Your non-binary animated element character is who?

I haven't been happy with many of Disney's directions lately, but I think I'm offended on behalf of the woke crowd here. You can't just declare a random animation with no lines or characterization your first non-binary character. The closest thing to practical "wokeness" was the immigrant storyline.

Kids enjoyed the movie and I don't think there was anything untowards for them to understand. Mostly because Disney thinks an off-screen declaration a celebration of something.

Disney relies far too heavily on money from China and the Middle East to go all-out with LGBT characters. 

So what they generally do instead is have one-off side characters who they claim are LGBT but who they can easily censor for when their films release in those regions. 

It's utter cowardice, and shows the company's greed. 

[Backroads]

25 minutes ago, Ironhold said:

It's utter cowardice, and shows the company's greed. 

Oof, completely understand this. It's such virtue signaling. 

[Ironhold]

1 hour ago, Backroads said:

Oof, completely understand this. It's such virtue signaling. 

Well, my personal pet hypothesis is that Disney is looking at a liquidity situation. 

There have been rumblings for years which pointed in this direction, like the whistleblower who claimed that the parks were juggling numbers to appear more profitable and the claims that Disney maxed out one or more lines of credit to make the Fox purchase. 

So long as everything was, in general, making bank, however, Disney could pretend like there wasn't an issue. 

When the lockdowns happened, however, Disney saw everything but their TV channels and Disney+ shut down. 

What's happened since? Several high-profile flops, combined with Bob Iger being ousted under suspicious circumstances right after FTX collapsed, a number of controversies over different movies and TV shows, the flap with Florida, and several other issues. 

All of the rumors, reports, allegations, whistleblowers, and speculations all have money somewhere at the heart of it. I suspect that Disney was leaning too hard on credit to actually get the day-to-day done in the hopes that each of their big-budget blockbusters would print money. They'd gather the cash from these movies, then use it to subsidize the flops before paying off their lines of credit. Whatever was left was profit. This is how Cannon Films used to do it before they deviated from their formula, and that deviation led to their demise. 

In this case, they haven't made the money they need. They're in trouble because they don't have enough liquid cash to handle various expenses and payments, and they know it. That's why the CFO - a position where we usually talk about "golden coffins" instead of "golden parachutes", suddenly decided to spend more time with family; as CFO, she should have sounded the alarm a lot sooner. And let's face it: the chief diversity officer is gone because her little "agenda" joke got several movies destroyed at the box office, movies Disney needed to be successful. 

It also explains the situation at Lucas Film, with Leslye Hedland and others having their projects cancelled and then being paid a pittance in compensation. 

[Carborendum]

Tin Foil Hat Time:

I tend to believe that for the past few decades China was secretly bankrolling multiple major studios to create woke content for the US.  This is specifically to undermine the morality of US society (as well as their allies).  At the same time, they require censoring of the same films for China's audience (as well as those of their allies).

That is why they care less about how much they lose in the US box office.  They're making it up with state dollars.

Today, the damage has been done.  Now that an entire generation or two of people have been indoctrinated, China no longer needs to spend money on such bribes to the studios. They do it of themselves for free (or even at a loss).

Edited June 24, 2023 by Carborendum

[Vort]

45 minutes ago, Carborendum said:

Tin Foil Hat Time:

I tend to believe that for the past few decades China was secretly bankrolling multiple major studios to create woke content for the US.  This is specifically to undermine the morality of US society (as well as their allies).  At the same time, they require censoring of the same films for China's audience (as well as those of their allies).

That is why they care less about how much they lose in the US box office.  They're making it up with state dollars.

Today, the damage has been done.  Now that an entire generation or two of people have been indoctrinated, China no longer needs to spend money on such bribes to the studios. They do it of themselves for free (or even at a loss).

I don't believe this, mainly because I don't believe it's necessary to invoke Chinese conspiracies to explain American decadence. Since before we were a twinkle in our fathers' eyes, Americans have been downright talented at being decadent. (And no, GenZ-ers, that doesn't mean they really like fine chocolate. If they did, Hershey's wouldn't be a thing.)

[NeuroTypical]

I'd like to think that America didn't get to "men are women and children need drag shows" without a nefarious enemy pulling the wool over our eyes.  But liking to think it is about as firm as I can get about the odds.

[zil2]

1 hour ago, NeuroTypical said:

a nefarious enemy pulling the wool over our eyes

Erm.  There was this dude.  In the beginning.  Telling lots of lies.....

[prisonchaplain]

On 6/23/2023 at 6:40 PM, Carborendum said:

Tin Foil Hat Time:  I tend to believe that for the past few decades China was secretly bankrolling multiple major studios to create woke content for the US. 

I doubt that China is that intentional about morally corrupting us. They probably fund divisive politics and media, but material mean to corrupt our morals--I doubt that the Communists are that spiritually savvy. On the other hand, the father of lies might have inspired some less intentional moves that are anti-gospel. 

Perhaps I am cynical, but I question all theories that ascribe spiritual astuteness to governments (including our own).

[Carborendum]

7 hours ago, prisonchaplain said:

I doubt that China is that intentional about morally corrupting us. They probably fund divisive politics and media, but material mean to corrupt our morals--I doubt that the Communists are that spiritually savvy. On the other hand, the father of lies might have inspired some less intentional moves that are anti-gospel. 

Perhaps I am cynical, but I question all theories that ascribe spiritual astuteness to governments (including our own).

No, they don't care about our religion being right or wrong.  They've studied us extensively to determine what makes us strong.  And they want to destroy our source of societal strength and resilience.

Here's what I've seen.  Chinese political speeches, media statements, & movies depicting Americans as bad guys often talk about how our morals being unacceptable and how we don't even have a common source of inspiration.  Of course, they make no mention of their hypocrisy.  Yet, they have some pride that they have probably the oldest civilized history from which to gather national pride and unity.  They know this is a source of national solidarity/unity and national strength.  They emphasize it in their own country.

They saw the US culture in past generations which provided our "founding myths" (I've spoken about this before) and our religious/moral center which kept guiding us even in hard times.  They would wish to do everything they can to destroy that which makes America strong. 

What is interesting to note is that our political enemies recognize what makes America strong.  But now the internal enemies of America are now doing all the work for them.  Get rid of American history and patriotism.  Get rid of all of our religious history.  In fact, re-write all of history so that we have no founding myths to unify us.  Morality?  There is none.

We tend to think of things in short term cycles like a four year cycle of a presidency.  The Chinese think in time-frames covering multiple generations.

[LDSGator]

8 hours ago, prisonchaplain said:

doubt that China is that intentional about morally corrupting us

They aren’t. They have enough problems internally. Like a snotty child they’ll push their limits by flying planes near Taiwan or something, but in reality, they pose no threat to us. At all. 

[LDSGator]

this video cuts through the doom and gloom alarmism. 
 

The right seems a little blind to this, but China, despite the hype, would get blown away in two weeks against us. They know it and want no part of us. 

Edited July 22, 2023 by LDSGator

[prisonchaplain]

I'm probably closer to @Carborendum on this one. China can hurt us plenty. My financial advisor doesn't think it's likely, but the group says that if any country can create economic havoc it's China. Then there is Taiwan, N. Korea, and their funding of divisive elements in our society--including spiritual ones. My only point is that they aren't that smart about spirituality--perhaps more the "useful idiots" for the devil. Sometimes ignorance is more dangerous, though.

[Vort]

I'm not worried about China's military. As Gator points out, they are not a military threat. I think they are a grave threat in many other ways, including in information infrastructure, communications, and societally/culturally (though to be fair, we are our own worst enemy on that latter one).

[LDSGator]

1 hour ago, Vort said:

I'm not worried about China's military. As Gator points out, they are not a military threat. I think they are a grave threat in many other ways, including in information infrastructure, communications, and societally/culturally (though to be fair, we are our own worst enemy on that latter one).

 

Our culture is far more influential on theirs than they are on us. That explains why/how Chinese kids can recognize Mario brothers, Star Wars, Mickey Mouse, etc while kids in America would stare blankly at Chinese cartoon characters. They have Wal Mart in China and it’s enormous. Most Americans are understandably clueless about all things China, but they sadly don’t care and think they know everything about the place. 
 

We are hosting a Chinese student now, and other hosts have foolishly taken them to supermarkets expecting the kids to fall on their feet and be amazed. Imagine if I gave @Vort a fifth grade math book and I expected him to be stumped by it. Same thing.  I’d show my own stupidity. 
 

If you want to worry about China worry about their corruption, their environmental policies and human rights violations. Worrying about the Chinese attacking us or their cultural influence is like worrying that you’ll get heartburn on the Titanic while eating dinner after she already hit the iceberg.  Sure it’s possible but there are vastly more pressing concerns! 

Edited July 22, 2023 by LDSGator

[Carborendum]

3 hours ago, prisonchaplain said:

My only point is that they aren't that smart about spirituality--perhaps more the "useful idiots" for the devil. Sometimes ignorance is more dangerous, though.

I agree.  I may not have worded it as succinctly.  But, yes, that is about right.

[Carborendum]

2 hours ago, Vort said:

I'm not worried about China's military. As Gator points out, they are not a military threat. I think they are a grave threat in many other ways, including in information infrastructure, communications, and societally/culturally (though to be fair, we are our own worst enemy on that latter one).

This is really all I'm saying.  But I'd say that we're only our own worst enemy in the current generation.  And I'll even admit that it was so at the time we were born.  But there was a spiritual reason that America won WWII.  And there is a spiritual reason we lost Vietnam.  Korea was a transition point where we basically had a stalemate.

And I believe that the results of those wars marked a turning point in the spiritual strength of this country.  While every nation has sins and faults, we were largely a God-fearing nation.  But somewhere in the 50s and 60s things changed.

[LDSGator]

To be fair, I can understand Europe sliding into atheism. If we had two devastating wars in under a century that killed our neighbors from California to Virginia, it would probably be hard for many of us to believe in a loving God. 
 

Off topic-Did you ever think how horrible it was for the WW I generation to prepare their children to fought in WW 2? Usually you fight a war with the hope your kids don't have to. Not so there. I feel bad for the Silent Generation. Everyone calls the WW2 the “greatest generation” but WW1 wasn’t a gentle walk in the park. 

[NeuroTypical]

On 6/23/2023 at 2:06 PM, Backroads said:

Today I took the kids to see the new Pixar film, Elemental.

Not Pixar's best, but it was basically a prettily animated rom-com and I like rom-coms.

Now, I head it had a certain woke issue. I checked the media review sights, and frankly, they generally seemed bewildered. Your non-binary animated element character is who?

Now that Elemental hit Disney+, I finally got around to seeing it.

The nonbinary character was water dude's youngest sibling.  "That's my little sib Lake, and her girlfriend Ghibli."  Had like one line in the entire movie.  I didn't really notice anything to signal the status.  I guess the movie gets to have the final say.  Cut just 5 seconds of the scene, and the movie could sell in China or wherever.  Easy enough to believe so the scene could be virtue-signaled to the alphabet and alphabet-adjacent crowd.  Easy enough to deny or overlook, the movie still appeals to the more conservative crowd.  These years, "Disney magic" means successfully pandering to different cultural and global elements without ticking off others. (shrug)

 

It's a fine 'love conquers all' movie.  It even conquers the laws of physics and biology, but I guess if you're gonna create a world with sentient elements, you get to create your own laws of physics and biology too.

If this movie had been made 35 years ago, people would have understood it as an "it's ok to date another race" movie.   Anyone old enough to remember how worried we all were about that?

Edited September 17, 2023 by NeuroTypical

[LDSGator]

12 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

If this movie had been made 35 years ago, people would have understood it as an "it's ok to date another race" movie.   Anyone old enough to remember how worried we all were about that?

Now it’s so widespread that even if you are against it, no one cares or will listen to you. When the races live together it’s bound to happen. 

Edited September 17, 2023 by LDSGator

[NeuroTypical]

5 minutes ago, LDSGator said:

Now it’s so widespread that even if you are against it, no one cares or will listen to you. When the races live together it’s bound to happen. 

I really recognize the mom and dad in that movie.  I was born into a culture that thought and talked that way about mingling races.  But the notions mostly died out once all the moms and dads encountered their grandchildren in the offending color, and they all grew up with none of the scary birth defects and mental challenges and everything else people were scared about.  It used to be folks were ignorant and scared, and there wasn't data.  Now, you have to be willfully blind to all the data to remain scared.

[LDSGator]

3 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

I really recognize the mom and dad in that movie.  I was born into a culture that thought and talked that way about mingling races.  But the notions mostly died out once all the moms and dads encountered their grandchildren in the offending color, and they all grew up with none of the scary birth defects and mental challenges and everything else people were scared about.  It used to be folks were ignorant and scared, and there wasn't data.  Now, you have to be willfully blind to all the data to remain scared.

That, and to be honest, not everyone from the Greatest Generation/Silent Generation thought that way on race. Was it the majority? Sure. But my Memere (who never lived outside of NH until she was over 85) had no issue with interracial dating back in the early 60’s! 

[LDSGator]

9 minutes ago, NeuroTypical said:

Now, you have to be willfully blind to all the data to remain scared.

Or blind with hate.