Strange World (WDAS, November 23, 2022)

[dancerslegs]

Originally Posted by RevolverOcelScott

But most of what Disney/Marvel are doing feels like pandering.

That's because it is pandering. Disney is in the business of pandering, as are all Hollywood studios. Movies from "Tinsletown" cost so much now, everything is done to pander to their target audiences as much as possible to ensure the highest possible payday for their shareholders. It's the reason why you have so many plainly self-descriptive or one-word titles, with as slick a look as possible, characters from stock voiced by celebrities, and stories unencumbered by as few of challenging elements as possible. Being that Disney dedicates itself to going after those "kids of all ages" dollars, they're going to pander as much with simplistic formulas and archetypes and such as they can possibly get away with. If you're going to embrace the Hollywood product, that's just something you have to accept.

The issue is, amongst an absolute ocean of pandering going on in these films, it's only a very small set of them that just happen to align with a certain political leaning's culture war talking points that they zero in on to go hysterical over. These same folks don't scream when it's their values that are being pandered to. And they certainly don't even think about all the other pandering that goes on in these films because--surprise!--a trillion dollar corporation like Disney is, at the end of the day, only deeply invested in separating you from your hard-earned dollars.

If you claim to have a problem with pandering, then for consistency's sake, you must also take issue with the runaway capitalism that is allowing corporate giants like Disney to grow ever bigger and ensure that creative ideas increasingly originate in boardrooms full of money men vs the minds of film artists.

On the other hand, only ever screaming about your pet issues makes your grievances sound politically- or religiously-motivated, and guarantees your thin arguments aren't taken seriously by a lot of posters.