I hope you’re all doing well. Please understand that what follows comes from a place of affection and love. There is truth to the fact that you are more than just a series of movies but a part of Americana--some of my earliest memories regarding movies involve your studio (for example, seeing Robin Hood and Sword In The Stone at Radio City Music Hall), and seeing Fantasia on the big screen as a teenager was literally a transformative experience for me. Hell, one of my dear friends works at your Orlando Park. So this letter is not being written lightly.
But I think you’ve been going down a bad path, and have been slowly doing so for quite some time. And after thinking long and hard, I have come to the tough decision I’m about to discuss with you. I suspect that there are a lot of people who share my worries and I have hope that my coming forward in a public forum might encourage others to voice their concerns. I have no illusions that this decision will change the world, but I’m hoping in might coax some positive change in this dark direction you’ve been moving the House of Mouse in.
You see, I’ve decided I must Boycott you across the board.
This was a long time coming. I could say that it’s been coming as far back as the 90‘s with the codification of the ‘Disney Princess’ model into a bland something that can be adapted to various mediums like live theater and live action, or the decision to shutter Touchstone, which was a place for darker and more venturous adult fare. But I think the first niggling that you were no longer the company of my childhood was the introduction of ‘The Vault.’
You know exactly what I mean--your practice of releasing one of your films on video and warning everyone it’ll only be available for a little while, at which point it’ll ‘go back to The Vault’ and you’ll never have the chance again. You created a false and urgent sense of scarcity designed to generate an imperative in the consumer.
By the way, what you didn’t tell people was that they weren’t getting the classics they thought they were. You’ve made a practice of tinkering with your older works, using digital means make them more in line with ‘the Disney Esthetic’....which means removing some of the detail and nuance these films had. Looking at how you removed all the folds and lines from Cinderella’s evening gown shows a lack of respect for the heritage you proudly claim as your own.
Anyway, the concerns really begin with the way you’ve been deliberately buying up Other People’s Stuff and co-opting them. That these things have a large history before they were bought is irrelevant to you. The more stuff you bought, the larger your share of the media pie. If I remember correctly, you’re responsible for providing 60% media content now that you bought Fox and It’s Stuff. That’s bordering on dangerous....
Especially since part of The Disney Way is to withhold the media you own to create scarcity. Fox had a Repertory Department that made all their films accessible to college film society, repertory theaters and museums, allowing them to be discovered by new audiences. But now theater owners are reporting you denying them to right to show things like Alien, the original Planet of The Apes series, the Die Hard trilogy, Home Alone, Miracle on 34th Street, How To Marry A Millionaire and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The ‘Vaulting’ of these films to force people to subscribe to your streaming service or buying your videos when you deign to release them is actively interfering with the business of smaller movie theaters and the continuing education of future film fans.
And speaking of your streaming service, and the increasing rumors that you’re going to take advantage of our present administration’s announcement that they’re not going to enforce the anti-monopoly Paramount Decision....you’re building a monopoly.
The Paramount Decision is one of the most important moments in film history. It broke up studio monopolies, making theaters available to all studios and making studios compete with each other for space and the dollar. It encouraged the growth of independent studios, which encouraged mainstream studios to up their game. It created what is The Single Best Era of American Filmmaking--namely the 60‘s and 70‘s--and resulted in some of the most amazing and challenging films of all time. By having a majority of the product, telling people they have to patronize the media services you own whole if they want to peruse it, you’re creating the kind of operation that the Paramount Decision was created to guard against. If you do go forward with creating Disney Only Theaters, starving smaller independent theaters and your rivals, you’re no different than the studios of the 30‘s and 40‘s. You’ll be a cyberpunk mega-corp that will blot out competition.
You’ll be a villain.
I don’t want you to be a villain. I don’t want you to homogenize one of the mainstream art forms. I want you to be a part of Americana, a rite of passage for every young kid that is enchanted by your classic and encouraged to make their own stories. I want you to concentrate on finding new ways to put a sense of wonder into each generation rather than co-opting other franchise and recycling them over and over. I have faith that you can remain a part of every boy and girls’ life without creating this bland and pale copy of former glories.
You’re better than that, guys. But until you modify your present path into pop cultural darkness, I have to turn my back on you and travel a different road.
I know I am akin to Don Quixote raving about giants...but loving something means speaking up when that something is doing Bad Things. Please think about what you’re doing. Consider making the rich legacies of your past (both Disney and Fox) available by opening The Vault. Be happy with your massive hold on pop culture and don’t try to find new ways to force your product on us. Keep rivalries alive so that visual pop media can develop and grow and evolve in new and exciting ways.
I have faith you will do the right thing. And when you do, I’ll be glad to catch up with you.
But until then I remain a person striving to live in a Disney-less world,
Thomas Deja
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