In the past five years Disney has created around ten original films and eight sequels- making nearly half of their recent movies continuations of old ones. But the rapid rise in sequels has left me wondering: who wants this?
This decade has seen numerous shifts in the entertainment industry, with the most disappointing being the phenomena of rehashing the same plot lines to create stale sequels. Disney is the biggest offender of this, continuing to bring up movie series that should just end already, like a new Star Wars trilogy set to release in 2026.
In Dec. 2023, Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney made headlines when he admitted that the company may have made too many sequels, but that they wouldn’t stop anytime soon. He said that although they might’ve gone overboard, the movies have still been successful and well loved. This sentiment goes directly against Walt Disney’s beliefs about sequels; when Disney was asked if he wanted to make a second Mary Poppins movie in the ‘50s he dismissed the idea, stating that he wanted his company to experiment and explore new worlds instead of returning to pre-existing ones.
So why’d the company lose their direction? I say profit. While creating sequels and trilogies off of old movies isn’t beneficial creatively, it’s beneficial financially. It doesn’t matter if the plots are predictable or over the top, what matters is if fans will still go and see these new movies due to nostalgia. So, this format lets Disney play it safe by capitalizing off of old ideas and recycling the same plot lines for big profit instead of creating content that’s experimental.
November will see the release of Moana 2, a beautifully animated but unoriginal movie. Already, fans are starting to wonder why Disney felt the need to create a sequel for a movie that felt stronger on its own. Many have also noted that the trailer just looks bad, that the plot looks uninteresting and that even the animation style looks off.
The problem with continuing to make lazy sequels and prequels of already loved movies is that it’s too safe. It’s just an easy way to make maximum profit without really caring about creating new storylines and characters. When Disney started making movies he was committed to exploring new worlds, pushing boundaries in the realm of animation and storytelling, and now decades later his company is just releasing the same variations of old work.
The Disney corporation can only continue on this unoriginal path for so long before the nostalgia begins to wear off. People are starting to complain about the lack of creativity, and these complaints are only sure to grow louder with time. In order to evolve and grow with the everchanging entertainment landscape, Disney needs to go back to being innovators in animation instead of relying on cheap nostalgia and unoriginal projects.
