A look at the Disney+ Day Stars in Cars Motorcade at Disney's Hollywood Studios

Animaniac93-98Nov 14, 2021

We talk a lot about Chapek's lack of hospitality experience, but he has no cable or studio experience either. Eisner came from Paramount. Iger was from ABC. Chapek's Disney career was consumer products and home video before the parks, and before the mouse? Brand management and advertising. He's whole career has been selling stuff other people have already made, which is a problem when you're suddenly in charge of content creation too. He has no experience running theme parks, hotels, a movie studio, television network or cable company. He may be the least qualified person to ever be in charge of Disney.

Casper GutmanNov 14, 2021

I don't think anyone is questioning the fundamental wisdom of launching Disney+. The way it is being handled, and Disney+ Day specifically, is the issue. I think your last few sentences are absolutely, totally wrong. A streaming service needs a constant hose of content - that's why Disney bought Fox. You can try and make the Marvel and Star Wars series seem like "occasions," but they better launch back-to-back-to-back, with nary a gap - certainly not a six or seven month one, and they need a lot of other content launching at all times around them. Otherwise there is no reason to maintain a subscription. And for all its tacky showiness, Disney+ Day generated almost no heat at all. It was a massive embarrassment. There were no significant Marvel or SW announcements and no full trailers. What was shown for Moon Knight and She-Hulk was very brief, unfinished, and... kinda bad. Compare with the DC event a few weeks ago, which included trailers or big globs of footage for The Batman, Black Adam, Peacemaker, Flash, Superpets, etc., and generated a lot of buzz. This isn't just one curmudgeons opinion, either. The trade press is discussing just how lackluster Disney+'s big event really was. Honestly, we complain here about Chapek's handling of the parks, but he is fumbling the studios and Disney+ just as much if not more, and THATS going to be what really damages his future as CEO.

Notes from NeverlandNov 14, 2021

Those Olaf shorts are gold, however. Hilarious.

rogerrabbitfan9Nov 14, 2021

People on this site are overly negative. It’s in Disney’s long term best interest to control as much of the pipeline between content creation and the consumer as possible. The alternative is tech companies like Apple and Netflix get to make the final decision about what content is ultimately made. Disney+ is the way Disney is doing this. For Disney+ to be successful, Disney needs to lean all in. Internally when people make decisions and they have a choice between short term gains or Disney+ they need to choose Disney+. Not doing that is what has historically killed Disney’s tech initiatives. Disney won’t kill big tech by being passive. That all in attitude leads to some stupid stuff like this Disney+ day at the parks, but it’s better than the alternative. Disneys content decisions have been more or less a home run. The Mandalorian, Loki, and Wandavision were cultural phenoms. I don’t think Disney needs to be putting out content every week. They need to spread things out a little so they give each piece of content some breathing room and keep things from feeling routine. New Disney+ content should feel like an occasion.

MisterPenguinNov 14, 2021

Every month old Disney/Fox movies/series get added to D+/Hulu. I'm guessing the reason they just don't do a dump of all titles is that they're still under contract to various other streamers. For example, we're aware of Disney properties that were stuck on Netflix for over two years (The Netflix Defenders & the Ice Age movies). Imagine all their old movies that have made up the PPV/rental library of streamers such as VUDU. It's likely there were under contract for three or five years to be available as a rental on other streamers. Over time, they're trickling 'home.'

Animaniac93-98Nov 14, 2021

Neither Summer Magic or So Dear to My Heart are on Disney+. Both are available on DVD. I'm not sure if Burl Ives being in both movies has something to do with that.

Cmdr_CrimsonNov 14, 2021

And we could have House Of Mouse, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, The Aladdin series and plethora of more Muppet Content and we didn't get that..

britainNov 14, 2021

6 minutes is generous. Did you see how long the Olaf shorts are? NOT counting end credits? TWO minutes each. 5 stories. All this hay over 10 minutes of content.

MrPromeyNov 13, 2021

Yeah, I didn’t find most of it funny but I found the song to be strangely honest. I just wonder if it’s because they had contractual creative freedom, if leadership didn’t watch it, if they just honestly don’t care or if they’re so tone deaf this they think leaning in and poking fun at what they’re really doing somehow makes it all okay.

Living the LifeNov 13, 2021

I think any day to complain about Bob "Paycheck" is a good day! In my opinion, this man is in it solely to line his pockets even more. This recent Christmas after hours looks really nice... but look at the freaken price tag! Once again, I say.. Disney is on the fringe...............

Cmdr_CrimsonNov 13, 2021

My biggest gripe is the animated shows coming. Take Baymax for example I'm expecting it to be a 30 min series...But, no it's probably 6min shorts and call it a series it's just dvd extras... Also going to point this out if anyone didn't notice....No new Muppet Content...

ImperfectPixieNov 13, 2021

For a company that is supposedly one of the best at data collection, they seem to understand their guests/customers less and less. I've said many times that big companies will conduct surveys that are biased and only serve to validate executive decisions, and people around here have reacted as if I'm nuts. All I can say is by what we're seeing throughout the different Disney company divisions, it seems as if Iger and Chapek (definitely Chapek more so) are taking all that guest data and tossing it out a window.

TalkingHeadNov 13, 2021

So, unless I missed something, judging from the announcements today they're just doubling down on a streaming service that's defined by SW/Marvel content. No wonder there's so much handwringing in Burbank. It's not only original non-IP features/series they need to add -- they've got the entire Fox, Touchstone, Disney libraries to pull from. The pre-1980s Disney titles currently offered seem a little haphazard (e.g., why Pollyanna but not Summer Magic? Why half a dozen obscure 70s features but not more Touchstone titles?) and, at any rate, it's a very incomplete back catalog. Walt-era television episodes would suffice for some "filler," if that's the way they want to view it, and later Disney-Channel-era shows would provide more content. Rotate stuff like other streamers do to give the impression of a dynamic collection that isn't stagnant. Scrolling through the titles currently offered, it's pretty clear their plan has been to brand this as a SW/Marvel/Disney/Pixar/Simpsons service. Hard to see that ever being a long-term competitor to Netflix or Amazon. SW has been devalued over the last ten years, and Marvel's future is, well, not as bright as it was pre-Endgame. If streaming is the company's focus going forward, the current Disney+ model ought to be cause for concern. And that's not going to change by trotting out some characters for a day of theme park meet-and-greets and giving away some complimentary buttons to the first 1000 guests.

Animaniac93-98Nov 13, 2021

That's true of the parks and their streaming service, but we all know how Disney feels about anything that isn't one of their key IPs.