Disney's first film with LGBTQ+ lead bombs at box office – and fans have thoughts (gay fans accuse Disney of purposely trying to sabotage the movie through lack or marketing to justify lack of gay representation in future movies)

submitted by Alienhunter糞大名 from pinknews.co.uk

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[–]Alienhunter糞大名[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

The anime stuff is a weird one. Ghibli movies were quite good and I think had a potential for mass market western appeal as they seem to have done. They are somewhat reminiscent of the older Disney movies back when they weren't afraid of giving Pinnochio cigars and having scary imagery and the like before they morphed into the super family friendly sterile image they have today. Though I'm not sure American audiences would appreciate going to see a Ghibli movie in theaters like, princess mononoke, and seeing samurai getting decapitated and the like since the whole sex violence and whatever standards in Japan are quite different than the west.

I think the Makoto Shinkai movies have been doing fairly good in the west recently. I think that's mostly on weebs though. I like his movies and they aren't bad but they are so"Japanese" that I don't really get why they've become popular otherwise. They're fairly decent compared to the loads of really shit anime that exists but they are definitely not made with a western audience in mind.

Avatar will be interesting to see how it performs. Frankly I'm going to skip it. Because I didn't really care for the first one beyond the "these graphics are cool" sort of way. Does it still look cool? Sure. Do I want to watch 3 hours of blue smurf people doing stuff I don't care about? Not really.

[–]LyingSpirit472 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Well, first off when I say anime movies getting theatrical release- even Ghibli films (which already got that) or Shinkai movies (which could flirt with it) are different than what I'm saying. They could get those releases.

I'm talking about movies like Demon Slayer: Mugen Train, like Dragon Ball Z movies, the Jujutsu Kaisen movie, One Piece: RED which was recently out...IIRC, the Quintessential Quintuplets movie is about to come out in December for the same, which isn't even a action film. This is the much more weeb shit than the Ghibli/Shinkai films. They're Movies that are forgettable throwins to popular series (or in the Quintuplets' case, the end of the story). Before the pandemic, movies like these would be a special appearance at theaters at best and wouldn't be given a second thought for even limited releases. After the pandemic, they're getting wide releases and even succeeding at the box office. Mugen Train was a huge hit in 2021 Stateside, a DBZ movie even hit number 1 in theaters for a week, and the other two got wide releases.

This type of thing would have NEVER happened before the pandemic, and yet it happens regularly enough to say that there's been a notable change somewhere for movies in the theater...and it's not like "anime is bigger, a rising tide lifts all boats", but much more likely "theaters are shrinking, a draining lake reveals more islands."

[–]Alienhunter糞大名[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Interesting. Wasn't aware of that. I'm surprised the shonen stuff is doing well but I guess the kids that grew up with DBZ and the like on TV are all adults now.

Makes sense the shonen is doing well since it's usually right in line with the Superhero movies that keep getting made over and over again.

I heard that one of the Shinkai movies did well in the states, I think it was Kiminonawa? Kind of surprised it did but I guess that was before the trans stuff hit the culture wars.

Saw the newest Shinkai movie recently and must say I enjoyed it but I don't think it can do well in the west. Too Japanese for mass market appeal I think, don't think the average westerner will understand 3/11 by just the numbers.

[–]LyingSpirit472 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Yeah. Shinkai would be similar to the Ghibli directors in "they're respected enough as directors they'll succeed no matter what."

To me, the big test to see if this rise will succeed would be if the "Quintuplets" movie can take hold; we're seeing the shonen series do well due to its action/superhero stuff and how kids grew up with DBZ and the like, but we have yet to see if an anime romance can take in theaters. If even THAT does well enough, the floodgates will open and we'll see the weebest of the weeb shit get regular release.