RJ Rambles about Disney?

Hey guys! This last week, I haven't had TOO much going on outside of working on the game. I've been working pretty hard and somewhat long hours. I'm back to my old schedule of working a few hours before lunch then a few hours after, instead of getting up early and doing all my work before lunch. I just couldn't make myself go to sleep on time so that I could get up early in the morning and not be tired all day.

Outside of work, I've been playing Dreamlight Valley some. It's a very addictive game, but man it's a frustrating buggy mess sometimes too (at least on PS5). But I've been enjoying it. If you've read my Ramblings for the past couple months, you'll know that I'm into musicals right now. That has led me back to my first musical love - Disney.

I've been watching a lot of Disney movies that I haven't seen before, or haven't seen in a very long time. I know that talking about Disney really isn't my audience (older guys), but I'll give you a really quick rundown anyways on the ones that I've watched over the last few weeks and my thoughts about them:

• Pocahontas - I hadn't seen this since I was little. The story doesn't really hold up in the modern age and Mel Gibson voicing the love interest doesn't help either. But Colors of the Wind is still amazing.
• Pocahontas 2 - Pretty bad. I've already forgotten most of it.
• The Little Mermaid - Another one I hadn't seen in a couple of decades. I love it though. No notes. Perfect movie.
• The Little Mermaid 2: Return to the Sea - Not too bad really. Pretty forgettable, but not as bad as Pocahontas 2. Not worth rewatching or anything though.
• The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning - Also not too bad. Better animation than the sequel. Story is sort of like Footloose Under the Sea. I thought it was fun.
• The Little Mermaid (2023 Live Action) - It looks really bad. Melissa McCarthy was a very poor casting choice. I liked everybody else though. There's a couple of fun new songs. The camera work and bad cinematography killed it for me though. Very dull.
• Tangled - I'd never seen this one! I loved it. Super fun.
• Beauty and the Beast (Live Action) - I liked this one a little better than The Little Mermaid. I had issues with the way that the CGI character looked. Especially in the "Be Our Guest" sequence, all the CGI just kinda blends together and looks muddied. I didn't really like the new songs either. Emma Watson wasn't the right choice for Belle either. Otherwise, was pretty to look at and they did a good job on the music.
• Wish - We went to the theater on Christmas and saw this one. I thought it was pretty bad. There were two good songs and one song that I sort of liked. The others were just bad. And the script felt like it was written by AI. I'm not convinced that it WASN'T written by AI. It was completely soulless.
• Frozen - Hadn't seen this one since the theater. The first half is amazing. The second half drops in quality by a lot. Love everything with Elsa and Anna's relationship. Not a fan of Olaf.
• Frozen 2 - This one was new for me. Had heard so much negative stuff about this one that I went in with extremely low expectations and was kinda blown away. I might have liked it even better than the first? I put this one at the end of the list, because I have a few more things to say about it.

Frozen 2 has some themes in it that you wouldn't normally see in children's movies. Themes like critical race theory. It doesn't delve deep into the topic, but kinda introduces that idea, which I think is great.

That's ultimately what I wanted to ramble about today. Disney in general. In more recent years, they haven't had quite the same magic as they did when I was younger, but sometimes they still come out with something special. And nearly all of their movies have a sort of message to them that help guide children. I don't want to get into a political debate here. I know that some conservatives don't like Disney, because they're "woke" or whatever and they're brainwashing your children. It's true. They are. They are writing stories that subtly teach kids to become better people. They've been doing that forever.

Frozen 2 tells a good story, but also has the message in there that maybe what you have been taught about other cultures is not exactly true. And maybe those people that you thought were the bad guys were turned into bad guys by the bad actions of your own people. And the solution to fixing this problem is to tear down the barriers between the two people, stop fighting, and figure it out together. It's an optimistic story, when applied to racism and war in our current world, but that's the point. To show young people that there's a different path that they can take, away from hatred.

All the other great Disney movies have themes like this. The Little Mermaid has that theme of finding where you belong. Beauty and the Beast about not judging people based on their appearances. The Lion King about running away from your troubles. Frozen about finding love for yourself.

That's what I love about the best Disney movies. They tell a good story while attempting to make the world a slightly better place. I don't really want to get into Walt Disney as a person, or Disney as a company. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the stories.

I've always been inspired by that. I think that most people, when they play my game, will see some themes in there as well. Will see some attempt to not only allow the player to have a fun time, but also maybe make them a little more tolerant and open-minded. I'm not saying that my game is some amazing thing that will fix the world, but I do think that storytellers have a bit of a responsibility to tell stories that improve the world and not make it worse.

And every time I get a review or a message from somebody saying that my game helped them see something that they didn't see before or my game taught them something that they didn't know about themselves, I get ridiculously happy.

Even a silly porn game can help make the world a little better.

Anyways, I could ramble on forever on this topic, but I need to get to work. I hope you all have an amazing week. Love ya!