Disney Dining Serving up the latest Disney Eats, Treats, News, and More!
After a year without a billion-dollar hit, Walt Disney Studios and Pixar Animation Studios came out swinging with the summer’s smash hit, Inside Out 2 (2024). However, this success has one major factor that speaks volumes for The Walt Disney Company.
Credit: Pixar
At the time of writing, the new Pixar film has over $1 billion at the box office, breaking down multiple barriers in the process. However, its success isn’t just due to the fun characters, the return to familiarity for both studios, or even the relatability of the storyline, but because Disney has finally woken up to who is buying the tickets.
Related: Disney Says Goodbye to ‘Toy Story’ at Theme Park, Cuts Franchise for ‘Inside Out’
2023 was a crippling disaster for Disney Animation, even the well-received Elemental (2023) only scraped by compared to some of Pixar and Disney’s other releases. Although Inside Out 2 will do wonders for both studios involved, it conveys that family-friendly features with traditional values are still Disney’s biggest sellers.
Inside Out 2 Owes EVERYTHING to Families
Credit: Pixar
The sequel to the original Inside Out (2016) featuring the delightful emotions of Joy (Amy Poehler), Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Anger (Lewis Black), Fear (now played by Tony Hale), and Disgust ( now played by Liza Lapira) struggling for control against Anxiety (Maya Hawke), Envy (Ayo Edebiri), Ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos), and Embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) is a major win for Disney, but it’s also a wakeup call.
Related: John Lasseter, Brad Bird, and Other Legends Start War with Disney
Previous films have given the brand a noticeable identity crisis. Well-intended efforts to give new creators a voice and encourage more diversity in their films were met with mixed to poor reviews and the ire of the go-woke-go-broke crowd. While it’s certainly admirable that Disney strove to tell a few alternative stories, the studio invested far too much in the wrong audience.
Credit: Disney
As a result, films like Strange World (2022) and Lightyear (2022) absolutely tanked at the box office and pushed Disney into its flop era. Complaints of virtue signaling and forced inclusion/diversity plagued both studios and absolutely destroyed their season both critically and financially.
Related: Disney’s Success Frightens Competitor, Major Film Release Changed
2023 was the first time in years that Disney hadn’t broken a billion at the box office, and both Disney Animation and Pixar Animation Studios walked away from the previous Academy Awards empty-handed. In the end, the House of Mouse had to go back to the drawing board.
Lesson Learned
Credit: Pixar
As the saying goes, a lesson lived is better than one told. Inside Out 2 is successful because it appeals to a broader demographic and those representing Disney’s core consumer base.
It’s 100% true that Disney and Pixar can make adult-oriented content, and some even go on to win major awards, but previous entries in the studios’ filmography show that they were more focused on appealing to the vocal minority of under-represented audience members than the ones who kept lining their pockets for nearly a century.
Related: How Pixar Can Save ‘Star Wars’ Franchise
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to include racial, cultural, or social minorities in your films, but focusing all that time, money, and attention away from the prime audience is just bad business. No one is saying Disney needs to eliminate diversity from its projects completely, but pulling away from the family-friendly image Walt Disney spent years crafting is no way to run a studio.
Credit: Disney Pixar
Inside Out 2 works because it focuses on telling a relatable story with likable characters and identifiable struggles that resonate with viewers of all ages. That was Pixar’s bread and butter for decades.
Instead of pushing a message of “this is how the world is, and you should feel this way about it,” Disney and Pixar are saying, “We know how it is to feel this way, and that’s okay.” The results speak for themselves.
Related: ‘Toy Story 5’ Needs More Woody, Less Buzz Lightyear
Not only does the film appeal to kids who want to see it but parents who buy the tickets and the merchandise as well. Everyone knows what it’s like to feel joy, anger, and even more complex emotions like anxiety and envy, and that’s what drives the film.
By appealing to families sharing universal emotional experiences, Disney is earning more than the budget. If Disney and Pixar continue down this route, they’ll be back at the top of the animation empire before the year ends.
Do you think Inside Out 2 shows that Disney has learned its lesson? Let us know in the comments down below!
