Disney's Newest Project Shows The Company Has Officially Run Out Of Ideas

Has The Walt Disney Company officially lost its mind?

Despite being one of the world's largest companies, with diverse interests in myriad areas, the legendary Walt Disney Studios side of the business remains extremely important. The studios produce the content which filters down through the movie theaters, Disney+ streaming service, create intellectual property for theme park rides, merchandise, soundtracks, shows, and so on. 

For Disney, it's relatively simple. Make good movies and make more money. 

Well, in theory it's simple. In practice, that's been a nearly insurmountable task over the past few years under CEO Bob Iger. Through a combination of obsessive progressive political ideology, a concerted push to check certain boxes instead of counting on top level talent, and the decline of superheroes and franchise films that used to pay the bills, Disney's repeatedly shot itself in the foot. 

High profile animated movies have flopped after inserting unnecessary left-wing political messages, like "Lightyear." Live action Marvel films like "The Marvels" have been historic box office bombs. Then there's the "Snow White" debacle. Derailed by a disastrous press tour from star Rachel Zegler, awful CGI dwarfs, and lazy performances, that film too lost Disney hundreds of millions of dollars. 

Well, based on the latest new project announced this week, the lesson Disney learned from all of this is that it should just stop trying.

Chief executive officer and chairman of The Walt Disney Company Bob Iger and Mickey Mouse. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Disney Announces Ridiculous New Project

Tuesday afternoon, Variety posted on X that the entertainment giant is developing yet another "live-action" remake of an animated classic, "Beauty and the Beast." Its previous version, starring Emma Watson and Luke Evans, was a financial success, though retained none of the warmth, charm, or character of the original. It's been all but forgotten since its 2017 release. 

This time though, the remake comes with a twist. It's about Gaston.

This is what people in the business call "jumping the shark." Essentially, getting to a point in a plot where things go off the rails and break down into absurdity.

Disney's jumping the shark. Put differently, what on earth is Disney doing here? The company is so lost, so completely void of creativity, originality, or new ideas that it is resorting to more live-action origin or spin-off stories of movie villains? That's where we are, apparently. The studio that essentially invented the modern animated film, that created some of the most beloved children's characters in movie history, is resorting to this?

Who cares about Gaston's origin story? Who cares about Gaston as a character? He's the bad guy! We don't have to "humanize" every villain, turn every villian into sympathetic, misunderstood people. Not only because it's a lame, lazy shortcut to making a movie without taking risks, but because it cheapens the original work. 

Similar to how the miraculous, inexplicable, extremely lazy return of Emperor Palpatine in "Rise of Skywalker" obliterated the ending of "Return of the Jedi," turning every villain into a form of hero ruins the original, vastly superior work. What Disney's done here is tell the public that it is done coming up with new ideas. Just like its demolition of the Rivers of America at the Magic Kingdom told tens of millions of people that atmosphere and theming now come in dead last in the list of priorities, miles behind monetization and lighting lane opportunities. 

Will a Gaston spin-off make money? Maybe, who knows. Parents are often desperate for something to take their kids to. Odds are though, it'll be a poorly written, poorly directed mess. One with CGI-slop locations, appropriately diverse, historically illiterate background characters, and zero heart. And no matter what happens financially, that's a massive loss for Disney and for movie fans everywhere.