(CW: Racism, maybe Transphobia)

This feels like a stupid thing to make an account for, and there are far better things to discuss besides, but here I am.

In a time where Disney films are almost entirely souless cash grabs at childhood nostalgia and are often poorly received enough that it makes you wonder why they keep doing it, DreamWorks is turning out an almost consistently decent body of work, some might even say great in a few instances. The latter's films are certainly more well received than the former's, both by audiences and by critics. However, one cannot help but note that while Disney is kinda, sorta, maybe giving a platform to people of LGBTQ+, native, black, asian and admittedly lib minded (you take what you can get) communities, DreamWorks hasn't really been pulling its weight in that regard, at least not at a cursory glance.

While Disney (and more than a few other "supportive" corporations) has been more than happy to beat us over the head with how pogressive they are, and how ,"Oh, look its our tenth first non-heteronormative/gay/trans character, watch as he/she/they openly flirt(s) with a person fitting their orientation for all of 2 min and then we forget about that for an hour and a half!", DreamWorks doesn't really do that. Disney is clearly doing it more for money than any real, meaningful reason or cause, and often at the detriment of their television series, like The Owl House, which in my admittedly uninformed opinion, depicts and treats people of different orientations more respectfully than any of Disney's current or past films. But I can't for the life of me recall a character like that in a DreamWorks film, though perhaps I haven't watched enough of them to have seen one. I do know that Kung Fu Panda is very much a body positivity story, or atleast can be viewed that way. Even HTTYD, can be viewed as a "don't discriminate against others for not being like you" type message.

The reason I decided to make this post is because of a few comments I've seen under both Disney and DreamWorks based videos. Honestly, it probably began forming in my mind shortly after Puss 'n Boots: The Last Wish came out. A video suggestion I had gotten titled, I think, "P'nB:TLW- How to Make a Movie that isn't Political". I didn't watch the video. Maybe I should've, maybe it wasnt even what I think it is, but I don't want it messing with my algorithm if it is. The thing that got me about it was how somebody could watch that film and not see what I thought was an obvious message. While Puss's personal journey is front and center, it isn't his battle with Death that ends the film's conflict; Death is just a miniboss before the final fight. The enemy that takes the teamwork of EVERYONE to beat, not just Puss, is Big Jack Horner, a man who is almost an anthropomorphic representation of capatalism and how awful it it is. He treats his employees like expendable fodder, runs a factory in what looks to be downtrodden and poor city, and wants more, more, more despite having damn near everything. It seems obvious.

Then we have the comments that pushed me to write this post. Now, I'm not a fan of Disney's live action remakes (though I did kinda enjoy Aladdin), but the last reason to dislike them should be the race swapping. Theres nothing wrong with it, atleast not that I've seen. It's nice to see a character that little girls who aren't the color of Elmer's glue can relate to. I say that as a white guy, not sure if I need to clarify that; I'm not hating on white kids for their skin color, I'm just saying ,"Yeah, there's a lot of white main characters in media...", you know? But in the comments for the trailer, just, wow.

I'm not going to post that comment here, mainly because it would take forever, but also, just, no. I will say it did make reference to "knives and mudhuts" and leave it at that. The other people in the comments had the gall to joke about their dislike not being racist, despite them being mad about the actor's race and almost nothing else. Meanwhile, DreamWorks has a film called Teenage Kraken coming out, and the comparisons between it and The Little Mermaid have already started to materialize. What's funny is, it's a movie about a young kraken going to school and trying to fit in among mostly none krakens and I think mermaids. So in many ways, it's a film that will certainly resonate more with LGBTQ+ youth than many anti-woke scumbags will ever care to admit, and it will likely still be given the ,"Look, a good movie that's not political; others should learn from this and stop forcing their agendas on kids", treament that "good" films are often given.

So, I have to ask, is DreamWorks too subtle?

TL;DR- while Disney is clearly shit and trying to make a quick buck off of minority communities, it does have an obvious platform for the downtrodden, while DreamWorks, a far better movie maker, does not make it obvious and is often championed by chud-adjacent idiots who don't understand subtlety because of that. Should DreamWorks be less subtle?