Public Critiques on Top Animation Studio - Disney

 Within the Animation Industry, there are many notable and big name studios known for their phenomenal films, shows, and featured shorts. One of the most famous studios to date is the Walt Disney Animation Studios. Since the premier of their first animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in 1937, Disney has since then produced multiple films using 2D and 3D animation. However, with many of these films came many critiques from the public, especially in their more recent works. Disney's films Coco (2017) and Wish (2023) have faced some criticism from fans online involving the pre-production process of films. Similarly The Owl House, Disney's animated series that was aired on the Disney channel and Disney XD, as well as being available on their streaming platform Disney Plus, saw criticism over having a POC featured main cast and some protests from fans over the potential cancelation of the show over the display of representation of LBGTQ+ characters. 

Disney's film Coco is a film inspired by the Mexican holiday Dia de los Muertos, a holiday for celebrates one's loved ones who have passed by honoring their memory. It is often celebrated by hanging papel picadado (decorative tissue paper), creating vigils, and offering the deceased their favorite food when they were alive as well as the traditional pan de Muerto. Because the film was heavily inspired by and referenced Mexican culture and traditions, the production team at Disney and Pixar visited the Mexican regions of Oaxaca Guanajuato to base the characters in the film on real-world families. News of this was picked up by Mexican news outlets and Telemundo, that the production team had based the character of Mama Coco on María de la Salud Ramírez Caballero from the Purépecha village of Santa Fe de la Laguna. As a result, the attention that Salud had received meant an increase of tourism for the worm from visitors around the world. Despite the clear contribution on the concept design of Mama Coco based on her image, Disney and Pixar had refused to acknowledge her and her family's contribution. To this day, Disney still has not released any statement on this.

Disney had also received criticism on their release of Wish. Although there wasn't much anticipation or hype for the film itself, loyal Disney fans had followed up on their social media on pre-production media posts about the film. This included some first draft character, concept, and environment designs. After releasing the film, Disney released more of the behind the scenes content on the development of the film including the initially pitched story idea for the film. It's not uncommon in the development process that the story changes from the initial pitch or that characters are changes or removed from the story as a whole. However, fans argued that the original pitch provided Disney an opportunity to produce something different and had great potential. Instead, the story for the film became some unnecessary prequel to other Disney films within the same 'universe' with the overdone and cliche Disney plot. Many who watched the film, stated that the story was bland, lacking an actual antagonist, and had a forgettable soundtrack.