I know the biggest news to come out of Disney recently is that Steamboat Willie has gone into the public domain. And over the next few years, more Disney properties will go into the public domain.
Now, it does seem strange that just the year before Disney was focused on their Disney 100. Which sort of lead to them littering shelves with silver Disney character merch (which is a different rant). But the whole thing was definity a large PR push.
I know part of it was Wish, a film with a lot of hype for a story which was very underwhelming. But I sort of wonder if the film was created to comment on the whole public domain thing.
In the film, King Magnifico hoards people's wishes, only granting one per month. When the protag says how that is unfair, King Magnifico acts very entitled.
But what if King Magnifico is the Disney corporation. The one wish granted a year is sort of Disney's release rate. The wishes are all of creative people's ideas who want their projects to be greenlit and come to life. The hoarding of the wishes is people who are waiting or maybe their idea would never be made but because Disney owns it, they aren't allowed to pitch it to other companies. The desire for wishes to return back their the people represents how creators should be owners of their own IPs. And the end of the film reinforces that people should be creative without having to rely on big studios to make their dreams come true.
I am not really a fan of Wish but if the whole film was made by unhappy creators who were just done with the studio's BS, I would not be surprised.
