I think the modern aspect falls into both what the character says as well as how the voice sounds. If you look at the side character/comic relief/sometimes mystical character in these movies thereâs a sort of pattern.
Frozen: Olaf has never been my favourite but besides that he often made jokes that only someone in the 2000s would be able to appreciate and played by josh had, a well known celebrity. Maui from Moana has a VERY 20th century humour with many of his jokes like âwhen you write with a bird itâs called Twitterâ some of them are funny but most totally take me out of the setting which is supposed to be island culture thousands of years ago. And now we have Raya that has aN everyday Actresses voice nothing that really makes her stand out and sheâs making remarks about her being the kid who doesnât but any effort in the group project. Will audiences understand the context of the joke? Totally. But for the setting It makes no sense and it totally makes the dragon seem less dragon to me in some ways.
It would be the equivalent of Lummiere in Beauty and the Beast suggesting the beast to try some Tinder for setting his love life âafireâ the joke (Although terrible Iâm sorry, I couldnât think of anything for my point) works, we know Tinder is a dating site in the 20th century, the humour Relies on the idea of the beast using Tinder And lumiere is a candle stick so it kinda works. If something so off tone would have appeared in Beauty and the Beast it would have left a bad taste in my mouth (like the live action version did). This wasnât supposed to be a rant when I first made it but it kind of turned into one because genuinely this something that feels off with Disneyâs work these days.
Personally speaking I think this all really started with the first successful attempt of Disney bringing modern humour into a fantasy setting in Aladdin with the genie. The genie makes TONES of modern jokes although it does sort of work with his character Of an all knowing genie (one just assumes he knows the future) BUT most of them would go right over The head of kids who were born after 2000. I mean, does anyone even looking at this forum even know who Rodney Dangerfield is? The jokes are just way too dated, just like Mauiâs twitter joke might be in 20-30 years. Disney had a favourable reaction To the genie and his humour who was played by the very energetic and theatric Robin Williams, but since Disney has continued to use this humour without context and without the same energy for voice actors, it kind of falls flat.
What it comes down to personally, Disney has mostly stopped searching for voices that suit the characters theyâre playing (what @Kura said) and combined that with the modern dialogue the character is given totally takes the audience out of the fantasy world theyâre trying to create and puts them in a Regular conversation.
