Editor's Note: The following has been adapted with the author's permission from its original publication on Carolina Culture Warrior. To be fully transparent, the author also owns shares in ABC (as disclosed in previous postings).
WARNING: The following post contains quotes with harsh language.
The stakes have raised in the feature animation industry these days. Pixar and its older sister Walt Disney Animation Studios continue to make wonderful, apolitical family movies that everyone from kids to adults can enjoy. Other studios have tried, but only put up mediocre job in trying to match their competitors. They are true escapism from the tough realities we face today. And even if they’re not (i.e. Zootopia), they still offer some important life lessons that all sides of the political spectrum could take note of.
However, there are some cartoon movies that not only pander to elementary and middle school-aged children, but also want to push an overt agenda. Take for example the new Sony Pictures Animation film The Emoji Movie, which was released this past Friday. One of the actors in this new film, T.J. Miller, admitted the film pushes an anti-Trump, anti-conservative message in a recent interview with HuffPost:
This was an opportunity to do something optimistic, positivistic and you know, we have very few weapons in the current administration, and one of them is to target a younger demographic and try and help them understand and adopt progressive values.
So, according to Miller, a movie is an opportunity to force a progressive message on audiences rather than telling a good, memorable story. What a genius, huh? Perhaps he should watch some of Disney’s latest movies. Maybe he’ll get a lesson or two on what a good movie – especially an animated one – should be.
And it even got worse… He went on to lament the President’s attacks on the media and Hollywood (as if they don’t have any credibility problems themselves) – including the very publication interviewing him, calling these attacks “dangerous”:
They have also turned their artillery on media, and Hollywood specifically. That is incredibly dangerous. Even you guys, who have this sort of street credit that the bigger publications don’t have, you’re under attack. They understand that we are the weapon that can possibly change the course of history. If we do not act accordingly, and also respond to these direct threats of freedom of speech from the White House, we are seriously fucked. So everyone is taking every single angle. You are in a very powerful position.
That’s embarrassing. Is Miller kidding? Many of the “bigger publications” he’s talking about prove why people don’t trust the media anymore, did Miller miss the Killian documents controversy at CBS News over a decade ago, or Brian Williams’ tall-tales from 2015? Or even the over-the-top behavior of CNN’s Jim Acosta in 2017? Hard to believe…
There is no doubt that Sony Pictures has badly hurt its Japan-based parent company (one of the biggest consumer electronics manufacturers in the world) over the past few years with left-wing, politically correct reboots of past franchises like Ghostbusters becoming box office failures.
There is some hope, however, as audiences have shown they are much smarter than Hollywood thinks. This is especially true due to political claptrap like ABC’s Quantico doing so poorly in the ratings. Let’s hope the same thing goes for The Emoji Movie, especially since it in itself has a horrible premise.
