Renowned Disney Director Says: Prioritize Entertainment Over Social Messaging

One of Disney’s most successful creators took the company to task for putting an agenda ahead of good storytelling.

John Musker, who wrote and directed hits such as “The Little Mermaid” and “Moana,” has retired from big-budget filmmaking, but he has some advice for his former employer.

That advice is to get back to making entertaining films.

In a long interview with El País during a recent visit to Spain, Musker said that in his later years with the studio — long after he became a major success with “Mermaid” in 1989 — films became hard to make because too many Disney executives were trying to dip their fingers into the creative process.

He said it was bad enough having famously tyrannical executive Jeffrey Katzenberg running the studio when he was first working with Disney.

“In the ’90s, we had Jeffrey,” Musker said. “He was an emperor, you know. But there weren’t 10 Jeffreys.

“Now, you have too many people to satisfy. Before, we didn’t have 15 directors telling you how to make the movie.”

But interference from the top is also a problem when it comes to political messaging, Musker told El País.

There’s just too much of it, he said.

“The Little Mermaid,” for instance, was remade as a live-action film in 2023 and was roasted by critics as too woke because of all the changes from the original.

Musker’s last big success for Disney was 2009’s “The Princess and the Frog,” which featured the studio’s first black princess.

“We weren’t trying to be woke, although I understand the criticism,” he said of the animated film.

“The classic Disney films didn’t start out trying to have a message,” Musker said. “They wanted you to get involved in the characters and the story and the world, and I think that’s still the heart of it.

“You don’t have to exclude agendas, but you have to first create characters who you sympathize with and who are compelling.

“I think they need to do a course correction a bit in terms of putting the message secondary, behind entertainment and compelling story and engaging characters.”

He said the 1992 film “Aladdin,” which debuted amid the Persian Gulf war, was changed for political reasons.

Instead of being set in Baghdad, it took place in Agrabah, an anagram for the Iraqi city.

“Because of the war, we couldn’t even go there to do research. Our big research took place at the Saudi Arabian expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center,” Musker told El País.

Disney has taken much heat for pushing radical left-wing political and cultural messages in its films and TV shows and for hiring men who claim to be women to portray female characters at its theme parks.

SCOOP: I’ve obtained video from inside Disney’s all-hands meeting about the Florida parental rights bill, in which executive producer Latoya Raveneau says her team has implemented a “not-at-all-secret gay agenda” and is regularly “adding queerness” to children’s programming. pic.twitter.com/eJnZMpKIXT

— Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️ (@realchrisrufo) March 29, 2022

In 2022, Disney CEO Bob Iger insisted the company was going to begin dialing back the politics. Many are still waiting for evidence that this directive has been implemented.