30 Dollar Rental, Please

You grow accustomed to standard prices. We all do. A DVD or Blu-Ray or both go for around 20 dollars. Little more, little less. I'm hoping people look at Mulan on Disney Plus next moth and see the price tag before they instantly decide to buy. Come September 4th, it will be a 30 dollar movie.

This was one of the company's films that was slated to come out this spring. Because of the pandemic, it got pushed back to this summer. It was delayed again. I'm assuming Disney does not want to wait much longer, so they are putting it on demand and hopefully getting some money back from all the time they spent on it. With the exception of Dumbo, the live action remakes have done very well over the last four years. While it is disappointing to not see it in theaters, people do have to understand the health concerns. Even my own brother questioned on theaters. Are these places being disinfected and cleaned up after a screening? You have to have that in your mind.

Thirty dollars is a lot for a movie. I don't know if VHS was ever that pricey, but there have been instances of DVD and Blu-Ray reaching that price on some films. Television is a little different due to the various stuff that is in their shows and bonus features. It's going to be a test for Disney because other films that have gone the on demand route have been at the typical 20 dollars. I think people will feel burned out and betrayed because the point of Disney Plus is to have everything a monthly cost. Especially when you look at the fact that people are still out of work. Some places have gotten worse this summer in virus upticks. Some may not view this as a good idea. You do have to think because it's not something that will guarantee you days upon days of entertainment

Maybe this is a one time thing. I don't know. Definitely a lot of pirating will happen to Mulan. Disney knows they still have legs in the movie theaters. It's only a matter of when the pandemic gets better and everyone is not in a panic. This will do well, but how well will be the main question.

Disney Overcompensating

Thank Allison Pregler for making this a big deal and possibly a few others if they noticed it before her. To the point, Disney Plus is censoring some of their content. Not exactly new news, but people are noticing more. One of these most notable parts was from the movie, Splash. From what I can gather, there is a nude scene, but it's just a butt. Keep in mind that this is from 1984 and a PG film. The rating didn't always mean for kids and families. The scene in question was censored with Disney adding in more hair to cover the butt of Daryl Hannah's character. And this has been a big story over the last few days. It shows what Disney has been for a very long time and people getting frustrated at them.

It's not uncommon to see them edit stuff. The reason I view it as overcompensating is because of their reputation. They are a go to for families and kids. But the point of watching a streaming service is to watch a movie or show uncut and unedited. It's completely overboard with censorship. Touchstone, which is what Splash was released under, existed as a way for Disney to do more adult films and had a number of hits through that label. It's almost like they are afraid to try anything adult or show that they had adult content. No effort to show they more than a kids conglomerate.

Disney is not the only company censoring, but they are the worst when it comes to other companies. Obviously, Looney Tunes has its share of insensitive moments, but outside of World War II stuff (if they are even on DVD), they didn't ban their content. A warning is given to explain the different eras. And WB got backlash for a Tiny Toon Adventures episode not making to DVD for it's beer episode. To the point where they responded and put the episode on DVD and that was back in 2012. But to back to Disney, even some swearing is censored in some films. One example given by sites is Adventures in Babysitting for saying fuck. Again, the point of streaming is to watch something uncut and unedited.

This brings a problem to not just what Disney does, but what other companies could do. Think about it, and I'm not the only one thinking this. Some companies will do whatever they can to make specific content appropriate or edit it for viewers. A lot of people want the original versions of films. Not the special or edited editions. Many ditch cable. And it's not always easy to find DVD's of films either due to not finding them or it was never onto that format of home video. I think you have to treat older content the way it is and put disclaimers if a company think its very insensitive.

This new era could hurt movie viewing as a whole. And companies like Disney will only make it worse with the way they handle things.

Family Only Plus Stream

From a business point of view, I get it. The new Disney Plus app that comes out in November is focused on non R-rated content. When you look at that and Hulu, they want you to subscribe to both and it gives them more money than ever before. But this is also bad because it shows that Disney is, as always, playing it safe and not taking a chance.

The way I see it, Disney wants total and strict control over everything they own. Whether it's the TV airings, what needs to be censored for films, it's borderline dictator like. Not everyone is going to blindly buy into it. Many will, but without R-rated content, it almost comes off as a waste of money. I like a good family or kids movie every once in a while, but I wouldn't want that to be the only thing on an app. You can't hide your history of adult content. It's like they are afraid of what they made under their Touchstone label and whatever other labels they might have had.

Fox is more than just Ice Age, Home Alone, and a handful of other family friendly franchises. Some of their biggest films are stuff like Predator, Die Hard, Alien, Speed. These examples are R-rated films and many other films they have made that garnered the rating. I have a feeling Disney is going to screw up in handling Fox movies. More than likely, Hulu is that destination. I don't get why they don't just make it all the movies and shows in one app outside of knowing people will double dip. You can have the kids section, family section, and R-rated section. Netflix does that with their streaming. Can't be that hard for Disney to do that.

For now, I am not interested in Disney Plus. I feel it's a bad choice to have only family friendly stuff. I get it, but I would have my concerns.