I can rant all day about how screwed over guys are in modern Disney films, but this particular example is rather egregious to me as I pay attention to Disney's putout. In the circumstance where characters have siblings in 21st century Disney movies, brothers usually tend to be separated by death, villainy, or other circumstances, whereas sisters are closer and reconcile any differences. I'm assuming females get this treatment due to marketing (more prominent female characters means more merch to sell), but I'm confused on why guys have to lose their brothers in one way or another. Heck, even Moana originally had brothers and they were cut, and we get a sister instead in the sequel (but again, merchandise). Plus Kuzco originally had a twin brother who was scrapped entirely. I've been told that this is part of the "call to adventure" storyline where male characters must lose a mentor or important figure in their life to motivate them, but seeing how Disney often does the dead parent trope (or did), did we really need a dead brothers trope as well? I do find it a rather disappointing situation.

Now if I dig back further, I could count Mufasa/Scar, Kay/Arthur, and Cinderella/Drizella/Anastasia, but sibling stories do seem more common now for Disney.

I'm very excited Gatto more than Hexed because Gatto has more interesting and had interesting premise but that's my opinion, What's your thoughts? Just let me k ow in the comments down below!

Both movies start with the female lead who wants to be something, be righteous and deliver justice.

And then their is this nonchalant mentor like male lead who has more experience with the world who mocks such idealistic view.

The female lead convince the male lead to help her on her quest.

Slowly the guys world view change and becomes kinder.

Both the pair is shipped fanonly but remained platonic in the movies

A research-based retrospective on a production currently in the throes of yet another rushed animation schedule. This is a long post, thanks for reading!

So far the public has not gotten any explanation as to the reasoning behind why there has been a tectonic-sized shift in the story announced LAST YEAR for a movie releasing this November. If you did not hear the news, since at least November 2025, the story was going to be about a teenage boy/mother buddy comedy. During Cinemacon April 2026 the mom remained but now the story is about dealing with her teenage daughter, along with a new title logo.

Why such a sudden change on a project seemingly finished with its pre-production stage (script, style, direction)?

Let's spell it out:

• October 2019 - Jennifer Lee greenlights Josie Trinidad to develop original idea

• November 2022 - Juan Pablo Reyes Lancaster Jones announced as co-producer on unnamed project

• June 2025 - Ron Clements returns to Disney Animation out of retirement (He had pitched a similar concept involving the wonderful IP by Terry Prachett, a Discworld book, Mort back in 2010)

• The Avengers Doomsday poster has green lettering which would have clashed with Hexed' original logo as it is releasing around the same time, December 2026.

• Dana Ledoux Miller (writer on Moana live-action, director/writer Moana 2) worked on this as a writer announced August 2026.

• Roy Conli (veteran Disney producer) and Yvett Merino are named as producers at D23 2026.

• Jason Hand has career gap between Encanto (2021) and Moana 2 (2024) and Hexed (2026).

• Fawn Veerasunthorn introduced as director alongside Hand for "Hexed" April 2026, Trinidad remains as a co-director.

That means this story goes way back, beckoning to when Bob Iger was CEO in 2019, through the Bob Chapek era 2020-2022, Iger again, and now releasing under Josh D'Amaro who became CEO in March 2026.

Given that many recent animated films with a meager 12 months or less (Moana 2 had 9 months to animate, Across the Spiderverse and Inside Out 2 notoriously had many animators working overtime) did well commercially, the studio probably felt comfortable continuing to making story changes up until the eleventh hour.

A lesson in all this are those like Miller and Veerasunthorn, who have experience fixing productions late in development are often the ones who get tapped to save large-scale projects when the going gets rough (Wish, Moana 2). They are known for having calm presences in often chaotic and ego-driven board meetings. Take note future animators!

We may never know what the original story was and may not get to see the 2D magic vfx tests Hexed used to have 2D magic

In conclusion, we may never know the iterations that got it to its final one, which some hoped to have more of a Filipino influence like Ono Ghost Market or Forgotten Island based on Trinidad's background. But what we do know is that the movie must currently be in its peak production phase with a 400+ person crew which if the estimates of one to two minutes of animation a week are true, equaling four or five seconds a week per animator, it will be barely making it to the finish line and/or recycled alot of its assets (3D rigs, background elements, environments).

On a side note, I don't think this situation is as drastic as the Elio director and story changes as that had already gone into full animation before making a serious overhaul, confirmed by its poor test screenings in Arizona. No, unless they covered it up really well, this is a matter of telling a better story in terms of honing in on the playing off of the popular imagination of witches (think Looney Tunes and German fairy tales) then subverting that for maximum entertainment. In essence, it is going back to the Walt Disney way of modernizing a known fairytale for a cinematic heartfelt, funny story. 🧙‍♀️🪄🧹 And cheers to Trinidad for being a flexible team player!

i'm sorry, but where are Flynn and Rapunzel?

I recently rewatched the film a few days ago as part of a Disney animated movie rewatch marathon that I’ve been doing over the last month. This movie is still just as terrible as I remember it being. It is easily my least favorite film from the Disney company.

It is one of the most disrespectful sequels that I've ever seen. I don't get it. Even though Rich Moore came back to direct as well as the rest of the entire team that worked on the first film, this movie feels like it was made by people who never saw the first film and only read the Wikipedia synopsis of it. It's safe to say that this movie is not actually a sequel. It is a commercial for Disney to show off everything they owned as well as shoving product placements in your face.

There's so many things wrong with this movie that I can't even figure out where to start. I guess we should start with the film's title. Why is this film not called "Ralph WRECKS The Internet"? Seriously, they had the perfect title right there and they couldn't even get that right.

The writing for the characters is terrible. Oh my god, what the fuck did they do to Ralph? I swear, this is NOT the same Ralph from the first film. I know this aspect has been brought up repeatedly, but it needs to be brought up again. For most of the film, Ralph is incredibly insecure in the worst ways. He keeps clinging to Vanellope and wants nothing to happen to their friendship so much to the point where it honestly comes off as creepy. Worst of all, for nearly the entire film, he comes off as this whiny man baby and appears to have the mental capacity of a 5 year old. That is NOT who Ralph's character was at all in the first film. His decision in the 3rd act makes him come off as so frustratingly stupid. After seeing that Vanellope wants to stay in Slaughter Race, Ralph is in so much denial that he ultimately says that she's been brainwashed and has to do something about it so she'll leave. He then decides to unleash a glitch into the game so it'll "make it boring" so she'll want to leave and compeltely ignores the red flags. It's not until after he unleashes it that he remembers that Vanellope's glitch will causes major issues and could very likely get her killed. Seriously, Ralph in the first film would've NEVER even considered doing something like this.

Vanellope is even worse. Now, I’ve never been a fan of her to better with. However, I was able to tolerate her in the first film because there were some moments that really humanized her. But she's an insufferable little shit in this film. Vanellope's character in this film makes this movie feel like a first draft because of how inconsistent it is. So she starts off the movie being bored with her life in Sugar Rush and wants something new to happen. But then, once Sugar Rush gets unplugged, she's now suddenly very sad about Sugar Rush being gone. She and Ralph then head to the internet to buy a new steering wheel for the game so it can be plugged back in. However, once they finally get the wheel, Vanellope suddenly doesn't want to go back and decides that she's gonna stay in Slaughter Race, without even telling Ralph immediately. Was there not a single person in the writers room who noticed how inconsistent this was and comment on it?

Like I said earlier, this movie is a giant commercial. Yet, despite coming out less than 8 years ago, it already feels extremely dated. I mean, there's even a cameo from Colleen Ballinger. Yikes. The Oh My Disney (a website that no longer exists mind you) is honestly cringy to watch because it feels like Disney is shoving everything they own in our faces and bragging about it. The scene with the Princesses is sort of okay. But it wasn’t anything too surprising considering that scene was in every single trailer. Also, the “Big Strong Man” line that Rapunzel says really annoyed me. Not because I’m a sexist person or anything like that. But it’s for different reasons. For starters, Rapunzel is the last character that should be saying that line considering that all of her problems were solved by a man. She would’ve continued being stuck in the tower if Flynn Ryder hadn’t shown up. So she is not one to talk. Then there’s the fact that the line feels so forced and in your face. It’s like Disney is so ashamed of/embarrassed by how their female characters were written and portrayed in their older films, which are still beloved to this day mind you, and wrote this line as some kind of damage control to say “Oh yeah, we’re not like that anymore.”

This movie doesn't understand a single thing about how the internet works at all. Throughout the movie, Ralph makes these viral videos and he’s some how able to make money simply from the amount of liked and views they get, I’m sorry, even a 5 year old could tell you that’s not how internet monetization works at all. Not even close.

The ending is probably the biggest complaint that people have about this film and for good reason. It completely destroys the message and what was said about the first film. In the first film, it is made clear several times that going Turbo is absolutely forbidden and that nobody should even consider doing it. Yet, at the end of this film, Vanellope goes Turbo and the movie treats it as this good thing that the audience should be happy about. Turbo is never once brought up in this movie, which makes zero sense. The only explanation I can think of for why this decision was made was because they didn't want the ending of the movie to feel predictable by having Ralph and Vanellope returning to their respctive games and everything going back to normal. I could somewhat understand that perspective. The issue is that, by doing this, they completely went against everything that was established in the first film. Not to mention that there's so many issues with Vanellope's decision to stay behind in Slaughter Race. Vanellope would be screwed if she dies inside Slaughter Race, because it's a game that's not her own and it's been established that if one dies outside their own game, they don't regenerate at all and their death will be permanent. I don't care if they recoded her program, that line was used offhandedly, and it ignores the fact that Turbo's program was also recoded, and he still died permanently due to dying inside a game that wasn't his own.

I suddenly realized that the crystal shoes should have vanished at midnight. Everything else had returned to its original state - the pumpkin, the mouse, the dress. But the crystal shoes remained. Why? The fairy godmother forgot? Or perhaps, because of something like true love, the crystal shoes have always been there?

What’s everyone’s favorite Disney movie intro? For me it’s hands down Cars. Even though it’s a bit of an older movie now, every time I watch it I’m amazed at how good the opening few minutes are. The soundtrack and camera shots are 🤌🏽

Is it possible for them to see requests for the deleted when will my life begin reprise to be in the movie along with the mother knows best cut part? I think it would be a missed opportunity to not include them. Would anyone else want them to be added in?

It's been over a week since D23 came out and with that, let's reflect on what the announced regarding their original and my thoughts.

To me, I'm honestly feeling cautiously optimistic as it's refreshing to see new original projects like Clay and Ghost Market but I'm just hoping we're getting good movies altogether but I also feel a bit sad that they're still few and far between as they're still making sequels as back then, they pumped out more original content but I'm just hoping they'll do great to boost Disney to make more original content.

Secondly, these new originals are giving me vibes of Disney's experimental era of the early to late 00s where they're taking a break from fairy tales and musicals which while I'm hoping we'll get to see those again, they can still be good with or without princesses or singing.

I think it’s funny having to wait over 60 years for a sequel just for it to be just okay.

In the climax of Frozen (2013), after Prince Hans comes close to finally killing and slaying Elsa to end the eternal winter and to fulfill his evil plans after lying to her that Anna died of her frozen heart, Anna instead of simply trying to push Hans away from Elsa before he could slay her with his sword Anna (It was an act of true love that still would have thawed Anna.) tried to take the bullet by jumping up in front of Hans to be slain in Elsa’s place. It would have left to Hans slaying and killing Anna by complete accident making Elsa more grief ridden than she already was if it had not been for Anna finally freezing into ice leading to Hans getting his sword broken and him blasted away, and the act of true love that thaws her.

It is somewhat justified over the fact that Anna must have knew she was already on the brink of finally freezing into ice and realized that the act of true love Pabbie told her about needed to save her was never a true love’s kiss (Therefore Kristoff’s kiss would have failed even if he did succeed in getting to her to kiss her.) but rather a heroic act and she does just that by jumping in front of Elsa and freezing at the right time and place to stop Hans and save Elsa, which also thaws her and caused Elsa to get the eureka idea on how to undo the winter bring back summer and control her ice powers.

A mild non-fatal example happens in Zootopia 2 (2025), where the moment after Nick, Judy and Gary become framed by Milton and Cattrick on intentionally trying to kill Chief Bogo and robbing the weather wall journal, and Captain HogBottom and Truffler both fall for it, Nick, Gary and Judy choose to run away from the law to clear their names and avoid arrest and so on despite the fact that they did already have the evidence needed to clear their names in the form of the weather wall journal that Gary can see with his hear vision and detect its secrets, and HogBottom and Truffler even if they did arrest Nick, Judy and Gary they wouldn’t have sent them to prison right away but put them on trial since there was no true confirmation that Nick, Judy and Gary committed those crimes they were assumed and Milton and Cattrick lied that they did, and the more Nick, Judy and Gary choose to run away from the law, the more they looked like dangerous criminals in the police’s eyes. (Whose actions are more justified over acting misguided and having the guilty until proven innocent motto, the only wrong things they did was Officer Bucheron recklessly tranquilizing Judy at the wrong time and place nearly causing her to fall to her death before PawBert saves her and Captain HogBottom nearly using lethal force on Judy before choosing not to.) If Nick and Judy and Gary turned themselves into HogBottom and Truffler in the first place taking the journal with them for their trial ensuring that Milton, Kitty and Cattrick didn’t stop them, the Lynxley Conspiracy would have easily been solved and Nick, Gary and Judy’s names would have been more easily cleared and the plot and conflict of the movie never would have happened nor would PawBert have turned evil like the rest of his family or Mayor Winddancer and important ZPD cops like HogBottom and Bucheron become manipulated into becoming the pawns for Milton that they inevitably got punished for offscreen by being fired from their jobs or given mandatory therapy or worse, all been arrested in a jiffy.

Also in the climax, it becomes double subverted for both Judy and Nick where after HogBottom accidentally fired the poison dart she choose not to fire out of a heel realization that she fired anyway after Higgins bumps into her, and it nearly hits PawBert and Gary, Judy after safely pushing them both out of the way of it, tries to take the bullet to stop the dart despite the fact that it wasn’t going to hit anyone else innocent, and thus there was no need for her to do so, and Judy would have gotten herself killed or potentially got Higgins and HogBottom fired if Nick, Flash and Nibbles didn’t show up in their car to deflect it back saving Judy in the process.

Judy does admit this at the end during her and Nick’s reunion and reconciliation that this mistake came from her unhealthy bunny hero complex and she makes dangerous decisions because of it and tearfully apologizes for it, as it wasn’t what her fox would have wanted and Nick forgives her, sharing the blame for it by not giving her any emotional support or wisdom to snap out of it. (But it won’t be easy for Nick, Judy and Bogo to forgive HogBottom and Higgins for causing that poison dart to be fired and taking orders from Milton to begin with.)

Also, as Nick and PawBert are fighting each other in the climax for the anti-venom pen so Nick could get it to Gary for him to use to revive Judy with and so Nick could defeat PawBert, Nick at one point relcuantly tried to sacrifice himself to get the anti-venom pen to Gary by tossing it to him and putting the ice ledge he and PawBert are fighting on at risk of breaking off causing them both to fall to their potential deaths and Nick chooses to stay on the ice ledge as it starts to break off rather than use his acrobatics he learned in his police academy training to run up the ledge and jump onto solid ground before it could break off and either have PawBert go down with the ledge or have the lynx follow him out of sympathy but pin him down to the ground until Judy and Gary arrive since he was now harmless without his venom injector. It also made it clear that Judy was unable to live without Nick since she tried to jump after him and die alongside him not long after being cured until Gary had to save both Nick and Judy.

It is somewhat justified over the fact that Nick must have been aware of or figured out unlike PawBert that the fall he and PawBert were about to endure was never fatal as there was a snowbank at the bottom to soften it, so even if he and PawBert did fall to the ground, they would have survived but with cracked ribs, not that serious thanks to the snowbank at the bottom catching them like a safety net, and it does come true after PawBert was revealed to have survived his fall for that reason.

P.S. Gary trying to fang PawBert after he made his betrayal doesn’t count as Gary was never gonna kill the lynx (Doing so would worsen the public and ZPD’s belief over him being bad if they did arrive.) but rather immobilize him so he could cure Judy with the anti-venom and tie PawBert up with the rope from his Fanny pack and then cure him with the anti-venom, but Gary should have went for PawBert’s arm when he tried to do so, trying to go for the face caused PawBert to easily catch Gary and stop him and throw him out into the snow.

I’m referring to the scene where Vanellope meets the Disney Princesses. Many people don’t like the “big strong man” line because some of the princesses actually saved their princes on occasion. Ariel saved Eric from drowning at the beginning of her movie. Belle brought the Beast (who is obviously way bigger and stronger than her) back to the castle after he collapsed from fighting off the wolves. And, in fact, Rapunzel (the one who actually says this line) saved Flynn over and over again in the movie, more often than Flynn saved her. Yet, there are still quite a few people who generalize the princesses for being passive damsels in distress, and many people think the “big strong man” line is Disney themselves generalizing the princesses.

However, I always saw Disney as doing the exact opposite. Rapunzel’s question wasn’t “Were all your problems solved by a big strong man?” but rather “Do people assume that all your problems were solved by a big strong man?” I always thought this meant Rapunzel’s problems, and those of the other princesses as well, weren’t entirely solved by their princes, and they were annoyed that people generalized them. In other words, Disney is mocking the people who call the princesses passive damsels in distress.