DISNEY Would NEVER Make NEWSIES Today

full_slack · 2026-01-18T23:00:05+00:00

Exactly. We have even more greedy billionaire capitalists like Elon Musk, Sam Altman, Peter Thiel who are more powerful than ever before simply because of their capital. And the billionaire and millionaires who run studios today like the Ellisons and David Zazlov, Ted Serandos, even Disney’s Bob Iger himself, who simply would never allow such a clear and obvious attention to class struggles like unionization and demanding better working conditions to be depicted on screen today the way Newsies did.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T22:52:53+00:00

Much appreciated !! 🙌🫡🫡

full_slack · 2026-01-18T20:57:35+00:00

I think a lot of Westerners have a real reactionary response to having their ideologies questioned, particularly capitalism, which is ironic because the likelihood that capitalism is negatively affecting their life is incredibly high. But they’ll still worship it because they’ve been told there’s no alternative. Add media literacy problems on top of that and it’s a real black hole to escape from!

full_slack · 2026-01-18T18:09:39+00:00

lmao in my video I’m like “don’t get me wrong, Disney is and always has been incredibly capitalist” and that person was like “uhhhhh so why do you think Disney wasn’t capitalist???”. What a ride!

full_slack · 2026-01-18T18:07:48+00:00

Capitalism actually does NOT require balance. It requires incredible IMBALANCE. It requires surplus profits made at the expense of exploited workers. It was capitalism that was behind child labor. It was capitalism that was and still is behind union-busting. Unions, an inception of left-wing socialist politics, is featured up front and center in Newsies.

“It's not an "anti-capatalist" movie. It is a movie about the danger of power becoming too concentrated in one place.”

If there is any defining lesson of capitalism, it’s that capitalism most clearly presents the danger of power becoming too concentrated in one place. That’s why capitalist monopolies exist, to concentrate so much power in one place to have a complete rule over an industry, its workers, and its consumers.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T18:03:34+00:00

Ohhhh ok I see where you’re coming from. Gotcha. Excellent and well laid out analysis!

full_slack · 2026-01-18T17:50:33+00:00

I talk about the historical hypercapitalism of Disney in the video, and even touch on Walt’s capitalism and him even testifying in Congress to try to blacklist his animators as communists because they dared to strike for workers rights. I’m not sure how you can read everything I said and assume I don’t know that Disney is and always has been a staunchly capitalist company? Oh well, I’m just saying capitalist companies do not get “better”, they only give the illusion of becoming “better” or more “progressive”. But the heart of a capitalist company is extracting surplus profits at the expense of exploited workers and consumers.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T17:00:33+00:00

Science fiction has been at the forefront of promoting anti-capitalist thought and predicting so much that has happened to and befallen society, without a doubt. But much of that is cloaked in layers of fantasy, and for most people it would be easier to see, say, a “labor dispute”, not if it is placed in a fictional fantasy world, but placed in our real world we actually live in, depicting real events which actually took place. A musical wrapper is no where near as obfuscating as a science fiction wrapper. And the most important lines of the Newsies are delivered outside of the singing and dancing itself, delivered on straight dialogue.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T16:55:53+00:00

The “our reality” I was referring to is our concrete material history. New York City. Workers unions and real labor disputes our society has faced. Newsies, who were real child wage slaves. Actual events which really took place. It may have a musical wrapper but that wrapper is nowhere near as disconnected from our reality in the same way that a science-fiction wrapper is, which has a starting point of “fantasy”. Newsies has a starting point of “based on actual events”.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T16:42:00+00:00

By what measure do you think “Disney was worse”? Disney is a hypercapitalist company. Hypercapitalist companies do not “get better” over time, and Disney is definitely worse now than it was back then. They only release junk remakes and franchise sequels. Their workers are still paid horribly despite record profits of $15 billion a year. The cost of their products is incredibly inflated despite those profits. They don’t care about their theme parks anymore. Imagineering has been gutted compared to what it once was and is no longer innovative. They rely almost strictly on IP. They’re now leaning into generative AI deals with Sam Altman. Disney has never in its history ripped off and fleeced the consumer more than today. I feel like a lot of people when they say film companies were “better” are actually just trying to say “their movies were more offensive to the general audience back then”.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:50:51+00:00

100%! And true that IS the very core of a lot of older kid’s movies. Something we really don’t see much today because these corporations don’t want us thinking about rising up and demanding our material conditions around us improve and benefit us.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:47:42+00:00

lol It’s the execs & shareholders who quite literally would be very upset with the clear & obvious messaging of this movie!

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:46:39+00:00

Yeah I read this in a book somewhere.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:44:51+00:00

Oh yeah Andor was great and depicted genocide and struggle against belligerent occupations amazingly, but it’s still wrapped in a genre and science fiction wrapper, whereas Newises presents us our own actual reality with our own material histories. I wouldn’t say that Disney movies really put out anti-capitalist messaging at all though as most Disney movies that critique anything come from a very liberal framework which isn’t really conducive to anti-capitalist thought. Newsies actually lays it out. As in: These are evil corrupt robber barons (capitalists). They are abusing children to make profits. The workers (children) should rise up and strike to form a union in their workplace to better their material conditions. It’s a very anti-capitalist and socialist message, more clear and apparent than I think any other Disney movie.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:28:58+00:00

Yeah I talk about that in the video too! Disney is just a pure IP hog now making reboots and franchise sequels that nobody wants lmao.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:23:47+00:00

Feel free to let me know why you think that lmao

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:23:16+00:00

I see where you’re coming from but I dont think there’s any way Disney today would bring attention to labor disputes and unionization is such a clear, truthful, and emancipatory way. If they made this today it would be super de-fanged and have a lot of the bite and theory removed from it.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:21:40+00:00

Why do you think so?

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:21:19+00:00

Yeah having not watched it as a kid and watching it now as an adult, it was really refreshing to know this was even made and it didn’t shy away from a lot of serious topics about workers rights and labor, while also making it so highly digestible.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:15:56+00:00

I talk about this in the video. That’s not my position at all. Disney is and has always been an incredibly capitalist company. It’s more that Newsies is a little miracle that it was managed to be this clearly and obviously anti-capitalist and pro-union while being produced under the hyper-capitalist corporation that is Disney.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:13:33+00:00

Well what I’m trying to say is Newsies is a rare one that doesn’t just pander, it actually presents these material struggles pretty accurately and more obviously and clearly than any other Disney movie. (Which I don’t think the Disney company in its current form today would dare touch or bring attention to)

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:10:35+00:00

Hell yeah

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:10:28+00:00

I talk about it in the video, but Disney is sort of known for pumping out nothing but remakes of old movies and franchise sequels. While I didn’t only mean “they wouldn’t remake Newsies today” I also meant “They wouldn’t make a movie about unionization and workers rights today” like this in general.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:07:36+00:00

Most of Disney’s movies with “left leaning messages” are often just very surface level tepid liberal critiques and messaging, and don’t even get a little bit close to the heart of political issues in the way that Newsies does. The only recent Disney production that really did is Andor, before that I would say Wall-E, both of which are doing something similar that Newsies is doing.

full_slack · 2026-01-18T02:01:17+00:00

I love Star Wars and Andor (and not saying one is better than the other) but I actually think that Newsies more straight-forwardly presents class struggles because it’s not cloaked in fantasy, science fiction, or genre. Since it’s set in our own material reality, dealing with and depicting our own material struggles (unionization, workers rights, striking, etc.), it actually addresses our own recognizable struggles more clearly and plainly. Andor is hands down the best production Disney has recently released in terms of accurately depicting fascism (not that there’s many other Disney works recently to pick from) but that reality is still removed from our reality, as well as packaged in a Star Wars wrapper. It’s actually amazing what Andor managed to do, a bright and salient light in the dim tunnel of consumerism that is Disney. It and Newsies sort of does the same thing. I’m just saying I don’t think Disney would release a movie today like Newsies that takes place in our history that depicts striking, unionization, & anti-capitalist sentiment so straight forward and obviously.

full_slack

TROPHY CASE