Institutions Breed Stagnation - Thoughts On "The Lion King 1 and 1/2"
Notes from the road - Its Not Easy Being An InstitutionThis originally ran in the Redding Record Searchlihgt in March of 2004.
I caught the last 5 minutes of the Lion King 1 and _ the other night and a striking thought revealed itself to me, “It is not easy to be an institution.” This fact was hammered home in the movies final scene when the movie’s protagonists sit in a movie theater rewinding the movie to watch it again. One of the characters exclaims “But we just watched it,” to which the other replies with something to the effect of “but all great stories bear retelling.” Whereupon the great characters of Disney features past begin to enter the theater. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and Mickey Mouse are offset by Aladdin and Stich, who I never would have recognized were I not in a room full of kids who were saying each of the character’s names as they entered the room.
It was a poignant moment, here was Disney exploiting their back catalog of characters to get their audience to re-watch a movie that is not only a direct-to-home feature but also a part 1 and _ sequel instead of a part 2 sequel. The message is clear, “Kids, this is a good movie that you should watch again and again, Mickey Mouse and Snow White can’t be wrong.” This illustrates the fact that Disney’s historical domination of the animated film industry has ultimately damaged the long term creative health of the company. The institution has become a brand and it is in danger of becoming irrelevant.
This is not an unprecedented event. In fact, almost every creative venture that becomes an institution eventually stagnates. There is a poignant moment in the Coen Brothers’ film “Barton Fink” that sheds light on this phenomenon. In the scene, Barton Fink, a rookie Hollywood writer deftly played by John Turturro, is slaving over a script for his producer who can find nothing but fault in Fink’s work while all the while proclaiming that he is simply looking for that “old Barton Fink feeling.” Essentially, a successful entity like a hit record, a blockbuster movie, or a groundbreaking company fresh off an IPO is quickly reduced to its formulaic essence in order that its success can be reproduced. Everything that follows in the spirit of the original success or in any vicinity of it will be molded to fit the original format. In the case of a company like Disney, foresight can eventually become hindsight which, in excess, brings stagnation.
The result of industrial marketing like that practiced by many large institutions is that the creativity of one successful enterprise will eventually become the basis of a movement which will in turn become a genre which will eventually color popular culture with a brush of varying width. In terms of the music business, witness the indelible mark that the wide brush of Hip-Hop has left on American culture and compare it to the same mark that Grunge made in the 90’s. Hip-Hop has become the language of currency while Grunge got people to pay more attention to flannel. Grunge mixed with Hip-Hop and eventually gave birth to Nu-Metal. Many bands have come and gone after being proclaimed the next Nirvana, the next Pearl Jam, or the next Limp Biskit. Hip-Hop acts have come and gone as well but many have left in their wake clothing lines, specialty sports drinks, and lines of snack foods.
Eventually, creativity and art are rendered into products that can be molded and marketed to target various demographics. In a sense, this is what the entertainment industry endeavors to achieve on a daily basis. It is expensive for them to develop new products so they will tend to focus on broader and broader demographics. The set whose members are people who have a fondness for literate lyrics set to intelligent, jazz-based, folk music can be broadened to the set whose members are people who don’t like distorted guitars and robots. The end goal of the marketer is to create a product that is homogenous enough to appeal to the set whose members are life forms who need to breathe and have $20 in discretionary funds.
This path eventually leads to a bland Elysium where creativity and subtlety can be put to rest at long last. Back catalogs of characters, poetry, prose, film, and music, can be mined, repackaged, and resold with a minimum of risk and a maximum marginal return on investment. I guess I can’t fault Disney for using their characters to shamelessly self promote direct-to-home sequels for movies that were never really that good. I am simply disappointed that they would not treat their back pages with more respect.
This trend will continue until the companies who are complicit in it reach the point of diminishing returns. Thus, the consumer, who is the target of these products can simply exercise their right to not buy them. Although, hundreds of billions of dollars are spend each year in marketing and promoting products of all stripes, few dollars are spent in education consumers that they needn’t consume everything they are told they should like. The hidden variable in any marketing equation is the consumer’s desire to consume products. By exercising some discretion with our discretionary funds, we can actually force stagnating institutions to change.
Brian J. Kenny
3/15/04
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posted by Brian J. Kenny @ 12:23 AM
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