Disney Headlines for February 11th, 2022
Over the past week, Disney dominated an Academy Awards category, suffered a snub in another, and added a new videogame.
We’ll talk about these things, plus Peyton Manning’s latest audible, a sad band story with a happy ending, and a wild takeover proposal.
We’ve got a busy week in Disney Headlines!
Disney at the Oscars
Walt Disney won/received 26 Academy Awards (!) during his storied career.
Now, more than 50 years after his death, his company remains a factor at the Oscars.
This past week proved incredibly kind to Disney, as its movies earned 23 nominations!
The headliners were Nightmare Alley and West Side Story, which garnered four and seven nominations, respectively.
Of course, the real story at the Oscars involved Disney’s ownership of a single category.
Disney/Pixar movies comprised 60 percent of the nominees for Best Animated Feature. It’s…gonna win.
In fact, the odds-on favorite to emerge victorious is Encanto, the charming title with the wildly popular soundtrack.
Encanto earned three nominations, including Best Song. However, that’s a problem, one that Disney caused on its own.
The studio campaigned for Dos Oruguitos in the category. Disney did this because awards season begins in earnest in early December.
At the time, nobody could have predicted the insane momentum of We Don’t Talk about Bruno, Disney’s first number one single in 30 years.
Had that song earned a nomination in the category, it would win in a walk. Instead, Disney must hope that Dos Oruguitos wins instead.
If not, this decision will go down as one of the worst Oscar campaign missteps in recent memory.
Still, Disney is all but certain to continue its recent reign of terror in the Best Animated Feature category.
The studio has won in this category eight out of the last nine years.
Only Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Rango stand between Disney and a 15-year winning streak.
Walt Disney would be so proud.
Speaking of Encanto
A funny thing has happened at Billboard. The passion of Disney fans has led to a traffic surge at the music site.
Even casual Disney followers are tracking We Don’t Talk about Bruno and other Encanto songs on the Billboard charts.
So, the website has done everything it can to reward those new readers and other potential fans.
The latest example is a poll Billboard posted on its site. “Which Disney movie should head to Broadway next?”
Everyone knows the winner will be Encanto, and I even include Lin-Manuel Miranda in this. He recently asserted that the film belongs on Broadway.
The fit here makes too much sense for Disney to overlook. After all, the last animated movie whose soundtrack performed this well was The Lion King.
On a seemingly unrelated note, The Lion King is the all-time champion in Broadway box office.
Also, the last Disney animated title with a hit soundtrack, Frozen, wound up on Broadway.
Sadly, the pandemic shortened Frozen’s run, but it’s still touring nationally.
Encanto’s arrival as a Broadway musical is every bit as inevitable as the sun rising in the morning.
Still, some of Billboard’s other suggestions might intrigue you. While Encanto’s running away with the vote, four other entries have strong support.
Billboard has almost accidentally laid out a decade’s worth of Broadway plans for Disney!
Miscellaneous Disney Headlines
Influencer and former cast member Sarah Daniels recently caused another stir on TikTok.
The brutally honest Daniels is always willing to provide Disney fans a peek behind the curtains about proper park etiquette.
Her latest update may surprise you. Here’s why you shouldn’t tip characters at Disney:
@sarahdanielstv Reply to @ericdrew704 tip characters by being nice. #castmember #disneyprincess #facecharacter #disney
That’s right. Disney has a policy in place that costumed cast members cannot accept gifts.
When you offer somebody cash, they would break the illusion by accepting the money. So, it’s a huge no-no.
In fact, if anybody in management notices a costumed character accepting money, you just got Winnie the Pooh fired from Disney!
Sarah Daniels is a must-follow on TikTok, even though she hasn’t played Destiny 2 lately on Twitch, thereby not providing me entertainment while I write.
Speaking of celebrities I adore, former Tennessee Volunteer Peyton Manning just extended his contract with ESPN.
Manning hilariously runs an entertainment production company called Omaha Productions.
You may recall that Manning frequently shouted OMAHA! when calling for audibles in football games.
Now, Peyton and his kid brother, Eli, talk football for Disney. The bickering siblings provided a secondary Monday Football Broadcast that proved wildly popular.
Disney executives recognized the appeal of the Manning family, something the SEC has known since the 1990s.
Anyway, Disney has signed a new deal with Omaha Productions through 2024, guaranteeing that Eli and Peyton will continue to talk smack to one another for three more seasons.
Don’t be surprised if recent retiree Tom Brady joins them at times next year.
The three of them are quite close despite the fact Brady had Peyton’s number while Eli had Brady’s.
Meanwhile, Peyton has to live with the fact that he’s the best quarterback of the bunch. Yes, I said it. Come at me, football bros!
Even More Headlines
Let’s close out with some exciting news, an insane suggestion, and a heartwarming story.
The news involves Disney Speedstorm, a driving game coming to the Nintendo Switch.
Imagine Mario Kart, only with Disney characters. Yeah, you’re gonna wanna play that when it comes out this summer.
The bizarre suggestion stems from this Motley Fool article. The author suggests that Disney should buy…Peloton. You heard me.
You may know that Peloton recently fired its CEO and laid off more than 2,000 employees.
Then, Peloton’s new CEO held the least successful introductory meeting ever on Zoom. They didn’t change the passwords, so the fired employees crashed the call.
This story is the funniest thing involving Peloton since that Ryan Reynolds ad:
Why would Disney fit with Peloton? Well, you can read the article to understand the argument, but the short argument is that it doesn’t. At all.
Finally, here’s an infuriating story with a happy ending. An Ohio high school band earned money for a Disney trip.
Then, some jerk embezzled said money, ruining a Disney vacation for all the students.
Well, the community stepped up huge. You can read the full details here.
I realize that doomscrolling is a thing, and some people want you to believe that the world is unkind.
Stories like this should restore your faith in society, though.