Walt Disney Company

Subterms

    More stories

    • 63 Shares119 Views

      in Movies

      ‘Uncharted’ Review: Steal, Fight, Repeat

      by

      This inaptly titled treasure-hunt adventure recycles all the familiar clichés while giving Tom Holland a strenuous physical workout.At least give Sony credit for recycling. That is the best that can be said for its nitwit treasure-hunt movie “Uncharted,” an amalgam of clichés that were already past their sell-by date when Nicolas Cage plundered the box office in Disney’s “National Treasure” series. Now, it is Tom Holland’s turn to cash in with a musty story about ancient loot, old maps, lost ships, invisible ink and a wealthy scoundrel with disposable minions. But while he’s following in Cage’s inimitable footsteps, Holland also seems in training to become Tom Cruise 2.0.The similarities between “Uncharted” and the first “National Treasure” are notable, with both movies adhering to the same booty-questing template. Each opens with a flashback of the protagonist as a wee lad eagerly being primed for adventure by an older male relative, a misty rite of passage that seems calculated to put a family-friendly stamp on an otherwise greed-driven setup. In “National Treasure,” the kid soon becomes a character played by Cage, whose singular, offbeat performance style can elevate and disrupt crummy material.In “Uncharted,” the boy grows up to become a neo-buccaneer played by the boyish Holland, a likable, exuberantly physical performer who has traded his Spider-Man responsibilities for more old-school heroic duty. The Hollywood action movie seems an open field right now partly because most of the male stars who headline non-comic-book blockbusters are middle-aged or older. Holland is 25. He’s cute without being threatening or distractingly, Chalamet-esquely beautiful, and has enough presence and training (dance, gymnastics, parkour) that he can bluff and breeze past clichés while gracefully bouncing through fights and obstacles.Cruise will be 61 when the next “Mission: Impossible” finally (maybe) opens in July 2023. He’s likely to keep going Energizer Bunny-style for years to come. Still, the paucity of young male actors who have the profile, credits and skill set to sell studio goods like “Uncharted” may prove a lucrative opportunity for Holland and his treasure-seeking handlers. At any rate that may explain the images of his character, Nate Drake, a thief who moonlights as a bartender (or vice versa), pulling some smooth moves on the job, a bit of juggling tomfoolery that instantly triggers images of Cruise in “Cocktail.”Soon enough, though, Nate leaves behind his gig and his New York pad for an international escapade that he embarks on in tandem with Mark Wahlberg’s Sully, a more experienced, openly untrustworthy thief. A veteran of workaday blockbusters, Wahlberg serves twinned functions here as a presold pop-culture brand and an archetypal mentor for Nate. Sully can sprint, fight and trade unfunny quips without breaking a sweat, and Wahlberg is just fine delivering the same gruff, regular-guy performance that he always does. He shares top billing with Holland, but Wahlberg is largely onboard as training wheels for the younger actor.“Uncharted” is based on a PlayStation game of the same name that first hit in 2007 and that tracks the globe-trotting doings of its Everyman hero, said to be descended from the British privateer Sir Francis Drake. The movie, directed by Ruben Fleischer, nods to the game and Sir Francis, who circumnavigated the globe in the 16th century and was instrumental in England’s challenge to Spain. Given the current climate, though, it’s a surprise that the movie didn’t quietly ignore Sir Francis, who participated in establishing the slave trade. In 2020, a statue of Sir Francis in Britain was draped in chains with a sign reading “decolonize history.”Hollywood’s penchant for ignoring inconvenient historical truths means that the movie leans into Sir Francis’s globe-trotting and plundering as well as his fight against the Spanish, in this case through the proxy figure of Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas). A Barcelona moneybags, Santiago is out to enhance his fortune with the same treasure that Nate and Sully are chasing. It’s a bit of a bummer to see Banderas back in this type of throwaway role, though presumably stars can’t live on Pedro Almodóvar movies alone. Mostly, Banderas handsomely scowls, barks orders and helps keep the machinery chugging.For his part, Nate grins and grimaces, runs and leaps, nimbly going through many of the same action-movie paces that heroic avatars have long gone through. He also types on a computer keyboard, wears a tux at a fancy party à la James Bond and flirts with a romantic foil, Chloe (Sophia Ali). Like the movie’s scariest baddie, Braddock (Tati Gabrielle), Chloe is one of those tough — but sexy! — female characters who’s more physically in the mix than she would have been in the past, back when the love interest was played by the blonde du jour. But while Chloe and Braddock are clearly adding something new to the same old story, they’re still performing the same old roles for yet another Hollywood male contender.UnchartedRated PG-13 for relatively bloodless death and violence. Running time: 1 hour 56 minutes. In theaters. More

    • 100 Shares179 Views

      in Music

      ‘Encanto’ Soundtrack Tops Billboard Chart for Fifth Week

      by

      Propelled by streams of the hit “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” the album notched the most weeks at No. 1 for a soundtrack since Disney’s “Frozen.”Another week, another No. 1 for Disney’s “Encanto” soundtrack.The album, with songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, continues its blockbuster run on Billboard’s chart by notching its fifth week at No. 1, beating out new releases by Yo Gotti and Mitski.Propelled by the song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” which remains the most-streamed song in the United States on Spotify — as well as a popular TikTok meme — the “Encanto” soundtrack had the equivalent of 110,000 sales last week. That was down just 2 percent from the week before, according to MRC Data, Billboard’s tracking arm.“Encanto,” released nearly three months ago, has held the top spot every week this year except one, and posted steady numbers. Its total this week includes 135 million streams — last week it was 140 million; the week before, 139 million — and 17,000 copies sold as a complete package. It is the first soundtrack to earn at least five weeks at No. 1 since Disney’s “Frozen,” which enjoyed 13 times at the top in 2014.This week, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” is also No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart for a third time.Also this week, “DS4Ever” by the Atlanta rapper Gunna rises one spot to No. 2 on the album chart, while the veteran Memphis rapper Yo Gotti opens at No. 3 with “CM10: Free Game,” his highest chart position.Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album,” a chart mainstay for more than a year now, holds at No. 4, and “Laurel Hell” by Mitski, a star indie singer-songwriter, opens at No. 5, a career high. More

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Music

      Lin-Manuel Miranda on His 'Encanto' Oscar Nomination and His EGOT Prospects

      by

      It was just one of those Tuesdays for Lin-Manuel Miranda. The composer, lyricist and actor — known for “In the Heights” and “Hamilton” — had trouble getting his youngest off to preschool, and his older son’s school bus was running late.He sat down with his wife, the attorney and engineer Vanessa Nadal, just in time to catch the Oscar nominations. The real joy in watching, he said, was “how many friends I’m lucky enough to know that made such amazing work this year.”He texted Ariana DeBose when she was nominated for best supporting actress for “West Side Story” and hit up the costume designer Paul Tazewell when he scored a nod for the same film. When Germaine Franco was recognized for best original score on the Disney animated film “Encanto,” which Miranda wrote songs for, he screamed for the whole neighborhood to hear.“Encanto” follows Alma Madrigal, who fled her home years ago while escaping conflict. She saved her three infant children, but lost her husband, Pedro. Devastated, Alma clung to the candle she was using to light her way, which became enchanted — hence the “encanto” — and imbued her family members with magical powers, all except her grandchild Mirabel.Miranda also received a nomination for the film: best original song for “Dos Oruguitas,” a heart-rending ballad at the emotional climax of “Encanto.” To top it off, the film — directed by Byron Howard and Jared Bush and co-directed by Charise Castro Smith — garnered a nomination for best animated feature.Miranda, who lives in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York, jogged across the George Washington Bridge and back in his excitement.Although he has written his fair share of music — his “How Far I’ll Go” for Disney’s “Moana” picked up a best original song nomination in 2017 — “Dos Oruguitas” is the first song Miranda had written from start to finish in Spanish.“I really went pretty far out of my comfort zone to write the tune, so I’m really just thrilled it’s been recognized,” he said. “It just makes you want to push more: lean into the things that scare you and do those things. That’s what’s worth doing, because that’s what makes you grow.”These are edited excerpts from the conversation.When did you write this song? What did that process look like?It’s probably early last year, like March or April. But I remember the idea came on a brainstorm with Jared and Charise on the phone. Just sort of like, “I think the butterfly metaphor is already there visually. What if this song goes to nature’s original miracle?” And then, when I thought of the idea of two caterpillars in love, it was a wrap.There’s so much that it was able to hold: both Abuela [Alma] and Pedro, and what the family is doing to each other by holding on too tight. I wanted it to feel like a song that always existed. All of my favorite folkloric songs all have nature metaphors embedded in them. I started dreaming in Spanish again while I was writing it. It was like my whole brain was trying to make it happen, even my subconscious.Once you had that idea — caterpillars in love — were you able to write smoothly or did it take awhile to write in Spanish?I think I wrote the first verse and chorus in, like, a week. Sent it to the creative team. They were all sniffling and they were like, “You’re on the right track; keep going.” I needed to reach for a poetic language that is beyond my standard conversational Spanish. I’m pretty fluent in conversational Spanish, but this needed to be elevated. I ran the grammar by my dad. And looked for the words that aren’t in my everyday usage: crisálidas [chrysalises], desorientadas [disoriented]. You do whatever you need to do to get the hook out.Why did it feel like this song had to be in Spanish?Because honestly, all of the words central to the metaphor are more beautiful in Spanish, on a technical level: oruguitas, crisálidas, mariposas [butterflies] are just beautiful words. But also I think there’s a subtle generational play happening with the way we use language in this movie: The younger siblings are all expressing themselves in pretty contemporary genres: reggaeton for Luisa, ’90s rock en español for Isabela [Mirabel’s sisters]. And so it felt like the matriarch of the family and the central, foundational story of this family and this miracle should be in Spanish.How did you choose Sebastián Yatra — a younger, pop-y singer — to voice that sentiment?We went back and forth initially over whether it was a female or male vocal. And we kind of felt like, “Well, if it’s female, it will feel like Abuela is singing it.” It didn’t feel quite right. I tell the story a lot, but a lot of writing the right song is figuring out what is not the right song. It didn’t feel right for Abuela to sing a song to Mirabel, full stop. So that’s what gets you to the male vocalist.When we started working on this together — Jared, Charise, Byron and I — we all sort of made mixtapes for each other. We all did our own deep dives of Colombian music, and Sebastián just popped up in all our mixes. He’s got such a beautiful voice, and he’s around the age of Abuelo Pedro when the film takes place, so it’s just kind of a perfect fit.Mirabel (voiced by Stephanie Beatriz) in a scene from “Encanto.”DisneyWhat specific aspects of Colombian folk music inspired you?First of all, the folkloric music we heard over there, which was so beautiful — basically anything with a tiple on it, I was kind of in love with. But then the other thing I really thought about was, “What are just the Latin songs that live forever?” I was thinking about “Guantanamera” and “Cielito Lindo.” I don’t feel like anyone ever wrote those songs. Although of course they all have incredible songwriters. I just feel like they always existed. So I really listened to those and the shape of them. The verse and chorus of it owes a lot to those hits.The only other song that feels close to it in songs I’ve written is a snippet of a song called “Siempre” in “In the Heights,” where I wanted that to feel like a bolero that always existed. But again, that’s not a full song. It’s like a verse in the chorus for a record-scratch joke.In the scene where we hear “Dos Oruguitas,” golden butterflies are everywhere, which evokes a favorite motif of the Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez. Did his butterflies inspire the metaphor in any way, or did they just happen to align once you found the caterpillar idea?Absolutely. The song itself was absolutely inspired by the visual metaphor that the animation team was already playing with. That scene in all of its conception hadn’t existed yet, but I had seen the candle which turned into a butterfly. And that was the inspiration for going to that metaphor. So it’s also of a great example of how much collaboration happens in an animated movie. It’s like writing for theater to the nth power.Like I write a rap section for Dolores in “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” and the writers take that and ran that vibe for her throughout the movie, and in turn, the animation department thinks of this butterfly metaphor absolutely inspired by García Márquez. And then I get to run with that as a song idea. You know you’re cooking with gas when you’re all kind of feeding each other.This song makes me cry every time. Did you cry at all while writing it?Oh yeah. I always think of myself as Tita in “Como Agua Para Chocolate” [“Like Water For Chocolate”]: I cry in the recipe.I thought about my first serious relationship and how we were two people who loved each other very much, but the world was bigger and we were going in different directions. I definitely went there in my heart while I was writing it. You pull on all of it. And also moments in your life when you were so scared of change, and you just have to trust that there’s a reason it’s happening. That, to me, strikes a deeper chord than even the themes as they appear in the movie itself.This is your second Oscar nomination, and if you were to win, you’d become the 17th person to attain EGOT status. How does it feel?On one level, it feels totally silly, because that is a term that got popularized by “30 Rock,” which is a hilarious thing for anyone to chase: that you’re chasing something Tracy Jordan chased.But on another level, the thing that always feels special about this is that artists vote on it. My fellow moviemakers, my fellow songwriters, the music branch. I’ve met some of those folks, and they’re like the most incredibly, wildly intelligent folks who have made music that I love. More

    • 138 Shares139 Views

      in Music

      With Little New Competition, ‘Encanto’ Is No. 1 a Fourth Time

      by

      The soundtrack to Disney’s latest animated film holds at the top of Billboard’s album chart in its 10th week out.Disney’s “Encanto” soundtrack, with songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, tops the Billboard album chart for a fourth time this week, with no major new releases to challenge it.The “Encanto” soundtrack, which has been out since November, had the equivalent of 113,000 sales in the United States in its 10th week on the chart, according to MRC Data, Billboard’s tracking arm. That total — down only 2 percent from the previous week — included nearly 140 million streams and 16,000 copies sold as a complete package.Last week, “We Don’t Talk About Bruno,” the film’s breakout hit, reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart, displacing Adele’s “Easy on Me” after its 10th week at the top.The last soundtrack album to notch four weeks at No. 1 was “A Star Is Born,” by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, in late 2018 and early 2019.Also this week, the Weeknd’s “Dawn FM” rises two spots to No. 2 in its fourth week out, after the album was released on CD. Gunna’s “DS4Ever” is No. 3, Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” is No. 4 and YoungBoy Never Broke Again’s “Colors” fell three spots to No. 5 in its second week out. More

    • 100 Shares99 Views

      in Movies

      Peter Dinklage Calls Disney’s ‘Snow White’ Remake ‘Backward’

      by

      On Monday’s episode of Marc Maron’s “WTF” podcast, the “Game of Thrones” star Peter Dinklage said he was stunned to learn that Disney was doing a live-action remake of the 1937 animated film “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” — and more so, that Disney was proud to announce that it had cast a Latina actress, Rachel Zegler (“West Side Story”), as the lead.“Literally no offense to anything, but I was sort of taken aback,” said Dinklage, who won four Emmys for his role in the HBO fantasy epic. “They were very proud to cast a Latino actress as Snow White, but you’re still telling the story of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.’ Take a step back and look at what you’re doing there. It makes no sense to me.”“You’re progressive in one way,” he continued, “but you’re still making that [expletive] backward story about seven dwarfs living in a cave together.”“Have I done nothing to advance the cause from my soapbox?” he asked. “I guess I’m not loud enough.”Dinklage, who stars in the upcoming film “Cyrano,” an adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s classic play “Cyrano de Bergerac,” said he was not opposed to a remake of the classic fairy tale, as long as it were given a “cool, progressive spin,” he said. “Let’s do it. All in.”In a statement on Tuesday, a Disney spokesperson said that “to avoid reinforcing stereotypes from the original animated film, we are taking a different approach with these seven characters and have been consulting with members of the dwarfism community.” Disney added that the film was still a long way out from production.Marc Webb will direct the new “Snow White,” and Gal Gadot has been cast as the Evil Queen. More

    • 138 Shares169 Views

      in Music

      ‘Encanto’ Soundtrack Returns to No. 1, Beating Gunna and the Weeknd

      by

      When the soundtrack to “Encanto,” Disney’s latest animated film, came out two months ago, it was by no means a hit, entering the Billboard 200 chart at No. 197.But the film’s catchy and eclectic songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda — drawing on salsa, bachata, hip-hop and classic Broadway — became sleeper hits once the film began streaming on Disney+, a month ago. For weeks, the song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” has been unavoidable on TikTok, with fans making dance and singalong videos, helping make “Bruno” one of the top tracks on Spotify and Apple Music.This week, the “Encanto” soundtrack returns to No. 1 on Billboard’s album chart, beating out competition from the Weeknd, Gunna and a new release by the Americana band the Lumineers. It is the second time “Encanto” has topped the chart, after going to No. 1 two weeks ago and then dipping to No. 3.“Encanto” had the equivalent of 104,000 sales in the United States, including 125 million streams and 17,000 copies sold of the album as a complete package, according to MRC Data, Billboard’s tracking arm. “Encanto” is the first Disney soundtrack to have multiple turns at No. 1 since “Frozen,” which notched a total of 13 weeks at the top in the first half of 2014. “Bruno” is No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart, behind Adele’s “Easy on Me,” which is at the top for a 10th week.Last week’s top seller on the album chart, “DS4Ever” by the Atlanta rapper Gunna, falls one spot to No. 2 in its second week out, losing 36 percent of its equivalent sales, while the Weeknd’s “Dawn FM” lost 59 percent, sliding one to No. 3.Adele’s “30” is No. 4, Morgan Wallen’s “Dangerous: The Double Album” is No. 5, and the Lumineers’ “Brightside,” its first LP in two and a half years, starts at No. 6. More

    • 125 Shares179 Views

      in Movies

      Jonathan Freeman, Jafar in ‘Aladdin,’ Hangs Up His Cobra Staff

      by

      He is, as Iago puts it in the classic Disney film, the “all-mighty evil one.”“A vile betrayer!” the sultan says.And, for a brief time, as he himself proclaims, “the most powerful sorcerer in the world!”(MUAHAHAHA!)Jonathan Freeman first voiced the Disney villain Jafar in the animated “Aladdin” movie back in 1992, continued to sneer in the subsequent films and then went on to originate the role in the Broadway production, which opened in 2014. He has wielded his cobra staff in hundreds of performances since, playing the role for nearly eight years.The show’s director, Casey Nicholaw, left, surprised Freeman during his final curtain call.An Rong Xu for The New York TimesThat is until Sunday night, with the show that he decided would be his last.Backstage that evening, Freeman’s dressing room was mostly cleared out. The walls were bare, the day bed was gone. Tokens of appreciation included flowers, gifts of alcohol and a note of thanks from the ushers.An insert in the Playbill alerted audience members that Freeman would be taking his “final bow” in “Aladdin.” The show said he is the only person in the Disney universe to have brought an animated character he voiced, to life, onstage — a capstone to a career that includes credits in 11 Broadway shows.Freeman and Don Darryl Rivera, who plays Iago the parrot.An Rong Xu for The New York TimesOne of the evening’s many hugs from members of the cast and crew.An Rong Xu for The New York TimesAfter the performance ended, cast and crew members took a moment to honor Freeman during the curtain call.“I just had to come tonight to just acknowledge this wonderful man,” the show’s director, Casey Nicholaw, said. “We’re really going to miss you here so much.”Freeman, 71, replied, “No one wants to see a villain cry.” He added that “nobody does this on their own.”Then Freeman formally passed his cobra staff — “by the power vested in me by Mickey Mouse,” he said — to Dennis Stowe, the Jafar standby who will assume the role this week.After a few short speeches backstage, where most crew members were wearing T-shirts that featured Jafar’s silhouette, and many hugs, Freeman sat down for an exit interview in the nearby Disney Theatrical offices.“I rediscovered time during the pandemic,” Freeman, 71, said. “And what I discovered about rediscovering time was that it was very nice to have it.”An Rong Xu for The New York TimesThese are edited excerpts from that conversation.You’ve been some version of Jafar for 30 years. How are you thinking about letting go of Jafar — and letting go of a part of yourself a little bit?After it appeared that the show was going to be successful and Disney wanted to have multiple productions, it’s kind of like this little island of Jafar that I lived on by myself for a while, it kept breaking off and splintering off. And I was happy and thrilled, to be honest, just to be able to know that I had gotten to a certain place where it becomes some kind of a template that could be reproduced by other people. So that’s nice — that’s nice to know it’s still going on.“I never thought of him, to be honest, as anything but a Disney villain,” Freeman said of his character. “It had to do with the arch of the eyebrow, it had to do with the sneer.”An Rong Xu for The New York TimesWhy leave now?Well, actually, when we started the 2020 season year — our year really starts in February — I was thinking that maybe it would be my last year doing it.And then the pandemic happened, and then there was nothing. No one knew — was it going to be two months, six months? So, I think I thought, “Well, if they start again, I can’t not go back and try to pick up the pieces” because I would just be evaporating then in the middle of this pandemic. It would just be too weird. And I didn’t want to leave right before the holidays because that means putting the company into rehearsals. And so I thought wait until after the first of the year and February is the end of the contract anyway. It just seemed like the right time.In addition to the cobra staff, Freeman’s costume includes a cape, rings and cuffs.An Rong Xu for The New York TimesWhat do you think you were able to bring to Jafar onstage that perhaps you could not in voicing him for the movie?When we first started in Seattle [a pilot production of the show in the summer of 2011], there was only myself and one other person in the room who was connected to the original project, which was [the composer] Alan Menken. So when we got the first read-through, it was like a glass of cold water in my face, because I was hearing new voices doing these characters that I’d been hearing for so many years.With new voices came new ideas, and people were physically different in it. So I had to figure out how I would fit in. And I did kind of have to do a little bit of re-creation.It’s showtime: Freeman in an elevator at the New Amsterdam Theater, on his way to the stage.An Rong Xu for The New York TimesHow do you think your view of Jafar — and “Aladdin” — evolved over the years?As far as Jafar goes, I never thought of him, to be honest, as anything but a Disney villain. I never thought of him as being North African, Middle Eastern, Asiatic, South Asian. I never thought of any of those things. I always thought of him as being a villain. The makeup that I put on was never meant to be race. It was always villain’s makeup. It had to do with the arch of the eyebrow, it had to do with the sneer.Five Movies to Watch This WinterCard 1 of 51. “The Power of the Dog”: More

    • 100 Shares99 Views

      in Movies

      Documentary Critical of Disney, From the Disney Family

      by

      A harsh portrait of pay inequality at the company, premiering at Sundance on Monday, was directed by the granddaughter of one of the founders.Three years ago, Abigail E. Disney began to publicly excoriate the Walt Disney Company for its “obscene” pay inequality, with Robert A. Iger, who was then chief executive, at one end of the scale and hourly theme park workers at the other. The company founded by her grandfather and great-uncle repeatedly returned fire, at one point calling her assertions a “gross and unfair exaggeration of the facts.”But Ms. Disney has refused to back down, even though the company recently agreed to a 16 percent raise for certain theme park workers. In fact, she is escalating her campaign — and, for the first time, bringing along two of her three siblings.“The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales,” an activist-minded documentary about the pay gap between corporate haves and have-nots, will premiere on Monday as part of the Sundance Film Festival, which is being held digitally because of the pandemic. Ms. Disney and Kathleen Hughes directed the film; Ms. Disney’s sister, Susan Disney Lord, and a brother, Tim, are among the executive producers. The movie positions the entertainment company that bears their name as “ground zero of the widening inequality in America.”To paint that harsh picture, Ms. Disney and Ms. Hughes profile four Disneyland custodians, who, at the time of filming (prepandemic), earned $15 an hour. They all struggle mightily with soaring housing costs in Southern California. One says he knows Disneyland workers who have had to “make a decision between medication or food.”Intermittently, the filmmakers cut to photographs of Mr. Iger, who was Disney’s chief executive from 2005 to 2020, a period of stunning gains for stockholders (including Ms. Disney and other members of her family). Viewers are reminded that Disney awarded him a pay package in 2018 worth $65.6 million. Stock awards tied to the acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets made up 40 percent.Ms. Disney and her sister are then shown reminiscing about their grandfather, Roy O. Disney, who founded the company in 1923 with his brother, Walt. “I cannot see him taking $66 million home for a year’s work in the same year when, at the same company, people can’t afford food,” an indignant Ms. Disney says. Her sister responds, “That would never have happened — that would never have happened.”The Disney family has not been involved in managing Disney since their father, Roy E. Disney, stepped down from the board in 2003 and led a shareholder revolt that resulted in Mr. Iger’s ascension. Roy E. Disney died in 2009.The New York Times was allowed to view the film ahead of its premiere. Disney, which was not given early access, responded to queries about the film’s content and tone with the following statement:“The well-being and aspirations of our employees and cast will always be our top priority. We provide a leading and holistic employment package that includes competitive pay and comprehensive benefits for our cast members to grow their careers and care for their families. That starts with fair pay and leading entry wages, but also includes affordable medical coverage, access to tuition-free higher education, subsidized child care for eligible employees, as well as pathways for personal and professional development.”The statement added, “We are committed to building on our significant efforts to date.”Recent developments at Disneyland cut against the film’s narrative. In December, unions representing 9,500 custodians, ride operators and parking attendants ratified a new contract that lifts minimum starting pay to $18 an hour by 2023 — up from $15.45 last year, a 16 percent increase — and includes seniority-based bonuses. Disneyland has almost returned to full staffing after being closed for more than a year because of the pandemic, a spokeswoman said. The Anaheim resort employs roughly 30,000 people.Mr. Iger has also left the company. Ms. Disney tells viewers that she decided to make the film because she was frustrated and angry at his “curt” response to an email she sent him in 2018 about theme park employee pay. He declined to comment for this article.Ms. Disney has faced claims of discrimination and unfair treatment from former employees at one of her companies, Level Forward, which helps finance and produce entertainment projects with a social justice focus. (“There’s fair criticism in there,” Ms. Disney told The Hollywood Reporter last year.)In an interview via Zoom, Ms. Disney and Ms. Hughes, an Emmy-winning television newsmagazine producer, said they were “encouraged” by the Disneyland pay increase but said it wasn’t enough — that around $24 an hour was the needed “living wage.”“If everything’s different, then why did the new C.E.O. walk away with $32.5 million for a not very profitable year?” Ms. Disney said. She was referring to Bob Chapek. Disney reported $2 billion in profit for 2021, compared to a loss of $2.8 billion in 2020. Before the pandemic, Disney was generating $10 billion annually in profit.The filmmakers are still looking for a distributor. They hope to use Sundance to generate interest from Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+ or another Disney competitor. In addition to its condemnation of Disney, “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales” takes on a host of complicated subjects, including the evolution of capitalism, shifting government economic policies and racial injustice.“I want changes to the entire system — from C.E.O.s generally and from Wall Street especially — that result in the recognition of the dignity and humanity of every single worker,” Ms. Disney said.Ms. Disney is a prominent member of the Patriotic Millionaires, a group that pushes for higher taxes on businesses and wealthy individuals like themselves. As she has said over the years, it is a position that some of her own family members have a difficult time understanding. (That appears to include a brother, Roy P. Disney, who has supported Mr. Iger and is not involved with “The American Dream and Other Fairy Tales.”)Lest anyone think the film is her final word on the subject of pay inequality at Disney and other companies, she ends her documentary with these words: “To be continued.” More