I don't think Disney are trying to set out a proactive message in their films.
If anything I think Disney is desperately trying to second guess the rapidly change tastes and positions of their target audience [10 -25 yo?] and trying to make a product that fits them.
Disney can't afford to get "cancelled", and can't reshow much of its old product because the audience's expectations have moved on.
And it isn't making product with a [possible] socio-political message, just for the hell of it.
It's not for the hell of it. It is a specific desire to preach and lecture and profess--even if most people are not inclined to hear it or understand it. But they see the film content as a leaflet. That's why they are so capricious about it.
In the 1990s, Michael Eisner said the goal they had for Disney was to be "entertainer for the globe." That is as lofty an ambition as building a tower to Babel or using feathers to fly to the sun. You cannot please all of the people all of the time. Folly to try. Folly to try.
Completely mad for an artistic work because you can't be all things to all people. Few serious professional artists would even try to do that.
I guarantee you--that families are still watching the 1940s Disney content.
Most people of a particular cultural heritage will not repudiate the past. Outsiders to that culture might.
Walt Disney did stories on Greek mythology and 18th century America--he found the audience.
Is Shakespeare still performed? If so then there is an audience.
The major problem is that they are not trying to make specialized content for specific audiences but capture everyone in the same net. That is not how art works. It is not how entertainment works.
Some unknown singer in Virginia was able to get more enthusiasm than billion dollar media companies because he - as a single artist, was able to convey a personal expression that resonated with people who shared the same aspirations and concerns. That's how art is supposed to work.
Walt Disney understood. Bob Iger does not.
BTW-I am not a big fan of Disney. It's not something I was ever interested in much at all. My favorite Disney work was Night on Bald Mountain from Fantasia and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. As a kid I hardly saw Disney cartoons. But I know they were popular. That's why they released them to theaters each decade.
