Disney Considers "Jojo Rabbit" Potentially Too Uncomfortable for Audiences

Scene from Jojo Rabbit

It seemed like only time until someone would complain about Taika Waititi's latest film Jojo Rabbit. The teaser dropped a few weeks back now and it found the director starring as a flamboyant Adolf Hitler as an imaginary friend to a little boy. As one could guess given his filmography, this is likely to be a satire even going as far as to advertise that it's an attack on hate. However, there's one group of people who are not happy about it, and they have the most power to do something about it: Disney. While the film was made under Fox Searchlight prior to the historic merger, Disney is now responsible for its release and things aren't looking great. It may still get released, but the nervousness around it may prove why forming the film industry into one bland monoculture is far from good thing.

If going off of sheer success, of course, it makes sense that Disney bought out 20th Century Fox. After all, Disney has most of the highest-grossing movies of the year. The remake of The Lion King has earned over at a billion dollars. Everything is coming up Disney. They (now) have the two highest grossing movies in history with Avengers: Endgame and Fox's Avatar. It seems like they can do whatever they want, right? Well... that may prove to be a bad thing. Even if Waititi has done well with the company thanks to Thor: Ragnarok, his latest Jojo Rabbit always seemed like an odd fit for the family friend, world appealing studio that is more about making loads of money than reinventing the world of satire.

For those who don't know, Jojo Rabbit is a comedy from Waititi that is about a boy whose friends with an imaginary Hitler. In the press leading up to the teaser trailer, the director claimed to have done zero research on him because of how awful Hitler was. It suggests that there's more heart put into the commentary than accuracy, and that's fine. Not all satire needs to be painfully detailed. However, the recent news out of Disney's initial screening for investors has given some pause. One uncomfortable person made their opinion known when they suggested that the film may be too edgy and make some audience members uncomfortable.

From Disney's standpoint, this makes sense. After all, they want to make billions and not take any discernible risk unless it has the word Marvel in front of it. Even then, the risk is lukewarm compared to what challenging cinema actually looks like. Still, Fox is in no corner to really fight, as 20th Century Fox projects like X-Men: Dark Phoenix ended up being among the lowest-grossing in the franchise's near 20-year history. If the studio looks at the patterns and thinks that another isolating project could hurt the studio, what's to stop them from putting the kibosh on a film, even if it's from a beloved collaborator? After all, The Hunt was recently delayed indefinitely for being too painfully relevant to modern shootings. It's a controversial decision, which won't be discussed here.

So Disney doesn't want to make strong commentary on Nazism. While it's unlikely that the studio will outright support them, there have been some sketchy events in the past. James Gunn was temporarily fired from the Guardians of the Galaxy sequel because of outcry from right-wing agitators for tasteless jokes he made prior to his hiring. There's nothing to stop Jojo Rabbit from being shelved because it doesn't fit the family-friendly image. That is of course if you ignore the fact that the studio won an Oscar for their own Hitler parody starring Donald Duck called Der Fuhrer's Face. It isn't totally unlike Disney to make some commentary about massive hate groups, it's just that there's too much of a mixed audience for their movies to take a stance unfortunately in an America whose leader fully endorses hate groups to the point of mass shootings.

But to step aside from Disney's best interests, which could just be used to make a more compelling, edgy marketing campaign. Let's look at the ramifications of Disney putting the kibosh on Jojo Rabbit. Whether you agree or not on the narrative, it's definitely provocative art meant to challenge the medium. That's what cinema should be. Given Disney's standpoint as one of the indomitable forces in the movie industry, it's hard to come out ahead of them unless they want you to. Also, it's tragic that this was a Fox movie (a more tolerant company) released under a studio that doesn't take strong stances anymore on Nazism. It's potentially being crushed because it doesn't fit a brand. If there's only one brand that everyone's buying on a mainstream level (hypothetically) then what's to stop Jojo Rabbit and biting satires from just ceasing existence altogether?

Therein lies the issue with the Disney-Fox merger. Beyond the other economic and creative concerns, it's the limiting of media that could challenge an audience, to try and see the world a different way. If there are fewer people in charge, there are fewer chances of them releasing content that they don't agree with. If Jojo Rabbit gets the kibosh, there's a precedent set that any film that challenges controversial subject matter will not get made, and that will make audiences more complacent to straightforward, less interesting storytelling. While this isn't to say that Fox would've been free of their own criticism, Disney's reputation is cleaner. They make kids movies that make billions. There's no way that Jojo Rabbit is a kids movie, even if it has a main kid protagonist. Why even support art that goes against your image?

While this could just be overreacting to a film that has barely been seen, it's a concern that could become a major problem down the line when auteurs begin to tackle tougher subjects. Maybe Disney will have bought out Universal, or somebody else will go bankrupt. The independent filmmakers will still have their say, but they cannot reach the audience that Disney has because there's no alternative major studio to release even a prestigious version of it. One can hope that Disney buying everyone out is a trend that will cease to exist, though it's impossible when The Lion King in 2019 makes over a billion dollars despite middling reviews and original animators coming forth to complain about how offensive the new take is. There's nothing to stop them. They'll just find a new trend and increase their net worth little by little.

The good news is that it doesn't seem like Jojo Rabbit will be shelved forever and that this is just the overreaction of one person. The film will come out and this will be a moment to laugh at anyone scared that Disney's choice to buy out Fox caused them to release an anti-Nazi comedy. It's the one bright spot in the Fall season that will hopefully deliver the laughs that Waititi is known for. After all, he doesn't seem like a man who will fall to hate speech. He's passionate about making the world a better place by having Marvel characters meet their queens and having Hitler get the skewering the likes of which haven't been seen since The Producers (take your pick). It's still an exciting film full of originality coming out this Fall. One can hope that no cold feet walk forward in the meantime.