This is what happens when you don't let furries run your studio. Learn from Disney's mistakes
semi-serious thesis: recent talking-animal content has been severely held back by media companies being conscious of furry culture and actively trying to avoid it
there is a group of people who have, over decades, perfected the art of making anthropomorphic animal designs look appealing, but also a lot of these people are weird and gay and horny, so idk do we really want to be associated with that...
otoh there is also a very strong case to be made for "good riddance, I don't own Disney stock, why would I want their CGI remake slop to steal designs from my weird gay horny friends"
I feel this is a general trend in mainstream media that's already been covered more exhaustively in essays describing the removal of sexuality from sexiness, fascism, etc. (and it kinda sucks that so much of cultural shittiness flows back to a rise in fascistic ideals and I sound nuts like I belong in a padded room in a straight jacket shrieking "Nazis! Nazis!" but I dunno, man, we live in interesting times, I guess we'll all see if I'm overreacting or not eventually).
There are absolutely no issues with showing off what currently passes for the societal ideal body types for both men and women. Every superhero movie is packed full of hot guys with low body fat percentages and bulging veins in their arms, and hot girls who are slim and plump in all the right places.
They aren't horny, though. They'll have romances, sure, but one gets the distinct impression that if they do fuck, it's the blandest sexual experience imaginable. Captain America isn't a kinkster. Even with someone like Wonder Woman, tying someone up is probably cutesy and innocent. And honestly, that's really pushing it. For me personally, I don't see any superhero in a sexual light whatsoever.
The funny thing is that the supposed conservative age of Hollywood media loved to tell you that characters fuck, and it was going to be amazing. I'm talking direct 4th-wall breaking, characters looking right into the camera and winking before they slipped behind the bedroom door. They're gonna fuck. There were moral standards back then that are stricter than today, sure, but that kind of deliberate sexual energy is just ... gone from the mainstream media of today.
Sex scenes in mainstream media are...by accident, it feels like? It's impulsive, and I guess that's meant to relay passion, that a moment crosses a threshold and soon people are kissing and clothes come off. The point is, though, that it's not shown as a conscious act; it's a mindless one, and hoo boy I bet there's a lot to unpack there if I didn't have chores to do but yeah, the '90s were the end of that. Seeing Nala stop a moment of fun to give Simba bedroom eyes, and Jenna give that "wanna get out of here" glance to Balto after his triumphant return from a life-and-death adventure, like... we're focused on furries here, but yeah that was the amazing view a lot of media had before going over the cliff of wholesomeness.
And then there's queer- and kink-coded villains but I really need to get my life together, bye
