Thursday night at El Capitan, I sat down with two of my friends to see Big Hero 6 on its opening night. This was actually the third time I’d gotten to see the film, but the promise of a laser light show featuring Baymax and then getting to see two of my best Disney friends experience the film for the first time was enough to sell me on the evening (even if it did cost me $30).
Seeing the film with in 1,000 seat theatre packed with excited fans added a new level to the film for me and I still laughed at many of the same moments I did the first two times while finding me easter eggs this time around. As the end credits hit the screen, much of the audience and I broke into applause. This is when I noticed that neither of my friends, located on either side of me, were joining in. My heart immediately sank.
This post isn’t to criticize them for not liking the film or to defend my love of it, but to talk about what I felt after that screening. The rest of the night I felt stupid, sad, somewhat angry and just overall bummed. I knew I was being silly but I took their lack of interest really personally even though I had nothing to do with the making of the film other than covering the lead up to its release for the site.
I’ve noticed more and more that people (especially my age) define themselves through their taste in music, film and pop culture. Whether that be the kid who wears nothing but shirts of The Beatles, the indie film guy who won’t see a film playing on more than 100 screens, or — gee, I don’t know — a Disney geek, a lot of us base our friendships not just on personality but taste and preference.
As I mentioned, both of these friends of mine are huge Disney fans. We’ve been to Club 33 together, had long in-depth conversations about films in the Disney cannon, and we text each other breaking Disney news almost daily. So for them to not see eye-to-eye with me on something I thought they would love was jarring.
Here is also where the feeling of stupidity comes in. As more and more about this film was being released we were on the same page in that we weren’t sure what to think. We did have some reassurance in that fact that we all doubted Frozen based on its marketing and we all saw how that turned out. Finally, when I saw the film a few weeks ago and shared my praises, there was relief on their end but still some trepidation. Well, as it turns out, they were right to be worried, and I stand there guilty of instilling false hope with my recommendation.
Ultimately, all of this is nonsense. What does it matter if they didn’t like the same movie? We’re still friends! And, at the end of the day, we don’t even have to do everything together. My wife and I don’t even like the same movies, songs or activities all the time. Having your own taste, being proud of it and standing by it is fine, but defining yourself by it silly. No matter who you are, there is more to your personality than pop culture. Loving Taylor Swift is great. Loving Taylor Swift to the point that you take any critique of her personally is another thing entirely. Just let it go… I mean, shake it off… or whatever.
There seems to be a lot of hurt feelings in the Disney fan community, especially with the advent of Twitter and other social media. No matter the day, you can bet there are two or more people who claim to love Disney yelling (in text) at each other, calling each other names and fighting about god-knows-what. But why do we think we need to agree on every issue or that someone with a differing opinion is lesser for having it? Maybe some of this animosity comes from the very feelings I’m talking about. 
It’s also no coincidence that this week was the midterm elections, which always leads to conversations I don’t even want to start to get into here. Eventually people get fed up with politics and say we need to focus more on what we have in common and less on what divides us.
Perhaps it’s time we as Disney fans take a step back from ourselves and realize that there is more to us than our fandom and we don’t need to get upset when others disagree with us (and, as this post shows, I’m guilty of it too).
Afterall, isn’t Disney supposed to be fun? And on that note I promise to have funnier stories soon…
Be sure to follow Kyle on Twitter @kyleburbank and come back next Saturday for another entry into The E-Ticket Life!