No movie studio has so successfully built a brand as the Walt Disney Company. When you talk a bout a "Disney movie" there's a universal understanding of what that means. When Disney attaches its name to a streaming service, that means that people are going to expect that service to contain a certain type of content. The new Disney+ original movie Godmothered, is very much that sort of content. It's sweet, it's cute, it's not offensive. However, co-star Isla Fisher admits that her style of comedy doesn't necessarily meld well with family-friendly Disney.
Godmothered stars Jillian Bell as a fairy godmother in training, and as such, the bulk of the comedic weight of the film is on her shoulders. This was just fine with co-star Isla Fisher, who says she was glad that the movie didn't require her to be too funny, because the sorts of jokes she naturally comes up with would have likely been quite un-Disney. Speaking with CinemaBlend, Fisher told us:
I must admit that most of the jokes that come to mind most of my time on this planet are filthy, puerile… and not appropriate. So, thank goodness Jillian was able to be so fantastic in a very G-rated way.
It's difficult to tell if Isla Fisher actually made some of those "filthy" jokes while on the set. It's easy to believe that an actor, in a moment of improv, might let something fly that would never make it into a Disney movie. It's certainly happened before. Both Robin Williams and Gilbert Gottfried have spoken about how they would occasionally go a little "blue" when recording lines for Aladdin. One has to assume that in the history of Disney there's a lot of similar content that has been recorded. Those are some outtakes the world will likely never see.
While what constitutes a Disney product has certainly evolved over the years, most of the studios productions fall into the PG or PG-13 rating, it's certainly true that "suitable for all ages" us a pretty strong description of what Disney wants to be. Occasionally, this has even meant some frankly hilarious decisions, like the way Splash was edited to better cover Darryl Hannah's naked rear for the film's Disney+ debut.
At the same time, Disney has actually released R-rated movies before. To be sure, the Disney name is never anywhere near those films. But the Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures studios were created specifically to allow the Disney company to produce more mature films. And Disney owned Miramax for several years as well. There are several Quentin Tarantino movies that are technically Disney projects.
Isla Fisher's style of comedy may be more in line with more mature content, and those movies are certainly out there for fans looking for it, but she's also perfectly at home in a classic Disney Christmas movie. Godmothered debuts on Disney+ on Friday, December 4.
