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Igers replacement as Disney CEO, the more conservative but less diplomatic Bob Chapek, stayed silent on the bill which provoked a mutiny at Disneys more avant-garde subsidiary Pixar. There was a staff walkout, and an irate statement claiming that nearly every moment of overtly gay affection [in Pixar films had been] cut at Disneys behest.

Chapek promptly swung hard the other way, pledging $5million towards LGBTQ rights organisations, and announcing Disneys goal to repeal the contentious law. In a ping-pong game of cultural outrage, DeSantis responded by revoking Disneys control of a district the company has run almost autonomously for half a century, declaring that in Florida, our policies [have] got to be based on the best interest of Florida citizens, not on the musing of woke corporations.

That district which has been called a Vatican with mouse ears was incorporated in May 1966 to facilitate one of the strangest examples of Walt Disneys grandiose ambitions. Walt wanted to create an ideal community called Progress City, showcasing new concepts for urban living, so begged the right to effectively secede from Florida state law on planning, building codes and so on. After his death in December 1966, corporate enthusiasm for Progress City waned, and, in 1971, the site became Walt Disney World.

Today, it lies in a special tax area which covers 100 square kilometers in Orange and Osceola counties, and includes two small cities where Disney runs the fire brigade, ambulances and emergency medical services, drainage, electricity utilities, roads and so on. It pays for all this with its own municipal bonds, which come with tax advantages.

The effect of repealing the legislation is unclear. There is no obvious winner. Disney will lose huge tax benefits in Florida, but DeSantis has also taken massive donations from the corporation, which will dry up. Meanwhile, Orange Countys mayor has warned that the cost of taking over Disneys emergency services would be catastrophic.

The reason DeSantis is pushing this is because he wants to run for president in 2024 and hes out-Trumping Trump in using government power as an instrument in the culture war, one studio insider tells me. (Its a mark of the debates toxicity that Hollywood sources will only speak anonymously.) Theres not much Disney can do. They cant shift a park thats the size of San Francisco, so theyre stuck.

Looking down from Disney Heaven, Walt would be appalled by the woke corporation that bears his name. He was fervently pro-Republican and rabidly anti-Communist, testifying enthusiastically before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and tipping off the FBI about alleged communist animators.

For the 21st-century firm, he is an increasingly embarrassing memory: a member of the anti-Semitic Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, he took Hitlers cinematic protge, Leni Riefenstahl, on a tour of his studios just one month after Kristallnacht.

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Nazis at the gates: inside 'woke' Disney's culture wars - The Telegraph