The Jimmy Kimmel and Disney Drama Has Some Superfans Dumping the Mouse

For most of her life, Disneyland was Stephanie Cuevas’s happy place. But the news on Wednesday, September 17, about Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show being suspended “indefinitely” was her breaking point with Disney.

The next day, Cuevas made an announcement: She is going to dump the mouse. Her Instagram and TikTok accounts, which had grown to tens of thousands of followers based on her Disneyland-themed content, would be pivoting. As a queer and Latina woman, she could not abide by the company’s decision to suspend the late-night host for comments he made about Donald Trump’s reaction to Charlie Kirk’s death.

To Cuevas, it seems clear that the company to which she’d spent so much time, energy, and money supporting does not “care about their community or the people who visit their parks.”

“By silencing someone for expressing an opinion he has every right to voice, Disney showed just how far this administration will go to censor people,” she tells me. “If a wealthy, white, male celebrity can be forced into silence, what does that mean for the rest of us? That’s absolutely terrifying.”

Jimmy Kimmel and Disney’s battle over what many have deemed as undemocratic censorship has not only taken over the news cycle, but it’s also sent the Disney internet into shambles.

Shortly after the news of Kimmel’s suspension was announced, people online began calling for those against the move to cancel their Disney +, Hulu, and ESPN streaming services in protest. For a lot of people, even those who don’t identify as Disney superfans, doing so has been a tough pill to swallow. After all, what are the nation’s children going to do without easy access to Bluey or Frozen?

But while parents practice their script for how to explain to a three-year-old that Elsa no longer aligns with the moral values of their family, Disney creators and proudly self-identified Disney adults have a much stickier moral quagmire to unravel.

That’s because being a Disney superfan is not simply enjoying the parks, shows, or movies. The term Disney adult has become a meme to be mocked on the internet, but as author AJ Wolfe told USA Today earlier this year, the subculture that has evolved around the corporation is much deeper for those who subscribe to it.

Being a Disney adult, and tapping into the various places to connect with other fans online, provides thousands with not only a community, but also a place to “find your tribe and your community,” she says.

“What it all stems back to for a lot of us as Disney adults is family and emotional connections,” Wolfe, a self-proclaimed Disney adult and the author of a recent book by the same name, told USA Today. “Now, with the world doing what it’s doing and people just being high anxiety and feeling stressed and just regular life, you’re going to want to try to get back to that feeling of safety and predictability and warmth and being taken care of, and so a lot of times people will go back to Disney.”

What do you do when the place that provided you solace and comfort from the world’s ills is now, in your mind, perpetuating them?

For Kim Power, the news has left her conflicted. Her family has gone to Disney World every year to mark the anniversary of her daughter overcoming a serious illness as a toddler, but now she finds herself incredibly disappointed with the company’s leadership.

“I am just blown away that we are watching free speech get taken away from us in real time, and extremely sad that the people who create the things that make us the happiest were in on it,” she tells me.

Power has also been hurting for all the other people that a park boycott will impact, especially the workers who have made their vacations so special.

“I want to remind everybody to treat the cast members with respect and kindness because they have nothing to do with this decision and are probably just as upset as we are, but they still have to show up every day and try to make everyone’s day magical,” she says.

Another place where people risk losing their careers? The Disney internet, which is an ever-expanding machine of creators, some of whom have millions of followers for their content about the company and its parks. Mindy Marzec, or @fairytalemindy, used to be one of them, writing a Disney travel blog that she made income from.

In recent years, her revenue has slowed, and Marzec has pivoted to other ventures, like a crystal business she began on Etsy. One of the reasons she decided to expand, she tells me, is that she decided during the entertainment strikes in 2023 to move away from “building a business on someone else’s business.”

“I tried a few different things before pivoting to selling crystals, minerals, and related products,” she tells me. “What’s happening with Disney right now will probably be a similar moment of reckoning for many other creators.”

As a fan, Marzec has been outspoken online about her disappointment with the corporation’s decisions in recent months, and plans to not post any content about the brand for now. However, she urges other Disney fans and creators to not give into infighting over the situation with Jimmy Kimmel and Disney. Everyone, she says, should be given the space to figure out how to handle the situation for themselves.

“Everyone is coming to terms with it at different speeds, and the most important thing we can do right now is hold space for each other and be kind,” she says.

Cuevas notes that in this space, Disney creators have more power and influence than some may expect. She wants to use her voice and platform to make a change.

“With a single post or video, we can influence thousands of guests to try a food, drink, or experience in the parks,” she says. “I couldn’t, in good conscience, keep giving them free publicity knowing they don’t support free speech and are willing to bow to fascism. I had to make my stance clear and hope that this starts a movement and gets Disney to make some changes.”