So, looks like Disney has now bought LucasFilm. And they plan on making more films. As expected, Star Wars fans around the world (as personified by the majority of people on my Facebook news feed) are a bit up in arms.
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| This seems to be the major concern. |
'Course, I can understand the concern. I won't go into detail, needless to say you'll be seeing the arguments posted up a lot over the next few days. But in an effort to stem the endless tide of nerd rage, here's a few more positive thoughts...
1.) We've already seen the exact same flood of rage when Disney bought out Marvel. The effect on the comics? Virtually none that I can see. We also got access to Disney funding for Marvel Studios, which resulted in the Avengers movie.
2.) Speaking of said movie, it was written by Joss Whedon. If Whedon had written the Star Wars prequels, I'm fairly certain they'd have been a lot better, amiright? There's another rather famous fanboy film maker with something of a history with Disney (through Miramax, admittedly), by the name of Kevin Smith.
3.) This way I might actually see the $@%£ing live-action TV series before I die.
4.) I know it's a bit trendy to play Spit on Lucas, but for a while now he's pretty much been the only one to consistently balls up what the rest of the world thinks of as Star Wars. Lucas gave us Anakin Skywalker, Watto (a "Toydarian") and [expletive deleted] Jar Jar Binks. Other people working the IP? They gave us Mara Jade, Prince Xizor, and Darth Revan.
So yeah. I'm not without my own reservations here, I'll admit it. But even if the glass is half empty, it doesn't need to be a glass of Rancor piss.
Agreed, also Disney does have a history of making awesome films that are awesome. Nightmare Before Xmas, anyone?
ReplyDeleteI think the days of Disney shoving their trademarks into everything they touch is long over, these fears are mostly echos of the 1990's 'Disney Fing Movie' days.
Just think about it like this - it could have been bought by Time Warner, who would then bring us Jedi on the order of the Green Lantern movie. That would truely be an abmoniation.
Aye. Or Pirates of the Caribbean! And no arguments about the bloody Green Lantern movie...
DeleteInterestingly, Kevin Smith just posted his own thoughts up on Facebook...
"WE ARE DISNEY!
ALL YOUR CHILDHOOD ARE BELONG TO US!
Lots of folks asking what I think about the recent announcement that Disney is now the proud owned of the STAR WARS universe.
I'm all for it.
Can't wait to see all the new movies they're gonna make. The 7 year old Kev who saw STAR WARS during its initial release in 1977 is finally gonna get all 9 STAR WARS movies he was promised back then. I'll be first in line to pay for whatever they do.
The Disney purchase of Lucasfilm is the fulfillment of a wish the Mouse made upon a star a few years back: the wish for little boys.
Sounds dirty but it's just business: the Disney Princess market gave the Mouse all the little girls they could sell an Ariel costume to but Disney couldn't interest boys in their wonderful world beyond the single digit years. Few boys are clamoring to play with a Peter Pan action figure and hooking the audience while their young is an important component of long term brand loyalty. So rather than develop their own boys brand in-house, they started buying "boy" stuff. It started with Marvel and it now continues with the world of STAR WARS.
And so long as Disney's allowed to continue the franchise and make new flicks, they'll make that $4 billion back in less than a decade. They've got eons worth on non-movie material to work from, too: all the books, the games, the comics, etc.
But the most important development to come out of the Disney purchase of Lucasfilm?
We might finally get an official Special Edition BluRay release of the STAR WARS HOLIDAY SPECIAL!!!"