Disney buys Marvel

[El Chuxter]

Wow.

Didn't see this coming, and I'm not sure what to make of it.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090831/..._entertainment

Hopefully, this means there will be more kid-friendly comics (meaning they're rated the equivalent of PG, not the watered-down fare they aim at kids without considering kids want story, too) and more exposure in standard retail outlets. Marvel's kind of lost sight of how kids represent their future, so it'd be nice to get them back on track. I'd love to be able to buy my daughter a Marvel comic one day soon without looking for inappropriate content first.

On the other hand, Disney's been taking a very short-sighted approach lately, putting way too many eggs into the Hannah Montana/Jonas Brothers/Generic Talentless Kiddie Entertainer #3 basket lately, without focusing on the timelessness that makes their better material, well, better. And it's rather sad that both the major comic publishers are now owned by gigantic multinational conglomerates.

[pbarnard]

So I can hug Spiderman and the Hulk next time at Disney World?

[sith_killer_99]

Cool, maybe they will have Mickey Mouse (and gang) in the next "Marvel Zombies" series!

Yeah, I know, I'm twisted, at least I didn't make a joke about Mickey Mouse eating Minnie Mouse. Oh, that wasn't right, I sincerely apologize. It's bad enough we had to see Peter Parker eat Mary Jane. WOW, did I just say that, okay I'll stop now.

[Droid]

I am very interested to know what that means for Universal Studios theme parks. Don't they have Marvel tie-ins, characters, and rides?

[sith_killer_99]

It probably just mean Disney will get royalties. I doubt they will make any changes.

[plasticfetish]

I loath just about everything that Disney does or has had their hands in for at least the last 20 years, so I'm sure they'll do their very best to make me hate Marvel Comics as well. Not that I've been a tremendous fan of modern comics anyway... but after they've applied the "Disney magic" to everything Marvel, I can see myself loosing interest completely.

[El Chuxter]

Disney described seeing the relationship the same way they see the relationship with Pixar: they own them, but are smart enough to let them be pretty much autonomous. I don't care for the way Disney's handled a lot of stuff, but their animated feature output was pretty solid up until they decided they could do things better than Pixar. But, now, they've had a change of heart, and their upcoming Frog Prince movie looks excellent (and it's 2D, since it seems the biggest fan of traditional animation is the head of Pixar, and now Disney's entire animation arm, John Lasseter). So I wouldn't sell them short entirely.

[plasticfetish]

So I wouldn't sell them short entirely.

You make a good point. I've enjoyed what Pixar has done (for the most part), and yes, Frog Prince looks good, so maybe I am being overly cynical. In my mind though, Disney stands for quality second, and overwhelmingly obnoxious marketing and merchandising first. Not that there's anything new there when it comes to Marvel... so, ehhh... I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

[jjreason]

Well the once-impossible dream of having Pixar deal with a Marvel franchise in the manner of the Incredibles has now been upgraded to extremely-unlikely-but somewhere-barely-within-the-realm-of-possibility (albeit barely).

I'm good with that.

[Rocketboy]

As you’ve probably heard by now, The Walt Disney Company is in the process of acquiring Marvel for $4 billion. But what does this mean for the future of Marvel Comics and Marvel Films? Disney CEO Bob Iger responded to questions on a conference call this morning, and here is some of the information that you need to know.



Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company didn’t plan on interfering much with any of the in-development Marvel movies, using the term “If it ain’t broke…” All of the creative control will remain in the hands of the people who know the Marvel Universe best: the people at Marvel.


Disney’s acquisition does notaffect the deals for movies in place at other movie studios, such as Spider-Man and X-Men at 20th Century Fox.
Paramount still holds to rights to distribute up to five Marvel films, including: Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, The Avengers and possibly one more unannounced film.


There are still existing deals in which other studios hold the big screen rights to certain characters.
But after those deals expire, Disney “want[s] to be sole distributor of these films.”


On the possibility of Pixar developing a future Marvel films? “We’ve talked about this internally. Pixar boss John Lasseter talked to the Marvel guys about this and they all got excited about it. We think there’s ultimately some exciting product that come of that. Sparks will fly!” Sounds like Lasseter is very interested at the possibility.


Disney also plans to “exploit more lesser-known characters.”


It is unclear what Marvel’s deal looks like with Universal Studios, but it’s hard to imagine that Disney isn’t interested in the theme park rights to the Marvel Universe.


And I have to include this out-of-context unintentionally funny quote from Iger telling CNBC how they hope to attract more young boys: “We’d like love to attract more boys, and we think Marvel’s skew is more in boys’ direction. Although there’s a universal appeal, we think, to a lot of their characters and a lot of their story. Just look at Spider-Man and Iron Man films. This is a great fit. But we obviously know Disney has a lot of products that are more girl-skewed than boy. And we’d like the opportunity to go after boys more aggressively.”

slashfilm.com