Disney buys Marvel!

[Cyber Burn]

My reaction is mixed.  On the one hand, I am rather upset at Disney at the way they treated the Narnia film property, putting obstacles in their way, having unreasonably expectations, continuously delaying filming for years on both sequals, cutting the budget, going back on thier word repeatedly.

On the other hand, as long as they leave Marvel studios alone to do what they want to do, having them acquire back all the lost licenses can only be a good thing.  But I worry about movies like Incredible Hulk.  It might never have been made under Disney.  Again, I hope they just leave the studio alone.

Now a Marvel/Pixar collaboration could only be a good thing.

Considering how much I liked the Incredibles, I think a Marvel/Pixar collaboration has alot of potential.

[John Jr.]

We don't know how much control Disney plans to exercise over Marvel. Warner always let DC free, they only interfere over the big guns (Superman and Batman) and it's a uncommon event.
Disney has a "Family" image, Marvel adopted a "Darker" mood last years. So, Marvel will suffer changes only if Disney decides exercise full control (and I don't believe this will be the case). Disney woulnd't pay big bucks to completely change her new toy.

Well JJ, you're somewhat right.  WB doesn't interfere too much on the comics side of things, but they DEFINITELY screw with the movies.....*looks at a certain giant-mechanical-spider-minded producer*

I really wanted to forget this...
Ok, we can panic now.

[RTTingle]

Wow...

floored by this...

in a good way.

Sure Disney stumbles now and then, but as a whole - they're quality entertainment. especially under Lassiter. 

BUT --- I am definitely going to shed a tear over Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure losing the Marvel Comics brand... Spiderman had no equal ridewise.

RTT

[thalaw2]

This means I may never get to ride Spider-Man. 

[Renegade]

I decided the merge the comics and films thread on this topic into one.

[Glitch Girl]

If nothing else, the Disney-Marvel deal makes for fun parodies

(MODUCK... hee hee hee)

[rain]

I don't think Disney's main interest in this comes from any desire to really interfere with the one thing Marvel's done really well over the last 5 years, which is make movies.

I think Disney's main focus here is to use the IP. A lot of what I read today focused on the purchase of 5000+ characters.

Why?

I think where Disney really makes it's money these days is on it's straight to video offerings and tv shows. A good amount of the content on the rebranded Disney Channel recently was Marvel based. I think it's part and parcel of them trying to reach young males the same way they reach young females with stuff like "Hannah Montana" ect. While those sitcoms are huge in terms of marketability, they do not reach young males the same way as the girls.

I think what we're looking at is alot of new content based on the IP. Now I don't know what kind of quality they deliver on their straight to video rehashes of their A-list IP, because not being a parent, I'd rather (and do) watch another Saw movie than a straight to video sequel to Alladin ect.

But I think what you're going to see from this deal is a fair amount of animated and live action shows, branded and packaged for DVDs in order to hook tween boys the same way that "That's So Raven" grabbed the girls.

Not saying it will be bad... don't watch alot of Disney's product. They don't make a whole lot of stuff for me as Disney proper.

I think what this deal means is tons of straight to video animated movies. Roughly about the same quality as an Alladin 2 or Sleeping Beauty 2 and aimed at 10-16 year old boys.

take that for what you will.

Could very well be good news to many people.

[steamteck]

Wow...

floored by this...

in a good way.

Sure Disney stumbles now and then, but as a whole - they're quality entertainment. especially under Lassiter. 

BUT --- I am definitely going to shed a tear over Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure losing the Marvel Comics brand... spider-man had no equal ridewise.

RTT

I agree. My 8 year old gets upset if we go to Disney instead of universal in general actually. My kids all prefer Universal to Disney.

[rain]

We don't know how much control Disney plans to exercise over Marvel. Warner always let DC free, they only interfere over the big guns (Superman and Batman) and it's a uncommon event.
Disney has a "Family" image, Marvel adopted a "Darker" mood last years. So, Marvel will suffer changes only if Disney decides exercise full control (and I don't believe this will be the case). Disney woulnd't pay big bucks to completely change her new toy.

Well JJ, you're somewhat right.  WB doesn't interfere too much on the comics side of things, but they DEFINITELY screw with the movies.....*looks at a certain giant-mechanical-spider-minded producer*

I really wanted to forget this...
Ok, we can panic now.

I doubt it's panic time at all. I think what you're going to see is alot of "family friendly" content based on the IP. Probably a fair amount more of the straight to video animated movies (which I enjoyed).
I can't see them interfering with a film like Iron Man, or Fantastic 4. I can't think of very many movies Marvel has done on their own that went very far at all with the "adult content". There's a big difference between The Watchmen movie and Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

There are no sacred cows at Disney, as witnessed by their willingness to exploit any of their IPs for any reason. They want to make money like everyone else and will focus on exactly what they are doing now.... making movies that as many people can watch at the same time without offending anyone. A fair bit of that involves making products that parents can fearlessly sit their children in front of.

As was pointed out about, Disney also owns Miramax. I don't think they exercized any "parental control" over Clerks 2, Kill Bill 1+2,
or Scary Movie 4. The Kill Bill movies came out while Disney had direct control of Miramax.

[Podmark]

Keep in mind, unless I misunderstand these things Disney/Marvel has limited to no control over the Spider-Man movie franchise (Sony) or the X-Men, Daredevil, and Fantastic Four movie franchises (Fox). Now one thing I've read about the deal is that Marvel now has the backing to get those movie rights back - which can only be a good thing Marvel Studios wise.

Also Marvel Studios has several film projects in the works and Marvel Animated has at least five animated series plus Direct to DVD movies that they are producing. I really doubt Disney is going to dismantle any of that in the immediate future.

Early comments really make me think Disney is going to be mostly hands off, that could change in the future though.

EDIT:
I found this article interesting.

[marhawkman]

yeah, and for a Disney productio Pirates of the Caribbean was extremely violent. They went so far as dismembering people....

[cmdrkoenig67]

Does anybody wonder if Disney will "defend" the copyright of Marvel's characters more actively than Marvel did?  Meaning, does anyone think we'll be a target again (for using Marvel characters in FF)?  I was just curious.

Dana

[docdelorean88]

Does anybody wonder if Disney will "defend" the copyright of Marvel's characters more actively than Marvel did?  Meaning, does anyone think we'll be a target again (for using Marvel characters in FF)?  I was just curious.

Dana

I do think Disney will play the hero, however i don't think we have anything to worry about. We have given due credit, it is a form of fan art and no one is taking credit for the characters. There may be trouble, but i truly doubt it. That was a great question though!

[TheMarvell]

I just hope they don't use their stupid "vault" to lock up Marvel properties to generate demand. I really, really, hate that marketing ploy. "If you want to buy the X-Men Trilogy, you better get it now before it goes into the vault for the next decade!"  Plus, I have a grudge against Disney for not releasing the rest of the Gargoyles cartoon out on dvd, or the 90's Spider-Man cartoon.

This could potentially be a disaster or a blessing in disguise. It's really up in the air at this point, but fans like all of us here have every right to be really concerned.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

Disney has not, as far as I'm aware of, gone overboard about their characters in fan settings like marvel has.  As a matter of fact, Disney is often used in parodies, and they've never fussed about it.  If anything, this could make things better for sites like ours.  At the very least, I'm pretty confident that it won't get any worse.

EDIT:  Another positive thing that Podmark's company pointed out is that we could see more Marvel-based tv shows.  Disney owns ABC, ABC family and the Disney channel, all of which could be great platforms for certain characters.  Superheros are big right now, so a marvel based TV series could do very well.  They could even make any such live action series part of the movie universe, which fans would really go nuts over, I think.

[Podmark]

EDIT:  Another positive thing that Podmark's company pointed out is that we could see more Marvel-based tv shows. 

I own a company now? Awesome. What do I sell? OOO can it be WMDs or clones of Murs or ponies??!!?

Someone told me that Disney made a deal with Sony to get the rights to the Spectacular Spider-Man series. I don't have the link for this though. I would hope they've done this to renew the show - I love that show

[Reepicheep]

Disney never struck me as being in it for the money. Or if they are, theres no need to be - they have it by the truckload. In which case, I imagine that they're buying marvel not for the profit but in order to do something with the characters.

This gives me hope.

[Gremlin]

Disney never struck me as being in it for the money.

...what, seriously? The kings of copyright?

[UnfluffyBunny]

page choc full of epicness
http://www.worth1000.com/contest.asp?contest_id=23840&display=photoshop&page=5000#entries

[murs47]

[Podmark]

lol awesome

[Tomato]

my feelings on this are not complicated at all.

Disney= Not Fox.
Not Fox= good thing.

Disney's pulled some odd moves in the past, but Fox... Dragon Ball Evolution and Wolverine Origins this year alone, not to to mention some of their other Superhero Gems.

Granted, Fox still has contracts so we likely won't see the end of the pointless X-sequels anytime soon, but it's more likely now that Disney's at the helm.