It’s official- Disney has acquired 21st Century Fox

[Colossus1980]

Isn't it better to devote the considerable time that animated films require towards making new movies rather than sequels?

Nothing wrong with sequels per se but when it comes to animation, I'd rather see them telling new stories.

I find it interesting that most companies would go out of their way to make sequels or trilogies of successful animated movies. Disney either moves on or takes their time and doesn't care about the time gap like The Incredibles. They are so methodical I don't understand the worry some people have thinking Disney is only going to concentrate on the big IPS of Marvel. They will take a lot of chances and people shouldn't worry that C-listers won't be given an opportunity.

[Prof. Warren]

I find it interesting that most companies would go out of their way to make sequels or trilogies of successful animated movies. Disney either moves on or takes their time and doesn't care about the time gap like The Incredibles. They are so methodical I don't understand the worry some people have thinking Disney is only going to concentrate on the big IPS of Marvel. They will take a lot of chances and people shouldn't worry that C-listers won't be given an opportunity.

I think it has everything to do with the painstaking process of animation.

If you wait to find out whether a film will be a hit deserving of a sequel before you have your animation team working on a new project, you won't have movies ready to come out every year.

Developing animated films has to be done far in advance. Coco's a big hit for Disney now but it's not like they could have Coco 2 out next year or even the year after as a response to that success.

As far as Marvel properties, I agree that they will continue to take chances on what might seem like left field choices. It's paid off for them in huge ways and there's no reason for them to stop.

[Kintor]

I find it interesting that most companies would go out of their way to make sequels or trilogies of successful animated movies. Disney either moves on or takes their time and doesn't care about the time gap like The Incredibles. They are so methodical I don't understand the worry some people have thinking Disney is only going to concentrate on the big IPS of Marvel. They will take a lot of chances and people shouldn't worry that C-listers won't be given an opportunity.

Disney is the most risk-adverse company in Hollywood, they won't be taking a chance on anything unless it has been relentlessly focus-tested beforehand, to produce the most uncreative and inoffensive product possible. It's the difference between the first Iron Man movie and the current MCU; less pushing boundaries, more PG-13 jokes and no real stakes or drama. Even Star Wars isn't immune to Disney's meddling, the talking online is already about how the Last Jedi doesn't feel like a Star Wars movie but rather a safe MCU movie. That danger here now is that Disney probably won't give anymore C-listers a chance, while those that do make it to the screen will be a non-threatening parody of themselves.

[Prof. Warren]

Disney is the most risk-adverse company in Hollywood, they won't be taking a chance on anything unless it has been relentlessly focus-tested beforehand, to produce the most uncreative and inoffensive product possible. It's the difference between the first Iron Man movie and the current MCU; less pushing boundaries, more PG-13 jokes and no real stakes or drama. Even Star Wars isn't immune to Disney's meddling, the talking online is already about how the Last Jedi doesn't feel like a Star Wars movie but rather a safe MCU movie. That danger here now is that Disney probably won't give anymore C-listers a chance, while those that do make it to the screen will be a non-threatening parody of themselves.

The first Iron Man movie was wonderful, of course, but as a very straight-forward action adventure was certainly far less "risk taking" and less boundary pushing than Thor: Ragnarok or Guardians of the Galaxy 2 or, we can expect, Black Panther. It's impossible to claim with any credibility that the MCU has become safer and less risk adverse as it's gone on.

[Jokerz79]

Disney is the most risk-adverse company in Hollywood, they won't be taking a chance on anything unless it has been relentlessly focus-tested beforehand, to produce the most uncreative and inoffensive product possible. It's the difference between the first Iron Man movie and the current MCU; less pushing boundaries, more PG-13 jokes and no real stakes or drama. Even Star Wars isn't immune to Disney's meddling, the talking online is already about how the Last Jedi doesn't feel like a Star Wars movie but rather a safe MCU movie. That danger here now is that Disney probably won't give anymore C-listers a chance, while those that do make it to the screen will be a non-threatening parody of themselves.

From what I'm hearing I'm not going to be a fan of Last Jedi but seriously Disney allowed Force Awakens to kill Han something Lucas never would allow and Rogue One was possibly the darkest Star Wars movie ever given they killed the entire cast of the film.

[PwrdOn]

Disney is the most risk-adverse company in Hollywood, they won't be taking a chance on anything unless it has been relentlessly focus-tested beforehand, to produce the most uncreative and inoffensive product possible. It's the difference between the first Iron Man movie and the current MCU; less pushing boundaries, more PG-13 jokes and no real stakes or drama. Even Star Wars isn't immune to Disney's meddling, the talking online is already about how the Last Jedi doesn't feel like a Star Wars movie but rather a safe MCU movie. That danger here now is that Disney probably won't give anymore C-listers a chance, while those that do make it to the screen will be a non-threatening parody of themselves.

It's quite ironic that these days Disney is less about making movies than about managing brands, when their entire company was built on adapting fairy tales from the public domain, which apparently they now own without anyone questioning it much. I mean, if all they want to do is churn out bland, uncreative films while raking in boatloads of cash, more power to them I guess, but now that they keep buying up all the valuable IPs, they are pretty ensuring that nobody else can do anything creative with them either.

[Kintor]

From what I'm hearing I'm not going to be a fan of Last Jedi but seriously Disney allowed Force Awakens to kill Han something Lucas never would allow and Rogue One was possibly the darkest Star Wars movie ever given they killed the entire cast of the film.

Having a high body count doesn't make a movie either dark or risky. Disney only killed Han Solo because Harrison Ford demanded it; this was the only way to get him on board for the movie. As for Rogue One, I consider it to be a boring and woefully safe movie. The 'Death Star plans heist' plot has already been done to death in the EU before Disney decided to have a crack at it. Worse still, the problem with Rogue One is its setting, more unimaginative re-treading of the OT characters and vehicles. I love the way that the prequels fleshed-out the Star Wars universe; the way that Disney ignores everything except the OT movies is creatively bankrupt.

It's quite ironic that these days Disney is less about making movies than about managing brands, when their entire company was built on adapting fairy tales from the public domain, which apparently they now own without anyone questioning it much. I mean, if all they want to do is churn out bland, uncreative films while raking in boatloads of cash, more power to them I guess, but now that they keep buying up all the valuable IPs, they are pretty ensuring that nobody else can do anything creative with them either.

I know exactly what you mean. I've never been a fan of Disney's entertainment, there is a blandness and uniformity to Disney movies and TV shows that never sits well with me. This is why I've chosen to spend my money on other forms of entertainment, many of them produced by Fox over the years. So, having Disney takeover Fox limits my options, there is now a lot less variety in entertainment I can chose from if I want to avoid Disney. Make no mistake this is bad for the entertainment industry and it's bad for audiences.

[Michael Watkins]

i wonder if they will attempt to create brand new characters.

[WebLurker]

Having a high body count doesn't make a movie either dark or risky.

Fair enough.

Disney only killed Han Solo because Harrison Ford demanded it; this was the only way to get him on board for the movie.

It's still not a "safe" move, regardless of the reasons behind it.

As for Rogue One, I consider it to be a boring and woefully safe movie.

It was a darker movie than the average Star Wars film, traditional hallmarks like the Force and the Jedi are extremely muted, and it depends on us caring for a batch of characters not related to the Skywalker Saga (excusing the idea that

The 'Death Star plans heist' plot has already been done to death in the EU before Disney decided to have a crack at it.

Only in Legends, which has a smaller demographic audience. For most movie-goers, it was a totally new story. Also, with the reboot, there was no canon version of the event, so it was a perfectly reasonable story to tell. Also, the Legends version is made up of a bunch of mutually exclusive stories that they tried to weld together despite the plot holes that remained. Rogue One streamlined all that into a single, coherent account.

Worse still, the problem with Rogue One is its setting, more unimaginative re-treading of the OT characters and vehicles.

It's an OT-era movie. Of course it's going to have a lot of the same styles of vehicles and the new things will look like they could've been in the originals.

I love the way that the prequels fleshed-out the Star Wars universe; the way that Disney ignores everything except the OT movies is creatively bankrupt.

In Force Awakens, Lor San Tekka tells Poe that there can be no balance in the Force without the Jedi. The idea of the Force being balanced came from Phantom Menace. Luke went looking for the first Jedi Temple in in the Sequel Trilogy. Jedi temples were invented for the prequels. Sort-of example: Maz mentions the Sith by name in Force Awakens. While Vader did hold the title "Dark Lord of the Sith" since the New Hope novelization and some Legends materials did invent different Sith orders and extrapolate on them, the prequels were the first time that the Sith were tied into the movies.

In Rogue OneJimmy Smitts and Genevieve O'Reilly reprise their roles as Bail Organa and Mon Mothma from the prequel films. The prison transport that Jyn was rescued from was one of those mulit-wheeled tanks seen in Revenge of the Sith. Darth Vader is shown having a fortress on Mustafar, a planet invented for Revenge of the Sith. Saw Gerrera was a character from the prequel-centric Clone Wars animated show.

Rebels has a lot of ties to the prequels through connections to its Clone Wars predecessor, including returning characters, references to the prequel-era Jedi. They even did a whole episode centered around a surviving battle droid regiment. The Forces of Destiny web series and novelizations/upcoming comic spinoff includes Padme and Ahsoka among the characters given the spotlight.

Marvel has produced multiple prequel era miniseries, including Obi-Wan & Anakin, Kanan (in part), Darth Maul, Mace Windu, the second Darth Vader series, and reprinting the Dark Horse comic Darth Maul (not to mention that the Star Wars Epic Collection reprints of Dark Horse Legends comics include prequel tales). IDW's Star Wars Adventures anthology also includes prequel era stories.

New Star Wars prequel novels include Dark Disciple and Ahsoka. On top of that, many novels and comics like Catalyst, the Aftermath trilogy, Tarkin, Dark Vader, Thrawn, Leia: Princess of Aldraan liberally use prequel information, either setting whole chunks in that era, or using the world-building established there.

So, no the prequels are not being ignored in the slightest.

I know exactly what you mean. I've never been a fan of Disney's entertainment, there is a blandness and uniformity to Disney movies and TV shows that never sits well with me. This is why I've chosen to spend my money on other forms of entertainment, many of them produced by Fox over the years. So, having Disney takeover Fox limits my options, there is now a lot less variety in entertainment I can chose from if I want to avoid Disney. Make no mistake this is bad for the entertainment industry and it's bad for audiences.

I'm not a fan of the Fox purchase (I was hoping that the Fox X-Men series would continue), however, I'm not sure that Disney is completely uniform.

[Kintor]

So, no the prequels are not being ignored in the slightest.

I'm surprised that you could say that with a straight face, when we have witnesses the rapid deterioration of Star Wars under Disney's control. You need only to look at the difference between the cartoons Clone Wars and Rebels to understand how much has already been lost. At the time, under George Lucas and Cartoon Network, Clone Wars was arguably the best looking CGI cartoon ever made, only Transformers: Prime could even come close to matching it's visually beauty and ambitious storytelling.

When Disney took over Clone Wars was canned immediately, the production team weren't even allowed to finish the episodes they already had fully-recorded audio for. Then Disney dumped Rebels on us; a show with down-graded CGI, weak storylines, a protagonist that looked suspiciously like Aladdin; all wrapped in a bland OT bow. Disney has no respect for the prequels; they put a torch to the Star Wars universe day one and have no intention of honouring the past.

[Lee Stone]

A simple solution would be to say the FF never made it back from their initial space trip and instead have been lost in the Negative Zone since gaining their powers.

As for the X-Men, just take a cue from the late '80s when the world thought they were dead and they hid themselves telepathically and jammed electronic devices. Just say they've been acting covertly all this time.

[PwrdOn]

I'm not a fan of the Fox purchase (I was hoping that the Fox X-Men series would continue), however, I'm not sure that Disney is completely uniform.

Disney's strength lies in its ability to recreate the feelings you experienced watching old movies, but done in a pretty and polished new package. Ep. VII wasn't a carbon copy of the originals, but it triggered the same kind of emotions and gave people that nostalgic reaction. Compare that to the prequels which, for better or worse, felt like something completely new and unrecognizable. The same thing goes for the MCU in replicating the experience of cracking open old comics, or even their new princess movies in teaching a whole new generation of young girls that you can always get what you want in life as long as you're beautiful. This is the Disney formula and it has worked for them all these years, the look and feel of the movies might change over time but the underlying substance doesn't.

[Jokerz79]

I'm surprised that you could say that with a straight face, when we have witnesses the rapid deterioration of Star Wars under Disney's control. You need only to look at the difference between the cartoons Clone Wars and Rebels to understand how much has already been lost. At the time, under George Lucas and Cartoon Network, Clone Wars was arguably the best looking CGI cartoon ever made, only Transformers: Prime could even come close to matching it's visually beauty and ambitious storytelling.

When Disney took over Clone Wars was canned immediately, the production team weren't even allowed to finish the episodes they already had fully-recorded audio for. Then Disney dumped Rebels on us; a show with down-graded CGI, weak storylines, a protagonist that looked suspiciously like Aladdin; all wrapped in a bland OT bow. Disney has no respect for the prequels; they put a torch to the Star Wars universe day one and have no intention of honouring the past.

You'd won me if you said them ignoring the EU notably replacing the future of Anakin Solo, Jacen Solo, Jaina Solo, and Ben Skywalker. But the Prequel films should be forgotten they're not only bad Star Wars movies they're bad movies. I'm very fair with pointing out when I personally dislike something but it's still a good movie and I'm very generous with suspending disbelief for films but the Prequels ask me to suspend logic and they ask me to do it a lot and thus they are just horrible films. If they ever build a Mount Rushmore to Filmmakers Lucas deserves to be on it due to his accomplishments behind the camera with furthering film technology. But he is a ok director at best with his best directed film being American Graffiti given A New Hope was saved in editing by his ex-wife and the Prequels are just again bad movies.

[Kintor]

You'd won me if you said them ignoring the EU notably replacing the future of Anakin Solo, Jacen Solo, Jaina Solo, and Ben Skywalker. But the Prequel films should be forgotten they're not only bad Star Wars movies they're bad movies. I'm very fair with pointing out when I personally dislike something but it's still a good movie and I'm very generous with suspending disbelief for films but the Prequels ask me to suspend logic and they ask me to do it a lot and thus they are just horrible films. If they ever build a Mount Rushmore to Filmmakers Lucas deserves to be on it due to his accomplishments behind the camera with furthering film technology. But he is a ok director at best with his best directed film being American Graffiti given A New Hope was saved in editing by his ex-wife and the Prequels are just again bad movies.

Look, I've rather not turn this thread into a prequels vs OT argument, when the focus should be on Disney itself. What I will say is that I vastly preferred the direction of Star Wars under George Lucas. We had a good thing before Disney; the late generation EU novels like Darth Plagueis were superb, while Lucas Arts were working on some truly innovative Star Wars games. Disney ruined all that with their lack of imagination and they'll do the same to Fox's IPs. Still, between the failure of Battlefront 2 and the negative audience reactions to the Last Jedi I think people are starting to see Disney for what they truly are. This takeover of Fox already had a lot of people nervous; it might finally be a bridge too far for Disney.

[WebLurker]

I'm surprised that you could say that with a straight face, when we have witnesses the rapid deterioration of Star Wars under Disney's control.

Since I'm a Star Wars fan and have been following the new movies, TV show, and the majority of the tie-ins, I can say that. Unlike you, I was able to back up my claim with specific examples.

You need only to look at the difference between the cartoons Clone Wars and Rebels to understand how much has already been lost. At the time, under George Lucas and Cartoon Network, Clone Wars was arguably the best looking CGI cartoon ever made, only Transformers: Prime could even come close to matching it's visually beauty and ambitious storytelling.

I've seen both. I personally think that Rebels has a better animation style than Clone Wars. I also like the animation of the CGI TMNT better. The Clone Wars did have some pretty good writing, but, as I recall, there was a learning curve to that.

When Disney took over Clone Wars was canned immediately, the production team weren't even allowed to finish the episodes they already had fully-recorded audio for.

Clone Wars was canceled. However, the Lost Missions season was released after the fact. The "Crystal Crises" and "Bad Batch" were also made public (albeit with half finished animation). Many of the other unmade episodes were also brought to life through novels and comics.

Then Disney dumped Rebels on us; a show with down-graded CGI, weak storylines, a protagonist that looked suspiciously like Aladdin; all wrapped in a bland OT bow.

I've watched most of Rebels. They went on to do some pretty good shows that rivaled the best of Clone Wars and never sank to the same lows. Also worth noting is that the most of the same people, including the show runners, make both programs.

Disney has no respect for the prequels; they put a torch to the Star Wars universe day one and have no intention of honouring the past.

As pointed out in the previous post, that era hasn't been forgotten and it still impacts the present. As far as them "putting a torch" to Star Wars, not really. Legends materials are still reprinted and influence new stuff. Lots of world-building, names, technology, places, some characters, etc. have been re-canonized. For example, Grand Admiral Thrawn was put on Rebels because the people making the show loved the character from the books.