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Disney is safeguarding its future by buying childhood, piece by piece

economist.com

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Re: Disney is safeguarding its future by buying childhood, piece by piece

#41

Post by freshyill »

Not going to read it due to the spoilers, but I give Disney a lot of credit. They've done pretty well by Pixar, and exceedingly well by Marvel.

Disney is certainly a corporate behemoth out to make a buck, but I really believe that it's accompany that understands these properties, and wants people to love them.

Disney knows fans will not continue to flock to prequel-quality Star Wars films. Even the die-hard fans have a limit. These movies need to be excellent if they're going to continue to draw audiences. George Lucas himself doesn't understand what makes the original trilogy so special to fans, which is why Disney is putting fans like JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson at the helm of these new movies. It seems like they're off to a great start. I have faith they'll continue to be great.

Edit: First sentence: I, not u. Yikes, what a typo.

Re: Disney is safeguarding its future by buying childhood, piece by piece

#42

Post by zekevermillion »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #40
zekevermillion wrote: post #30

There was some magic to the 80s childhood movies -- Star Wars, ET, Last Starfighter, Goonies -- that I don't think can be bottled. Whatever stories hold that place for our kids, I don't think they will be the same movies that did it for us. There's just something about seeing Star Wars in the context of that time, and it's not the same as seeing it now.

It's because you were (presumably) a kid back then - and everything was much more magical then because it was your whole world and imagination. Just like old people now state how much better the 50s were, because that's when they were children. I pretty much discount anytime someone says "It was better when I was a kid."

That's a different argument. I'm saying that I am not concerned with Disney monopolizing the rights to my favorite stories, b/c my kids will enjoy different stories that appeal to them b/c of the context they are growing up in.

Re: Disney is safeguarding its future by buying childhood, piece by piece

#43

Post by rdtsc »

Archio wrote: post #6

Reading this gives me a chill down my spine. There's something about a corporation controlling, optimizing, monetizing, and branding dominant components of a childhood that just doesn't seem right.

Yap, there is no other place to see this better than going to Disney World. That place is super-optimized for maximum throughtput of people, maximum magic to capture children's imagination, good service, friendly atmosphere, and maximum extraction of your money. Even in supposedly a recession, the place was packed with people.

With my kid, most characters and shows they like, are owned by Disney. We were going through the list recently and there was a handful only that were not Disney owned. Disney owns the childhood, that not a joke.

Re: Disney is safeguarding its future by buying childhood, piece by piece

#44

Post by Jtsummers »

tunesmith wrote: post #7

FYI, the first part of the article spoils some minor things about the new star wars film, for those who haven't seen it. I bailed out of reading it after that.

I'm pretty sure there are no spoilers in that first paragraph. In fact, I'm pretty sure most of what's referenced was available in pre-release materials (trailers, press events, and such). I just saw the movie and just read this article, it's less spoilery (in my opinion, not spoilery at all) than listening to coworkers in the lead up to it who were making conjectures based on their knowledge of other Star Wars media and the pre-release materials.

Re: Disney is safeguarding its future by buying childhood, piece by piece

#45

Post by deciplex »

Basically nothing about Disney's strategy would be wrong, or even harmful, provided copyright terms were something reasonable rather than infinite as a practical matter. By now anyone should have been allowed to make "The Force Awakens" and without paying $4.1 billion for the privilege, either.

Re: Disney is safeguarding its future by buying childhood, piece by piece

#46

Post by LukeShu »

beedogs wrote: post #34
tunesmith wrote: post #7

FYI, the first part of the article spoils some minor things about the new star wars film, for those who haven't seen it. I bailed out of reading it after that.

If the name of a single character now counts as a spoiler, I don't think I want to live on this planet anymore.

It's more than just the name; the first part of the sentence is far more spoiler-y than the name at the end.

Re: Disney is safeguarding its future by buying childhood, piece by piece

#47

Post by lfowles »

olewhalehunter wrote: post #38
cjhveal wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that Inside Out was meant to be an accurate depiction of our emotions any more than Finding Nemo is meant as an accurate portrayal of marine ecosystems, or Ratatouille of French cuisine. While our emotions certainly are complex and misunderstood, I don't think that children watching the movie will really grow up believing they have all these little people in their heads. It's a fun concept that takes som…

>I'm not sure that Inside Out was meant to be an accurate depiction of our emotions any more than Finding Nemo is meant as an accurate portrayal of marine ecosystems, or Ratatouille of French cuisine. And yet the first thing to come to many children's minds when shown a clown fish or French cuisine is Nemo and Ratatouille. > I don't think that children watching the movie will really grow up believing they have all th…

> And yet the first thing to come to many children's minds when shown a clown fish or French cuisine is Nemo and Ratatouille.

Is that a bad thing?

Re: Disney is safeguarding its future by buying childhood, piece by piece

#48

Post by swang »

freshyill wrote: post #41

Not going to read it due to the spoilers, but I give Disney a lot of credit. They've done pretty well by Pixar, and exceedingly well by Marvel. Disney is certainly a corporate behemoth out to make a buck, but I really believe that it's accompany that understands these properties, and wants people to love them. Disney knows fans will not continue to flock to prequel-quality Star Wars films. Even the die-hard fans have…

They only did well by Pixar once Eisner left (or moreso, forced to leave). Edit: just realized that most of what I wrote is already mentioned in article.

Re: Disney is safeguarding its future by buying childhood, piece by piece

#50

Post by knughit »

Wingman4l7 wrote: post #36
roywiggins wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apart from the monopolization, is it at all new? ex: Lego. Lego is not produced by artisan plasticsmiths down the street, they're a big company.

Well, before their patent expired, it seemed that they were less focused on getting exclusive trademark rights for movie-franchise-branded brick sets.

Lego sells both general bricks and licensed IP characters. Guess which 90% of their consumers prefer?
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