Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

economist.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 172 posts

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

#81

Post by EGreg »

I don't know. I loved some Disney movies and appreciated their art growing up but never bought the action figures or anything. I also went to disneyland once and disneyworld once to check them out, but I went to six flags twice. Oh, and I visited disneyland while in Paris, to show the girl I was with from Moldova, who had never been.

I guess maybe it's because I'm a child of immigrants. I don't see what the big deal is. Everyone commercializes and ties stuff in. Many if you are probably users of the whole Apple ecosystem.

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

#82

Post by rangibaby »

beedogs wrote: post #39
javery wrote: post #2

This is why I bet they buy Nintendo at some point.

It's why I hope they're broken up under antitrust law at some point.

I have been thinking that over the past couple of days too. In Japan, Disney everything is literally everywhere. How do you think that work out? Split into parks and movies?

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

#84

Post by EGreg »

isolate wrote: post #53
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

I know what you mean, but sometimes it isn't pure nostalgia. I like hand-drawn non-CG animation a lot, but there aren't a lot of animated movies coming out now that have it. And cultures can change dramatically too. I liked it better when people weren't so distracted by their cellphones. (This is a fairly small change.)

If you really want blatant commercialization, see Pokemon, Digimon, Yu Gi Oh etc. The latter at least had an interesting plot, and deeper characters. But both are basically cheap adaptations of Japanese anime -- draw a few frames with action lines, sell millions of trading cards.

Compare that to, say, Spiderman for FOX Kids in the 90s. Every scene was carefully animated and the plot was deep.

And to prove it's not just nostalgia, there were cheap shows back then too, like all the Power Rangers knockoffs. Anyone remember "Samurai Pizzacats"? Kind of funny, but mostly repetitive power rangers formula.

Even Japanese anime knockoffs were better before -- like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

There is still good stuff today but it's few and far between. I'm inclined to think the business objectives have changed more than the kids' tastes. It's like people used to play immersive 3d games, real time strategy games, and now so many play addictive pay-to-accelerate casual nonsense like Farmville or Boom Beach or whatever. Did people simply change their tastes to get ripped off? No, it was directed by business. Actual quality is secondary now.

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

#85

Post by wavefunction »

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."

There is actually something different with these 80s movies for kids _and_ adults. Part of it was some true courage in the story-telling, for what movie studio of today would allow a character like "Sloth" from the Goonies to end up in a movie? Darkness along with the light. And sincerity in both rather than vapid "sarcasm." These movies have soul and heart.

Not saying that similar movie magic is impossible now or in the future, but in the current world of profit-driven decisions on creative direction it seems unlikely for the foreseeable future.

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

#86

Post by olewhalehunter »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #78
olewhalehunter wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My main gripe is that of symbolic brainwashing; allowing millions of children to view media from a global corporation that asserts that the inner world of your mind acts in a specific way using constant mini-deities, asserting that "abstract thought" is risky, and enforcing psychological cliches is dangerous.

You realize that Pixar movies are made by a brain-trust of intelligent, empathetic, and cultured people, right? None of that means that they are immune to their cultural and corporate biases and zeitgeist, but you seem to be implying something much more intentional and predatory. Why?

We don't have clear, culturally relative definitions (nor would we want any) of "intelligence", "empathy", or what is "cultured" other than those that the most psychopathically inclined conquerors of civilizations past brought us, however the display of those characteristics seems to be the most valuable social signifier today, and the people behind Pixar (one them was Steve Jobs, a known psychopath) have been the most ruthless accumulators of this level of trust regardless of their individual intentions.

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

#87

Post by AndrewKemendo »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #76
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You know the worst part? You can't even prevent it if you are raising your kids otherwise. My 5 year old has never seen a Disney movie, yet she told me today that for her 6th birthday she wants a Cinderella shirt and an Elsa costume - both characters she has never actually seen on screen. Her friends at school all talk about it though and recount fantastic stories. I hear from people saying that we will raise a kid w…

You really have to experience this to fully appreciate it. Social contagion is real.

As a developer, I do my best to engineer it into my product.

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

#88

Post by pen2l »

rayiner wrote: post #8
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.

If we weren't raising our kids to be such consumers--turning stupid shit like Star Wars into "cultural experiences"-- Disney wouldn't have any power. They can't own sticks and dirt.

Are we really "raising our kids to be consumers"? I mean, you have to really go out of your way to not make them consumers. I don't even know how it's possible. I recall you have a daughter -- does she not go on and on with the 'let it go' song? When she goes to a store does she not by her own accord beg you to buy her Elsa and Anna themed toys?

If not, what are you doing as a parent to not make them consumers? Lots would like to know!

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

#89

Post by wavefunction »

caseysoftware wrote: post #26
gilgoomesh wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The things Disney are buying were always controlled, monetized and branded. Lucasfilm, Pixar and Marvel were not little community driven charities.

I saw The Force Awakens at Alamo Drafthouse and they had little montages of some of the marketing and merchandising that went on throughout the original trilogy. Toys, breakfast cereals, even a C3-PO and RS-D2 anti-smoking commercial. Space Balls even made fun of it! Anyone who thinks Star Wars wasn't super-monetized on Day One isn't old enough to remember it.

Star Wars invented and perfected the tie-in. That was George Lucas' real and major contribution to movies as a business.

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

#90

Post by AndrewKemendo »

wavefunction wrote: post #85
AndrewKemendo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

There is actually something different with these 80s movies for kids _and_ adults. Part of it was some true courage in the story-telling, for what movie studio of today would allow a character like "Sloth" from the Goonies to end up in a movie? Darkness along with the light. And sincerity in both rather than vapid "sarcasm." These movies have soul and heart. Not saying that similar movie magic is impossible now or in…

Seriously? ANY pixar film puts those to shame in terms of depth. The entire back story of UP was about a widower; Finding Nemo, same story - talk about darkness and light. How about The Incredibles, Wall-E, Monsters Inc, all fantastic story telling and incredible depth. It even goes further back than 80s, to movies like The Sound of Music with the Nazis.

Again, your biases are only fuzzy nostalgia and it seemed bigger to you then cause your brain couldn't contextualize it as well.

Post reply on HN