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Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

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Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#251

Post by philwelch »

taligent wrote: post #240
philwelch wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

News Corp owns Fox News, which is stridently right-wing, but also the Fox network, which broadcasts more left-leaning shows like The Simpsons, Family Guy, and American Dad. In fact, Fox's prime time cartoons regularly mock Fox News. Koch isn't a media company. Try again.

For someone saying "try again" you are awfully ignorant of News Corp and its business which is promoting a right-wing agenda worldwide. It owns News Limited, News International which are dominate right-wing newspapers/websites in Australia and UK respectively. Foxtel and BSkyB which are the PayTV equivalent in Australia and UK. Wall Street Journal and Fox News which is influential in the US. It has also its hands in…

Sure, right-wing tabloids are a market niche that News Corporation specializes in. I still don't see a consistent agenda or ideology, though.

And it's hard to call News Corp's entertainment properties a "tiny sideshow" when 20th Century Fox distributes a fair chunk of Hollywood's output, when three out of the four most popular sports leagues in the world are broadcast by either Fox or Sky Sports, and when Fox is easily one of the more successful TV networks in the United States.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#253

Post by Uchikoma »

ginko wrote: post #102
Uchikoma wrote: post #60

Jar Jar Binks and Donald Duck. How fitting.

How is this fitting? Donald Duck is a great character. Duck comics still go strong over here in Europe.

I don't think Jar Jar is a bad character per se. It's just not fitting into the Han Solo Star Wars universe.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#254

Post by trevelyan »

brudgers wrote: post #67

For those fretting the future, it will be hard for Disney to fuck up the franchise more than Lucas did with The Phantom Menace. http://redlettermedia.com/plinkett/star-wars/star-wars-episo...

There are plenty of great things about the new trilogy, even if there are missteps too. Lucas was making the films he wanted to make, and whatever happens it seems unlikely Disney will be producing films with such a deeply anti-corporatist, anti-imperialist and pacifist message:

http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~anne/clones.html

That said, Lucas is a self-reliant guy who bootstrapped his company and deserves his success. So it is good to see him get a sale like this if he wants it. And this move will probably keep his legacy alive for much longer than if he had to keep running it himself.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#255

Post by PakG1 »

tptacek wrote: post #110
evolve2k wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was personally deeply shocked recently, when I sat with my children as they were watching the animated Iron Man series at their grandpas house. This was on Sunday morning TV. The episode was about other 'bad' characters stealing Iron Mans suit. I was alarmed when the dialog turned explicitly to talk of Patents and how evil it was that they were infringing Iron Mans designs. As I continued to watch it dawned on me t…

Two responses. (i) Millions of kids saw that episode and went on to pirate movies and music anyways, because kids don't really derive their ethics from cartoon series, just like you & I aren't secretly animated by "Knowing is Half The Battle" from G.I. Joe. ( http://www.joeheadquarters.com/joeendings.shtml ) (ii) The particular message you're suggesting Iron Man is "propagandizing" is so anodyne that it was the subje…

Embarrassing and silly personal story that demonstrates how entertainment/media can influence kids.

When I was a little kid, Saved by the Bell was a really funny show. I loved watching it. I read books that had the same characters as well. In one of the books, one of the girls was saying she couldn't date a certain guy. Her friend asked her why not. She said it was because they were already friends, so it would be too strange to date.

For years after that, I thought it was a stupid idea to date friends. I thought I should only try to date strangers or acquaintances, which was hard because I was timid about that kind of stuff. My parents didn't even get involved because they didn't think it was important, and that I'd figure it out. So my dating record during high school was zero, and even during university, it wasn't going anywhere until very late in the game. During this time, I passed up on the opportunity to date many wonderful girls who were high in character, very attractive, etc, just because we were already friends. No, I had to find someone to date who was not yet a friend, except I couldn't get date-comfortable with girls without becoming friends first. What a stupid infinite loop.

It's a stupid and embarrassing story, but it did indeed happen. And as dumb as it is, I've only in the last few years overcome that completely illogical obstruction in my mind. Parents, talk to your kids about what they watch on TV, play on their PS3, and read in books. Ethics may or may not be impacted, but if behaviour can be impacted, I bet you ethics could be as well.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#256

Post by res0nat0r »

nitrogen wrote: post #231
tptacek wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't estimate it highly, you're right about that. For your specific example, consider some other factors besides the intrinsic effectiveness of ambient product placement: (a) Coca Cola employs many thousands of marketing people who must, to justify their salary, come up with venues to feature the Coke brand. (b) Mass marketing is notoriously terrible with metrics, so it's not an extraordinary claim to suggest that…

[This is also in response to your reply to my other comment] I can tell you that some of the television I watched as a kid had a very strong influence on my deepest subconscious philosophies, namely Star Trek TNG. My biggest argument against media consolidation, though, is that I simply don't trust any one entity with significant centralized power. While Disney+Lucasfilm is probably a pretty good fit for business and…

V was a remake from the TV mini-series from 1983 which was itself an allegory about xenophobia and Nazism.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#257

Post by [deleted] »

d503 wrote: post #101
kemiller wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does it do that? Disney has had a reasonably friendly relationship with Apple due to Steve's presence on both boards. Now that he's gone that might weaken, but he had a long time to win hearts and minds over there.

Bob Iger (CEO of Disney) also joined Apple's board shortly after Steve's passing.

[deleted]

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#258

Post by maaku »

2mur wrote: post #52
ROFISH wrote: post #13

> I’ve always believed that Star Wars could live beyond me, and I thought it was important to set up the transition during my lifetime. This is effectively Lucas' slow decent into retirement; he's not actively directing Episode 7 but instead consulting. Say what you want about the movies and franchises, ILM and Skywalker Sound are gold standards created by a tech visionary.

I hope they are doing the Thrawn trilogy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thrawn_trilogy

That'd be simply too much of a liability. Yes, the authors of those books signed away rights to their stories to the publishers, and the publishers to Lucasfilm Ltd., but how well written were those contracts? Did they miss anything? Are you absolutely sure that every clause is enforceable? As there is literally a billion dollars on the line, I expect there would be no shortage of greedy lawyers calling up struggling ghost writers and struggling trying to make a case even if there isn't one.

I don't know what the new trilogy will be about (except it will probably have C3PO and R2D2, and Chewbacca makes a cameo). The one thing I am absolutely certain of is that none of it will be drawn from the expanded universe.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#259

Post by aptwebapps »

eric_h wrote: post #168
tptacek wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most users of the Internet are dependent on Google to find anything on the Internet.

Nevertheless, you could flip the switch and turn Google off, and people would be able to find things on the internet just fine.

Maybe, but who is going to flip that switch? Until and unless someone does, the dependency remains.
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