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Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

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Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#271

Post by raverbashing »

taligent wrote: post #237
pooriaazimi wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So true, but somehow a lot of people don't know it. He was just a facilitator at Pixar. A damn good facilitator , one who made it all happen, but still he wasn't Pixar's visionary (like he was Apple's). Lasseter deserves all the credit for that part.

Actually you're wrong on that part. Steve was the visionary. He was the one who saw Pixar as being a brand (i.e. a modern day Disney) rather than just an anonymous studio. Kids are buying and trusting the Pixar brand not the Disney brand. So to be able to set that all up (e.g. equal billing) required a vision for what the company could be. Steve was responsible for Pixar. John was responsible for Pixar's movies.

THIS

Pixar was the success coming from the genius and hard work of three people:

- Ed Catmull for all the tech

- Steve Jobs for the money, the vision through a dark maze and negotiating the first deal with Disney (Toy Story). Yes, he had second guesses, yes, Pixar almost became a division of Philips, etc

- John Lasseter. CalArts. Kicked out of Disney for believing computers were the future, 'hanged in there' at Pixar, as an 'Interface Designer', responsible for giving the human touch to Pixar movies, even the first ones (Luxo Jr, Adventures of Andre and Wally B - pre Pixar) probably helped Steve Jobs 'see the light' on Pixar

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#272

Post by JackpotDen »

philwelch wrote: post #136
joshAg wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, Fox has a pretty consistent message, as does MSNBC. Newscorp as a whole also has a pretty well controlled message.

Really? The Fox network alone has animated sitcoms that make fun of Fox News. Can you find a "well controller message" in the list of 20th Century Fox films?[1] The fact is, Newscorp is the most mercenary of them all, and only gets flack because they were so aggressive about seizing the right-wing cable news niche. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_20th_Century_Fox_films

"The Fox network alone has animated sitcoms that make fun of Fox News"

The alternative is likely to get them sued. This is not surprising.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#273

Post by Swizec »

barrkel wrote: post #267
lifeisstillgood wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would suggest that visionary is never having the prediction of exactly how it will turn out but having the faith that this is the right direction and the details will resolve in time

You make "visionary" sound equivalent to "simpleton".

The difference between visionary and simpleton is the scale of money involved.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#274

Post by rogerbraun »

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…

The PSA endings you linked to all seem to be sensible and somewhat obvious advice for children, like not to pet strange animals and to be nice to your friends. Similarly, the show Captain Planet had lessons about caring for the environment. I think this is qualitatively different from teaching kids about copyright law.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#275

Post by ngsayjoe »

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

I think Darth Bane Trilogy is pretty good.

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#277

Post by rglovejoy »

cmccabe wrote: post #225
tptacek wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, I did learn not to hide in discarded refrigerators from Punky Brewster.

Well, I did learn not to hide in discarded refrigerators from Punky Brewster. That's funny; another of Mr. Lucas' fine films taught me that you can survive a direct nuclear explosion by hiding in a discarded refrigerator.

It's not so implausible:

http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/AtMovieIndyJones4.HTM

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#278

Post by inDigiNeous »

tptacek wrote: post #37
tectonic wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Therefore, it should be noted that they directly, or via tacit gatekeeping, have a huge amount of influence on our public dialog and cultural messaging.

Marvel, Pixar, LucasArts, ABC, ESPN, A+E, Disney Channel, and associated merchandising. I'm not sure how much "control" over our "public dialog" this really implies. I'm the parent of two very normal middle aged children and, while they're certainly exposed to some of this IP, I'd contest that it has much "influence" over them. Google has much more control over our public dialog than Disney does.

What we watch, this is what we become. Even thought you might think that Disney doesn't have great influence over our children or us, think about this scenario:

Small kids in front of television or in the movie theater, watching a movie. Thinking inside their young brains, what is happening on the screen. Seeing social interactions of Role Models that are not real, and then thinking "So this is how adults behave".

Thinking about how they would re-act in the same situation, then seeing that this "Cool Guy In The Movie Did That" and thinking that "Maybe I should try to do the same thing".

Even the most little things in cartoons and movies can trigger this kind of thinking and re-thinking in us, making us believe that "I should be like that, if I want to be cool" or some other situation.

We might want to deny this control over our lives, as we all want to be masters of our selves. But this shit gets into our subconsciousness and affects the way we act in real life. We might even not recognize it, as it has been part of our programming from the very beginning of our lives, watching these cartoons and believing shit like "A princess should marry a prince on a white horse".

Movies and cartoons have very much influence over behavioral patterns in our life.

This Lucasarts & Disney merge is worrying. Add in another great programmer of children, McDonalds, and we have (already) a culture of children who have been raised on cartoon & movie values, fed by McDonalds and educated by a broken education system and adults who don't know better.

Disney & McDonalds working together to program and feed our children. A Reality which I wouldn't want to see happen, but is already happening. What can we do ?

Ignore them. Create counter-culture. Educate our children ourselves. Free us from this kind of mass programming.

Remember, Britney Spears is also part of the Disney empire. Want your kid to look up to this kind of idols, who promote Sugary Cola Drink, Fast Food and Over Sexuality ?

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#279

Post by inDigiNeous »

tptacek wrote: post #181
nitrogen wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Children are much more accepting of the philosophies implied by what they watch.

All I can tell you is that as a parent, I'm not seeing a lot of cultural signifiers I can trace back to Disney properties. Internet memes have a much greater impact on my middle schooler kids.

Disney movies & cartoons promote certain characteristics of our culture that are already in effect, so how would you see it anyway? If you weren't really looking deeply at the issue, which I assume (excuse me for assuming) you aren't doing. This is very deep subject which requires lots of analytical thinking and human behaviour understanding.

Disney has the power and money to hire whole teams of psychologist to analyze how to very subliminally affect their movies in such a way that the merchandise etc will sell more, bringing more and more cash in their pockets.

Take for example Donald Duck (in the cartoons). He is always depicted as a unlucky main protagonist who is being ruled by the rich Scrooge. No matter what he does or how much he works, he never becomes in control of his own life, usually being controlled by the Rich Banker Uncle Scrooge.

This tells our children that no matter what you do, you will always be controlled by those who have more money and can tell you to do whatever they please. Not in so direct way, but in a more subtle way it creates a world view that keeps this model in it's current place.

But this is not the main point, the main point is that for Disney and these other big companies, money goes beyond anything. This affects deeply their moral values that are put into their products and what motivation is being the driving force behind producing their movies. It's not the great stories, or changing the world, but about money. This is not a good thing, from many viewpoints. They are not focusing on sustainability, but on maximizing their incomes. This is reflected to all those little children who watch their movies or cartoons.

Those who own Disney are those with great money in their pockets. They will want to keep us passive consumers who will be hooked into their stories (which many are just copies from folk tales, like the Lion King which a pretty much direct copy from the story of Kimba the White Lion) and sell us Toys & Fast Food.

Have you seen the movies these days ? It's all about selling more copies of DVD:s of the latest blockbuster movie to the parents of the children. First creating a need in these children to look up to these movies and characters, then telling them that there are toys, sugar & caffeine filled drinks and fast food available related to these characters, hooking them (literally with caffeine, sugar, fat) to these products and the feelings related to those.

Think about it. Really. Do you want Disney to be raising your children ?

Re: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd.

#280

Post by inDigiNeous »

marshallp wrote: post #28
ChuckMcM wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" the transaction value is $4.05 billion, with Disney paying approximately half of the consideration in cash and issuing approximately 40 million shares at closing. " Half of it is cash, that is $2.025B. Represents an a pretty healthy chunk of cash on top of the $2B in Disney stock. It will be interesting to see what he does next.

Hopefully he invests in immortality research. The trend of billionaires dying without even trying to engineer a solution is retarded. He should start with focus ultrasound. It allows to grow/shrink any part of the body and so essentially reach immortality.

Have you heard of Satanism ? Look it up. Has to do with this .. achieving immortality .. and sucking blood (energy) out of other people.

Oh yeah, it's real, black magic hasn't gone anywhere. Where do you think the ritual sacrifices would have disappeared ?

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