Disney is safeguarding its future by buying childhood, piece by piece • Hacker News Board

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

#141

Post by zekevermillion » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 12:58 PM UTC

EGreg wrote: post #84

isolate wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ju…

Well I generally agree that titles today are super lame compared to the awesomeness of my own childhood. But it's hard to remove my own subjective nostalgia from the equation, as someone pointed out above.

It may be possible that there is almost too much focus on "quality" now but it's the wrong kind of quality -- lack of errors, linear predictability, control of financial risk in the business of storytelling. Today's cartoons do not take risks, economic, artistic, or political.

I've been watching He-man b/c s1 is free on Prime, and noticed that wow the cartoons are way more interesting than the crap that's on TV today (Thomas-the-Preachy-Tank-Engine; Bob-the-Incompetent-Builder; etc.). There basically is no such thing as Saturday morning cartoons anymore! WTF?! But my son doesn't care. He isn't into He-man, and he does not seem offended by the preachy morality of today's kids' shows, or their slick ultracheap CGI...

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

#142

Post by rasputhin » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 1:13 PM UTC

Isn't this what all profit driven companies targeting children would do? Should do?

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

#143

Post by fennecfoxen » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 1:16 PM UTC

angersock wrote: post #73

fennecfoxen wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a little self-limiting in the end, at least. The more Disney throws recycled characters in our face as part of a bland franchise-entertainment product, the more compelling real original work will become, and the more likely they are to ruin the childhood magic. I also find hope in recent developments overseas, and anticipate the impact of works such as Puella Magi Madoka Magica on the future of children's televi…

Puella Magi Madoka Magica is most certainly not children's television. ／人◕ ‿‿ ◕人＼

It most certainly is! Maybe not little children, but have you seen the marketing on that thing? The main character is 14, but it will easily pick up the whole 8-to-16 set with that, especially if some 13-year-old watching it in middle school has a little sister who looks up to her and they watch shows together.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTeM68aOpMM&t=30

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CTHwEZK2JA

Or the Madoka-inspired Yuki Yuna Is a Hero, which doubles down on the happy fun times (investing a full five episodes instead of Madoka's two-and-a-half): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35ljIjdf0Vg

More importantly, even if American audiences shouldn't expect such overtly dark shows in front of small children any time soon, creators are definitely paying attention, and Madoka is exactly the sort of phenomenon which gets creators of all sorts thinking about how to up their game and make something that's meaningful (dark or otherwise). Everybody wins.

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

#144

Post by anon4 » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 1:16 PM UTC

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #37

rayiner wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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 could think of it like, once Disney has permeated our culture to such a degree, people would collectively decide they don't deserve to own them and their kids and erode copyright.

The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

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

#145

Post by anon4 » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 1:18 PM UTC

samfisher83 wrote: post #13

It seemed like new star wars was a remake of the old star wars. I think people people know what they like and they just want it repackaged in a slightly different form. Surprised they haven't gone out and brought out hasbro and mattel.

For all the hype, ep 7 doesn't have one bit the originality ep 1 had.

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

#146

Post by Jtsummers » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 1:57 PM UTC

mixmastamyk wrote: post #127

Jtsummers wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMO, outside of thrillers or movies that pretty much rely on a major twist, "spoilers" is nonsense. I'm not going to go around telling the plot of a movie to people (that's a dick move), but if a movie cannot stand on its own even if you've been told the last 5 minutes verbatim (or seen them) before seeing the rest, then the movie is probably not worth watching. And there are very few trailers that are that bad. Agai…

Yep, I remember seeing Titanic and obviously knowing how it would end. But strangely enough I forgot about all that once it started and was genuinely surprised when they hit the iceberg. :/

And this is my point. While I didn't particularly enjoy the movie (I was in middle school at the time, it got old fast when all the girls wouldn't stop talking about it), it keeps you engaged and so the moment that that happens can still come as a surprise or jolt. You've been engaged by the rest of the story. Knowing the last few minutes of that movie does not change the drama of the relationships between the characters, and that drama is the point of the movie, not the way it ends, but the way it carries out.

Spoiler alert: Everybody will die eventually. That doesn't mean the journey from birth to death is pointless now that you know the outcome. Everything that happens in between is the part that matters. The same is true for good stories.

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

#147

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 2:18 PM UTC

anon4 wrote: post #144

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 could think of it like, once Disney has permeated our culture to such a degree, people would collectively decide they don't deserve to own them and their kids and erode copyright. The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

[deleted]

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

#148

Post by rayiner » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 2:32 PM UTC

anon4 wrote: post #144

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 could think of it like, once Disney has permeated our culture to such a degree, people would collectively decide they don't deserve to own them and their kids and erode copyright. The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.

The problem is not that Disney can own entertainment products they create. The problem is our society elevating base entertainment to the level of cultural artifact. Disney has no power if people don't treat their disposable trinkets like sacred totems.

The post near the top about spoilers is a good example. We're all supposed go out of our way go protect the sanctified experience of the movie for true believers. How messed up is that?

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

#149

Post by theandrewbailey » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 2:36 PM UTC

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #37

rayiner wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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…

One of my friends has had enough with little girls talking about Frozen. If I'm describing something with that word (as in, describing the icy nature of something), he will scream "ELSA IS THE DEVIL'S WHORRREEEE!". This behavior is well known among our friends and has been exploited countless times.

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

#150

Post by AndrewKemendo » Mon, Dec 21, 2015, 2:49 PM UTC

JabavuAdams wrote: post #95

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

How could you shore up human weakness, instead of exploiting it? A question I've been asking myself...

The problem is that our weaknesses are also our strengths, just in different contexts. Efficient heuristic formation is an amazing strength in many contexts, but it's also the same system that leads to racism, stereotyping etc...

I have come to the conclusion that you really can't "shore up" human weaknesses without chemical changes or maybe some kind of tDCS type system. Even then, there seem to be some major tradeoffs.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcranial_direct-current_st...