Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Star Wars and the Disney Empire!

Like many within the sub-culture of fandom, yesterday I read the news that Lucas was selling most of his assets, including Star Wars to Disney for 4 billion Dollars.  I was on a roller coaster of emotions.  Star Wars is something I love.  It has been almost as important to me as Doctor Who over the years.  Disney however has, for some reason in my mind, represented oppression.  I don't know why it just has, so it is hard for me to rectify my emotions with this.  

Initially the news really bothered me it was one of those things where I needed to back off a bit and consume the news.  I thought about them sterilizing the franchise, killing it with Disney marketing etc. . .   But then I thought about it and and realized it really wasn't any different than what Lucas had done to the property himself.  He has already sterilized the movies that I grew up with.  changing them, and never being happy with them.  Disney could actually be one of the best things to happen to the franchise in some time!

There are a few things to look at though, that are going to be very important to the fan community.  Disney believes in being very proprietary with things that they own.  I mean they own it that is their right.  There have been a lot of law suits over copyright issues with Disney properties.  Shutting down fan projects etc. . .  Lucas has been very fan friendly, allowing fan films, using 501st people for events etc.  He understood the value of fans.  I'm not sure Disney is going to do that!  I think it will be a lot harder to do a lot of the things Lucas has allowed to happen under the eye of Disney and it's lawyers.

Another thing that is bothersome to me is that Disney now owns a huge chunk of my childhood.  Marvel, and now Star Wars.  It is a surreal experience to go into a Disney store and see Marvel merchandise.  To be fair that is all this is to Disney, something else to merchandise.  These characters mean a lot to so many fans.  Iron man and Thor are symbols just like Yoda and Luke Skywalker are symbols to so many people and to see them as a property is hard to fathom.  To see these characters relegated to Disney stores is also hard.

Of course,  I say that and understand that Lucas has been doing this for as long as the Star Wars franchise has been around, but for some reason it feel worse to me when it is Disney doing it it.  I mean, are we going to see Leia lined up with the other Disney Princesses?  I truly hope not.

Out of this deal does come a new movie.  It has always been said that the best stuff that has come out from star wars is the stuff with the least amount of involvement from Lucas himself, so I suspect 2015 will bring a great movie.  The 7th installment and probably the beginning of a new trilogy.  The thing to watch is if Disney will make this an event, where they run Star Wars into the ground by constantly inundating us with movies!  the other thing to watch is how they treat Extended Universe stuff.  Will the extended universe stuff be thrown out, or will it be immortalized on the big screen.  Time will tell!            

So keep an eye on the news and gear up for a couple fun years of watching this all unfold.  Watching where Disney will take the property.  

4 comments:

  1. This is pretty much how I feel about it. Excited and concerned. Not at all concerned they will "ruin the franchise" with a new movie(s), as Lucas has done that quite well, but that they will launch the Cease and Desist team against people like the 501st, droid builders, and the like in fandom. Also, what happens to The Clone Wars stuff?

    On a whole Star Wars does fit in very well with Disney, and I'm used to seeing mashups at the parks and things. For now I'll just be glad Lucas can't hurt it any more. He touched Star Wars in the bad places for may years. It needs a break.

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  2. You can also add The Muppets to that list of Disney-owned childhood memories. Now that I've had time to properly digest the news, I think this is going to be a positive thing for Star Wars. As you've pointed out, Lucas can't possibly fuck it up more than it already is.

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  3. A long time coming was this deal i think and it will be interesting to see what happens in the years to come now.

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  4. Es cierto que lucas esta algo grande y necesita descansar pero espero que disney no arruine star wars

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