Disney's New Film Direction & Muppets

[beaker]

It's all the Wal*Mart factor... Frogboy mentioned it somewhere else... but they just want cheap plastic pieces of junk that barely resemble the characters from the movie that cost pennies to make and sell for 10+ bucks for 6 year olds to play with for 3 minutes and toss into the corner or the trash. The collector friendly market for AF isn't dead, but it's very close.

As for Up, Disney (and possibly Pixar) wanted to keep the merchandise aspects low possibly because they were burnt by Ratatouille. Now, I don't want a Paradise Falls action Playset or a version of the Spirit of Adventure Blimp that transforms into a robot for no apparent reason... i just want the figurine set to be available in every store.

kids today are so freaking spoiled. AND they have bad tastes. I mean half the toy shelves are bakugan. what the heck is that?
tasteless. And yeah, kids have their yuppy parents cave in to their whining to buy em all this garbage and they dont play em that long. in the early, mid to late 1980's...man, the few rare times i got action figures and the occasional playset(usually by way of thrift store) I played the HECK out of it for a very long time. even a small simple lcd handheld i played forever.

and yeah, $10 for a tmnt remake figure from 1988 that usually costs a few quarters at the flea market, and $10 for tiny plastic crap. just horrible.

 

[frogboy4]

I just saw the Percy Jackson film yesterday. I know it's a Fox picture, but this is the type of big budget franchise-only film they plan on making. People are going to get bored quickly and these pictures won't fare very well. And didn't Disney learn anything from G-Force?

It's been said that pulp cinema is coming back. An era of shiny, bright, mindless and forgettable fun will be hitting multiplexes and little else. I'm sad about that and hope the trend is fleeting. I like a good mix.

 

[Inward Jim]

I still can't believe Disney dropped THe Chronicles of Narnia franchise. If they didn't feel the need to mess with the story as much as they did, they would have been golden. But Prince Caspian didn't make as much dough as they wanted it to. PC was terrible. It's sad when the BBC versions from way back out class a big budget studio take.

 

[Drtooth]

kids today are so freaking spoiled. AND they have bad tastes. I mean half the toy shelves are bakugan. what the heck is that?
tasteless. And yeah, kids have their yuppy parents cave in to their whining to buy em all this garbage and they dont play em that long. in the early, mid to late 1980's...man, the few rare times i got action figures and the occasional playset(usually by way of thrift store) I played the HECK out of it for a very long time. even a small simple lcd handheld i played forever.

Bakugan really makes my blood boil. The lame Pokemon-esque type toy anime where the main character wants to be the ultimate crapagami master or whater the heck it is. I just want someone to FREAKING license Yattaman already (the Capcom Vs. Tatsunoko game is coming to the US after all). At least the villains are interesting, and the character designs are cool. But really, crap like that is why no one takes Anime seriously in this country. I swear, they keep all the good stuff to themselves.

I would turn this into a whole thing about the toy industry, and why spoiled parents spent the better part of the decade (the first part) buying 5 year olds all the latest technical gadgets (I had to do a freaking monkey dance for one out of every 20 turtles), which helped injure the toy industry, turning it into a "only Movie licenses" joke (and none of the GOOD movies had any merchandise, or caused an artificial scarcity). And then they have, even if the movie is a blockbuster smash, acres of the stuff they couldn't get rid of if they gave away free all expenses paid trips to Disneyworld and charged a nickel for the toys. I'm STILL finding Indiana Jones stuff, and I LIKED Indiana Jones.

I just saw the Percy Jackson film yesterday. I know it's a Fox picture, but this is the type of big budget franchise-only film they plan on making. People are going to get bored quickly and these pictures won't fare very well. And didn't Disney learn anything from G-Force?

If anyone learned anything prior, G-Force wouldn't have fallen into the same fart joke and "ethnicity through stereotypes" kiddy fare that made it look like everything else in the world. Honestly, I would have liked the concept, but they basically just wanted to make the same kid's talking animal movie with that one...

Just wait till the market gets flooded with bad Digital 3-D movies.

 

[frogboy4]

I still can't believe Disney dropped THe Chronicles of Narnia franchise. If they didn't feel the need to mess with the story as much as they did, they would have been golden. But Prince Caspian didn't make as much dough as they wanted it to. PC was terrible. It's sad when the BBC versions from way back out class a big budget studio take.

Oooh, I agree with Disney dropping the Narnia series. Caspian cost $225M didn't make near the kind of money it should have or earn back its budget domestically. The first film made its bank on the title's name recognition beyond die-hard fans of the book series that know the stories well. This was a wise move for Disney and the series. Now another partner with a different strategy can partner up to create something that works for audiences and satisfies the bean counters. I see it as win-win for Narnia films of the future.

 

[Drtooth]

Not to mention they decided that the movie should come out at the worst possible time. Iron Man totally flattened them, pun intended. of course, who would have guessed that one of the Marvel Comics that isn't as well known to the public, say, as Spidey or the X-Men would have made all that much money?

Personally, I'm worried about an overload of Super Hero movies causing lousy, cheap ones to be made, killing off interest in comics and super heroes. I'm sure once they finally get the next batman movie underway, we'll be fine... but a LOT of these films seem to be grasping at straws.

 

[frogboy4]

Disney needs to make their Marvel investment pay off even though their core characters (X-Men, Wolverine, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor, Daredevil, Ghost Rider, Fantastic Four and others) have movie rights tied to other film companies that are at least in pre-production for new projects. Enter the lesser-known Marvel properties, plus whatever new original non-Marvel properties Stan Lee has developed exclusively for Disney with his independent deal.

And those are just the Marvel and Stan Lee properties. Think of all the DC stuff and characters from other companies. Get used to the superheroes.

 

[Drtooth]

The problem with movie trends is, like all trends, after a while people tend to ignore them, and then it all just fizzles out. So, while initially we're gonna have a lot of good or even great movies, in the long run, we're going to see fewer quality ones and more quantity ones, until people stop going to see them all together, leaving execs to pass on even the best of the bunch. Not to mention the fact that all these companies are going to have to start scraping around for new Super Heroes to make movies out of.

I still don't know what the heck Disney plans for Marvel at all. Seems like they're having them do their own thing so far... I've yet to see Spidey next to the Power Rangers and Mickey Mouse in Disney Stores, and it seems Boom will hang on to the Disney license for their comics for some time...we can only hope... they're really doing a smashing job. When the time comes for them to license the movies (again, provided the Super Hero/Comic book Genre doesn't wear out its welcome), I bet they'd have some bigger stuff lined up. Until then, there's no telling what's going to go down.

As for DC... well, they've only really had luck with Batman so far, even the Superman Returns film didn't make all that much for them to want to do a sequel... unfortunate, since the SECOND Batman film (in that series) did leaps and bounds better at the box Office than Batman Begins. I know they have all these big budget live action films in consideration... but they seem to have slightly better luck with DTV movies based off the comics. I have yet to really sit down and watch them (I heard mixed things about them). Plus, I REALLY want them to make a Plastic Man DTV based on the unsold pilot (can't believe WB wanted Loonatics Unleashed and Coconut Fred instead of something fun and interesting).

All and all, I hope as many quality films come out of this, not having poor quality trend movies overshadow them. That, and I wanna see more indie superheroes get some movies. The Tick is BEGGING to be turned into some sort of movie.

 

[Inward Jim]

The problem with movie trends is, like all trends, after a while people tend to ignore them, and then it all just fizzles out. So, while initially we're gonna have a lot of good or even great movies, in the long run, we're going to see fewer quality ones and more quantity ones, until people stop going to see them all together, leaving execs to pass on even the best of the bunch. Not to mention the fact that all these companies are going to have to start scraping around for new Super Heroes to make movies out of.

I still don't know what the heck Disney plans for Marvel at all. Seems like they're having them do their own thing so far... I've yet to see Spidey next to the Power Rangers and Mickey Mouse in Disney Stores, and it seems Boom will hang on to the Disney license for their comics for some time...we can only hope... they're really doing a smashing job. When the time comes for them to license the movies (again, provided the Super Hero/Comic book Genre doesn't wear out its welcome), I bet they'd have some bigger stuff lined up. Until then, there's no telling what's going to go down.

As for DC... well, they've only really had luck with Batman so far, even the Superman Returns film didn't make all that much for them to want to do a sequel... unfortunate, since the SECOND Batman film (in that series) did leaps and bounds better at the box Office than Batman Begins. I know they have all these big budget live action films in consideration... but they seem to have slightly better luck with DTV movies based off the comics. I have yet to really sit down and watch them (I heard mixed things about them). Plus, I REALLY want them to make a Plastic Man DTV based on the unsold pilot (can't believe WB wanted Loonatics Unleashed and Coconut Fred instead of something fun and interesting).

All and all, I hope as many quality films come out of this, not having poor quality trend movies overshadow them. That, and I wanna see more indie superheroes get some movies. The Tick is BEGGING to be turned into some sort of movie.

Licensing is the big issue, and most people don't have any understanding of it - especially the media when they report on it. If you're looking for the Orlando theme parks to start having marvel stuff, you'll have to wait until Universal Studios Florida doesn't want it at their park anymore. They hold the option and a non-compete clause in the licensing contract.

Fox holds the option on the X properties, I believe, meaning they'll keep the rights until they don't want them anymore. There are loopholes and ways to get around it. For instance, if they REALLY want Wolverine in the Avengers movie they can use his real name of James Howlett and just refer to him like that throughout the whole flick and as long as every image of Mr. Howlett doesn't appear that similar to anything in a Fox film likeness ... it's awkward, but legally sound.
Sort of like how Chicago's "25 or 6 to 4" and Green Day's "Brainstew" are nearly identical.

The Marvel acquisition will allow Disney to create cartoons, since only likeness matters there which is fixed by a costume change; monthly sales of comics and graphic novels; toys, apparel, and other merch; television programming. The movies will come eventually. Marvels entire line of space comics is untapped by any production studio. There are plenty of titles that don't have a movie deal.

If you feel that the market is overloaded with comic movies, think of it like this: In 10 years, there have been about 18 obvious comic book movies released theatrically. Several more were made that most people didn't realize were, and therefore are hard to count as overloading the market - Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, for example. Just as many movie have been made about the Vietnam War since 2001, but nobody cries about that.

 

[Drtooth]

I don't mind the comic book movies at all... again, the problem is that the public will eventually tire of them, and it could drag the entire genre down with it, not just movies. I'd hate to see that happen, I'm sure others will. I like most of them, just... it's what usually happens. Unless of course, it breaks the sub-genre barrier and becomes a full fledged genre that will never be exhausted. Such as the sports movies, the horror movies. Something feels to me that the Super Hero movie is almost there, but not quite. In other words, the market could overflow, causing public disinterest, OR it will be accepted as its own thing and thrive. I hope for the latter.

Things are clearly different now, but seemed that every decade had a super hero movie franchise that got ruined after the second or third movie, and we wouldn't see anything until the next decade. Superman and Batman sure seemed to have that problem in the late 70's-early 90's and 90's respectively. I'd hate to see more films like Superman 3 (what's the deal with woman turning into a robot?) and Batman Forever (less said the better). If filmmakers learned those lessons, which they rarely do (though they seem to have learned their lesson when it came to Spider-Man 3) they need to keep up the quality of the first movies, or they'll risk the franchise.

That said, thanks for clearing that confusing buyout up. I Still have no idea why they wanted to buy Marvel (other than the obvious monetary value)... as long as they don't screw it up, we'll all be happy. heck, DC did solidly well since WB's buyout... other than the fact we lost the Batman TV series to rights. I really hope that doesn't happen here.