Lisa Simpson is now a Disney Princess
December 14, 2017 9:28 AM   Subscribe

It's official: Disney has bought 21st Century Fox 'Disney now has its hands on Fox’s key franchises including “X-Men,” “Alien,” “Predator,” “Avatar,” “Die Hard,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Kingsman” and “Fantastic Four” (which is listed in the press release). Disney now also controls the full rights to all “Star Wars” films with the previously Fox-owned 1977 original likely to go back to Disney’s Lucasfilm – meaning theatrical re-releases and a potential home video version of the original theatrical cut.'

Not included in the deal due to anti-trust restrictions are Fox News, the FOX broadcast network, or Fox Sports, which all remain a part of the Fox empire – as will the Fox studio lot in Century City. Those will be separated and maintained either under a newly listed company that will be spun off to its shareholders, or merge with News Corp. itself.

The report from BMD. They also wrote an interesting analysis earlier last week about what this could mean, especially in terms of streaming content, Is the Disney Fox Faster than the Netflix Hare? (by James Emanuel Shapiro).

If you're only concerned about the nerd properties:
- Disney CEO Bob Iger Says DEADPOOL Will Remain R-Rated

- The X-Men and Fantastic Four Are Coming Back to Marvel Thanks to a Huge Deal Between Fox and Disney
posted by cendawanita (82 comments total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Sign of the times, I guess, but my first thought was "was this to raise money for Murdoch's final assault on American democracy?"
posted by selfnoise at 9:36 AM on December 14, 2017 [10 favorites]


So ... does this mean the original 20th Century Fox fanfare can be added back in to the opening of the Star Wars films?
posted by anastasiav at 9:36 AM on December 14, 2017 [22 favorites]


Fucking hate Disney and this doesn't help.
posted by agregoli at 9:36 AM on December 14, 2017 [6 favorites]


Someone pointed out the other day that if Disney now own Alien, then they own the Alien Queen and all her daughters, who are now officially Disney Princesses.
posted by Fuchsoid at 9:39 AM on December 14, 2017 [62 favorites]


So Marvel Phase Four is an X-Men reboot and an actually good Fantastic Four movie? I am okay with that.
posted by The Man from Lardfork at 9:39 AM on December 14, 2017 [3 favorites]




All they really needed to buy from Fox were a) the rights to the original Star Wars trilogy, and b) the film rights for Doctor Doom. Everything else should have been left to whither on the vine.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 9:43 AM on December 14, 2017 [3 favorites]


Is knowing they were about to get the X-Men back the reason they let Inhumans TV series suck so badly?
posted by jordemort at 9:45 AM on December 14, 2017


Oh gee, so does that mean more TV shows are going to become shameless commercials for Star Wars, like Speechless was last week?
posted by elsietheeel at 9:45 AM on December 14, 2017


This better not fuck up Legion!
posted by elsietheeel at 9:46 AM on December 14, 2017 [8 favorites]


Beyond my political cynicism, it is fascinating to watch Disney hoover up the intellectual property from the brief monoculture era of film and TV. It's a very big bet on nostalgia continuing to drive reliable audience engagement and they're probably right.
posted by selfnoise at 9:48 AM on December 14, 2017 [7 favorites]


Hey kids, monopolistic behavior fucks up everything donchaknow?
posted by deadaluspark at 9:48 AM on December 14, 2017




I can only look forward to more corporate shennanigans while enjoying myself at the movies, I GUESS.

Don't forget, earlier last month, LA Times's reporting on how Disney uses its clout to get better breaks in Anaheim, led to them blacklisting LAT from attending press viewings of their movies, which only didn't last very long because for once, the media boycotted and the bad press that ensued was of course, a Disney kryptonite.

(i remember reading abt that while I waited in line at a Universal Studios ride, so ha ha I guess)
posted by cendawanita at 9:52 AM on December 14, 2017 [7 favorites]


Apparently, the Murdoch family is cashing out of media creation before Netflix, Amazon, and others outspend them into irrelevance. Which I find somewhat unnerving.
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:52 AM on December 14, 2017 [2 favorites]


Doesn't matter. Amazon will eventually own everything, including our souls.
posted by Beholder at 9:56 AM on December 14, 2017 [3 favorites]


Not included in the deal due to anti-trust restrictions are Fox News...

The only good thing that could have come from this merger would have been if Fox News had been included in the deal and Disney had shuttered the studio and consigned it to the trash heap of history, à la Song of the South.
But no. The entire deal is rotten and nothing good will come from it.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:57 AM on December 14, 2017 [12 favorites]


Looking forward to a Fantastic Four movie that isn't hot garbage.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:59 AM on December 14, 2017


If it means Star Wars theatrical cut will finally be released in a high-def format, it's worth it

Not for the media conglomeration or for the fans, so much as it is worth it to me to see George Lucas forced to see it happen and have no way to stop it

I will enjoy that as I sit in my home in America™

America™ is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Corporation. All rights reserved. All glory to the mouse.
posted by caution live frogs at 9:59 AM on December 14, 2017 [3 favorites]


Lisa Simpson is now a Disney Princess

Somewhere, the fan art is already in preparation.
posted by Paul Slade at 10:00 AM on December 14, 2017


What about Zira, from Planet of the Apes? Is she a Disney princess? If so, she'd be the first doctor, which I would describe as a massive step forward.
posted by incomple at 10:01 AM on December 14, 2017 [8 favorites]


Well, this should make the Orlando theme park wars even more interesting. There was already contention over the strict licensing agreement allowing Universal to use Marvel characters at Islands of Adventure; there's also a significant Simpsons footprint on the property of Universal Studios Orlando. We know Nintendo World is coming, but this will probably accelerate the rumors for Star Trek taking over the (soon-to-be-former?) Marvel area.
posted by ThatSomething at 10:03 AM on December 14, 2017 [2 favorites]


Maybe this is the jump-the-shark moment for the "_X_ is a Disney Princess" meme.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:03 AM on December 14, 2017


This almost makes me want to read Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom again.

But not really.
posted by elsietheeel at 10:04 AM on December 14, 2017 [7 favorites]


well since I have a mandatory policy of torrenting things made by a company that profited and continues to profit from instilling racist/classist/sexist norms in children and teens, I am excited to include even more movies to my retinue of allowably pirateable things

thanks you huge media conglomerate with weird corporate cultural practices
posted by runt at 10:07 AM on December 14, 2017 [4 favorites]


Doesn't matter. Amazon will eventually own everything, including our souls.

Amazon Prime Video has about 1% quality and about 99% shit so I think you might be getting a little ahead of yourself on this one.
posted by srboisvert at 10:12 AM on December 14, 2017 [2 favorites]


If we finally get a good X-Men movie franchise, I could live with the whole monoculture thing.
posted by signal at 10:14 AM on December 14, 2017 [2 favorites]


Begun, the streaming wars have.
posted by nubs at 10:14 AM on December 14, 2017 [12 favorites]


Amazon Prime Video has about 1% quality and about 99% shit

So, better than cable?
posted by mrgoat at 10:15 AM on December 14, 2017 [3 favorites]


Shout out to the Disney IP lawyers that now have to deal with all the shit licensing agreements Fox made for bunches of their properties.

Wonder why Disneyworld went all-in on Avatar related stuff instead of Avengers-land or something? It's because Marvel licensed their superheroes to Universal for cheap in perpetuity.

I'm sure Fox has their own boneheaded deals.
posted by sideshow at 10:17 AM on December 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Amazon Prime Video has about 1% quality and about 99% shit

It's a pretty equivalent library to Hulu and Netflix TBH.
posted by Artw at 10:18 AM on December 14, 2017 [1 favorite]




This means Disney's streaming service in 2019 will be almost mandatory if you've cut the cord and don't want to pirate (unlike CBS All Access, which seems to think Star Trek is all it needs to win).

Interesting that Marvel TV shows on Netflix will NOT be removed in 2019, but that may just be because of whatever contractual deals were made, so I figure they'll eventually move over.
posted by linux at 10:23 AM on December 14, 2017 [3 favorites]


So, confirmed, the last scene of Avengers 4 is Scarlet Witch saying, "No, more mutants!" Then lots of red CG, and suddenly the X-Men retroactively have always existed in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Wanda and Pietro have always been Magneto's children, and Wolverine has always been a grumpy, reluctant member of the Avengers. Also 2/3 of the original movie Avengers are suddenly now played by different, younger, less-expensive actors (What do you mean, "Has Thor always been a woman?" Does Thor sound like a man's name to you?)
posted by straight at 10:30 AM on December 14, 2017 [21 favorites]


Doesn't matter. Amazon will eventually own everything, including our souls.

Well, everything that Google doesn't own.

the Alien Queen and all her daughters, who are now officially Disney Princesses.

Does this mean could be a Alien Queen doll? Here, Disney, take my money!

This better not fuck up Brooklyn Nine-Nine.


Or The Orville.
posted by fuse theorem at 10:31 AM on December 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


RIP Steamed Hams memes.
posted by SansPoint at 10:35 AM on December 14, 2017 [4 favorites]


Is it okay to take comfort in the idea that the breakdown of modern society would render these worrying entertainment monopolies moot, and these creations will become our mythological contributions to any future civilizations that exist?
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 10:37 AM on December 14, 2017


So, confirmed, the last scene of Avengers 4 is Scarlet Witch saying, "No, more mutants!"

I've been pushing for reverse-Decimation since the post-credit-scene introducing them.
posted by mikelieman at 10:38 AM on December 14, 2017


This means Disney's streaming service in 2019 will be almost mandatory if you've cut the cord and don't want to pirate (unlike CBS All Access, which seems to think Star Trek is all it needs to win).

Disney now owns 60% of Hulu, so until I hear otherwise I'm operating under the assumption that the Disney streaming service will either be canceled or run as an add-on package to Hulu itself.

If they fuck with Bob's Burgers, though, I swear to God I'm gonna march right down to Anaheim and start banging asses.
posted by tobascodagama at 10:40 AM on December 14, 2017 [6 favorites]


Is it okay to take comfort in the idea that the breakdown of modern society would render these worrying entertainment monopolies moot, and these creations will become our mythological contributions to any future civilizations that exist?

So basically Mr. Burns, but with the Marvel and Star Wars universes?
posted by Strange Interlude at 10:41 AM on December 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


The Gang goes to Disneyland
posted by lmfsilva at 10:44 AM on December 14, 2017 [3 favorites]


Wanda and Pietro have always been Magneto's children

WANDA is sitting on a park bench, feeding the pigeons with magic and thinking about VISION or something. Suddenly, there's a strong breeze and the birds take off, and PIETRO, as played by Evan Peters, is on the bench next to her.

PIETRO: 'sup, Wan.

WANDA: Wait, who--

PIETRO: Your brother, dummy.

WANDA: But--but my brother--he was with me in Sokovia, and he--there was a battle, and he--you--he shielded Clint with his body a-and got shot and... and...

PIETRO: Wait-wait-wait, hold the phone, here. Okay, so this guy, who's me or supposed to be me, and I assume is this really fast guy--

WANDA: Yeah.

PIETRO: --this really fast guy, like me, sees someone about to get shot, and he, what, he uses his own body as a meat shield, a bullet sponge, instead of, oh, I dunno, just pushing the gun barrel aside, or individually nudging the bullets laterally so that they all miss, or picking up a piece of scrap metal and using it for a shield, you know, like that one guy does all the time, it doesn't even have to be strictly bulletproof to deflect them if you angle it right, honestly, there are all sorts of--

WANDA: --but it was some sort of airborne attack drone--

PIETRO: --doesn't matter because airborne targets have their own vulnerabilities, most of them have some sort of air intake for their propulsion system that's easily cloggable, or I could find someplace elevated to get a running start, jump on them, and knock off their aim. And that doesn't change the other possibilities. OK, look. [PIETRO disappears from the bench for a few seconds, comes back with a handful of bullets.] Here's--ow, OW! Dang, keep forgetting that these are hot when they leave the barrel, can't just hold onto 'em!--here's what I just grabbed running through Manhattan. Most of 'em are from some guy with a big skull on his shirt, he sure looked surprised. Anyway, bottom line: bullets fast, me faster.

WANDA: OK, then, but then why do I... [shakes head] You know, it's the weirdest thing, but right before you got here, I felt the oddest feeling, as if reality itself underwent a subtle but profound shift. Eh, whatever. I'm just glad to see you. [hugs PIETRO]

PIETRO: Right back at ya, sis. Wow, that was some crazy thing that you were talking about. Sounds like, I dunno, something that a scriptwriter who's better at dialogue than plotting would come up with. [WANDA and PIETRO simultaneously glance at the camera, and PIETRO's lips blur; slowing down the film would show him mouthing the words, "Sorry, Joss, not sorry." They get up and start walking away from the bench.]

WANDA: So I guess that our parents didn't get killed in Sokovia, either?

PIETRO: Sokovia? That doesn't--[disappears for a second]--nope, doesn't exist. No, we--oh, geez, wait until you meet Dad.

posted by Halloween Jack at 11:09 AM on December 14, 2017 [19 favorites]


I'll be more concerned when Disney tries to buy Warner Bros.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:19 AM on December 14, 2017


Disney now owns 60% of Hulu, so until I hear otherwise I'm operating under the assumption that the Disney streaming service will either be canceled or run as an add-on package to Hulu itself.

Sadly, it looks more like Disney will go for a triple threat of Disney Entertainment, Disney Sports, and Hulu for "adults":
"In a conference call with analysts Thursday, Iger suggested Hulu, the streaming service owned by Disney and other studios, would be the destination for more adult-oriented fare, including content they are acquiring."
posted by linux at 11:22 AM on December 14, 2017 [2 favorites]


Lisa Simpson is now a Disney Princess

I think you mean Lisa Lionheart (5th season callback)
posted by filthy light thief at 11:36 AM on December 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Yes, yes, Lisa Simpson, but (as I've seen noted elsewhere): this also means all the children of the Xenomorph Queen from the Alien franchise are also Disney Princes and Princesses.
posted by mstokes650 at 11:43 AM on December 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


I miss the days when the Disney name used to mean something.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 11:43 AM on December 14, 2017




I think these two comments, together, highlight the big pieces in play, culturally:

>Beyond my political cynicism, it is fascinating to watch Disney hoover up the intellectual property from the brief monoculture era of film and TV. It's a very big bet on nostalgia continuing to drive reliable audience engagement and they're probably right.

>Apparently, the Murdoch family is cashing out of media creation before Netflix, Amazon, and others outspend them into irrelevance.

My sense is that this is definitely about Disney continuing to do what it does, growing properties and audiences over time (brand building, I guess, but on mega-steroids), which is why science fiction and comic book genre properties are such a natural fit for them. But I think it's also about a savvy media corporation recognizing that, yes, they have to compete against Netflix, Amazon, et al, but also against YouTube--which is to say, all of the rest of us.

Human beings are naturally funny, clever, theatrical and so on, and we've been entertaining ourselves quite well and thoroughly for millennia, with no corporations at all to "provide content" for us. Now that our village campfires are global, and always burning, Disney has to find a way to both compete against that, but also in a technological landscape that has, as selfnoise pithily pointed out, obliterated the cultural/entertainment/mass media monoculture that existed for maybe 75 years, the tapering-out of which we are currently still experiencing. (Media isn't one-way or only bi-nodal anymore, to put it in a sentence.)

For Disney, and their structure and strategies, the Netflix approach is a poor fit (making tons and tons of content to sustain a direct subscriber base, with perhaps no really notable or breakthrough "hits" even necessary). The surest bet for a corporation like Disney, in a cultural landscape with millions of creative voices all freely broadcasting to each other, is to start with the giant megaphone that widely-recognized, already-established creative properties provide, and then do stuff with it that only a giant corporation can do (scale/scope of product, but also develop content across media and platforms, etc.). That's their "niche" going forward, because so many smaller companies all the way to individual people are making original stuff that's engaging, etc.

My read is that Disney clearly recognizes two things: that it's not viable to attempt to scale pure content creation and/or merchandising & licensing any longer, if you are a very (very) large company; and, that the broad recognition and appeal needed for their various products to draw large enough audiences to meet their scale is best found in media properties from the former monoculture, which is to say the creative works made by terrific individuals that were amplified so loudly, by being broadcast one-way very successfully, during that nascent, developmental era of mass media. So it's a long-term survival strategy as much as anything.

It's also obvious, capitalism being forever insatiable, that this will be foundational to their forthcoming content streaming service, and competing directly with Netflix, Amazon, HBO, etc. It's all pretty brilliant, actually, regardless of whether one thinks it good or bad: Disney is creating large-scale commercial sustainability in a media landscape that is profoundly new and constantly changing. They will also bootstrap ("leverage") any success with this consolidation-and-building-universes-of-pre-established-creative-properties-from-a-bygone-era to be directly competitive as a content provider service, too.
posted by LooseFilter at 11:49 AM on December 14, 2017 [6 favorites]


adult-oriented fare

Booty and the Beast, The Loin King, Pete's Dragon-if-you-know-what-I-mean
posted by uncleozzy at 11:49 AM on December 14, 2017 [4 favorites]


Disney now has its hands on Fox’s key franchises including “X-Men,” “Alien,” “Predator,” “Avatar,” “Die Hard,” “Planet of the Apes,” “Kingsman” and “Fantastic Four”

Patiently waiting for this mega crossover with the Avengers.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:52 AM on December 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


selfnoise: "Sign of the times, I guess, but my first thought was "was this to raise money for Murdoch's final assault on American democracy?""

Mine too. The Murdochs could do a lot of damage with $52B.
posted by octothorpe at 11:52 AM on December 14, 2017 [2 favorites]


Corporations successfully centered fan culture on brands over artists so now people cheer for a merger

Only if one cedes all of "culture" to for-profit, corporate entities, which requires disempowering all the rest of us as mere consumers of what professionals create. This is not true, and I think it's important to note that, as I mentioned above, corporations are no longer competing only against other corporations: they are competing against everything that everyone is creating and sharing every day, too, and much of the new competition either doesn't care about making any money, or has negligible costs to cover.

Also, by my back-of-a-napkin math, from just Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, HBO and Apple, there will be over $20 billion of new spending on media content creation in 2018--that's in addition to all of the traditional spending from old-model media companies. That's billions and billions of new dollars being paid to all kinds of skilled, creative workers to actually make all this stuff, which is about as pro-artist as one can get (you know, paying them for their work). I don't see any kind of stifling of creative culture at all; in fact, I see unprecedented investment in creative work of all kinds.
posted by LooseFilter at 11:59 AM on December 14, 2017


Of Course The Simpsons Predicted the Disney/Fox Deal

...in an episode almost 20 years ago featuring a couple celebrity guests (Alec Baldwin & Ron Howard) who are as visible as ever. I think this makes it official... today's Dystopia isn't from Handmaid's Tale or Hunger Games - we are all living in Springfield.
posted by oneswellfoop at 12:04 PM on December 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Maybe this is the jump-the-shark moment for the "_X_ is a Disney Princess" meme.

Saw someone online point out that Disney doesn't [yet] own DC Comics (part of WB), and Diana of Themyscira may be the last remaining non-Disney princess.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 12:05 PM on December 14, 2017 [3 favorites]


Booty and the Beast, The Loin King, Pete's Dragon-if-you-know-what-I-mean
I was joking earlier that sooner or later, to watch a non-Disney movie I'll have to watch porn. The idea of Disney smut would be a total mindfuck.

One thing I've been thinking that gets me concerned is how will this affect cable TV around here. Fox Comedy (a sitcom channel that airs re-runs of shows) is one of the few cable channels I watch - last year watched the whole HIMYM on two episodes a day, this year picked up on The Goldbergs and now took the chance on Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
As Disney decided to shoot down ESPN America (because ESPN bleeds money), I wouldn't be at all surprised if they pulled the plug on their european operations to make people move towards a paid streaming service.
posted by lmfsilva at 12:08 PM on December 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


People are mostly talking about the movie properties, but the sports deal is at least as important. Disney wants the regional Fox Sports channels to save the sinking ESPN.

Washington Post - "The total price tag of the Disney-Fox deal is estimated to be $52.4 billion. CNBC’s David Faber estimates that Fox’s RSNs alone would be valued at $20 billion, or more than 38 percent of that amount. This isn’t an entertainment deal; it’s a sports deal."
posted by riruro at 12:27 PM on December 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Y'all now I have scenes from Aliens in my head with Part of Your World as an earworm soundtrack. I blame you all.
posted by warriorqueen at 12:38 PM on December 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Burst your chest, burst your chest, wreck your shirt and make a mess...
posted by uncleozzy at 12:45 PM on December 14, 2017 [11 favorites]


People are mostly talking about the movie properties, but the sports deal is at least as important. Disney wants the regional Fox Sports channels to save the sinking ESPN.

Wait, so they don't get the FOX broadcast network, or the Fox Sports cable networks, but they do get regional Fox Sports channels? (There are regional Fox Sports channels?)
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:52 PM on December 14, 2017


It's disappointing to see here the mildly negative to mildly positive responses to this news. This should be an occasion for outrage and anger. Any major merger is bad for everyone except the investors and executives: quality will decline, working conditions will deteriorate, and prices will rise. In a better world this merger would be blocked by the Justice Department, but I'm not holding my breath.
posted by crazy with stars at 12:56 PM on December 14, 2017 [4 favorites]


Also, does this mean FOX becomes the only Big Four network without an in-house production studio? Or do they start a new one and rebuild that arm of the company from scratch, while second-tier Fox/Disney-produced shows migrate to ABC?
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 1:00 PM on December 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


Good luck, the era of populist monopoly-busting and merger blocking is over. The alter of Free Markets isn't where Capitalists go to worship competition, it's where they go to sacrifice it.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 1:14 PM on December 14, 2017 [2 favorites]


In a better world this merger would be blocked by the Justice Department, but I'm not holding my breath.

precisely why I'm not spending my energy on expressing outrage. this is just one of many rotten cherries on top of a (mostly) crappy year, and I'm already out of evens with the news, much less my personal life. So yeah, I'm looking at this at as an inevitable result of capitalism, and just hoping we get some decent X-Men / Avengers movies in the future.
posted by numaner at 1:33 PM on December 14, 2017 [3 favorites]


Any diminution of the Murdoch empire is cause for celebration in itself. That they'll rise again like a stinky phoenix is beyond doubt, but for the moment it seems like there will be less of them.
posted by Grangousier at 2:02 PM on December 14, 2017


Oh man Disneyworld Hollywood Studios is about to become a lot more fun...
posted by Navelgazer at 2:29 PM on December 14, 2017 [1 favorite]


The NYT on the antitrust and political implications of this merger:
Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who is executive chairman of 21st Century Fox, is one of President Trump’s closest allies and advisers. Fox News has been the president’s most reliable media champion. Mr. Murdoch and the president have each publicly described the other as “my good friend.”

Mr. Trump is also an avowed opponent of big media mergers. “It’s too much concentration of power,” he said of AT&T’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner. The government sued to block that deal on antitrust grounds.

So what level of antitrust scrutiny will the Walt Disney Company’s just-announced deal to purchase much of 21st Century Fox receive, and will the government try to block that megadeal, too?

posted by crazy with stars at 2:30 PM on December 14, 2017


Mr. Trump is also an avowed opponent of big media mergers. “It’s too much concentration of power,” he said of AT&T’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner.

No he's not, it was just convenient to say that at the time as he hates CNN.
posted by Artw at 2:33 PM on December 14, 2017 [10 favorites]


Wait, does this mean Pam is now a Disney princess ? Sploosh!!!
posted by Pendragon at 3:22 PM on December 14, 2017 [6 favorites]


So ... does this mean the original 20th Century Fox fanfare can be added back in to the opening of the Star Wars films?

Literally the first thing I thought when I saw the news.

In twenty years, people will be insisting that Episode VII always had the fanfare the same way people insist now that the “Episode IV: A New Hope” title was there in 1977.
posted by ricochet biscuit at 3:24 PM on December 14, 2017 [3 favorites]


I have never heard of Nick Wiger before but I bet he is correct about virtually everything just based on this trenchant insite. This is horrible and as someone whose first job was in a comic book store, I shudder to think of how much money is wasted on stupid pieces of plastic from multi-billion-dollar corporations. It is a complete shame of the grossest capitalism.
posted by koavf at 8:18 PM on December 14, 2017 [2 favorites]


Our best hope is if the current congress shows the same professionalism and attention to detail that they always do and, while trying to extend copyright to infinity, accidentally make everything created before 1999 public domain.

Anyway, I'm just happy because usually we get a dire merger of two companies nobody can quite describe and then a gradual but hard to measure decline in quality of products that most people wouldn't even think to group together. This time we'll probably get some dope comic book movies before everything is completely ruined, at least.
posted by fomhar at 9:01 PM on December 14, 2017


Corporations successfully centered fan culture on brands over artists so now people cheer for a merger

So "Superman" is a brand and "Captain America" is a brand. But the reason the recent Superman movies suck and the recent Steve Rogers movies are beloved is because Marvel Studios has better artists (or is better at letting their artists do their thing, same difference).

The Fantastic Four was just a brand to Fox, which is why their movies sucked. Fans are glad that those characters are now owned by a company that will probably put them in the hands of better artists.
posted by straight at 11:01 PM on December 14, 2017 [2 favorites]


Media isn't one-way or only bi-nodal anymore, to put it in a sentence.

Don't worry, the FCC is going to 'fix' that, unless Congress overrules the recent decision.
posted by radwolf76 at 12:43 AM on December 15, 2017 [2 favorites]


SO The Cheeto has been pretty successfully spiking the cannon of American hegemony on the diplomatic stage. I wonder if present American government actions like spiking American net neutrality plus allowing the anti competitive mega mergers in entertainment venues is going to have the same results on American hegemony in the cultural sphere. Disney et.al. have been pretty successful in leveraging international trade agreements to suppress the public domain but the current president is even harming the influence of those agreements. The time is ripe for some future cultural powerhouse to roll back the excesses of the copyright extension framework and reap the benefits of a revitalized public domain.
posted by Mitheral at 2:39 AM on December 15, 2017


This means Disneyland finally gets an Alien-branded ride, yes?
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 3:53 AM on December 15, 2017





selfnoise: "Sign of the times, I guess, but my first thought was "was this to raise money for Murdoch's final assault on American democracy?""

Mine too. The Murdochs could do a lot of damage with $52B.
posted by octothorpe at 6:52 PM on December 14


Is it bad that it wasn't untill I got to Octothorpe's comment that I was thinking " What does Daredevil have against America? Isn't Matt Murdoch on the side of justice - why would he be suing American Democracy? "
posted by Faintdreams at 1:38 PM on December 15, 2017


I saw a report that it's an "all stock" deal so it doesn't directly/immediately put money in Rupert's pocket, but it DOES give him some sway over what Disney does... but then, if he cared about ideology more than making money, he'd have dumped The Simpsons long long go.
posted by oneswellfoop at 3:46 PM on December 15, 2017


🎶
Fantastic Four's coming home....
Fantastic Four's coming ho-ooo--oome
Fantastic Four's coming home
Lord they've Been off at Fox for so long!
(Aaa-ooo!) 🎶
posted by entropicamericana at 7:28 AM on December 16, 2017


I've been playing the new Marvel Lego game which involves Kang taking chunks of places from all over the Marvel Universe and slamming them all together into a single crazy city, with neighborhoods from Asgard, Xandar, Hala, Wakanda, Sakaar, etc. It's full of really deep cuts into Marvel lore.

But...it's got none of the characters Marvel didn't have movie rights to.

So it's super weird when I found a Medieval European Village surrounding what is surely Castle Doom, but it's not Latveria because they don't have Victor Von Doom. And there's an underwater city, but it's Lemuria not Atlantis and there's no mention of Namor. No Baxter Building in New York. No Magneto, No X-Men, not even Wolverine! It's like someone tried to make a Harry Potter game without Hagrid or Hermione.
posted by straight at 1:00 PM on December 16, 2017




Never knew I wanted this until I saw the gif today.

Meanwhile, Ridley has had some things to say about the Alien franchise versus the Star Wars one.
posted by fuse theorem at 9:11 AM on January 3, 2018


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