Kodi Arfer / Wisterwood

Disney buys Lucasfilm

Topic List
#001 | Jacehan |
Episode 7 being planned.

I...don't know how I feel about this.

http://thewaltdisneycompany.com/disney-news/press-releases/2012/10/disney-acquire-lucasfilm-ltd
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"To truly live, one must first be born." ~ Evan [aX]
Paper Mario Social:
The Safe Haven of GameFAQs. (Board 2000083)
#002 | Kodiologist |
A trick instead of a treat for Halloween, perhaps.

But between that and Marvel, the next Kingdom Hearts should be interesting, huh? (Vincent shot first!)

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"I'm sure everyone on this list will be glad to know I don't plan to reproduce myself." -Richard Stallman
#003 | Jacehan |
You know, Marvel has done fine since Disney took over. Lucasfilm may do even better. Maybe SW Ep7 will actually be good if Lucas isn't at the helm.
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"To truly live, one must first be born." ~ Evan [aX]
Paper Mario Social:
The Safe Haven of GameFAQs. (Board 2000083)
#004 | Pooty Boy |
How can I portray my feelings here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s
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"A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing." - George Lucas
#005 | PaperSpock | | (edited)
I'm not sure how I feel about this. I have no real investment in the Star Wars universe, and I like what Disney's done with Marvel, but still, it feels like Disney is ballooning to something even bigger than I would have imagined. One one hand, I like the stuff Disney's done recently, on the other hand, big corporations scare me.

EDIT: After thinking about it a bit, I've decided that Disney is the movie equivalent of a Katamari. That is all.
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Fame is but a slow decay.
-Theodore Tilton
#006 | Kodiologist |
Brandon, don't you think James could be right about Episode 7? It's not as if everything Star Wars-related other than the original trilogy is terrible; several of the game were great.

Bizarre thought: SuperShadow was right. (In his prediction of a final trilogy, I mean.)

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"I'm sure everyone on this list will be glad to know I don't plan to reproduce myself." -Richard Stallman
#007 | HeyDude |
LOL at Pooty... I knew that link was going to be to that.

I'm actually kind of excited. George Lucas letting Star Wars go to somebody else is probably going to be one of the best things that could happen to it.
#008 | willis5225 |
Everyone is like a Katamari of media:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/media-consolidation.png

Anyway, if you buy the fiction that Lucas has any personal investment in these properties, and that he is the auteur of the series without whose touch the new offerings will bear no resemblance to the old... well I don't know why you'd think that. We have experimental evidence to the contrary.

Lucas is desperate to kill his golden goose. He hates geese that lay golden eggs. I could make the point with the prequels, but that seems like it'd be contentious, so let's take a much more clear-cut example: the infamous production schedule troubles of what I'd argue is the most intricate, meticulously plotted Star Wars property of them all, Knights of the Old Republic II.

There were worries from the production team that the product would not be available for a November ship (that is, in time for Christmas). Consequently they were told to cut content rather than risk the ship date. Since the meat of the game was already produced (though one major section was cut), the most noticeable cuts were to the ending. The (universally disappointing) ending sequence consisted of the defeated main villain standing there dying and giving out exposition about all the stuff that the game didn't get around to explaining (the stuff that would've made the plot make sense). The golden goose thing isn't even a metaphor at that point, it's an analogy. And it's not even much of an analogy, since so many of the terms are the same: Goose : Material wealth :: KoToR II : Material wealth

(In fairness, the sudden death of the story's momentum and the shift from "I'm about to murder you" to "but let's chat for a moment first" actually did say something neat about the game's ambivalence toward "villainy." But we're talking about a game that thought up a climactic and horrifying in-game explanation for the phenomenon of XP. It deserved better, and if the main concern of the game's producers had been storytelling or artistry, it would have received better.)

Now, exploiting properties and putting out mediocre followups isn't inherently bad. Disney made a Bambi II, but they also made that Aladdin cartoon show and that was pretty fun. They've made a fair amount of shovelware, but then there's also Kingdom Hearts, Evil Mickey (or whatever) and a lot of the 16-bit movie tie-ins. But they focus attention on their flagship titles (the sequels tend to be straight-to-video) and make sure that those enjoy some minimum standard of quality. It sure seems like they have the maturity not to butcher their properties for a short-term cashout.

So in that light, I can't see how this acquisition would be a bad thing. You're taking a corporate structure interested in making money from toy sales and replacing it with a corporate structure interested in making money from toy sales but also making movies that people don't hate.
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir
#009 | Kodiologist |
Everyone is like a Katamari of media:
http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/media-consolidation.png


Yeah, any feelings about this particular acquisition aside, we're getting uncomfortably close to a dystopia where one company controls all the news. (One company controlling all the fantasy films is less troubling.)

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"I'm sure everyone on this list will be glad to know I don't plan to reproduce myself." -Richard Stallman
#010 | willis5225 |
Less troubling, but let's not underestimate the effect that fiction and popular media have on shaping human thought processes.
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir
#011 | HeyDude |
But, let's not overestimate it either.
#012 | Kodiologist |
Let's instead perform a thorough meta-analysis and construct appropriate confidence intervals.

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"I'm sure everyone on this list will be glad to know I don't plan to reproduce myself." -Richard Stallman
#013 | Pooty Boy |
Actually, outside of the writer for Toy Story 3 being rumored as the writer Disney has done EVERYTHING perfectly in my eyes.

Not that Toy Story 3 isn't a great film in it's own right, but I dunno how well that meshes with Star Wars.
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"A special effect without a story is a pretty boring thing." - George Lucas
#014 | Kodiologist |
Actually, outside of the writer for Toy Story 3 being rumored as the writer…

I beg your pardon?

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Brandon: "I had casual sex this weekend." Alex: "I had sex too, with someone I love who accepts and loves me." Kodi: "I cleaned up my .emacs."
#015 | Jacehan |
Well, he also wrote Little Miss Sunshine. So, not that that fits with Star Wars, either, but it's very different from Toy Story 3 and he won awards for both, so I guess that means he's just a good writer.

He's also written the screenplay for the next Hunger Games movie, so we can see how that goes.
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"To truly live, one must first be born." ~ Evan [aX]
Paper Mario Social:
The Safe Haven of GameFAQs. (Board 2000083)
#016 | willis5225 |
Star Wars isn't really a complicated property, and very little of its aesthetic comes down to the screenwriting.

Honestly, I'd say that having written a movie done entirely with CGI is the only qualification you could ask for.
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir
#017 | Kodiologist |
Star Wars isn't really a complicated property…

Are you kidding? Have you seen Wookiepedia?

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Brandon: "I had casual sex this weekend." Alex: "I had sex too, with someone I love who accepts and loves me." Kodi: "I cleaned up my .emacs."
#018 | willis5225 |
Yeah, but they're ignoring all that.

Looking just at the (good) movies, you're talking about very simple, formulaic stories. They're going to try really hard not to alienate the audience that grew up with the prequels, so it'll be probably 55% explosion to begin with, figure they'll clock in around two hours, so you're looking at ~65 minutes of uncomplicated good vs. evil talk and 70s-style eastern mysticism (plus one minute of scrolling plot summary).
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir
#019 | Ocarinakid2 |
I'd watch that.
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Ocarinakid
#020 | willis5225 |
Right?
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Willis, it seems like every other time you post, I need to look up a word that's in the OED or Urban Dictionary but not both.
-Mimir