On Monday, August 31, 2009, the worlds of the Marvel Universe and the Magic Kingdom collided as The Walt Disney Company announced plans to buy Marvel Entertainment for slightly over $4 billion. Almost immediately, the Disneyana types were excited and the Marvel Zombies were mortified.
Will Mickey Mouse become the newest member of the X-Men? Will Wolverine become a star on Disney on Ice? Will Hannah Montana dress up like Dazzler on an episode of her series? Will they pit Marvel’s Hercules versus Disney’s Hercules? Will Pinocchio be accused of being a mutant? Will The Incredibles fight against and later with the Fantastic Four? Actually, I’d like that one to come true to tell you the truth.
Most critics of the acquisition fail to realize that the same studio that gave us Hannah Montana, Winnie the Pooh, Cars, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, and G-Force also gave us Gargoyles, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Lost, Scream, Kill Bill, Trainspotting, and Clerks. Needless to say, the initial reaction has cooled down compared to what happened upon the announcement. Now, a little clarity is in order.
The long and short of it all. Marvel is still going be Marvel, just with Disney money and global reach behind it. That’s not to say there aren’t going to be changes on both sides.. A little breakdown of what exactly went down:
1. What exactly happened?
The Walt Disney Company has announced that they are acquiring ownership of Marvel Entertainment in a stock-and-cash deal for $4 billion, not including debt (that, along with the transition fees and such, will actually make the deal about $6.4 billion in total). Disney will have 100% ownership in Marvel Studios (film and television production), Marvel Characters (intellectual content company), Marvel Animation, Marvel Toys (formerly Toy Biz), and, of course, Marvel Comics. Marvel will now be owned by the same company behind Mickey Mouse, Pirates of the Caribbean, Lost, SportsCenter, The Golden Girls, Hannah Montana, The Incredibles, Power Rangers, Gargoyles, and The Muppets.
What this also means is that Marvel is no longer the world’s largest independent company, but rather a part of the Disney corporate machine not unlike how it’s longtime rival, DC Comics, is part of Disney’s longtime rival Time Warner’s corporate machine. Some might see it as a bad thing. Some might see it as a good thing. I’m still looking at both sides myself because, at least from a business and creative perspective, it’s a good thing, at least on Disney’s end.
2. Wait, what about the current film and programming deals Marvel has with companies like Sony, Paramount, Universal, Fox, Lionsgate, Cartoon Network, BET, and Nickelodeon?
The current deals with the Spider-Man and Men in Black franchises at Sony, the Marvel Studios deal with Paramount Pictures, Universal’s Hulk franchise, and Fox’s deal with the Fantastic Four and X-Men/Wolverine franchises are still valid and will be honored by Disney. However, beyond the duration of the deals, Disney intends on becoming sole distributor of those projects.
The Lionsgate DTV projects are still a go, though Disney could eventually take over distribution of anything after the deal (whether that includes the upcoming Japanese adaptations of Iron Man and Wolverine is to be certain the closer they’re completed and distributed). As for Nickelodeon’s current programming deal involving Iron Man, Wolverine and the X-Men, and the 2000s Fantastic Four animated series as well as Cartoon Network’s deal to air Marvel Super Hero Squad and BET’s upcoming Black Panther could be in jeopardy in 2010 and could end up elsewhere, particularly Disney XD.
3. Disney XD? What’s that?
To talk about Disney XD, you have to go back to the glorious era of cartoons on cable television. Cartoons were on Cartoon Network on a daily basis. Spongebob Squarepants wasn’t on Nickelodeon. Fox Kids was still on weekday mornings and afternoons as well as Saturday mornings on Fox. 4Kids Entertainment was preparing to syndicate Pokemon that fall. For you younger readers, syndication was a practice studios used to distribute first-run programming as well as off-network reruns that didn’t appear on cable first and used for more than just trashy “talk shows” and court shows.
While Disney was preparing to release Pixar’s second film, A Bug’s Life, they were preparing to launch their second family-themed network, Toon Disney, which would be a commercial-based outlet unlike sibling network Disney Channel, which had just become a basic network rather than subscription-based. Over the years, Toon Disney failed to make an impact. When they introduced Jetix in 2004, many felt it was the beginning of the end of Toon Disney, especially with the dependence on boys’ entertainment and the live-action Power Rangers, which was a gateway to bring in more live-action to Toon Disney.
Good call to those that felt that way.
Disney XD is Disney’s male-oriented network formed from the ashes of Toon Disney after that channel was burned by Jetix. It’s not on many cable systems, and those where it’s on, it’s a digital cable-only network. The Marvel purchase means that Disney has as library of characters they could adapt into live-action and animated projects exclusively for the network. Disney already owns the pre-1997 Marvel Animation library as well as broadcast rights to the Film Roman-produced X-Men Evolution and the Sony-produced Spectacular Spider-Man, so it wouldn’t be a stretch to add more Marvel programs to that channel.
Plus, unlike the Power Rangers franchise (which may or may not be on its last legs depending on the source), Disney would own the Marvel franchises lock, stock, and barrel. In fact, it is believed that Disney XD will be the first Disney outlet to directly benefit from the Marvel purchase. For example, if Marvel wanted to make an animated version of The Avengers, they could. If they wanted to make a Teen Titans-like adaptation of New Warriors or Power Pack, they could. If they wanted to make a live-action series based on Runaways or Araña (think a female Spider-Man/Buffy the Vampire Slayer hybrid), they could. And they’d make for great television possibilities and give Disney XD a foot up on the competition that Cartoon Network once had back when they exclusively showed cartoons and didn’t want to be a third-rate kids’ network.
4. What about the Marvel-themed section of Islands of Adventure at Universal Studios in Orlando?
That’s a tough question and one that could get pretty ugly before it all ends. For now, the section of the park isn’t going anywhere. They’re safe. Spider-Man, The Hulk, Doctor Doom, Iron Man, Wolverine, Storm, all of those characters will be a part of Universal Studios as long as Universal wants them there. They’re just not going to add any new characters or expand on the characters they’ve got at the park. But if it’s one thing Disney knows how to do, its bury their competition, something they have almost 90 years of experience of doing.
5. Speaking of characters, does Marvel REALLY have over 5000 characters?
Yeah, they do.
The core Marvel Universe, Earth-616, are the most familiar ones to the general public. There’s also the Ultimate Universe characters, the 2099 characters, the New Universe, the Squadron Supreme universe, the Ultraverse, the Microverse (home of the Micronauts), the Earth X universe, the Spider-Girl universe, the recently-acquired Marvelman stable of characters, the Genesis universe (mostly populated by public-domain characters), the Aircel Comics titles (including Men in Black), and many, many, many variations of familiar characters and universes.
Not to mention the library of characters from their days as Timely Comics and Atlas Comics like Ziggy Pig, Silly Seal, Super Rabbit, Dippy Duck, Melvin the Monster, Powerhouse Pepper, Millie The Model, and a whole host of characters you’ve never heard of. I don’t know if anybody actually counted them, but it’s probably roughly between 2500 and 6000 characters and counting.
6. Good to know they’re still creating characters. Now, will Disney stifle creativity at The House of Ideas?
On the offset, Disney has announced that they’re going to treat Marvel the same way they treat Pixar. They’re going to still be an autonomous unit free from editorial control from Disney folks who don’t know how to handle the characters. In fact, Disney has been on the record as saying they’re “not only buying great characters, stories and brands, but also excited about working with people who know those characters best and how best to work with them in other media.”
However, I think there could be trouble if Marvel wants to, say, kill a marketable property in the future. I doubt Disney would have let Marvel kill the original Captain America after a major storyline or make Spider-Man sell the soul of his marriage to save his aunt (seriously, I’m still pissed over that), but if DC could kill Superman and take him away from the Earth and his own comics and kill off Batman by, more or less, trapping him in a past where nobody would be looking for him at all, Marvel should be fine.
7. Sorry. Kind of zoned out when you said Pixar and Marvel in the same sentence.
Yeah, Pixar and Marvel are going to be really close when the deal is completed. John Lasseter, head muckety-muck at Disney Imagineering and Pixar, broke bread with Marvel types and practically got giddy over potential projects the two companies could collaborate on together. If anything,good could come out of all of this, it’s Pixar working on Marvel-created properties.
They probably wouldn’t make a major property like Spider-Man, Iron Man, X-Men, or Fantastic Four into an animated film, at least not initially, but they could turn a smaller property like, say, New Warriors, Power Pack, Prime, or even a newer property like Skottie Young and Eric Shanower’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz adaptation. Of course, animation should be fair game for the most part for Marvel properties since they do have all animation rights. So, the skies the limit. I’d personally would love to see Galactcus animated without looking cel-shaded or like a cloud in a Silver Surfer film.
8. Okay, I went back and noticed you made a DC Comics reference. Have they publicly responded to the deal, and what do they plan on doing?
Neither DC Comics nor its own entertainment juggernaut of an owner Time Warner has made a public announcement about Disney’s purchase of Marvel. Aside from the now-dormant Blade franchise, Warner has no connection to Marvel. They’re just going to continue doing what they’re doing. Take that as you will, though I’ll take it as a bad thing because, if anything, DC Comics and Time Warner are tenuous yet successful partners in what they do, especially with their animated productions. Perhaps in the end, Disney will look at Time Warner’s example and treatment of DC Comics and learn from its successes and mistakes when the ink on the Marvel acquisition is finally dry.
Now, I don’t claim to be an expert or anything. I just pay attention. But am I happy with Disney buying Marvel? I’m a little torn. As a Warner Bros. cartoon fan, I was literally born to hate the Disney characters (even though I find Donald Duck and Goofy great cartoon characters), and as a DC Comics fan, I was literally born to hate the Marvel characters (though to be fair, Spider-Man is in my top five list of superheroes along with Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, and Plastic Man). I still have a feeling Marvel is going to end up affecting the storylines in the comics, even though they said they wouldn’t. On the other hand, Disney and Marvel are, to paraphrase Wolverine’s famous quote, the best they are at what they do, and what they do is pretty damned sweet. There’s a reason Disney is still considered the standard all media companies adhere to and why Marvel is called The House of Ideas.
Whatever happens, it’s going to be a fun time.
Photo: lkayama
Related posts:
- Is the world ready for another Muppet movie? When we last left the Muppets, they were singing in...
- Reinventing the Looney Tunes Remember the Looney Tunes? If you’re old enough to remember...
- X-men Origins: Wolverine, Should I stay or should I go? Hello readers! I am assuming that some of you...
- Cartoon Network Minus Cartoons: Everything Has an End 2003 seemed like a lifetime ago now, but I remember...
- Will Wonder Woman ever be ready for a close-up? Wonder Woman made a big return last month in her...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
Browse Timeline
Comments ( 3 )
jefftxb added these pithy words on Sep 09 09 at 2:22 pmWow, I hate to do this, but apparently a few minutes ago (at the time I’m writing this line), Warner Bros. HAS reacted to the Marvel/Disney deal, though not using the words Marvel nor Disney in the press release. Warner Bros. Entertainment has announced the formation of DC Entertainment, making it more of a vertically-inclined company responsible for the production of media properties based on their stable of characters and stories. I kind of called for the need for the formation of such a company a year ago, but, again, people think I’m crazy.
Jon added these pithy words on Sep 09 09 at 8:53 pmTo be fair Jeff, most companies don’t react unless provoked. There are many entertainment companies that could benefit by reorganization.
Jeff Harris added these pithy words on Sep 09 09 at 10:34 pmThat’s true. That’s very true, my friend. To tell you the truth, I have plans to reorganize every one of them. For example, look what I’ve done to The Disney Channel. That’s how twisted my brain works. But that’s another post for another site.
