Franchises Galore at Disney...

[Jules]

http://jimhillmedia.com/blogs/jim_hill/ ... ticle.aspx

No time to write, sorry ... (I'm at school).

[candydog]

What also really annoys me is that these franchises also take over the parks. Anyone who's been within a mile of a disney park within the last couple of months will have seen nothing but Pirates and Princesses everywhere! Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that disney's back on top with some hit films, but where's the magic? Adventure films just aren't my thing. I'm looking forward to some good Classic films again like "Rapunzel", I just hope that it too, is not swallowed by the princess franchise.

[gigina]

What also really annoys me is that these franchises also take over the parks. Anyone who's been within a mile of a disney park within the last couple of months will have seen nothing but Pirates and Princesses everywhere! Don't get me wrong, I think it's great that disney's back on top with some hit films, but where's the magic? Adventure films just aren't my thing. I'm looking forward to some good Classic films again like "Rapunzel", I just hope that it too, is not swallowed by the princess franchise.

The pirate craze at Disneyland is probably one of the biggest reasons I'm done with the pirate phrase.

[reyquila]

More franchises=more movies. Life is good!!!

[akhenaten]

my opinion is they shouldnt rely too much on franchise.its good that disney characters have lastability insured but too much overkill. i dont think national treasure deserved a franchise. its not that great to begin with.leave franchises to breakthrough and extraordinary films only that will make a lasting impact in the history of motion pictures. no more air butts series pls.

[PatrickvD]

some will suck, some will be good. I'm glad they appear to be limiting these sequels to the department where they should be made: live action. Pirates, Narnia, Prince of Persia, National Treasure are all great franchise films. They lend themselves well. And in animation, the only one left in the pipeline is Toy Story 3, another series that lends itsself well for sequels and a sequel people actually want. In fact, I am willing to predict Toy Story will be the biggest Box Office hit since Shrek 2, maybe even Titanic.

If they're gonna make sequels, that's the way to go. The DTV's (eventhough they shaped up in the end) was a fundamentally flawed concept to begin with. Rarely does a Disney animated classic lend itsself for a sequel because their whole cannon of fairy tales and storybook adaptations from Snow White to Tarzan was already a franchise to begin with. Each story following a similair patter with a clear beginning and end. There is never really much left to be said about the characters beyond their original film. Sure the same cgoes for live action films, but to a lesser extent. A good sequel is one where there is both demand and logic. When only demand is taken into consideration we end up with halfbaked films

[mariadny]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO, pleaseeeeeeeeeee

[Lars Vermundsberget]

Sick? No. If there's something I'm not interested in (and there is...), I'll just stay indifferent.

[Disneykid]

I think the whole franchise idea is overkill. Pirates of the Caribbean needs to be left alone as a trilogy. Three movies is enough to ensure oodles of merchandising capabilities for years to come. They've also got The Chronicles of Narnia, which will be a seven-movie series. Considering how different each Narnia story is, Disney needn't worry about people growing sick of characters and scenarios because it's always changing. The Prince of Persia idea sounds interesting, and since (I'm assuming) the sequels will be based off of the game sequels, the whole concept won't feel like milking the cash cow. Let me just say a big fat NO to an Enchanted sequel. It's a fairy tale. Fairy tales end with happily ever after. Putting a sequel after it makes the ending seem like a big fat lie. Disney didn't understand that with their animated classics, but I'm hoping they will with this (at least left Snow White and Sleeping Beauty alone). High School Musical is even worse. Heck, just one sequel felt like too much to me, let alone two. (And High School Musical on Ice? Why does this feel like an SNL skit coming to life?) National Treasure I can see being a trilogy, but it should stop here like Pirates. I feel films that go into quadrilogies and above come across as too money-grubbing unless there's a large story arc planned early like with Harry Potter or Star Wars. So to sum up my thoughts:

Pirates: Stop at three.
Narnia: Do all seven books and make this the big Disney franchise.
Prince of Persia: Try it if the stories in the games are good enough.
Enchanted: No.
High School Musical: No, but that's already too late.
National Treasure: Stop at three.

[PatrickvD]

agree with Disneykid. At some point you need to stop. Especially Enchanted and HSM. I actually doubt Enchanted gets a sequel, anyway. Perhaps if they did a similair live action/animation hybrid with completely new characters, that would be okay. But a genuine sequel won't work all that well I think.

But the time in wich sequels are in production it's good Disney is looking for potential new franchises. The thing is, these franchises drive the business, without them, attendance is down. So it is understandable.

[candydog]

I'm sorry, but I nearly died laughing when I heard about "High school musical on ice". It's so cheesy it's funny! I could understand them turning it into a staged musical, but "on ice" is going a little too far. What next? A TV series? I said it as a joke - but they're probably lining up the cast as we speak...

[2099net]

I'm only sad The Country Bears never got the sequel that was written.

[shakes fist in the air while screaming to the ceiling]CURSE YOU DISNEY! CURSE YOU ALL![/shakes fist... yadda yadda... ceiling]

But more Pirates!?! ... Either I'm the only sane person in the world, or the only insane one.

[darth_deetoo]

I don't really see the Princesses as a franchise but more of a branding. Each film is a distinct story in it's own right. I'm sure they are very popular with kids, and if you don't particularly like some of the stuff that is put out - don't buy it. Vote with your cash.

[Jules]

Netty and everyone else ... my main concern is that all these franchises will kill any developing movie ideas. Great, so a lot of time slots around the year will be taken up by these, and what space will that leave for fresh, new movies?

Secondly, you read what the article said, that executives are hesitant to green-light movies without good possibilities of a franchise.

BRAVO DISNEY!! Great flipping way to encourage creativity! Now all your film-makers will have to dump their potentially good story ideas for proposal, because they can't be made into franchises! Good way to prevent brain cells from getting rusty, eh?

I now present The Walt Disney Co. with Escapay's one and only Platinum DVD Condom!

[QueenRahel]

i dont know i am pretty torn...as long as the stories are good and theres not much overkill...i am just doubting they can make these classics, which puts me on the "no" side...but i did not vote...cant choose...but hsm on ice does sound ultra cheesey, their songs are no where near the classics are, which makes me afraid theyll abandon the classics and go for a lame "now" and up to date approach, with all these new sequels...

[2099net]

Well, Julian (and others) we've long had the "originality" vs. "brand" argument on Ultimate Disney. And the fact is originality doesn't gurantee popularity. For every original that's a success, there's 3 or 4 sequels which do just as well or better.

Plus, there's the huge expense of actually making a movie these days. It's a stupidly high figure if you want to include something "special" to actually make people want to go to the theater to see it rather than wait for the home video release or seeing it on TV.

I actually liked some of the "smaller" movies Disney has done recently... Herbie: Fully Loaded, Ice Princess, Sky High etc. But they just didn't have the glitz, glamour and names to make people go to the theater to see them. Smaller movies, in my opinion should be the way forward, not bigger and bigger pictures filled with overbloated effects and stars' salaries.

We live in an age were there is too much choice for our entertainment. More TV channels then ever before, Home video and rentals give us access to the whole history of film in an instant, video games, the internet... the list today is almost endless.

And sadly, when making their entertainment choices, people like to opt for something familiar. I know at times I get depressed when I see good films failing and poor films succeeding.

People keep going on about Walt's anti-sequel words, but it was totally different in those days. Walt didn't need to make a sequel to Snow White, because all the time Walt was alive, he could just reissue the same film to the theaters every 5-7 years. You can't do that today.

[darth_deetoo]

Well the only way you can re-release a film nowadays and be guaranteed of any kind of success is to do something like George Lucas did with the Star Wars Special Editions, or like Disney did with the IMAX releases of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. The only way you will get people going back to see films again, when they own them on DVD is to give them something new.

[Jules]

Well the only way you can re-release a film nowadays and be guaranteed of any kind of success is to do something like George Lucas did with the Star Wars Special Editions, or like Disney did with the IMAX releases of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King. The only way you will get people going back to see films again, when they own them on DVD is to give them something new.

Which, in Disney's case, were failures, no?

Here in Malta, not much people go to IMAX features. We used to have just one IMAX theatre here in my country. It shut down its doors some time ago due to its going bankrupt.

I always wanted to go watch a 3D film there, as I've never seen one in my life. Now to do that I have to go abroad. Strictly speaking, I did visit my country's IMAX theatre once, to watch The Lion King (about 4 years ago), but of course, that was not in 3D format, utilizing the glasses.

[Timon/Pumbaa fan]

And in animation, the only one left in the pipeline is Toy Story 3, another series that lends itsself well for sequels and a sequel people actually want. In fact, I am willing to predict Toy Story will be the biggest Box Office hit since Shrek 2, maybe even Titanic.

If they're gonna make sequels, that's the way to go. The DTV's (eventhough they shaped up in the end) was a fundamentally flawed concept to begin with. Rarely does a Disney animated classic lend itsself for a sequel because their whole cannon of fairy tales and storybook adaptations from Snow White to Tarzan was already a franchise to begin with. Each story following a similair patter with a clear beginning and end. There is never really much left to be said about the characters beyond their original film.

It's funny you say Toy Story needs another sequel, then go to a paragraph about how fairy-tales don't need sequels because I feel it's the other way around. Many Disney films are adaptions of franchises like "Bambi", "Alice in Wonderland" and "Tarzan". And several of them like "Peter Pan" and "Alice in Wonderland" feel like they have imcomplete endings. Even for films that don't feel to open for sequels like "Aladdin" or "The Lion King", you can still see had loads of potential for sequels. Toy Story 2 doesn't have anything at all. While it's completely understandable why Toy Story got a sequel, there's not much left after Toy Story 2. They didn't leave "cute jokes" that they could bring like they did in the original, and the main characters have fleshed-out backgrounds now that Woody was given a background. The only possible "original" idea given was Andy to give away his toys, but like it's been said for the princess films, "Fairy tales end with happily ever after. Putting a sequel after it makes the ending seem like a big fat lie." So why would it be any different for Toy Story? Once again, I feel that this is just a way to criticize Disney for no good reason.

And Toy Story 3 beating Titantic at the box office? Completely unlikely because if a film that told us how Anakin Skywalker became Darth Vader couldn't beat Titantic, there's no way Toy Story 3 can. Besides, installments of old franchises don't always do well. Rocky Balboa ring a bell?

Now back on topic, I really don't see how this is "news". I mean, Disney is making franchises out Pirates, National Treasure and Narnia? Well, pretty much everyone should know by now they're going to get promoted more and more and they'll get more spin-offs. Aside from maybe Prince of Persia or Enchanted, I don't see any news from the article.

How do I feel about it? Well, to do it the DK fashion(:P):

Pirates of the Caribbean: Obviously, Pirates is so far terrific as a franchise. While it's perhapes best to leave the films at just an "official trilogy", I'm sure there are many Pirate legends/sea epic stories they can tell from Blackbeard's Ghost to Atlantis. Those ideas can make great t.v. shows, video games, even books! No Star Wars fans complain whenever a new Star Wars book is released. As far as a whole other trilogy of movies, well I wouldn't mind it as long as they wait a while. After all, the Star Wars prequels... oh wait. Well seriously, the Star Wars prequels still did great financially, and whether you love em or hate em, I think everyone's learned to live with them. No Star Wars fan isn't a fan anymore because of the prequels. If that's the case, then they were a true fan to begin with. Anyway, the point is I'm still up for tons more Pirates.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Do all seven books and make this the big Disney franchise. Not much left to be said. Aside from creating more theme park attractions, can't see much they can do. I am a bit shocked though that Disney hasn't promoted Narnia much, at least not much when compared to Pirates or HSM.

Prince of Persia: Well, hard to say, as I don't anything about it at this point in time, however, if it's like Narnia, than read above.

Enchanted: C'mon guys, let's actually see this before deciding if it needs a franchise. That said, I'll agree I don't care for the idea of it being a franchise, but, to be honest, that's because the film doesn't interest me in the slightest. I mean, it doesn't sound like it has the "Disney magic" in the way Mary Poppins or Roger Rabbit have it. I personally think it sound like a combination of "Fat Albert" and "The Princess Diaries". In other words: a chick-flick with a twist. Sad truth is: if this were anyone else but Disney, nobody would care in the slightest.

High School Musical: No comment, as I haven't seen the original and have basically avoided all hype out there. So far, it has worked! I wish people held on to my attitude towards DTVs instead of constantly dissing them.

National Treasure: Well, I was reluctant of the idea of sequels at first, but have warmly accepted the idea and want several of them! After all, it is pretty much a combination of Indiana Jones and The Da Vince Code. Both of which have several se/prequels so why can't National Treasure have it? It's a great film and has many possibilities.

There's nothing wrong with making any of these franchises from what I see. As far as worrying about lack of originality, I don't see why we should worry about this more than in say 2003. Sequels have long overshadowed "original" films, but every once in a while, an original film will come out of nowhere and be successful. People keep forgetting that's the story with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.

[slave2moonlight]

As I've said a million times, I believe any film/story has the potential for a great sequel. It's all in the writing and execution.

Personally, if I liked the original, I'm happy to give a sequel a shot, though, of course, I'm disappointed when the sequels aren't good. They don't have to outdo the original, and that's a misconception I think A LOT of folks in the biz (even Walt Disney himself) have. They don't have to top the first, they just need to be "just as good" (and not too much of a rehash). Anyways, all the franchises don't bother me, especially if it's something I like, but what I don't like is when the not so used subject matter dwindles and disappears due to excessive franchise pushing, like we seen in the parks and at Disney Stores. I remember when there was a lot more variety of Disney in both the Disney Stores and the theme parks. As a collector, I remember they had some really obscure Disney stuff out there for a while, early in the Disney Renaissance period (and probably before, but it was already the Renaissance period when we started making our Disney World visits). Now, it's hard to find stuff that isn't part of a popular franchise.