Disney looking to buy more characters

[Disneyphile]

Disney has made a couple huge acquisitions in the past few years under CEO Robert Iger's watch, headlined by the gigantic $8 billion deal for Pixar in 2006 and the $4 billion purchase of Marvel Entertainment in 2009.

But Iger isn't done yet. He announced on a conference call Tuesday that although he feels Disney's character lineup is unparalleled, he's still looking to "buy either new characters or businesses that are capable of creating great characters and great stories."

http://www.businessinsider.com/disneys- ... z1UekVHZmR

[Maerj]

Well it has to be DVDizzy.com/ UltimatedDisney.com because we got more than a few characters here! Har har! What can I tell ya?

[Super Aurora]

Evidence that Disney wants to take over and rule the world.


And probably want to buy characters so he can ruin them. Kinda like 4Kids.

[WarriorDreamer]

Evidence that Disney wants to take over and rule the world.


And probably want to buy characters so he can ruin them. Kinda like 4Kids.

Huh? From what I've seen so far, Disney doesn't mess with other studios they buy or their creative direction. Everyone was worried when Disney bought Marvel that they were gonna completely change all the characters to get a 'kid friendly' atmosphere.

But they promised they wouldn't touch it. It pretty much just means they're under their wing financially is all it is really.

Honestly I think they need should try and target the teenage male, young adult male audience the most. I think the comic book characters are a great way of connecting to their current market audience, teenage males.

[Wonderlicious]

Disney buys Dreamworks Animation

The Walt Disney Company has purchased Dreamworks Animation for $2 billion. Plans have been announced to break and sell off the acquired enterprise's animation division. Disney will still keep full ownership over the Dreamworks canon, with the intention to permanently withdraw them from the viewing public by placing them all in the infamous Disney Vault.

[/b]

[Dr Frankenollie]

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[milojthatch]

Evidence that Disney wants to take over and rule the world.


And probably want to buy characters so he can ruin them. Kinda like 4Kids.

Huh? From what I've seen so far, Disney doesn't mess with other studios they buy or their creative direction. Everyone was worried when Disney bought Marvel that they were gonna completely change all the characters to get a 'kid friendly' atmosphere.

But they promised they wouldn't touch it. It pretty much just means they're under their wing financially is all it is really.

Honestly I think they need should try and target the teenage male, young adult male audience the most. I think the comic book characters are a great way of connecting to their current market audience, teenage males.

Well, actually so far as Marvel goes, it's still early, lets see how it goes five, ten years from now. When I think of this, my thoughts turn to poor Jumbo Pictures. Jim Jinkins formed the company back in the late 80s to make "Doug" cartoons, and then sold those rights to Disney. The company died off with the rights to the various cartoons going to Disney and poor Jim lost any control of his own creation. He now has a new company called "Cartoon Pizza."

[Disney's Divinity]

I think Iger might try to buy the rights of a number of big literary characters, perhaps something recent to rival Warner Bros' Harry Potter series even though HP has finished.

They did have the rights to Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain, but they never did anything with them (other than the animated film amalgamation). It's a shame--I think a live-action series of it would be really good, even a made-for-TV one.

[Semaj]

Disney should stop trying to swallow up outside properties. Wasn't that part of the problem of Eisner's reign, and why they eventually had to sell the Mighty Ducks and Angels? The company became too big to manage.

If anything, they should be losing dead weight and spend less by creating their own characters. And use their own characters more wisely, like getting rid of the "shiny plastic" motif in their merchandising, and not polarizing their audience so much.

[Mason_Ireton]

Well I read some article few months ago bout Walt tryin to purchase the rights to Alvin/Chipmunks.

Disney was in my opinon the forerunner of bringing new characters to the screen from the stories they chose to produce. there's a vast barrel of stories to be told, like Dr. Jekyle/Mr.Hyde and some of these classic stories have rich characters that could provide new entertainment for audiences.

[merlinjones]

Disney should really buy MGM's classic film version of "The Wizard of Oz" from Warner Bros/Turner. Totally sympatico with all the Disney classics.

[John Pannozzi]

Disney should stop trying to swallow up outside properties. Wasn't that part of the problem of Eisner's reign, and why they eventually had to sell the Mighty Ducks and Angels? The company became too big to manage.

If anything, they should be losing dead weight and spend less by creating their own characters. And use their own characters more wisely, like getting rid of the "shiny plastic" motif in their merchandising, and not polarizing their audience so much.

I agree 100%.

I really hope Business Insider's guess about Disney trying to buy Dark Horse Comics is wrong. Disney already has a comic book company in Marvel, they don't need Dark Horse. Dark Horse is best left as an independent company (same with Image Comics, Oni Press, and Fantagraphics Books). And besides, Dark Horse doesn't own most of its most popular characters, as their current bread and butter is a mix of creator-owned characters (Sin City, Hellboy, Usagi Yojimbo, the Goon and Groo) and licensed properties (Star Wars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Conan, Aliens and Predator). Pretty much the only Dark Horse-owned characters with any mainstream appeal are the Mask, Barb Wire and Ghost, all of which more or less ran their course years ago.

If ran Disney and someone forced me to purchase another company, I'd say Capcom and/or Lucasfilm, given their strong ties to Disney and Marvel (and the optimist in me would hope that Disney's influence would help revive the Mega Man video game franchise and get the original, non-special edition versions of Star Wars Episodes IV-VI remastered on DVD and Blu-ray), but I'd much rather Disney not buy any more companies.

[estefan]

Well I read some article few months ago bout Walt tryin to purchase the rights to Alvin/Chipmunks.

Wow, how history would have been different had he actually bought them. Still would not have stopped those rodents from being incredibly annoying, though.

[Super Aurora]

Disney should stop trying to swallow up outside properties. Wasn't that part of the problem of Eisner's reign, and why they eventually had to sell the Mighty Ducks and Angels? The company became too big to manage.

If anything, they should be losing dead weight and spend less by creating their own characters. And use their own characters more wisely, like getting rid of the "shiny plastic" motif in their merchandising, and not polarizing their audience so much.

I agree 100%.

I really hope Business Insider's guess about Disney trying to buy Dark Horse Comics is wrong. Disney already has a comic book company in Marvel, they don't need Dark Horse. Dark Horse is best left as an independent company (same with Image Comics, Oni Press, and Fantagraphics Books). And besides, Dark Horse doesn't own most of its most popular characters, as their current bread and butter is a mix of creator-owned characters (Sin City, Hellboy, Usagi Yojimbo, the Goon and Groo) and licensed properties (Star Wars, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Conan, Aliens and Predator). Pretty much the only Dark Horse-owned characters with any mainstream appeal are the Mask, Barb Wire and Ghost, all of which more or less ran their course years ago.

If ran Disney and someone forced me to purchase another company, I'd say Capcom and/or Lucasfilm, given their strong ties to Disney and Marvel (and the optimist in me would hope that Disney's influence would help revive the Mega Man video game franchise and get the original, non-special edition versions of Star Wars Episodes IV-VI remastered on DVD and Blu-ray), but I'd much rather Disney not buy any more companies.

God I hope they don't purchase Dark Horse or Capcom(which is very unlikely since it's a Japanese company).

[SpringHeelJack]

I think Iger might try to buy the rights of a number of big literary characters, perhaps something recent to rival Warner Bros' Harry Potter series even though HP has finished.

They did have the rights to Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain, but they never did anything with them (other than the animated film amalgamation). It's a shame--I think a live-action series of it would be really good, even a made-for-TV one.

Worrrrd.

[Prince Edward]

Disney should stop trying to swallow up outside properties. Wasn't that part of the problem of Eisner's reign, and why they eventually had to sell the Mighty Ducks and Angels? The company became too big to manage.

If anything, they should be losing dead weight and spend less by creating their own characters. And use their own characters more wisely, like getting rid of the "shiny plastic" motif in their merchandising, and not polarizing their audience so much.

So true! "like getting rid of the "shiny plastic" motif in their merchandising" - I love it! "and not polarizing their audience so much" - if only someone at Disney would have read this...