Monday, August 31, 2009

DISNEY BUYS MARVEL


Arrived home from work today to learn that Disney is buying Marvel Entertainment (Spider-Man, Hulk, Iron Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four and more then 5000 other characters).
My head exploded.
Initial thoughts after reading what others are saying on the internet:The last couple of days with no D23 news I was wondering if the Expo would hold any surprises that hadn't allready "leaked" out like the Star Tours 2 announcement. I really want the Expo to blow my mind and since I have no interest in ABC or ESPN and we seem to know what's coming from theme parks and the studios, I have been wondering if they would be able to. Because of that, I really wish this had been announced at the Expo. It would have driven us all crazy.

Most of the naysayers seem to be scared that Disney will incorporate the marvel characters into the theme parks but I don't believe that will happen. They may eventually build a new gate with the characters or maybe do something with them in the Studios parks but I wouldn't expect them to invade the magic kingdoms.

What most Disney fans dont seem to know is that Disney and Marvel have had a relationship for quite a long time. Buena Vista has distrributed the Marvel cartoon collections for a long time and the cartoons have been on Toon Disney I believe since that channel started. Now that Toon Disney has been rebranded as Disney XD the marvel cartoons and movies are a perfect fit and have been part of the programming since before the rebranding. I noticed a collection of Xmen cartoons on sale at DisneyStore.com a few weeks ago.

Explains why the toy store at Downtown Disney has been handling Marvel toys and action figures for over a year.

Rumor is Pixar and Marvel can't wait to start working together.

Stan Lee started working with Disney awhile back. Hmmmm.

Lots of people wondering what this means for Islands of Adventure with their Marvel Super Hero Island. Probably nothing. Universal likely has that license for a very very long time and unless they decide to opt out or Disney spends A LOT to get the license back there probably won't be much of a change.

Here's a thought and if this happens you read it here first:
Disney tried getting the Harry Potter rights but the rights went to Universal. Disney now owns Marvel. Steven Spielberg has recently started working with Disney and has the right to require Universal to pay him a huge sum of money next year that could potentially put Universal in a very bad financial fix. They allready pay him 20 million a year for his consulting fee and the right to use properties he owns. His contract is up next year and needs to be renegotiated or he can demand a lump sum which is his right as part of the contract. It may not be likely but it is possible that Disney's next park will be.... Universal.

My head is still exploding!

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