Disney Buys Marvel For $4B 423
whisper_jeff writes "Disney has announced they will be purchasing Marvel. 'Building on its strategy of delivering quality branded content to people around the world, The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Marvel Entertainment, Inc. in a stock and cash transaction, the companies announced today.'"
Re:great! (Score:5, Informative)
-- WSJ coverage of investor call (ongoing) [wsj.com] emphasis mine
Re:It could be worse... (Score:4, Informative)
They could have bought DC Comics.
Warner Bros. already bought DC, but that wasn't necessarily "all, folks" for fans.
Re:Bye bye marvel... (Score:5, Informative)
Disney didn't mess with Pixar too much, when they acquired them.
Conditions were laid out as part of the deal [wikipedia.org] to ensure that Pixar remained a separate entity.
Re:Batman and Porky Pig (Score:5, Informative)
Gargoyles was produced by Buena Vista Television. A division of Disney.
Re:GREAT! (Score:5, Informative)
Disney also owns Touchstone, Miramax, Hollywood Pictures, ABC and ESPN. The original reason Disney bought Touchstone was to release non-G rated movies separate from the Disney label.
Touchstone, Hollywood and Miramax all release R-rated movies including the likes of Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction, No Country for Old Men, Reservoir Dogs, The Crow and Con-Air.
Re:GREAT! (Score:3, Informative)
You do know Disney owns a PLETHORA [wikipedia.org] of media companies. Many of which do some pretty gruesome stuff. [www.lmn.tv]
Re:Someone correct me if I'm wrong.... (Score:3, Informative)
Anyway, I believe any current deals will stay, but then when they expire it's assumed that they won't Marvel/Disney won't renew them.
Re:Bye bye marvel... (Score:1, Informative)
They left Pixar in charge of production, and immediately John Lasseter changed how they do things. He changed to doing fewer, high quality movies, which means no more direct to video. They essentially made Pixar into Disney's animation division.
Re:GREAT! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Bye bye marvel... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:GREAT! (Score:5, Informative)
he original reason Disney bought Touchstone was to release non-G rated movies separate from the Disney label.
I'm pretty sure that Disney itself founded Touchstone.
Re:Fox and New Corp (Score:5, Informative)
I hate Fox and Rupurt Murdoch, but they were the ones to push the envelope with media. It's too bad Fox didn't have the foresight to buy properties like Marvel so that the seriously adult themes in comics can be fully developed.
Disney bought Miramax in 1993. That's the studio that has released just about every Quentin Taratino film as well as titles like Priest and the Crying Game. I'm not saying Miramax is perfect, far from it, but even under Disney they've released many movies with adult themes.
Re:A plethora... (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, I think he used the word correctly, even giving link to it.
On the other hand ... Beware the Imposter! You can clearly see, he can't even spell his nick right.
Re:Bye bye marvel... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Batman and Porky Pig (Score:3, Informative)
Thank you all for not making a slashfic joke
Re:Maybe Marvel will change Disney (Score:2, Informative)
You missed a huge one: Bambi's mom! They gunned her down in the first half hour of that movie.
And then his dad just randomly shows up later in the movie, for one conversation. Bambi pretty much raised himself, in the mean meadows of his world.
Re:Bye bye marvel... (Score:3, Informative)
Disney doesn't destroy (or even Disni-fy) everything they touch. Some of it, maybe.. though I don't know if they necessarily made ABC any worse than it already was.
Keep in mind, they have a number of different studio names for film releases. Sure, if it's a kiddie film, it's put out under the Disney label. If it's a smart kiddie film, it's probably from Pixar, whom they seem to have left pretty much alone. They also own Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, older releases by Dimension Films, and Miramax (acquired in 1993).
And yeah, that Miramax.. the same company that put out both halfs of "Kill Bill", all of Kevin Smith's films, "Gangs of New York", "Hero", etc... not what most people think of Disney. Not to say that's perfect, but I think they do know from where their money comes. And as the largest entertainment company on the planet, it's going to be hard to live a Disney-free life and still watch TV and film. Or, now, read mainstream comics.
Re:Maybe Marvel will change Disney (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Bye bye marvel... (Score:5, Informative)
This is why I typically don't bother posting to Slashdot about this sort of thing... Why would you expect an example of their genre diversity (which is what I said that list was) would be exhaustive?
Since clearly you mistook that for an exhaustive list, here's the actual list of films from the Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group [wikipedia.org]:
Re:Animation? Who cares? (Score:3, Informative)
Who cares? Super hero animation is stuck on TV
no, it's mostly direct-to-DVD. Check out Netflix.