Lit What role does the Walt Disney Company actually play in the day-to-day running of Lucasfilm?

Cheeseburgers, how great they are, and their value to American history

 

I never watched Fantasia 2000. Fantasia (the original), to me, is probably the best Disney will ever be.

 

Dr. Steve Brule, no, I'm referring more to people trying to rationalize decisions based on the filmiest of arguments. The inherent presumption of the argument in this thread is based on the small part of the fan base who simply cannot move on with their lives due to the decanonization of Legends. Rather you prefer the old or the new I have no care. The rationalizations some people are making are jumping right into absurd. Really, people are arguing about how one set of tie-ins has superior artistic merit than the films that replaced it. Surely I'm not the only one in on the joke.

For a slight extrapolation of what I was meaning by the money bit, and more importantly since I am not half-asleep now, here is a little more on why I think the answers to the opening question is quite obvious.

Cinema is a business, and the cost of movie making has multiplied exponentially. This is outside Disney's control, this is something film students and critics can bemoan ad nauseam, but this is the reality on the ground. Additionally, outside of SW message boards, the popular belief is that the Prequels were terrible. Look at Natalie Portman having to find references from other directors to find jobs after Episode One. A lot of this comes down to many fans still worshiping Lucas as a God instead of someone who needed to pass on to another generation.

Also, there is a reason why final cut privilege is so rare. One person's single vision, when terrible, can wreck a studio. Look at Heaven's Gate. Look at how M. Night had to cut his budgets before finally returning to a measure of respectability with Split this January. Having someone who can grab someone from the abyss is not as terrible as people are making this out to be.

 

If that's the case, I think you'll be pleased with Fantasia 2000. The spirit of the original is definitely there - and I went into it EXPECTING that not to be the case.

I'm not sure if this is present on the Blu-Rays, but when I got the DVD Fantasia Legacy box set some years ago, they had storyboards for other, unproduced Fantasia segments semi-animated and set to the intended music, and put on the supplementary disc. I regard that as essentially a sort-of third film.

One of my fondest but most unrealistic dreams is for a Disney music video channel, called the Fantasia Channel, where all the videos are, like the films, animated adaptations of classical music - some produced by the studio in the tradition of previous segments, some produced by fans who submit entries deemed appropriate to include. There's a LOT of creativity that could unleash.

And since we're on the subject of Walt and the current Disney bunch, I'd like to remind folks that Disney didn't HAVE to go ahead and produce the long-unproduced Destino - you know, that short film where Walt collaborated with Salvador Dali (one of my true heroes)? - but they did. They put their best people on it. Those people put their hearts into it. The result is perhaps some of the most sublime work Disney has ever put out in any era, and most certainly what I would refer to as a work of quality art.



This, from the studio that some people say they have no faith in to produce quality art.

The reality is, Disney is packed to the gills with people who have been agonizing, every much as we have, about keeping the desire of Walt to produce quality art intact within the company; the ranks are rammed with them. They too are sensitive to the accusation that the company holds commercialism above art, and they push to keep the ship in the direction of art. When they do these kind of projects, they understand their responsibility, their duty, as artists to make proper art of them. You only have to watch them in interviews about these kinds of projects; their eyes are lit up because these are projects of passion - they just happen to be funded by commerce.

But let's be honest; all of this is claptrap. Daneira was most likely correct when he said at the very beginning that Disney's oversight of LFL's affairs is minor, if in fact there is any at all, and that such interactions likely are concentrated in the direct relationship between Kennedy and Iger - one which, from all accounts I've heard, is pleasant, open, and cordial. The notion that Disney can't create quality art is horsesheev on the face of it, and I present as evidence the entire collective body of work the company has produced over nearly a century, greater and lesser, both during Walt's time and since. In my own opinion, the two films that LFL has produced under Disney thus far have been good and quality films that I enjoyed watching.

The original point of Daneira creating this thread, I'm quite certain, was to make the point that the issue really ISN'T an issue, and to appeal to our rationality. If that's the case, then I submit the accusation that Disney CAN'T make quality art, or can't be trusted to, is IRRATIONAL It's also quite simply ridiculous.

Don't take my word for it; ask John Wayne...

 

This two hour Age of Ultron Analysis disagrees with you

 

I think you should think about the things you are arguing and whether or not they actually make sense with each other. It cannot simultanesously be OK for people to bemoan the prequels and want things to be like they used to be while also be COMPLETELY WRONG for EU fans to bemoan the Disney era and want things to be like they used to be.

This is the fundamental problem I have with the way a lot of discussion of this topic goes on this forum. There's this inherent idea that it is totally wrong for EU and Lucas fans to miss the old days because they need to "get on with their lives" or some other rubbish. Guys. We are all conversing on a forum about Star Wars, in the LITERATURE section. We are a minority of the minority on this topic. Don't go around telling anyone to "get on with their lives" we're all Star Wars fans, Star Wars fans have ALWAYS complained about different iterations of the franchise. EU fans no more need to stop talking about the EU then OG fans need to stop asking for the unaltered OT on Blu-Rey.

 

It becomes a problem when it fuels a perception of Disney that is inaccurate and untrue.

 

The most obvious answer seems to be that in the initial years Disney has guided Lucasfilm whilst the company is fitted to be a fully independent production company eventually allowing the company to essentially be self-sufficient. Naturally there are parameters that the Disney executives put on Lucasfilm, but they aren't telling them what story beats need to be had, what characters need to be focused on, etc.

I'm not particularly sure why people think Disney doesn't put out quality artistic products... you must be the most cynical people ever.

I really don't think the shift away from the Prequels has much to do with any perceived negative perception of them (this is greatly exaggerated, and all the evidence suggests there is ambivalence from the wider world as to their quality). The shift is primarily to do wit the ST being, well, set after the OT, as well the known fan hatred of them (which is why the fan-based marketing was 'real sets', blah, blah). The Natalie Portman anecdote has no bearing on the quality of the films themselves - why would anyone want a reference from George Lucas who is well known for being a non-actor-centric director, from a film series where Natalie's acting chops were not exactly allowed to breathe? These films aren't exact known for being jumping off points for careers, good or not.

 

Not that I disbelieve you, but do you have a source for that? I'd like to read it.

 

my main issue with Disney owning the franchise (other than the stupid reboot) is that nobody at Disney has the ability to get as dark as Star Wars needs to be able to be in order to be Star Wars. "And they all lived happily ever after" is Disney's bread and butter and they are REALLY good at that... but that's not star wars.

 

They approved of and encouraged the death of every major character in Rogue One when LFL was sure they wouldn't. How much darker do you WANT it?

 

Yuuzhan Vong invasion quality

 

The Yuuzhan Vong are so NOT what Star Wars is to me that I'm not even sure how to take that...

I regarded damn near every decision made during the NJO to be so mistaken, so I'll informed, so out of character for the franchise, that I cannot regard that as a yardstick against which Disney's efforts should be measured. Disney can't help but look better in the comparison.

 

and that's why they shouldn't own star wars. they aren't willing to go as far as star wars usually goes

 

Star Wars DOESN'T usually go that far; the NJO is an unwanted anomaly.

Seriously, where are we getting this misconception that Star Wars is grimdark? It gets as dark as it NEEDS to; it doesn't do so just to INDULGE in it.

 

Again. Disney-owned Mirimax gave us Pulp Fiction, No Country for Old Men and Kill Bill. Disney companies can go dark.

 

Since they aren't released under the Disney banner therefore the whole 'the Disney brand doesn't go dark' (whatever that means) is fairly unimportant. They have a vested interest in keeping the franchise exactly as it has aways been.

 

I think this poem represents how to handle tone in Star Wars

 

I'm sorry if I came across as a negative nelly Jello I'm just not inclined to invest my faith in a corporation with a known penchant for seeking to dominate the culture as Sauron sought to dominate middle earth.

Yeah the prequel aesthetic influenced post NJO stuff yet was never tied into it that effectively? How did the Muuns handle the Vong war? Did the Neimodians ever recover? Can Geonosians be Jedi? How is Naboo perceived Galaxy wide with Palpatine coming from there?

 

Speak for yourself.

 

Star Wars usually goes? This is the Star Wars that ended with a teddy bear parade? That Star Wars?

 

SW meets 40K.

Imperial Guardsman - Monday I fought jolly green giant bloodthirsty apes with cockney accents, Tuesday razed a planet of heretics, Wednesday we fought literal demons from hell who either eat your soul or make it their plaything for millennia, Thursday we fought giant Xenomorphs coming from everywhere including your stomach, Friday we ran from Elves in BDSM gear ready to take us to their city to do God Emperor knows what, Saturday half the regiment was executed for cowardice, Sunday we fought all of them at the same time. What have you done lately?

Clone trooper: I, uh, punched a B1 battle droid.

 

It's also the star wars that blew up an inhabited planet.