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Thoughts On Disney and Lucasfilm's recent choices for Star Wars

Discussion in 'General Movie Discussion' started by BeardTalks, Apr 8, 2015.

  1. BeardTalks

    BeardTalks Clone

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    So, I've just been thinking about this lately. It just seems to me like Disney and Lucasfilm are making some hasty decisions with all the Star Wars products coming out. I wrote a whole thing on it, and it's kinda long. I'm pretty torn about it all. I love Star Wars and will gobble everything up, but it just seems like us hardcore fans may be losing something along the way. Below is the whole thing written out. Like I say, it's a bit lengthy. Thanks!

    With all the talk about Disney rebooting this and live-action-ing that, it makes me fearful for the future of Star Wars in the hands of the Mouse.

    Disney's announcement of a live-action Winnie the Pooh movie incited upheaval across the blogging, vlogging, YouTube-ing, Tweeting, Tumbling, Vine-ing, Social Media eccentric Internet folk- like me. Of course, this is in addition to the Sleeping Beauty/Maleficent, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and The Jungle Book reiterations either already released or currently being manufactured by the money-grubbing Brothel of Mouse.

    My fear does not stem from my belief that Disney will make bad Star Wars movies. Their methodical handling of Pixar and the Marvel universe shows me that Disney takes care of it's properties. My fear lies in the intentions and motivations of Disney.

    When Disney purchased a little thing called Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, they invested their money in Star Wars. It makes sense that they want to build a strategy or a financial plan to get out of the red. It looked like that was the case when the announcement hit. In addition to purchasing, Disney also announced the plans for future movies. That's a logical move forward. What is the first thing when you think of Star Wars? The films.

    Then something happened. A light-bulb turned on upstairs, and Disney realized what a cash cow Star Wars actually is. They devised a new financial plan: whoring out Star Wars.

    The current plan is to release everything they think we want. And, the problem is that we really do want it! We really will flip top dollar for all things Star Wars, and there's certainly enough to go around: the new main trilogy, the spin-off films, the tv shows, video games, the books for adults, the books for young adults, the books for kids, the comics, and the toys. Oh the toys.
    What happened to the organic nature of letting the story take you on an adventure? Part of what made the original Star Wars trilogy great was the uncertainty of it all. When Star Wars first came out, who knew that there would be any sequels, let alone how many and who is directing them. George Lucas didn't even know if he could get anything else made after Star Wars. Now, we know he did, and the the trilogy format is standard. So, it's not so much that they are making another trilogy. My reservations lie among the spin-off films and the frequency at which they are planned to be released. Now Disney will be handing them (trilogy and spin-off films) out left and right. The spin-off's will be a manufactured adventure dressed in a little black dress and some practical make-up, but they don't want to take us away; they just want to take away our money.

    Disney will scour the street corners of any and all mediums. With three novels out now, Disney plans for twenty more (ranging from adult novels to sticker books) to come out before releasing Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens. Four comics series' are currently out. Varied in tone and purpose, there's the thrilling adventures of the Star Wars comic, the character driven Leia and Darth Vader comics, and the kid-friendly, Star Wars Rebels spin-off Kanan. The comics are all actually pretty good- no- really good. But, it's just so fast. Take some time to nurse that heifer Disney.

    Disney should just focus on world building before the Prequels or after Return of the Jedi. Why are we focusing on retroactively shoving continuity into such a confined space? Do we need to know what happened every minute and every second between Phantom Menace and Return of the Jedi? No. Let the audience actually fill in the gap with imagination. We're killing creativity by rehashing the same properties over and over and by not letting the audience be part of the experience.

    The problem with Disney's manipulation of the Star Wars canon is that it gives the audience a task. We play historians combing through each piece of history trying to connect the dots. It's like a big puzzle where Star Wars fans can finally put all the pieces together for it to make sense in one cohesive narrative. The catch is that Disney will only release one piece of the puzzle at a time. I'm afraid it's going to get so convoluted, and Disney will start back peddling and reinstating the different levels of canon as it was under Lucas.

    No longer are the days where kids create their own Star Wars scenes on the playground. Now we have to call it "reenactments of Star Wars history." Now we have to kick sand in their face (and that stuff gets everywhere) and call them names when they get the history wrong. "Cad Bane escaped the Jediafter kidnapping the younglings, not before. You bantha poodoo!"

    We can't escape it. What's even more tragic is that we won't want to escape it. We look forward to and will lovingly embrace the idea of more Star Wars filling our senses with pleasure. But, will we feel the same way in five, ten, or even fifteen years down the road? Will we be able to feel anything at all? After putting our guard down and taking in all this new information, we will be desensitized. We will expect to and await another Star Wars piece just so we can see where it fits, not enjoying that piece for what it is by itself. We will have lost our innocence. That same innocence that the Original Trilogy once stood for and encapsulated in our memories. Star Wars fans would become addicted returning to the same place where we once felt some semblance of imagination and originality. Disney would oblige in the only way they'd see fit: show it all to us again in a new retelling, a new re-imagining. We'd have gone full circle. We would gladly see a remake of the Original Trilogy to fill the nostalgic void. Sure, they'll be enjoyable, but at what cost?

    So, what's the alternative? Honestly, it doesn't even matter at this point. This is the world we live in. We will get a new Star Wars movie each year for years. We will continue to get bombarded with ancillary products whether it be books, comics, games, toys, etc. We will gobble them up because we can and because we are fans. It's already been ten years since the last Star Wars film came out. As fans, we've waited and speculated about the return. But, this time it's not going to stop. Disney's hasty exploitation of their new baby Star Wars makes me wonder if their just in it for the money. Let's throw everything against the wall and see what sticks. As they wipe up the mess, they'll look back and realize that they are all out of ideas. We've already seen Disney go back to reinvent 65 year old Cinderella and 38 year old Winnie the Pooh, which came out in 1977 too.

    Amid the swirling cynical subject matter, I am looking forward to Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens with hope and excitement: hope that my personal and financial investment in Disney's Star Wars will be returned with consistent dividends of depth and grandeur, and excitement to return to that Galaxy far far away.
     
    #1 BeardTalks, Apr 8, 2015
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2015
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  2. Ralok-one

    Ralok-one Rebel Official

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    waaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh my fan fiction is being invalited T_T wah wah wah

    they arent doing anything that lucasfilm hasnt done a million times before, stow the trash talk.

    Also of course disney is just in it for the money.... but the people they hire wont be. Disney is a faceless corporate monster, but not a stupid one...
     
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  3. Suicide Samurai

    Suicide Samurai Rebel General

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    I can understand the fear, but I highly disagree. I wrote up my own opinion of this, I think under a post called the Disney direction, if u are interested. To me, they appear to be moving in a calculated direction. The post is almost as long as yours, so I'll just leave that there.

    20 books and 4-5 comic series sounds like lot of product, but I do not feel that it is that much different from the PT era, or the last few years of the LucasArts era.

    I remember, in fact, a large amount of children's books in the 80's growing up. Not 20 books worth...that was more the 90's thing, with the Thrawn trilogy and Dark Horse comics launching a juggernaut of EU material that to me fans ate up to share their desire for content.

    And all the countless video games.

    Disney might of course screw up, but I for one don't think it's too much content--I think that the fans/market has demanded this content, and if not, it will drop off.

    I just hope they keep up quality with their quantity.
     
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  4. Trevor

    Trevor Rebellion Arms Supplier
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    Take your own advise, please.


    You've got a valid concern, and it's understood. There are (probably) millions of others with the same questions, and I've personally have some of those same concerns, but look;
    Yes, the Mouse is probably going to milk this acquisition for every cent that it's worth considering that they just spent over $4 Billion on it...they're gonna get their money back and make a profit, and every SW fan like you and I will see that it happens....guaranteed.

    The SW universe is the most loved and most profitable movie franchise on the planet, and when ROTJ's credits rolled it was seemingly the end, but then the EU EXPLODED....it was an event that proved that the fanbase wasn't just going to "go gently into that good night", and in fact they've been kicking and screaming ever since....and Disney watched it happen.

    Disney has cast a handful of newcomer's and relatively unknowns in TFA and THAT initially concerned me, but I've got to be somewhat comforted by the fact that the OT did the same thing...and here we are today, almost 40 years later STILL discussing SW. Now yes, the PT did the same thing, and we got a lot of stiff acting , clunky and uncomfortable dialog, and some incredulous special effects (see, flying R2-D2), but the fans spoke (actually screamed) about the over-use of CGI and the silly things seen on screen, and I honestly believe that they're going to rectify that in the upcoming continuation films.

    As far as the EU goes..it is what it is, at the risk of sounding cliche'. There was actually some of it that contradicted other aspects of it, but it is an OCEAN of spare parts to choose from for the continued canon material....we'll be just fine, you watch! :) Keep in mind, I was never a diehard fan of the EU, but HAVE read about a dozen EU novels since the PT came to a close. I saw the OT in theaters, so that was my basic database for SW events so I occasionally turned to the EU for my SW fix, but at times, the EU seemed to me to be too far-fetched from what i'd known the SW world to be, perhaps because I was narrow minded about it, but I did come to love the Mara Jade and Thrawn stories, in that order. I've likely over-stated on this forum my interest in seeing Mara become canon, but I'm not holding my breath. I think we WILL see new characters introduced in the upcoming movies that will potentially be eerily familiar to others from the EU, but I think the Mouse will perhaps be good enough to MODEL new characters from the EU but yet keep from transplanting them into the new canon so it doesn't cause a TOTAL tear in the space-time continuum...we'll be fine. :)

    Also keep in mind, that I recently interview three SW content creators that have all had to answer the Legends vs Canon question usually stated as:"So, which of it happened and which didn't??", and the best answer that I felt came out (from them) was this: "Keep in mind that it ALL happened...and at the same time, NONE of it happened!" Kind of a "Schrodingers Cat" scenario! :)
     
    #4 Trevor, Apr 12, 2015
    Last edited: Apr 12, 2015
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  5. Darth Jason 141

    Darth Jason 141 Rebel Commander

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    I look at it like I look at the new Star Trek Timeline. The old timeline happened,just like the new timeline is happening. As an old school Star Wars fan, I still love the old films as the original by themselves,but I can enjoy the prequels and the sequels with the Original Trilogy as the "New" timeline/Alternate Universe.Just like I watch the Transformers live action films and enjoy them,while still beholding the G1 cartoon as the original and the new films an "Alternate" universe.

    At first,I was also worried that it all would get overwhelming and something that we all loved would be misused and watered down for the almighty dollar,and a legendary film series would be tarnished. I don't feel that way now.Remember,this is entertainment,and we can choose what we will or will not see,read,hear or play. I have chosen what my Star Wars canon is and it blends EU,prequels and OT(Including the holiday special) I ENJOY my entertainment. I've got enough problems,but Star Wars overmarketing isn't one of them. :)
     
    #5 Darth Jason 141, Apr 14, 2015
    Last edited: Apr 14, 2015
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