Essentially, I had the “is Disney buying Lucasfilm bad?” conversation with my father and I realized three very important things.
1.) I know way more about the entertainment industry than he does. Not to be a boastful prick about it, but my father is over 50 years old and doesn’t understand that Disney is not the Roy Wally parody from National Lampoon’s Vacation. He truly believes that Star Wars will be transformed into some terrible “Hanna Montana in space” bastardization. My arguments as to why this is asinine: Disney doesn’t need to change Star Wars into the Disney Channel. They’ve got the fucking Disney Channel already. They want Star Wars fans to pay them, too. Also, Lucas already took Star Wars and made it a vapid teen romance story for a third of each prequel movie. Disney has seen what happens when that is attempted.
2.) My dad has no idea that Star Wars, just like Marvel before it, is a multimedia outlet. They don’t just make movies; they make comics, novels, video games, cartoon shows, action figures…and Disney knows how to do all of that. They are the best suited company on the planet to take the aged carcass of a franchise that is still selling merchandise for a movie from 2005 and keep it relevant.
3.) This repugnant sense of entitlement and ownership of Star Wars (despite having nothing to do with its creation) comes from people my dad’s age. You don’t hear any eight-year-olds pissing and moaning about their childhood being “raped” by George Lucas. You see that from impotent ingrates who are still talking about seeing the original trilogy in the theater like it was some kind of street-cred in the geek world. Even when they are as young as I still am, they reek of a generational poison. As if they went to see Episode I as a small child and were told by their parents that Lucas, the cinematic Santa Claus, simultaneously gave them a lump of coal AND isn’t real.
Anyway, the Lucasfilm buy was a smart move for Disney, a classy exit from Lucas, and a promising development for fans. And I am so smart. S-M-R-T…I mean S-M-A-R-T!
-Kyle
I remember the outrage when Marvel was first bought up. I’m pretty indifferent about the situation as a whole, but I’m not sure I feel so great about another Star Wars movie being announced.
I mean, I suppose it would have inevitably happened even if LucasArts wasn’t bought up, but is it really that hard to let a property retire? I feel like it’s the reason we have such a lack of original content nowadays.