Thursday, November 1, 2012

By teaming with the mouse, has Star Wars officially joined the dark side?

By teaming with the mouse, has Star Wars officially joined the dark side?:



Lucasfilm / Aurich Lawson
    1. Lee: Just to warn you—I am an angry Internet nerd with a lot of feelings. Now to start, Disney has a history of commercialization.
    2. Kyle: So does Star Wars.
    3. Lee: Lucas has demonstrated his willingness to slap a Star Wars sticker on EVERYTHING and publish action figures of ANYTHING. You know those dudes guarding Luke in Episode Three at the Pit of Carkoon? On Jabba's hover barge? There were action figures of them. Lucas leaves no stone unturned. And—understatement of the century—I think this is sometimes detrimental. But Disney is often more selective.
    4. Kyle: So let me get this straight. Disney is going to "kill" Star Wars... by milking it less?
    5. Lee: No, but I think we can probably all agree on a larger point: I don't think it's possible Disney will make Star Wars any worse. It's like the tweet said: "Worrying that Disney will ruin Star Wars is like worrying a second iceberg will dive down to hit the Titanic."
    6. Kyle: I'd even say the second iceberg might somehow prop up the Star Wars ship.
Lucas released this roundtable interview talking about today's acquisition. They like the move.
    1. Lee: Eh, Disney's acquisition of Star Wars can't make it any worse, but I bet they won't make it any better, either. The screaming masses of Internet geeks are pretty clear in what they want out of Star Wars. At their most moderate, they want a grown-up universe, filled with grown-up people acting in grown-up ways. The Nerd Fantasy has always been for an R-rated Star Wars. Adult themes and adult drama in a sci-fi setting.
    2. Kyle: Thinking about it, maybe going adult and dark wouldn't entirely put off families. I'm betting a lot of 10-year-olds love Nolan's Dark Knight. And that is not really targeted at kids. If the characters are cool and the fights are awesome, kids will aspire to grown up stories. But this kind of generational battle has always been the key sticking point for Star Wars.
    3. Jonathan: Sure, 30-something fans like me aren't the target market now, just like they weren't for the prequels.
    4. Lee: BUT 30-something fans (like me too!) want to be the target market. Many are pissed that they're not.
    5. Jonathan: Well, be careful what you wish for. Consider Prometheus. It's a film that seemed aimed at the fanboys, and look how it turned out.
    6. Lee: Good point. As a connoisseur of the Alien universe, I had huge problems with the movie.
    7. Jonathan: At some point, maybe we need to accept that books or stories finish, and it's time to spend that creative energy on something new. Perhaps it would be better if Episodes 7-9 remained unwritten?
    8. Kyle: Yes, adult fanboys weren't the target for the first Star Wars movies, but parents could tolerate them. Getting back to audience, I think we overestimate how important hardcore fans are to this. They're so hardcore and they are still hardcore after the prequels. They'll obviously be in for whatever Disney does. If Disney can manage to ignore them and try to make it just a good family movie, the mainstream will come back as much as it ever did.

memegenerator
    1. Jonathan: Ultimately, the older fans are not important; it's the kids who they want. That's definitely who Lucas was targeting—whoever spends money for the merch! And now, you only have to look at how Disney exploited Cars 2 to see where their hearts lie.
    2. Lee: Yeah, Star Wars was for you when you were nine. It's not for you anymore. And Disney won't make it any better. Not for you, anyway.
    3. Disney won't make a drama featuring married Han Solo and Leia Organa Solo. Disney won't focus on the political difficulties of reconstructing a republic after 25-ish years of empire. Disney won't make a detailed examination of the Jedi faith.
    4. Kyle: I don't expect an adult movie or a kids movie... I want a good family movie. That's what the first two (and arguably the third, original trilogy) were. Sadly, that's tougher to do than going hard to either end of the demographic spectrum.
    5. Lee: The fear among the hardcore, until proven otherwise, will be that Disney won't make a movie you can watch with your kids, but one that's for the kids.
    6. Kyle: Well, Disney is really good at making family movies, so let's hope that's the direction they'll go.
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