The Disney/Fox Deal: Questions and Consequences

Your ideas are cute (ie a character forcing The Simpsons to be nice) but I meant more like making the ACTUAL WRITERS make The Simpsons into better people. And dont tell me that's a creative leash or whatever. I hate The Simpsons as they are now.

Maybe we can finally get a good Fantastic Four movie, that isn't just The Incredibles?

That would be nice.

Edited by megaeliz on Apr 13th 2019 at 11:37:01 AM

@Aegis P

These writers think they need to have their characters be awful people to be funny. While they started as deconstructions of sitcom characters, it doesn't give them an excuse to just act like asses.

Actually the Simpsons writers should watch Black Friday Toy Story reel, and show why it's bad to turn up a main characters' flaws. Then have them compare with the final product. Woody in the final film did something wrong, and we hope that he doesn't make that mistake, while his Black Friday counterpart is such an ass you wish you could just have him get his just desserts.

Edited by firewriter on Apr 13th 2019 at 8:49:48 AM

The only thing I can see changing the quality of new episode of The Simpsons would be a complete overhaul of the current creative team. Al Jean's been the show-runner for seventeen years, and that's longer then all the previous show-runners put together. You can feel that stagnation with each passing season, which is not helped by the lack of new blood allowed in the writer's room.

I doubt the higher-ups at Disney will take a direct approach, as the show's maintained a steady viewership on goodwill alone and there's no real need for such an overhaul at this point. I wouldn't hold my breath that the show will have any significant changes for the following seasons. Maybe they'll surprise me, but I doubt it.

There needs to be a new change, since fresh blood is needed to revive this long show.

Can't remember the last time I saw an episode of The Simpsons, but MAYBE if they've become "eh" at best, then MAYBE we may need a new team of writers? With folks who grew up with the show when it was at its prime?

Anyway, I got something to ask: you guys remember how Fox distributed movies by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in home media (not sure if they're still doing that)? Does the deal mean Disney has dibs on the home video distribution rights to those MGM movies?

Because last I checked, the most recent DVDs of The Secret of NIMH and All Dogs Go to Heaven, movies by ex-Disney animator Don Bluth had the 20th Century Fox logo on them…can you see the irony here?

Edited by TargetmasterJoe on Apr 14th 2019 at 4:24:38 AM

honestly, it is nearly impossible to tell who has distribution rights for what.

I think Universal currently has home media rights for MGM's releases, because the back cover for MGM's Fighting with my Family has the former's logo. However, Fox still has home media rights for Annapurna Pictures' films. (look at the left corner for the cover for Vice)

The Fox contract doesn't expire until 2020, so no. But I think some newer titles are coming out through Universal, though.

Edited by Mario1995 on Apr 14th 2019 at 6:26:43 AM

@Targetmaster Joe

I wonder how Don Bluth is reacting. He's now back with Disney again.

Even though technically he's not been making any movies in almost two decades, but now his movies are now under the Disney label.

Only four of them, though. Two of those movies are forgettable.

Edited by Mario1995 on Apr 14th 2019 at 6:33:20 AM

Troll In Central Park I would agree is forgettable, but Thumbelina is unforgettable in a nostalgic bad way.

Thumbelina just makes me sad. Partly because that was Don Bluth giving up. Partly because he ensured that Disney would never tackle one of my favourite fairy tales.

I kind of agree it could have been better, but the other part of me just loves the songs.

You know that the songs got a razzie? (Though I admit, It kind of like most of them, too…except the text.) The whole movie is just insulting, though.

Ah yes, the Razzies. The awards program that gives out awards to the worst movie of the year, like...Mommie Dearest and Rambo: First Blood II and nominated such movies as Friday the 13th, Rocky IV, Newsies, and The Blair Witch Project. (By the way, Sylvester Stallone also won Worst Actor for both Rambo II and Rocky IV.)

All of which is to say: the Razzies doesn't pick the worst films of the year, they just pick the ones everyone says is the worst at the time.

Edited by alliterator on Apr 14th 2019 at 4:10:25 AM

All true, but the movie still has a lot of issues. The lack of agency of the main character being the on the top of it.

The Razzies nominated The Hunchback Of Notre Dame for "Worst Written Film Grossing Over $100 Million". Needless to say, their standards are weird sometimes.

It's joke anyway,your not supposed to taken em seriously

Not all of them. An American Tail and The Land Before Time came from Universal.

I was kinda wondering about Fox's home media division myself, especially with regards to the MGM titles. We'll have to wait to see how things transpire.

BTW, Breakthrough's coming out on Wednesday. Anyone plan on going just to see if there's a "Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures" credit at the end?

Doubtful. I still really want to see Captain Marvel before Avengers: Endgame blows me away as it inevitably will.

Yeah, the Razzies might actually fall into Unintentional Period Piece category considering some of the films they've given awards to now being considered classics (if just cult classics). Which begs the question, how many films from the Disney Animated Canon have been either nominated or "won"?

So far, Hunchback has the been the only animated Disney film to be nominated for a Razzie. Which is pretty mind-boggling considering how it's considered to be one of the most underrated films of the Disney Renaissance.

For what it's worth, it did end up "losing" (?) to Twister, which was probably the only film nominated in that category that truly deserved a Razzie. The other nominees in that category were Independence Day, Mission: Impossible (1996), and A Time to Kill.

Edited by chasemaddigan on Apr 14th 2019 at 10:13:20 AM

None of those films deserved to win a Razzie. Twister is awesome, Independence Day might be dumb as rocks, but it's also awesome, and Mission: Impossible was a great fun spy movie.