Disney Sells Out to Pokemon

[Viper]

Everyone, I just read on LATimes.com that Miramax, which is owned by Disney, has just bought the rights to produce the next two movie sequels of Pokemon. It doesn't say however if it will produce the next series of cartoons after this season. It's sad to see that the mouse has sold himself to the awful Poke-crap. What will happen next? Disneyworld rides in honor of Pikachu and Team Rocket? I'd shudder to see costumed actors of Ash, Brock, Officer Jenny, Team Rocket, and that wicked red-head Misty! :mad:

[Incardine]

This is a definate good news/bad news in one thing.

Good news because it looks like Disney is starting to recognize how successful anime can be. Mabye they'll be smart enough toconsider a wider release of Princess Mononoke or another Miyazaki film or two.

It's Bad News because you KNOW How much marketing this will result in. :/

[Watagashi]

Ugh, this is just... not right. I never woulda thought that Disney would buy the rights to Pokemon. Man, these people must be extremely desperate to do something like that...

Edit: But, I guess it is good that they're recognising anime, I guess. :rolleyes: :dot:

[Elven Moon]

Does this mean there will be Pokemon Character Breakfasts and a section of WDW dedicated to the electric mouse? :p

Seriously, they are the very last people I would think would ever get Pokemon. I don't like this.

[Sharklady]

> Seriously, they are the very last people I would think would ever get Pokemon. <

They aren't the last people *I* expected to get it- Disney *is* a Megacorporation, and it did start out as an animation company. It's definitely possible, that somebody there has genuine appreciation for anime.

So here's hoping.

[Killtacular]

Miramax isn't Disney.

Miramax is OWNED by Disney.

Big difference.


If, say, Disney had owned all those Kevin Smith films, I doubt they'd even be on shelves today.

(they did make fun of Disney Korea in the Clerks: TAS animatics though)

[Sharklady]

It's been my observation that corporations will tolerate being made fun of, *if* it adds to their profit margin. There's nothing they're more concerned about than the Bottom Line.

[Joe Wagner]

Originally posted by Matt Wilson

(they did make fun of Disney Korea in the Clerks: TAS animatics though)

I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact Clerks got canned by ABC (yet another Disney owned division). Too bad to - that show was hilarious and could have been a winner for years to come.

-Joe!

[Inkan1969]

Actually there is no "Disney Korea". Rather Disney employs independent Korean animated studios to do their TV work, such as Sunwoo, Sae Rom and Rough Draft. Those Korean studios will work for anyone that pays for them, including Disney, Film
Roman and even Spumco ( Rough Draft did the animation work for their Yogi shorts I think ).

"Clerks" was made by the Walt Disney Television Animation division, and that particular episode was animated by a Korean animation studio ( Sae Rom I think ). So it was actually Disney parodying themselves when they made that "Clerks" ep. They also made a "Teacher's Pet" Christmas episode that included a brief tribute to the Korean animators.

BTW: Disney-Miramax did not buy the rights to produce the two Pokemon films. The fourth movie has already been made and the fifth one is being made as we speak. Miramax bought the distribution rights, which I think means that they're the ones responsible for getting the movies into the theaters. Nintendo Animation (?) makes the actual movies and 4Kids does the dubbing. It's kind of like how Blue Sky actually made "Ice Age" but Fox distributed it.

Incidentally Miramax bought the distribution rights only to those two films. The TV show stays with Warner.

- Inkan
http://ccwf.cc.utexas.edu/~jfl/intro.html