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More Media Merger Madness!
Disney is buying Pixar in a multibillion dollar stock deal. If my understanding of this is correct, Steven Jobs, the majority shareholder in Pixar, will now have a big voice at Disney.
This could mean that stodgy old Disney is about to be shaken up completely by the infusion of Jobs' ideas and vision. Or that Pixar will be swallowed whole and become irrelevant, the way that the Muppets have so far. Or that the Pixar geniuses will be let loose into the Disney animated universe and reinvent the wheel. Or that the culture clash between Pixar and Disney, or between Jobs and the current board of Disney, will be epic and painful to watch. Or that Pixar will continue to be Pixar, a branch of a large empire that gets autonomy, much as the Weinstein Brothers did in the early years of their deal with the Mouse.
Either way, this should be interesting to watch. And Jobs, if nothing else, continues to be THE man to watch in the worlds of both technology and entertainment.
ADDENDUM: John Lasseter, the genius behind much of Pixar's putput, will be named creative head of a combined Disney-Pixar animation division, and also head of the Imagineering division of the company, aka the people who invent the rides at Disneyland. Which rules out the last option I suggested above.
Maybe I should wait to speculate till AFTER I read the full story?
Anyway, this bodes wells as nothing Lasseter has been connected with, including Disney's English language dub of Spirited Away, has been anything short of great. But can he make Mickey relevant? Does he even want to? Stay tuned.
This could mean that stodgy old Disney is about to be shaken up completely by the infusion of Jobs' ideas and vision. Or that Pixar will be swallowed whole and become irrelevant, the way that the Muppets have so far. Or that the Pixar geniuses will be let loose into the Disney animated universe and reinvent the wheel. Or that the culture clash between Pixar and Disney, or between Jobs and the current board of Disney, will be epic and painful to watch. Or that Pixar will continue to be Pixar, a branch of a large empire that gets autonomy, much as the Weinstein Brothers did in the early years of their deal with the Mouse.
Either way, this should be interesting to watch. And Jobs, if nothing else, continues to be THE man to watch in the worlds of both technology and entertainment.
ADDENDUM: John Lasseter, the genius behind much of Pixar's putput, will be named creative head of a combined Disney-Pixar animation division, and also head of the Imagineering division of the company, aka the people who invent the rides at Disneyland. Which rules out the last option I suggested above.
Maybe I should wait to speculate till AFTER I read the full story?
Anyway, this bodes wells as nothing Lasseter has been connected with, including Disney's English language dub of Spirited Away, has been anything short of great. But can he make Mickey relevant? Does he even want to? Stay tuned.
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Should be interesting times.