Goku in da House (of Mouse)

[the_abberration]

If this question or topic has already been posted or addressed, please feel free to disregard this post, direct me to the original post, and lock this one.

This has been something I have been meaning to ask in the forum for a while now. With the “house of mouse” buying properties that were either a threat to them, popular in its heyday, or popular across other mediums or genres (e.g. Pixar, Muppets, Marvel, Star Wars), do you think Dragon Ball Z could end up a part of Disney soon?

Although anime is something Disney has not embraced completely (yet), it is an untapped market, just ripe for them to bring to a broader audience. Given that the Dragon Ball series is an older anime that continues to thrive, and with the limited release of Battle of the Gods being somewhat successful in the USA (not to mention upcoming projects in the works), it is quite possible Disney has taken notice. Feasibly, it would be the franchise for them to test the waters with IMO.

Personally, while I feel Mr. Toriyama, TOEI animation, etc. would not sell the Dragon Ball franchise outright to Disney, I could see them purchasing the live action movie, and animation rights. FOX is basically sitting on the property after Dragon Ball Evolution failed at the box office. I don’t see them turning down the type of money Disney would offer them.

As for FUNimation, there was once a time where Navarre had acquired them. Again, where Disney money is concerned, FUNimation could end up a product of Disney this time around.

I for one would flip, if instead of Goku vs. Superman, we got him vs. or teaming up with the Disney Marvel Universe.

Your thoughts?

[ABED]

A threat? I think "threat" is a tad overdramatic.

[MagicBox]

Although anime is something Disney has not embraced completely (yet), it is an untapped market, just ripe for them to bring to a broader audience.

Disney put their best foot forward with the Ghibli films (which have far more mainstream and critical appeal) and they could never get it to work. That's why they released The Wind Rises under their Touchstone Pictures label and why they passed on From Up On Poppy Hill altogether. Anime's a hard sell, which clashes with their tentpole strategy of only wanting to produce record-breaking franchises. Marvel and Star Wars pull in astronomical profits. The Muppets aren't quite in the same stratosphere, but they pull in decent box office numbers, the brand is instantly recognizable, and they consistently do well on home video. Dragon Ball can't compete.

I think all of FUNi's bragging about the performance of "Battle Of Gods" in American theaters confused some people. By FUNi's standards, it was a pleasant surprise. Disney has much higher standards.

[ABED]

DB is niche product, so while Disney is great with distribution, I don't imagine DBZ would benefit that much more from Disney. It would still likely get a limited release as a wider release is a big risk.

[UpFromTheSkies]

If Disney wanted to, I'm sure they could buy Shueisha, TOEI, and FUNimation. Everything has a price, and Disney has a seemingly bottomless wallet.

[Hellspawn28]

Disney did a bad job with the Digimon franchise. Them owning Dragon Ball would be terrible, not to mention Dragon Ball would be a co-license franchise if Disney bought it. When Disney own Power Rangers, they were not allow to do a animated series because Toei makes money off from the Sentai stock footage used in Power Rangers. If Disney owned Dragon Ball, they won't able to do everything with it.

[Kamiccolo9]

When the ultimate super merger of Disney, Google, and Apple happens, Dragon Ball will be brought into the fold along with everything else.

[KentalSSJ6]

When the ultimate super merger of Disney, Google, and Apple happens, Dragon Ball will be brought into the fold along with everything else.

Thinking about that makes me wanna build a doomsday bunker.

[Kunzait_83]

Eh whatever, I'm here anyway.

What kills me isn't how regular, ordinary fans of "geek properties" in the last bunch of years have mostly all galvanized around supporting and actively rooting for these oppressively monolithic, soul-sucking corporate entities to overtake and own as much as possible: even if, in the case of something like Dragon Ball, this hypothetical scenario would be simply a case of an even more (one of the most as it happens) oppressively monolithic, soul-sucking corporate entity snatching up something from a somewhat less oppressively monolithic, soul-sucking corporate entity. Its not that at times a lot of today's average fans, as a result of getting caught up in that fervor, might even go so far as to come down against any vague pretense at any idea or work out there maintaining some tiny, microscopic dust-mote of creative independence.

Its not any of that; that stuff's all just depressing, disappointing, and demoralizing, and I'm more than plenty used to that out of "modern internet nerds" at this point.

No, the kicker for me is that the principal, primary overarching motivation for this kind of gross "corporate cheerleader" mentality from regular folk often seems like it can essentially be boiled down thusly:

"MAKE ALL MY FAVORITE STUFF THAT I LIKE TALK TO EACH OTHER!!!"

Also good sweet fucking Christ this thread title...

[ABED]

When the ultimate super merger of Disney, Google, and Apple happens, Dragon Ball will be brought into the fold along with everything else.

Thinking about that makes me wanna build a doomsday bunker.

Why? What's wrong with that?

oppressively monolithic, soul-sucking corporate entities

Do you feel the same about partnerships, LLC, or sole proprietorships?

[JulieYBM]

Disney would have to buy Shueisha and any rights from Toriyama. Toriyama is the Gensakusha of the property. He would have to sign off on giving away his writes for that to happen. I doubt he cares to change how things have been for a quarter of a century now, so I don't think this ever happening.

Even if Disney were to buy the franchise it would mean rubbing out everything we currently love about the franchise and re-making it in the image of Disney. That is not something we would like.

[Kamiccolo9]

When the ultimate super merger of Disney, Google, and Apple happens, Dragon Ball will be brought into the fold along with everything else.

Thinking about that makes me wanna build a doomsday bunker.

They have all the bunkers.

Nothing can prevent the rise of Disnappoogle. The Future is Now.

[shinmaru]

DragonBall Should stay with Toei for ever.

[Hellspawn28]

Disney tone down the violence in Power Rangers from what I can remember, they would do the same if they got the rights to the series and aired any future Dragon Ball stuff on Disney XD. With movies, it's different because movies are not as strict on violence compare to violence on TV. I also won't trust Disney on a live action DB movie unless they get a good crew to work on. The Marvel movies turn out good because they let Marvel do whatever they want. Also if Disney owned DB then I would imagine they would give a damn about it. They didn't care about Doug, Power Rangers and Digimon which is why they handle them poorly and did a bad job marketing them.

[ParkerAL]

When the ultimate super merger of Disney, Google, and Apple happens, Dragon Ball will be brought into the fold along with everything else.

Well, those antitrust laws have to kick in eventually.

[dodge2461]

If Disney treated the Dragon Ball franchise the way they're treating Doraemon, then no thank you!

Seriously, has anyone seen what they're doing? It's on 4Kids level of bad.

[dbboxkaifan]

Why? What's wrong with that?

Disney and Google? Okay.

Apple? You'd certainly not want that company near the Dragon Ball franchise unless you wanted them to make the products be overpriced.

Like, for example, Beats that are owned by Apple (so fitting) which are overpriced headphones as it is they'll probably increase it from $100 to $400 or more.

If Disney treated the Dragon Ball franchise the way they're treating Doraemon, then no thank you!

Disney is handling Doraemon? That's news.

[Kid Buu]

No, Viz Media owns the rights. Disney XD just airs it.

[JulieYBM]

Doraemon being changed for the lowest common denominator is approved by the production committee members. They don't give a damn, because more people are likely to pay for crap than those willing to pay for quality.

[Kid Buu]

I'm kind of surprised that Doraemon even came over. Honestly thought Viz was going to just fully retreat into manga and instead they really turned things around this year. Now bring back Urusei Yatsura and Maison Ikkoku damnit.

Anyway, if Disney got the rights, I hope we'd be able to ride Shenlong at Disney World.