News Bob Iger is back! Chapek is out!!

[MerlinTheGoat]

I know many of you think my opinion is utterly ridiculous, but I think Iger saw the damage Chapek-ified Iger-ism did to the brand, and I trust his ego will lead him to do some fan-pleasing things.

I can assure you that no one here wants you to be wrong, quite the opposite. Many of us just don't believe for a second it will happen.

But still, I think the personal wish lists of every single thing anyone dislikes about the parks are a bit silly.

Bare minimum they need to clean up the maintenance situation. There's no excuses for the parks being in the shape they are (it's even affecting Disneyland now). And deal with the recent staff/entertainment cuts. I don't expect these to improve either, but that'll be a decent baseline to judge whether ANY good comes out of this.

I'll believe the WSJ's claims about Iger being upset about price hikes when (real) elephants fly.

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

Bare minimum they need to clean up the maintenance situation. There's no excuses for the parks being in the shape they are (it's even affecting Disneyland now).

I’ve thought about this. Here’s what they could do

You know how certain stores get you to work for them for free now. Meaning the self-checkout lines. You’re performing a function (for free) that they used to have to pay somebody to do.

Same thought process. Through the magic of Disney and some well placed spots and maybe even a new show or two. You focus in on and glorify Disney janitorial.

That way when a small child walks into the park you have a CM ask “How would you like to be a Disney janitor for the day?” To which the response would likely be “Oh Boy. Would I”.

Out comes a small white uniform, a broom, and a garbage can.

Problem solved.

 

[flynnibus]

I think what many people -- including Disney leadership -- have overlooked is that part of what made Star Wars films so successful was the scarcity. Until Disney bought Lucasfilm, there were a grand total of only six films in the series and the two trilogies were 20 years apart. Sure, there were some TV shows and tons of tie-in books and merchandise, but there were only six actual films. That made the release of each film an event. Start churning films out every year and it becomes less special, less anticipated.

Star wars was basically in cryogenic freeze until Lucas released the SEs on his way to the prequels. Scarcity didn't build SW up.. it was why it was only something people remembered from the past.

 

[DCBaker]

 

[vikescaper]

I’m so sad that I will never get to see his sign in person……

 

[sedati]

Is it? I was under the impression that they began discussing a halt to theatrical productions after Solo bombed, and solidified the decision when Last Jedi underperformed.

No, it was discussed when the initial timeframe was laid out. If I have time later I'll find a quote from Iger.

 

[Nubs70]

I think what many people -- including Disney leadership -- have overlooked is that part of what made Star Wars films so successful was the scarcity. Until Disney bought Lucasfilm, there were a grand total of only six films in the series and the two trilogies were 20 years apart. Sure, there were some TV shows and tons of tie-in books and merchandise, but there were only six actual films. That made the release of each film an event. Start churning films out every year and it becomes less special, less anticipated.

If you treat the storyline as a live action remake of a previous installment, all the investment needed is dialouge and scenery.

Then you can churn out yearly installments until the buzz wears off but you have harvested billions in today's dollars.

 

[JoeCamel]

I’m so sad that I will never get to see his sign in person……

Check the Lakeland antique mall, just $3000 next week only.
Either that or they gave it to Bob as a parting gift......

 

[pdude81]

Now I get why the picture was posted. I didn't know what this was until I walked past it an hour ago. D'Amaro and Iger signs currently up

 

[JD80]

If you didn't want to risk creating a new Star Wars story for the new movies all you had to do was get a competent writer and director and adapt the Thrawn trilogy.

That was basically risk-free. You had a built in story that almost all fans loved or at least knew something about. You had a story that had a beginning, middle and end that were competently put together and made sense. You had to be creative with it to adapt the time difference and the inclusion of the OT characters (if you were going to use them), but the plotpoints were there.

Why they didn't do that, who knows. Books did sell 15M copies and they used that character in Rebels.

Now they're going to shoe horn his story in some god awful plot on D+. Feloni is great at creating characters in a cartoon show that we have to conveniently have to forget about when we watch movies.

 

[Casper Gutman]

If you didn't want to risk creating a new Star Wars story for the new movies all you had to do was get a competent writer and director and adapt the Thrawn trilogy.

That was basically risk-free. You had a built in story that almost all fans loved or at least knew something about. You had a story that had a beginning, middle and end that were competently put together and made sense. You had to be creative with it to adapt the time difference and the inclusion of the OT characters (if you were going to use them), but the plotpoints were there.

Why they didn't do that, who knows. Books did sell 15M copies and they used that character in Rebels.

Now they're going to shoe horn his story in some god awful plot on D+. Feloni is great at creating characters in a cartoon show that we have to conveniently have to forget about when we watch movies.

Lucas said he never read any of the EU novels and they took place in a completely different world then the films. In the prequels he ignored the EU when it was convenient and his sequel trilogy plans would have completely obliterated the EU, just as Disney eventually did. It's great if fans like EU material - I love the Old Republic RPGs, for instance - but the notion that it ever had any real hold on canon status was nuts. That's good, because you can go through the EU and find tons of terrible ideas that make the PT and ST look like Shakespeare. You don't get this odd fan outrage when, say, Star Trek films or TV shows contradict Star Wars novels or the latest Predator or Ghostbusters or Alien film ignores storylines from ancillary media products.

 

[Casper Gutman]

Taking down Bob's sign seems a bit low, actually. Has anyone else's "window on Main Street" type acknowledgement ever been removed because someone fell out of favor with the current regime? It really feels like they're very disingenuously trying to rewrite history and hide the fact that Iger hand-picked Chapek and every single thing Chapek did was a continuation of Iger's policies.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Taking down Bob's sign seems a bit low, actually.

It is somewhat petty and vindictive, especially when it's done within a week of the guy's firing [not that I cared for Bob or these types of references].

 

[JoeCamel]

Taking down Bob's sign seems a bit low, actually. Has anyone else's "window on Main Street" type acknowledgement ever been removed because someone fell out of favor with the current regime? It really feels like they're very disingenuously trying to rewrite history and hide the fact that Iger hand-picked Chapek and every single thing Chapek did was a continuation of Iger's policies.

This is the same guy who pshopped Staggs out of a groundbreaking he attended......

 

[UNCgolf]

If you didn't want to risk creating a new Star Wars story for the new movies all you had to do was get a competent writer and director and adapt the Thrawn trilogy.

That was basically risk-free. You had a built in story that almost all fans loved or at least knew something about. You had a story that had a beginning, middle and end that were competently put together and made sense. You had to be creative with it to adapt the time difference and the inclusion of the OT characters (if you were going to use them), but the plotpoints were there.

Why they didn't do that, who knows. Books did sell 15M copies and they used that character in Rebels.

Now they're going to shoe horn his story in some god awful plot on D+. Feloni is great at creating characters in a cartoon show that we have to conveniently have to forget about when we watch movies.

The Thrawn trilogy was very good and easily the best part of the old EU (which had some excellent stuff scattered about, but was also frequently terrible) -- and much better than the sequel trilogy -- but trying to adapt it into a new movie trilogy wouldn't work at this point.

If you take out the OT characters, you're essentially creating a new story entirely. It's no longer even remotely similar to the Thrawn trilogy because they were integral to nearly everything that happens; you can't just sub them out with different characters and have the story work as-is.

If you don't take them out, you still have to massively overhaul the story because it doesn't work with them in their 50s and 60s (or older). The longer time skip would cause other problems like the plot making less sense 25-30 years after ROTJ instead of 5, and also causes issues for characters like Mara Jade. Plus, some of the plot points were essentially eliminated by the prequel trilogy.

 

[LittleBuford]

Taking down Bob's sign seems a bit low, actually.

As does holding up a middle finger to it. I get not liking the man, but we’re not schoolchildren!

 

["El Gran Magnifico"]

I think there's a perfectly plausible reason that they removed the sign. They grew tired of having to fix it every time a guest would alter the "p" in "ship" to a "t".

Might have been a costing saving measure.

 

[JD80]

The Thrawn trilogy was very good and easily the best part of the old EU (which had some excellent stuff scattered about, but was also frequently terrible) -- and much better than the sequel trilogy -- but trying to adapt it into a new movie trilogy wouldn't work at this point.

If you take out the OT characters, you're essentially creating a new story entirely. It's no longer even remotely similar to the Thrawn trilogy because they were integral to nearly everything that happens; you can't just sub them out with different characters and have the story work as-is.

If you don't take them out, you still have to massively overhaul the story because it doesn't work with them in their 50s and 60s (or older). The longer time skip would cause other problems like the plot making less sense 25-30 years after ROTJ instead of 5, and also causes issues for characters like Mara Jade. Plus, some of the plot points were essentially eliminated by the prequel trilogy.

I'm sure you can find someone creative to make it work.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Taking down Bob's sign seems a bit low, actually. Has anyone else's "window on Main Street" type acknowledgement ever been removed because someone fell out of favor with the current regime? It really feels like they're very disingenuously trying to rewrite history and hide the fact that Iger hand-picked Chapek and every single thing Chapek did was a continuation of Iger's policies.

My uncertain recollection is that this specific sign used to say Robert Iger and was changed when Chapek became CEO.

 

[_caleb]

My uncertain recollection is that this specific sign used to say Robert Iger and was changed when Chapek became CEO.

If your narrative is to be believed, Iger created the sign. Chapek’s just getting blamed for it.