New Disney Characters??

[theguitarman]

Love the ideas on here, though I admit seeing a lot of those characters at Disney would be kinda weird...

One idea that caught me was Lord of the Rings...I certainly couldn't see it in any park right now, except maybe DHS. But the intriguing part of this idea is that you have a successful movie franchise, and you could build some of the lands from the movie in the parks, kinda like HP World, which was obviously a big success. And when they build HP World, most of the movies were almost out as well. Not sure how I feel about this, but it certainly worth a thought! That being said, HP has a draw of all ages, where I think LOTR wouldn't attract kids as much, and thus, probably wouldn't happen...

 

[Ignohippo]

Hunter Honor over on Blue Sky Disney has interesting thoughts about Star Wars on this subject.

Boy, would that blow the doors off D23?

George has said in the past that he would want Disney to own his company after he is gone.

Absolutely a perfect fit if you ask me. The Star Wars and Indiana Jones characters are perfectly family-friendly, are already in the parks and both Lucas and Disney would benefit greatly. It would be a dream come true.

Disney gets the rights to the characters, Disney distributes the movies and tv shows, Lucas keeps creative control and gets a percentage of everything. With the right deal (Lucas taking a big share of the profits), it probably wouldn't even cost Disney that much up front.

Make it happen Iger!!!

 

[Disday]

Marvel wasn't owned by any major corporation before Disney. I was talking about like DC being owned by Time Warner. Does anyone know of popular franchises that are well known - that are available? I've heard about the Thomas the Train rumor (allegedly they wanted over $1 billion and Disney and other suitors thought that was way too much).

 

[Magenta Panther]

I'd rather see them reboot Darkwing Duck, Duck Tales, Tale Spin, or Rescue Rangers. I don't see the Nintendo gang being a good fit. I agree about Bob the Builder, they already have Handy Manny who is (currently) more popular than Bob.

I agree with you, especially about Darkwing. I think he has unrealized potential.

Nuts to the rumor about buying more non-Disney stuff. I realize it'll probably happen, given who's in charge now, but every purchase just makes Disney look weak IMO.

 

[Magenta Panther]

Instead of buying new characters I think they should bring back characters such as Darkwing Duck, Rodger Rabbit, Figment and maybe since they were able to get him back put Oswald in the parks

BINGO! Got it in one! Couldn't agree more! :sohappy:

You know, it'd be so great if somebody interviewing Iger would confront him about the neglect of ACTUAL DISNEY CHARACTERS while he goes off-property character shopping. We're nobodies here - Disney couldn't care less what we think. But the press still has some influence. The article about the broken yeti comes to mind...

 

[DisneyWorldDork]

I would love to see the Nintendo Characters in Disney! I think they would be a good fit! I have always wanted to see a theme park ride based on Mario!


...and about the Thomas the tank engine stuff.....not sure how many people saw this, but Six Flags tried to take advantage of Thomas and that failed miserably and Six Flags had to pull them and had to pay tons of money to re-theme the areas to a generic train area or to remove the rides completely.

 

[SleepingMonk]

Jonny Quest, Voltron, ThunderCats, GI Joe and He-Man.


And Godzilla.....maybe Grape Ape.


Oh, oh and Dr. Shrinker!

 

[Tigger1988]

I agree with you, especially about Darkwing. I think he has unrealized potential.

Nuts to the rumor about buying more non-Disney stuff. I realize it'll probably happen, given who's in charge now, but every purchase just makes Disney look weak IMO.

Then they were weak to begin with, considering how many unoriginal characters Walt obtained the rights to.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Jonny Quest, Voltron, ThunderCats, GI Joe and He-Man.


And Godzilla.....maybe Grape Ape.


Oh, oh and Dr. Shrinker!

But the bulk of those are WB and Hasbro properties they'd be unwilling to give up. Not to mention Thundercats' current reboot doing well enough that it wouldn't be sold off so easily.

 

[SleepingMonk]

Fine then.

How about a sleestak or two and the Go-Bots?

 

[Texas84]

Anime cosplay in Japan. And a maid cafe'. Onegaishimasu.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Fine then.

How about a sleestak or two and the Go-Bots?

The Go-Bots have been completely absorbed into the Transformers franchise. Not just Hasbro buying them out, but literally in a comic/prose storyline for the Collector's Club, the Go-Bots universe was being overwritten by a neighboring Transformers one and the two factions subsequently bailed to the Transformers multiverse and joined the Autobots and Decepticons

 

[breakin2]

I'd rather see them reboot Darkwing Duck, Duck Tales, Tale Spin, or Rescue Rangers. I don't see the Nintendo gang being a good fit. I agree about Bob the Builder, they already have Handy Manny who is (currently) more popular than Bob.

Hell, yeah!

 

[minniemickeyfan]

I'd rather see them reboot Darkwing Duck, Duck Tales, Tale Spin, or Rescue Rangers. I don't see the Nintendo gang being a good fit. I agree about Bob the Builder, they already have Handy Manny who is (currently) more popular than Bob.

And Disney's Gummy Bears! I always liked those. Have some of the seasons on DVD.

 

[yoda_5729]

Okay, I am not familiar with who, if anyone has the rights to use these characters in parks or not, but here is a list of ones I am not familiar with seeing at a theme park....

Garfield
________ Tracy
Archie (Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Riverdale High)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Casper
Richie Rich
Conan
Tom & Jerry
Mighty Mouse
Pogo Possum
Pink Panther


There are always dozens in comics, though most people aren't familiar enough with comics in routine culture for many of the characters to get attention.

Also
Buck Rogers
Underdog
Phantom
The Shadow
and....for Epcot, Carmen Sandiego

 

[Magenta Panther]

I would love to see the Nintendo Characters in Disney! I think they would be a good fit! I have always wanted to see a theme park ride based on Mario!

Then perhaps Nintendo should build its own park. Frankly, I'm surprised that hasn't yet happened. After all, Legos has its own park.

This discussion makes me wonder if the future of WDW and the other parks is as a repository of characters nobody else wants to invest in. I sure as heck hope not. And as to that notion that Disney bought other people's characters during Walt's day...I suggest they read Collodi's Pinocchio, and then watch Disney's Pinocchio. Or read P.L. Traver's Mary Poppins, and then look at Disney's Mary Poppins. They would note a huge difference between the versions, and that difference happened because of Disney's artistry, to its legacy of "plussing". Iger's idea of creativity seems to involve dollars only. Walt's vision went way beyond that. But apparently some people just don't see it that way. I think a lot of people see Disney now as just a corporation, like Time Warner and Fox. They're not attuned to what made Disney stand out from the rest. And maybe that's too bad, because I don't think they're enjoying Disney to the fullest. But that's just my take.

 

[bayoubelle]

IMO, Disney should work with the characters that are their classics. Before you know it, Mickey will go the way of Horizons.

 

[elcanatureboy]

H.R. PUFNSTUF!!!!! ......that might be interesting.... well I can dream, can't I? :snore::snore::snore:

 

[cheezbat]

I think it's ridiculous how Disney basically just lets their older characters rot. I mean come on...the Ducktales crew could so be brought back...relaunch the show in a newer animation style. Or Darkwing Duck. He so could be the Disney parks resident full-time superhero...and could be popular all over again on tv if they'd relaunch his show as well.

Kids love heroes. Kids love adventure. These were modern classic Disney cartoons, and were created by Disney...not some property they had to buy out.

Use what you have Disney. You have a goldmine of characters from the past 80 years to pull from already.

 

[champdisney]

I would love to see the fusion between Disney and Lucas become one; I originally thought that Disney was going to buy Lucas out years ago (at least purchasing Lucas before Marvel). That I will never rule out of the question as a possibility.

What I think Disney needs to do as of right now is focus on teenagers (presumably from the ages of 14 – 18). Bringing Doug back would certainly generate dollars for the company as long as it’s done correctly. Relaunch the program regularly on television, release the seasons on DVD, and continue on with a brand new season. I know that would work from seeing posts on social networks of old fans wishing/begging for Doug reruns and so on. Plus it’s a huge missed opportunity for Disney; I mean they bought the rights to Doug when the show was hot then little by little Disney killed it on its own. I say either learn from your mistakes or just give the rights back to Jim Jinkins (I hear the man is desperate to work with these characters again).