Marvel Deal with Disney Worries Fans

Even superheroes crumble when faced with the might of Mickey Mouse. Disney has bought Marvel Comics for $4 billion, and the news has sent shivers down the spine of teenage comic-book fans all over the world.
Marvel is, after all, the home of heroes who are outsiders and misfits. Spider-Man suffers from teenage angst, the Hulk has an anger management problem, Wolverine hates nearly everybody and the Silver Surfer takes the problems of the universe on his shoulders. How are they going to fit in to a corporation that became a byword for sanitised mass entertainment?
The blogosphere has been alive with cries of fear. But Marvel has been quick to reassure its fans. “Everybody take a deep breath, all your favorite comics remain unchanged,” writes Joe Quesada, Marvel’s editor-in-chief, on Twitter. “Disney merging with Marvel is a VERY GOOD thing for us,” adds CB Cebulski, a Marvel writer and editor.
The acquisition makes perfect business sense. The biggest growth area in Hollywood in the past 10 years has been superhero movies, ever since Terminator 2 made it clear that CGI technology could cope with anything a writer’s imagination could throw at it. And Marvel has been a huge beneficiary, with Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four and Iron Man being big hits. The Iron Man dvd continues to sell well and bring in extra revenue.
I would bet a mint copy of issue #1 of The Incredible Hulk that every summer for the next 10 years will be dominated by superhero movies.
Disney today is a very different organisation from the one that turned AA Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh into a saccharine animation in 1966. And the proof is the relationship between Disney and Pixar.
When Disney bought Pixar in 2006, there were anxieties that a giant company was swallowing up a smaller but more successful rival and that Pixar’s distinctive style would not survive. But Disney had the great good sense not to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs, and the result has been classic Pixar animations such as Wall-E, Bolt and the forthcoming Up. And now John Lasseter, the creator of Pixar, is overall head of Disney animation.
Disney is unlikely to forget that with great power comes great responsibility. And lots of money.

September 11, 2009. Movies. No Comments.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 3) DVD Review

Nominated for 28 Emmys, including several for Outstanding Visual Effects, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine continues the rich tradition of the original 1960s Star Trek franchise. Created by former L.A. police officer Gene Roddenberry, the Star Trek TV series morphed into a franchise famous for the unprecedented fanatical devotion of its audience. Lasting only three seasons during its original network run, Star Trek struck gold with its syndicated reruns, launching a number of motion pictures featuring the original cast as well as novels, comic books, collectibles, and reams of Star Trek-related memorabilia. Following on the heels of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987), the first Star Trek series spin-off of the original, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine foreshadowed additional spin-offs - Star Trek: Voyager (1995), and Star Trek: Enterprise (2001). Sporting an entirely new cast and crew from its two predecessors, the show focuses on a particular system administered by the Federation instead of the usual Star Trek mission of “exploring strange new worlds”…

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine follows the exploits of the Starfleet crew aboard an abandoned and gutted Cardassian space station orbiting the planet of Bajor. In the aftermath of Cardassian occupation, the Bajorian government invited the Starfleet to oversee the reconstruction of the space station. Deep Space Nine quickly transformed into a teeming city of commerce and a hub for travel (similar to Babylon 5) thanks to the discovery of an unknown wormhole nearby. But the wormhole leads to the Gamma Quadrant, realm of the feared Dominion alliance, which views the wormhole travelers as a threat to its totalitarian grip on power. As such, the Dominion launches an attack against the Federation and its Klingon allies. The subsequent and ongoing war is the basis for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine…

Capt. Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) is credited with discovering the wormhole, and he oversees the crew of Deep Space Nine as they wage battle to preserve the Federation. Ironically, his colleague, Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois), is a Changeling - an alien race of “shapeshifters” who lead the Dominion’s united front. Together with the rest of the crew aboard Deep Space Nine, they struggle with internal and external conflicts that threaten to destroy their very way of life…

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 3) DVD features a number of exciting episodes including the season premiere “The Search” in which Sisko makes an effort to strike a peace accord with the Dominion. But the peace deal fails when the Defiant is attacked by the Jem’Hadar and the ship is left immobilized. Meanwhile, Kira and Odo are stranded in their spaceship… Other notable episodes from Season 3 include “The Abandoned” in which Odo tries to raise and modify the behavior of an orphaned Jem’Hadar child, and “Visionary” in which exposure to radiation enables O’Brien to travel forward into the future where he envisions a dire future for Deep Space Nine…

Below is a list of episodes included on the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 3) DVD:

Episode 47 (The Search: Part 1) Air Date: 09-26-1994
Episode 48 (The Search: Part 2) Air Date: 10-03-1994
Episode 49 (The House of Quark) Air Date: 10-16-1994
Episode 50 (Equilibrium) Air Date: 10-23-1994
Episode 51 (Second Skin) Air Date: 10-30-1994
Episode 52 (The Abandoned) Air Date: 11-06-1994
Episode 53 (Civil Defense) Air Date: 11-13-1994
Episode 54 (Meridian) Air Date: 11-20-1994
Episode 55 (Defiant) Air Date: 11-27-1994
Episode 56 (Fascination) Air Date: 12-04-1994
Episode 57 (Past Tense: Part 1) Air Date: 01-01-1995
Episode 58 (Past Tense: Part 2) Air Date: 01-15-1995
Episode 59 (Life Support) Air Date: 02-05-1995
Episode 60 (Heart of Stone) Air Date: 02-12-1995
Episode 61 (Destiny) Air Date: 02-19-1995
Episode 62 (Prophet Motive) Air Date: 02-26-1995
Episode 63 (Visionary) Air Date: 03-05-1995
Episode 64 (Distant Voices) Air Date: 04-16-1995
Episode 65 (Through the Looking Glass) Air Date: 04-23-1995
Episode 66 (Improbable Cause) Air Date: 05-07-1995
Episode 67 (The Die is Cast) Air Date: 05-07-1995
Episode 68 (Explorers) Air Date: 05-14-1995
Episode 69 (Family Business) Air Date: 05-21-1995
Episode 70 (Shakaar) Air Date: 05-28-1995
Episode 71 (Facets) Air Date: 06-18-1995
Episode 72 (The Adversary) Air Date: 06-25-1995

About the Author Britt Gillette is author of The DVD Report, a blog where you can find more reviews like this one of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 3) DVD.

May 16, 2008. Movies. No Comments.