From earning a soft spot in audiences? hearts with animated movies such as The Lion King, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and Bambi, the Walt Disney Company sought to further charm the love from our hearts (and money from our wallets) by buying Pixar and its bouquet of animated films, which includes Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, WALL-E, Up, and the Toy Story series. Both as a financial gambit and people-pleasing move, the acquisition of Pixar paid off. Nemo the lost fish, Wall-E the adorable robot, the mouse from Ratatouille, the whole cast of Up, all became instant classics in popular culture. And almost every one of those films features among the 50 highest-grossing films of all time. Not satisfied with simply winning our hearts through charming animated stories, Disney then bought Marvel?the company that brought us Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, Spiderman, The Hulk and The Avengers?in 2009. That was a spectacular business move?as time would tell, the time of the superheroes had arrived. Again, almost every one of the movies on these superheroes (multiple ones in the case of Iron Man and Hulk) earned profits several times their budgets. All the while, Disney earned our love.
Disney?s latest acquisition, of Lucasfilm for $4 billion, further strengthens this grip on popular culture. With the acquisition come the beloved-by-millions and enormously lucrative Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. Now, many fans fear that this will result in a ?Disney princess? take on Star Wars, ruining the story. Indeed, Disney has announced new Star Wars films, the first of which is scheduled for 2015. But these fans must remember that there was nothing ?princess? about any of the Marvel films. Disney, through Marvel, did them justice. To quote Darth Vader, ?The Force is strong with this one.?
