Lucas Arts was bought out this week by Disney, and I am impressed. That is a big move for the house of mouse, and it'll have a lot of ramifications on the entertainment industry as a whole. The Disney touch will now be on their movies, games, and books. I've heard a lot of fans bemoan the change. For some reason, Star Wars in the hands of George Lucas is a good thing to them. I'm might not agree.
I think this acquisition will open some great doors for fans.
Let's be honest, most of us know that George Lucas is kind of a hack. His first few movies were good because he had good directors who told him when things were stupid. It's pretty common knowledge now that Luke was going to look like Darth Vader in Lucas's original vision, but the director wouldn't let that on set. So Lucas had some major help from the outside. When he got control and started his own work, things get messy fast. Anyone remember the fourth Indiana Jones movie? No, you don't. It never happened. And the prequel trilogy? Another fowl up. George Lucas has been abusing his toys for too long now.
With Disney in control, and the promise already of a new series of Star Wars films, I think there is a lot to look forward to. For starters, Disney is pretty nice to its intellectual property. We heard a lot of complaints when they bought Marvel comics, but look how that has turned out. We've had a run of enjoyable, if generic, superhero movies, and the comic section have continued publishing unhindered. Disney executives didn't charge in and make drastic changes, but they improved on what they had. With all the junk Star Wars has been accumulating, Disney might be the spring cleaning the universe needs.
Along those lines, Disney's production values are phenomenal. The prequels had some glaring issues in production, and faltered because of it. Lucas Art's film section is strong, but they couldn't seem to pull it together in the best ways. Something that always bugged me were the transitions between scenes. This might sound like a small complaint, but it get's bigger if you recognize it. They basically use the same transitions that comes stock in Window's Movie Makers. They have the pinwheel, the box out, even the slide checkerboard. Once you notice it, you can't stop noticing it (which means that I've just ruined the movies even more for you). Disney is held to a higher stander than most, and they'll apply those expectations to the works with the Star Wars franchise.
This might also see a revival in quality Star Wars videogames. The recent releases has been decent, but not as great as they could be. Star Wars: The Old Republic, Bioware's MMO, recently took to the free-to-play model even after saying initially that it would not. With the backing of Disney, developers will have more that they can invest into the projects and have a better end result. We might even see the release of Star Wars: Battlefront 3, which had been canceled, even though it was basically finished, by the president of Lucas Arts two years ago. Fans have been waiting for it, but management decided to shaft the fans.
Star Wars is being brought under the umbrella of one of the most prolific companies we have around. There is so much good that can come from this. Despite the fans woes, I believe this will give Star Wars the new life that it so desperately needs. I would hate to see such a fun franchise go the way of others, becoming hallow shells with no innovation. I expect a great deal of good from this.
And if Darth Vader happens to be in Kingdom Hearts 3, awesome.
Just something to chew on.
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