Rumors that have been swirling for days were apparently on the mark - Disney has purchased Pixar for approximately 7.4 Billion dollars in stock.
This is an obvious win for Disney. For the most part, their greatest commercial successes in recent history have been films created by Pixar. With a few exceptions (ie. Lilo & Stitch), their recent feature length animated films have been rather lackluster, both commercially and creatively - leading Disney to gut their own talented in-house 2D animation group and focus on churning out lame straight-to-DVD sequels to their beloved classics.
What concerns me is whether or not this is a win for Pixar. Where Disney has really fallen down on the creative front in recent years, Pixar has repeatedly shown itself able to create technically brilliant films with memorable characters and engaging story lines. Will that suffer under the auspices of Disney? Hard to say. If Disney has any sense, they will maintain a hands-off approach and let Pixar do its thing creatively. They should also refrain from the urge to make Pixar churn out a line of sequels to established franchises (ie. Toy Story), and - for that matter - refrain from doing so themselves lest they dilute their established brands with lousy quality. They should instead focus on creating new characters and stories upon which to build their reputation.
Either way, this is a big win for Steve Jobs, Pixar’s CEO - he is now Disney’s largest single shareholder and has won a place on their board of directors. Perhaps he can help Disney turn around their current slide into mediocrity (from what I’ve heard Disney’s current CEO, Bob Iger, has done this to some extent already - reversing some of the damage that Michael Eisner caused during his tenure).
As you may well know, Jobs has another role as the CEO of a little computer company known as Apple. With Apple’s continuing foray into the entertainment industry, this could probably be seen as a win for them as well (they’ve already established a good relationship with Disney in recent media distribution deals - this could help solidify that).
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A somewhat smaller profile merger was also announced today. CBS and Time Warner have decided to merge their struggling UPN and WB networks into a single network known as CW.
The main benefit to this, as I see it, is that there is now one fewer channel to skip past to avoid poorly scripted fluff television programming aimed at teens. Hooray for media consolidation!
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I’ve posted about modern day pirates before (first post, second post). Apparently, a US Navy warship recently captured 26 pirates off the coast of Somalia - an area that has become increasingly well known for maritime crime due to destabilization in the region.
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Speaking of hijinks on the high seas, as she promised Sarah has provided an interesting account of cannibalism approximately 1,600 miles off the coast of Africa.
Not only is it interesting in that it involves humans eating humans (which is enough to pique one’s interest - at least until the point that one is regarded as food themselves), but it also brings up some interesting legal questions regarding what impact extenuating circumstances have on whether an act is considered murder or not.
Having done some digging, I believe that the story that she describes is the same told in the book “The Custom of the Sea“.
