Remember the show House of Mouse? It was an animated show that featured all of Disney’s most popular characters such as Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy.
If the show were to be reinvented for modern times, it would include Captain America, T’Challa and Black Widow. And with Disney’s most-recent purchase of 21st Century Fox, Avatar’s Neytiri could be considered a Disney Princess by extension.
Essentially, Disney is monopolizing media, and former Ohio Senator John Sherman is probably turning in his grave.
Disney owns everything from every ABC networks to ESPN to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. With the Fox consolidation, the company would own two of the big four broadcasting networks along with FX. So instead of seeing well-developed and dynamic movies and television shows, audiences will now only see formulaic, blockbuster-driven content.
Just look at the MCU. All of the movies look the same. Don’t get me wrong, they are good movies, but they are produced for a mass appeal and are out to do one thing: make money. There are other reasons to make a movie or television show. Sure, the more people that see it, the better, but the goal should be to make the industry more diverse. Diversity can happen on every level: from casting to the way the picture looks. When everything looks the same, it makes watching something predictable and boring.
When one company buys out another, it starts to shape it to fit its brand. Disney’s brand is family friendly content, which is not a good sign for everything shown on Fox channels. Sooner or later, channels like FX could go from showing television shows and movies directed toward adults to Lizzie McGuire-like shows. Now, I’m all for Lizzie McGuire making a comeback, but taking over other companies is not the way to do it.
Disney has already implemented change and with some beloved films. A lot of Star Wars films have petitioned for The Last Jedi to be removed from the canon and it removed Hans Solo’s weapon from the poster for Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Disney is sanitizing the industry.
There is a reason Disney didn’t bring Deadpool with it when it bought the MCU: It didn’t fit the image Disney wants to portray. But what does it say about Disney when it purchased the company that was extremely close to producing an animated series about the vulgar anti-hero?
Georgia Davis is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University. Note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What do you think about the consolidation of 21st Century Fox? Tell Georgia by tweeting her at @georgiadee35.
