Disney Looking To Buy More Characters Beyond Pixar And Marvel Rosters
As if Buzz Lightyear, Spider-Man and Mickey Mouse weren't enough, Disney is still looking to add new characters. In a recent call with investors Bob Iger, the CEO of The Walt Disney Company, said he would continue to "buy either new characters or businesses that are capable of creating great characters and great stories." Granted, that's been Disney's modus operandi for decades now as many of their famous characters came from popular literature and in recent years they've acquired both Pixar and Marvel, but there doesn't seem to be any stopping ahead. Read more after the jump.
The Disney Blog alerted us to Iger's quote and point out that it was made primarily in reference to the company hoping to expand into Asia and "adding a Disney twist to some of those stories." But that doesn't mean it's necessarily limited to that.
Questions then arise: is there anything out there worth buying and do they really need it?
If you're looking for a great stockpile of usable characters, it's really hard to beat what Disney already has. Marvel is pretty limitless but that makes you think of DC which already owned by competitor Time Warner. Disney already partners with Studio Ghibli, which has a great bunch of characters, so that's a possibility. Other than that, what else can you think of?
Plus, the more characters they have, the more movies they can make, which means they'd have to spend more and then risk flooding the marketplace. The Disney Blog surmises that's what happened with Cars 2 and Winnie the Pooh this year but if you throw in the fact that they also released Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, maybe it's was just a case of bad timing or bad buzz.
There are innumerable ways one can look at Iger's statement and no correct way to interpret it. No matter which way you decide, though, there's one undeniable truth. Disney has a very bright future.