7. Ice Age
When Toy Story debuted in 1995, it revolutionized animation. Not only did Toy Story prove that audiences would sit through a full-length, computer-animated feature film, but that animation was not the exclusive domain of Disney anymore. As we know, the dawn of computer animation would lead to a number of competing studios in the early 2000s, each rising as Disney’s hand-drawn efforts pretty plainly faltered in the era. One of the studios to bank on the art was Blue Sky, who turned from special effects and television commercials to partnering with 20th Century Fox to try their hand at feature films.
Blue Sky released 13 feature films. Most are, unfortunately, somewhat forgettable. None match Disney or Pixar for quality. But five of those thirteen are sequels to the studio’s first film and biggest hit, 2002’s Ice Age. Laugh all you want, but Ice Age narrowly outperformed Disney’s similarly prehistoric undertaking, 2000’s Dinosaur (yes, the largely-forgotten companion to the Lost Legend: Countdown to Extinction) and unlike the declining returns on Disney’s films and sequels in the early 2000s, each of Ice Age’s four sequels performed better than the one before, up to $880 million.
The end result is that Disney animation purists can groan and give Ice Age side-eye all they want; they can decry it a tasteless series without the kind of timelessness Disney’s known for; they can lump it in with those “other” studios’ movies filled with “fart jokes,” gross-out humor, and top 40 soundtracks… but guess what? Ice Age 2, 3, and 4 each outperformed Tangled. No, no, it’s okay; you can read that again. Yes, each one of this film’s three sequels earned more money than Disney’s Tangled.
So ask yourself if it’s really so crazy that a straight-to-Disney+ spin-off called The Ice Age Adventures of Buck Wild made its way to Disney+ in January 2022? Clearly, Ice Age is a franchise that has staying and playing power… In fact, it outlived the studio that created it.
For a while, animation insiders suggested that maybe, Disney would keep Blue Sky around as a siloed studio working on television animation or lower-cost animation projects. But on February 9, 2021 – nearly two years after the Fox acquisition – Disney announced the shuttering of Blue Sky entirely. Citing the COVID-19 pandemic, Disney suggested it couldn’t justify a third animation studio. So will Ice Age make its way under the Disney umbrella? And for that matter, would it really be so unbelievable to see Ice Age characters meet-and-greeting at Disney Parks? An Ice Age float in a parade? Ice Age merchandise in the gift shop at the exit of DINOSAUR? We’ll have to see…
8. The Simpsons, Futurama, Bob’s Burgers, and Family Guy
One of the most perplexing propositions to come from Disney’s $71 billion acquisition of 20th Century Fox was the idea of the adult-oriented cartoon sitcom The Simpsons joining Disney canon. The Simpsons is as engrained in American pop culture as Mickey Mouse or Ronald McDonald. Over 700 episodes of the series have been broadcast, making The Simpsons the longest-running animated series, sitcom, and scripted primetime series in history. More to the point, The Simpsons has added dozens of catchphrases, characters, and concepts to the zeitgeist… including plenty skewering Disney.
For example, The Simpsons has a surprisingly stellar track record in its laugh-out-loud, absurdist predictions coming true (like an episode from 2000 where Bart travel to the future; there, his whiz kid sister Lisa has become President of the United States, with an offhand comment about inheriting a major deficit from… President Donald Trump.) One of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-it predictions came true twenty years after a 1998 episode displayed a billboard reading: “20th Century Fox: A Division of the Walt Disney Company.”
Yep, The Simpson‘s on-the-nose joke about Disney’s pattern of corporate takeovers and the rise of entertainment monopolies became a little too real.
Reportedly following extensive evaluation, Disney determined that The Simpsons would not be relegated to Hulu or placed under the 20th Century banner, but absorbed into the highly-guarded Disney brand. So as strange as it may be to imagine “The Simpsons” finding their way into Disney Parks, it’s even stranger to imagine Disney suddenly abandoning the property that they viewed as one of the major components of the 20th Century buyout.
Seriously, think about it. The Simpsons was considered an anchor IP for Disney+ when it launched! And if that weren’t evidence enough that Disney hardly plans to separate itself from The Simpsons, Disney “welcomed” the family by making them the subject of the theatrical short shown before Pixar’s Onward, and has since featured Simpsons shorts skewering Disney, Marvel, and Star Wars in turn. Disney can do a lot with The Simpsons… Well… Except…
Yes, in 2008, both Universal Studios Florida and Universal Studios Hollywood licensed “The Simpsons” from Fox to replace each park’s version of the Lost Legend: Back to the Future – The Ride. To make matters worse, Universal returned to each in the years after and followed the Wizarding World formula, inventing full Springfield, U.S.A. lands filled with exclusive in-universe food and drink, from Lard Lad Donuts to Flaming Moes. Between The Simpsons and Marvel, that gives Disney’s competitor theme park control of two of its newest and most timeless IPs!
Even if Universal already cornered the (Central Florida) market on Simpsons-themed lands. Does that mean Disney won’t ever bring “America’s First Family” home? We wouldn’t count on it…
In any case, while The Simpsons may be the big one, Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox included all of 20th Television. That means Disney is also in charge of Bob’s Burgers, King of the Hill, Family Guy, American Dad, and Matt Groening’s other Fox series Futurama.
Now, in our perfect world, Universal Studios Florida’s Men in Black: Alien Attack might’ve become a Futurama ride, recasting its World’s Fair pavilion as New New York and creating a mini-Matt-Groening land between New New York and Springfield… But alas, now it’s up to Disney to embrace Futurama just as they did The Simpsons. Maybe as a replacement for Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin? Eh, with Pixar’s new Lightyear film on the way, the outlook here’s not so good.
9. Alien
It’s not every year that a film truly revolutionizes pop culture, but 1979’s Alien did just that. Eschewing the era’s squeaky clean images of tomorrow, Alien (and 1977’s Star Wars) arguably originated the “used future” aesthetic that would become pop culture staples of the ’80s and ’90s Unlike the gleaming white visions of the future that had inspired the Lost Legend: Walt’s Tomorrowland and Space Mountain, Alien anticipated a future of claustrophobic spacecrafts, dystopian corporations, amoral artificial intelligences, and – of course – the animalistic, instinctual, and unpredictable Xenomorph. A grotesque, psychological sci-fi body horror masterpiece, Alien spawned a four-film main series, a distant prequel series headed by Prometheus, and a vast extended universe of comics, short films, web series, and a two-film crossover series with 20th Century Fox’s Predator.
Of course, Alien is also of great interest to Disney Parks fans since it famously could’ve featured in one of Disney’s most talked-about attractions… At the height of Michael Eisner’s “Ride the Movies” era, Imagineers began to toy with the concept of using binaural audio to create a horror attraction that would simulate a monster set loose on an audience. As the project gained legs, its Imagineers began to develop a version that could use Fox’s Xenomorph alien, licensing the film from Fox as they’d done with Star Wars, The Muppets, and Indiana Jones. Ultimately, the version without the movie monster moved forward, becoming the Lost Legend: The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter. Disney did license Fox’s film, though, awarding it a scene among other cinematic landmarks in the Lost Legend: The Great Movie Ride.
Would we expect Alien to start showing on the Disney Channel? Obviously, no. But Disney confirmed at the 2019 ComicCon that they’d “continue to create new stories” in the Alien franchise, and a third entry in the prequel trilogy is reportedly in production despite its 2017 predecessor underperforming. But more to the point, Disney is a master at understanding how expanded stories can keep an IP alive and relevant, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see graphic novels, comic books, or a Hulu Original Series to build out the mythos of Ridley Scott’s world. Frankly, Prometheus – set decades before Alien, and only briefly featuring under-evolved versions of the Xenomorph – would’ve made a perfect, slow-build, deep, exploratory Disney+ series. But alas.
Alien is literally a game-changing film with one of the most iconic movie monsters ever… and Disney controls its fate. It’s fun to imagine what a return to Space Age, ’70s-inspired Tomorrowland could entail if Alien really did find its way there one form or another…
20th Century+
As of now, we have no doubt that Disney lawyers are still scrambling their way through formerly-20th Century Fox IPs to figure out the entanglements of each. Despite the absorbed studio’s IP adding massive stores of content to Disney’s catalogue, 20th Century will probably never be its own category on Disney+ or otherwise. But as this list shows, that doesn’t mean acquisitions from this $71 billion deal won’t make their way into Disney’s brand… or its Parks.
Make no mistake: there are thousands and thousands and thousands of movies, television shows, characters, and brands that now fit somewhere into Disney’s content portfolio in one way or another. For example, Disney now owns FX and its associated networks (FX, FXX, and FXM) as well as FX Productions, which has a hand in Legion, Homeland, and American Horror Story. Disney also has production and distribution rights for shows in 20th Century’s archive, like 24, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hill Street Blues, M*A*S*H, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and The Shield. (And c’mon… don’t you want Buffy on Disney+?)
While the 10 franchises we listed here may be the most exciting additions for fans of Disney Parks, they’re far from the only… The X-Files. Planet of the Apes. The Kingsman. Independence Day. Rio. The Shape of Water. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Modern Family. Slumdog Millionaire. 127 Hours. Black Swan. 12 Years a Slave. Birdman. TITANIC. Seriously, this changes everything. So as the Content Wars wage and in out of Disney theme parks, don’t go thinking 20th Century Fox will keep in its lane. Just like Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars, it’s all Disney now… and it just may begin to feel that way sooner than you expect…
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