So apparently it is pretty much official that Disney is going to buy Pixar.

I am not entirely certain how I feel about this yet. On the one hand, I was really looking forward to Disney and Pixar splitting up after "Cars" came out, since I wanted to see what Pixar could do on their own, and with a distributor that doesn't feel tied down by the need to produce a "family-friendly" image the way Disney is. Heck, I figured that Pixar had enough money to distribute the films themselves. Obviously you can't beat Disney in terms of sheer marketing muscle, but I honestly thought Pixar would survive on their own, and maybe even humble Disney a bit.

Since the talks weren't going over so well with Eisner, I'm surprised that they were able to come to a deal so quickly with Iger. I mean, the guy hasn't been on the job for that long, but they're still trusting him with such a huge merger. I suppose it definitely does help that John Lasseter gets to stay as Chief Creative Director (or a title something like that) and Steve Jobs gets huge-ass portions of Disney's shares. Hell, as it stands, Jobs is practically going to run more than half of all popular media. o_O

The question is, how would this affect any movies Disney and Pixar put out in the future? As optomistic a person as I am, and as much as I adore everything Pixar's put out, even I don't think they keep a string of successes forever. And then who's going to get the blame for that? Also, will Disney continute to produce their own 3D movies such as Chicken Little, or will all of that get settled with Pixar's team? I would *really* like it if Disney would start bringing back their 2D animated features, just because I think getting rid of that department was a massive mistake on their part, and any excuse to bring it back is a good one.

Another thing I wonder about is how the work environment itself would change. I was drooling over the idea of working at Pixar because of fairy-tale stories of artists riding scooters in the halls, getting to decorate their offices any way they like, and FREE FOOD ALL THE TIME. But would that artist-friendly environment deteriorate if Disney decided to spend their time and money elsewhere? Honestly, since they mentioned the merger, the idea of working at Pixar has appealed to me less.

I guess there's no way of knowing how well this will work out until we start seeing their new films. The merger might end up being good for both, and it was smart of Disney (and Iger) to reel Pixar back in instead of letting them get away. But just keeping Pixar around isn't going to fix Disney's own problems, and it would be far worse if those same problems rubbed off on Pixar's artists. If Disney's going to get back any small amount of its former reputation, it needs to start treating its artists better, and spend more time trying to make an actual well-thought out story.


In real-life news, Beth had to go to the hospital to get...her appendix removed! Holy frell, THAT was completely out of the blue, and a little freaky for awhile. We went to see her in the hospital yesterday, and she was doing okay then, so hopefully she should be able to get out today. Get better! *throws out Heartless cupcakes for comfort*

I am going to be gone this entire weekend (and probably without internet access, either) since I'm flying with my family out to Texas for my grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary. So it's a whole big to-do, along with dressing up nicely and pretending I know exactly what everyone's talking about. Should be at least a little interesting, however, and I haven't seen my dad's side of the family in awhile. Will probably ramble about that when I get back.

Narnia puppet show completion status: 6% Haven't done more yet, but I intend to finish the script this weekend.

Operator status: Really busy. Leave me ALONE!

Drawing: More stuff here and there. Mostly Deathnote stuff. X3

Writing: Updated a sporking yesterday, but not much else. I'm probably going to get a lot done this weekend when I'm sitting on the plane or waiting wherever with nothing better to do.