Why I'm Getting Worried About Disney

Disney's always been the family-friendly company that everyone's grown to love, but over the years, it seems that they're growing incredibly large and don't seem to be slowing down. This scares me a bit because they may be changing the climate of the entertainment industry. They're not only growing larger by absorbing film companies, but now they're venturing into the streaming industry. What seemed like a harmless kid-friendly company has grown into a giant.

This company has had a hold on us from the very beginning. They have family-friendly movies and television shows. We've all grown up watching Disney films and will probably continue the pattern by raising our children to watch Disney films as well. In other words, we've already trained ourselves to love the brand and will continue to teach the next generation to love it as well.

Of course, we are because they have a great product and always come up with AAA-quality titles. There's only one company that comes close to competing and they don't seem to be a major competition to Disney—and that's Dreamworks.

Over the years, Disney has diversified their their portfolio, not only in films, but in media and entertainment in general. They've built theme parks all over the world, they have Broadway musicals played everywhere, and they even have their own TV stations. You've probably heard of the Disney Channel, but did you know that Disney also owns the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), all of the ESPN networks, National Geographic, A&E, Lifetime, the History Channel, and they just newly acquired Fox—along with their affiliated networks. That's a lot!

They've been acquiring companies left and right. They now have Buena Vista (Disney created this company), Pixar, LucasArts, Touchstone, the Muppets, Hollywood Records, Marvel, and again, Fox with their affiliates.

This has resulted in Disney pretty much owning all of the major franchises out there right now. The new Avatar movies that are coming out are owned by Disney now. All of the Marvel movies are now owned by Disney, including the X-Men franchise. Disney even owns the rights to make new Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies. You name it, they probably own it.

It's scary that a company owns this much in the entertainment industry. People tell me that it shouldn't be scary because Disney is known to make very good, quality products.

That's the thing though, all of their products are of very good quality and highly profitable. I'm afraid that this will result in formulaic films and products. I fear that there will be less opportunities for giant companies to experiment and take risks.

We're already seeing this affect on the Star Wars franchise, and even Marvel movies to a certain extent. Some of the stuff coming out is starting to become very formulaic and we're starting to see a ton of pandering to fans. Who's to blame Disney for doing this if it works. Fans are still coming in droves to watch the movies and buy merchandise, regardless of the outcome of the movies that come out.

What about franchises though? Are they to stick with what works and continue to milk franchises for everything they're worth? I am seeing less and less risks for new franchises. Fox used to be good at creating new content, but I wonder if Disney will be putting an axe to their vision.

Now Disney has taken control over Hulu, one of the big streaming sources in the US. Disney plans to create their own Disney+ streaming network soon. I can see that they're planning way ahead and are determined to win the streaming wars. With the amount of major film companies that Disney has control over, it wouldn't surprise me if they are the ones to take down Netflix as part of their global takeover.