2024 - Page 33 of 34 - Arkhaven Site

15JanJanuary 15, 2024

Disney Deathwatch: The Sportsball Edition

Michael Eisner’s most long-lasting impact on Disney was not his editions to parks nor his revival of Disney animation. Rides wear out and Disney appears to be institutionally incapable of making anything approaching the kind of animated masterpieces they used to. No, Eisner’s biggest long-term impact was the acquisition of ABC. That came with a major asset and a major liability disguised as an asset. Namely ESPN and Bob Iger.Indeed and truly if it wasn’t for ESPN, Disney would be trading...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

12JanJanuary 12, 2024

The Dark Herald Does Not Recommend Echo

Well, I’ve seen worse things from Marvel I have to give it that. Disney knew they had a bomb on their hands with this one. They tried to find a way to take the tax write-down and just make it vanish. Sadly, for Marvel pre-sales had been made and they couldn’t get out of it. Consequently, they dumped it on Disney+ all at once rather than draw it out week after week.Imagine my horror going into this thing. It’s so bad...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

11JanJanuary 11, 2024

RE:Animation – My Happy Marriage

Okay, my Darklings you are probably wondering how I ended up watching romance anime. You’re quite correct it is not remotely my thing. Usually. However, I’ve been married for over twenty years and when the Mother of the Darkspawn showed mild disappointment when I skipped over it while scanning Netflix, I decided to take one for the team and skipped back. I was vaguely hoping she’d get bored and bail after a couple of minutes.She didn’t and surprisingly I didn’t either.This story started...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

10JanJanuary 10, 2024

First Impressions: The Mandalorian and Grogu

Mando and Cub exploding out of the wreckage of the Halcyon seems unusually on the nose for Disney. I am positive this movie didn’t exist last week. As far as I can tell the “artwork” was an AI image slapped together by an intern and crammed into the announcement on the official Star Wars website.Normally, this big of a movie would have the groundwork carefully laid. There would be leaks to reliable shills about this new project. Then it would be...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

09JanJanuary 9, 2024

Am I Supposed to Be Excited About This?

John Favreau woke up this morning certain he'd made a disastrous decision. His mouth felt like dried and tanned leather His own pulse, a staccato of agony every time his heart beat. When he opened his eyes it felt like someone had stabbed through the socket with icicles that through to the back of his skull. None of that bothered him really. He'd had hangovers before.What scared him to the core of being was that he felt a heavy weight resting on his arm."Oh no,...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

08JanJanuary 8, 2024

Disney to Buy Cocomelon?

I'd put the odds of that happening this year at eight to five. Candle Media is run by two executives who were at one time or another odds-on favorites to succeed Iger on the Golden Mouse Throne. Tom Staggs and Kevin Meyer were both strong candidates to become CEO at Disney before Iger stacked the BOD and quietly made it known this was a "from my cold dead hands" kind of thing.Candle Media was founded by these two Disney ex-executives and...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

06JanJanuary 6, 2024

We Have A Contender for Worst Fight Scene of the Year

Marvel knows they've got a bomb in the making with this one. According to sources I trust, Marvel tried to cancel Echo but due to international contract commitments they couldn't.Consequently, they went with the stand Hollywood practice of dumping a failed project that they have to show in the month of January. Normally this is a rather sound approach, although if they'd launched it all at once at the end of December Aquaman 2 and Rebel Moon would have completely buried it. I...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

04JanJanuary 4, 2024

Nelson Peltz Blocked from the Disney Board?

Bad news my Darklings. Iger has probably blocked Nelson Peltz and James Rasulu from getting on the Disney Board of Directors, at least for this year.When ValueAct threw its hat in the ring, I had said at the time that Mason Morfit was going to be backing Bob Iger’s play. I was right.Iger has also recruited Blackwells Captial’s CIO Jason Aintabi into his camp. Take note: This is not Black Rock or Black Stone, this is yet another finance...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

03JanJanuary 3, 2024

Streaming Wars Cannibalism

Five years ago I wrote an article called “Begun the Streaming Wars Have” (Baby Yoda was a big thing at the time). I made some observations as well as some projections, prognostications, and predictions.I looked it up because I was a little curious as to how well my guesswork had stacked up against history. It turns out I did surprisingly well, I only had one real goof and that was due to a drastic change in circumstance.“I started on Netflix...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

03JanJanuary 3, 2024

Disney Eats Its Own Seed Corn

Question: How does a company stay in business for a century?Answer: By attracting a new generation of customers every time a new generation comes along.Sure, you can make lots of noises about consistent standards of quality, and high customer satisfaction but at the end of the day, if you stop attracting new generations of customers, you will be joining the ranks of the Pullman Railroad Cars Company and Blockbuster Video.This is unbelievably important. Now sometimes it can’t be helped. Pullman...

By The Dark HeraldUncategorized

Yearly Archives - 2024