Peeve Farm

g r o t t o 1 1

Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets

  Blog \Blôg\, n. [Jrg, fr. Jrg. "Web-log".
     See {Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal}.]
     A stream-of-consciousness Web journal, containing
     links, commentary, and pointless drivel.

On My Blog Menu:

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.clue

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Tuesday, March 5, 2002
00:53 - Damn, that mouse's face has never looked more sinister...	(top)
Okay, so what's with this sudden onslaught of ads for Disney-themed cereal? I just saw a fully-animated TV spot for "Pooh Hunny Bs", which follows right on the heels of another such ad for "Mickey Magix"-- two new entries into a mature cereal market by a new Disney/Kellogg's partnership whose purpose seems, rather oddly, to be to resurrect the aging but historically revered Disney icons in an age where Simba and Buzz Lightyear are better recognized by kids than Mickey and Donald. Why this sudden focus on the classics? Could it possibly have something to do with how the Supreme Court is revisiting its decision on extending copyrights-- with the potential result that Mickey Mouse, 75 years after his creation, might end up in the public domain after all? And so Disney's suddenly barraging the public with ads for theme parks starring a modern-voiced Mickey pitched as "every kid's favorite Disney character", reality indicating the contrary be damned? So they can prove themselves to be vigorously defending the property when it comes up in whatever toothless court might be afflicted with the inevitable challenge case? I'm sorry, but it may just be time to move on. Mickey and Donald and Goofy come from a time when Disney's animated shorts were the equivalent of network sitcoms-- standard fare, the stuff that's just "there", consistent and reliable but seldom remarkable. The WB shorts were always spikier, more sarcastic, more biting, more daring. And while WB's zany style (initially established rather heavy-handedly by giving every character a name that was a synonym for "Crazy") lent itself to success in the 90s with its entries into the Cartoon Renaissance-- Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Freakazoid, Batman, Superman, and the current Cartoon Network bonanza-- Disney's contributions to the same cause had a lot of the same "corporate" feel, a refusal to take risks, a copycattish attitude-- a Microsoftian approach, one might almost say. And now, seeing that there's little hope of hitting another out-of-the-blue jackpot like The Lion King anytime soon, they're grinding down their brake pads on their recent (rather brave) experimental features and concentrating on releasing "instant sequels" for the classics (Cinderella II? Peter Pan II? Hunchback II?!) and pushing their good ol' cash cows that they trot out every 20 years or so-- Mickey, Donald, Pooh, and the rest. Buzz Lightyear is supposed to be joining the cereal lineup with his own branded entry, which comes as a surprise to me considering Disney's attitude lately toward Pixar and its owner. Yeah, I dunno. I'm rather peeved at Disney right now-- well, particularly at Eisner, for being so deeply in the pockets of Fritz Hollings, The Man Who Would Control Your Hard Drive. ...What? You mean you hadn't heard of that? Well, then, read this frightening state of affairs. Disney and the rest of the entertainment fat-cats are sponsoring Hollings' lobby to enact laws which would make it illegal to even have on your computer any software that isn't protected against piracy by some government-mandated security system. Not surprisingly, Microsoft is right in there with Hollings. On the other side of the fight, though, is Steve Jobs; his position is that "If you legally acquire music, you need to have the right to manage it on all other devices that you own"... a position that the Industry detests, because look how much power and convenience it gives to the end user! Why, under this model, it'd be impossible to sell entertainment on a pay-per-use basis, which Disney and Time-Warner and CBS all would just love. And which Microsoft is all too happy to help enable. Jobs is registering these sound bites (something he does very seldom) at a time when it's clear that if no major players in the tech industry take a stand, we'll have copy-protected CDs and pay-per-use software every which way we turn; as I've already mentioned, Eisner is blasting Apple's "Rip. Mix. Burn." ad campaign as being tantamount to condoning piracy (reality and common sense notwithstanding). The two sides are shaking out pretty clearly, if you ask me, and Apple's planting its feet and getting ready to duke it out in favor of the users' rights, while Microsoft and Disney link arms and prepare to trample all over Apple and the users at once. You know what? Apple can't stand alone, not against the behemoths who are facing them down. The users are going to need to show some backbone and willingness to fight too, or else very soon it'll be too late. And if we fail, the grinning face of Mickey will never be a benign and friendly visage in my mind ever again.