Would Disney buy Hasbro and own Mlp?

[ManaMinori 4,145]

1: could you see Disney ever trying to buy out Hasbro, for whatever reason?

2: MLP is acquiring proncess ponies, so Disney might look at FiM and want a piece of that, to make their own. Would mlp snd princess ponies be better under Disney's direction?

3: would all princess ponies get their own Disney movie?

4: given that Disney has more going for it than Hasbro, would their IP be better off in Disney's hands? Would pony stand on the same stage as some of Disney's finer films?

5: would Disney welcome the fandom of bronies they'd be getting if they bought out hasbro and aquired ponies?

[cmarston1 5,959]

I  really really hope not.

[TheAnimatorOfficial 567]

Honestly I'd rather Warner Bros buy them out. Don't want a sellout but WB won't be nearly as hands on as Disney would be.

[Luminance 2,186]

Disney acquiring MLP may be good. Disney's exposure is higher and that may lead to being marketed more. Pretty much Disney would only focus on their target audience, which consists of 3-12 year old girls.

 

In the other hand, the fandom wouldn't matter to Disney and Disney may not acknowledge the fact that what made the show popular in the first place is the Brony phenomenon. For a fact, Hasbro already acknowledges the fandom otherwise, episodes like SOL wouldn't happen especially if Disney were to own MLP.

 

A hit and a miss, IMO.

[Megas 27,540]

I'm usually against Disney picking up anything. The only silver lining to this is if they let them operate on their own like Marvel, and that'd be only a slim possibility.

 

Honestly I can see them shelving Hasbro's own toy franchises in favor of pumping out Disney things, and I dread that scenario

[Jeric 46,850]

Honestly I'd rather Warner Bros buy them out. Don't want a sellout but WB won't be nearly as hands on as Disney would be.

WB has a hit and miss 'recent' track record for handling their own animated intellectual property.

 

---

 

As far as Disney itself, depends on if they let it operate like the Star Wars and Marvel IP's. In both cases, Kevin Feige and Kathleen Kennedy have been given immense freedom in developing each brand. Disney has veto authority and key aspects they want focused on so that both brands' can be marketed across the company in other areas. Sound familiar? This is the relationship Hasbro has with DHX, though I suspect Hasbro is more controlling if anything.

[Buck Testa 5,505]

I never got people's stigma of Disney acquiring MLP. Could you imagine something of MLP made with the production value of Zootopia? That would be breathtaking.  

[ManaMinori 4,145]

I never got people's stigma of Disney acquiring MLP. Could you imagine something of MLP made with the production value of Zootopia? That would be breathtaking.

i know Disney puts a lot of breathtaking visuals, backgrounds, expressions, etc. in their movies. Jungle Book, I heard, was amazing for scenery all digitally made. Their faries franchise (even as far back as Secret of the Wings) was breathtaking. (EQG pales in comparison) and i WANT pony to rival that, on Hasbro's end. I really do.

But Disney just goes all out, seems like, and i do wonder, at times, if mlp would in fact be better off in the hands of Disney.

(At least they'd give all the pony princesses enough spotlight and development, since Hasbro's long since dug themselves into the princess hoard hole)

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 41,242]

Depends on how much in return they would get out of it, as buying this property would be incredibly expensive no doubt. I wouldn't entirely be against, only if DHX wasn't given restrictions. The one thing that would make me fear it is the track record of Disney with their animated IP's. Anyone remmeber all of the terrible and unneeded sequels in the 2000's? They don't seem to be riding that train now, but it is in their history to do so.

[Luigi 7,869]

Oh god, I sure hope not. I'd rather see Hasbro make a partnership with Nintendo than get bought out by Disney. (Imagine that. Nintendo Hasbro Holdings)

 

Besides, I don't see any point in the benefit of either Disney or Hasbro. They would also be buying the Transformers franchise, and considering the Michael Bay disasters with the Transformers, I seriously doubt Disney would want any part of that.

[Dreambiscuit 9,556]

I could easily see Disney trying to own anything it could get its hands on that would make a profit. And with Disney's bottomless resources, they would make a profit with MLP.

I used to think Star Wars would benefit from Disney's direction but how much wronger could I have been? It's just a polished product now with no soul. An MLP movie would hold up fine against other Disney's because they would try to maintain a similar standard as they do with all their properties. This may not be considered a great standard, but it would be uniform. The biggest problem is that Disney is of a mind that you can just throw money at something and it'll fool enough of the public to pass the grade. But you can't catch lightning in a bottle that way. True inspiration suffers, and such would be the case here. 

And Disney would definitely welcome the Brony fandom because all they see are walking, talking dollars. And there are a lot of dollars there. 

[Merion 783]

Hasbro is already Disney's chosen doll manufacturer, responsible for the Princesses merch (Mattel lost the contract sometime last year), so... Who knows?

[An Unknown Pony. 370]

1: could you see Disney ever trying to buy out Hasbro, for whatever reason?

2: MLP is acquiring proncess ponies, so Disney might look at FiM and want a piece of that, to make their own. Would mlp snd princess ponies be better under Disney's direction?

3: would all princess ponies get their own Disney movie?

4: given that Disney has more going for it than Hasbro, would their IP be better off in Disney's hands? Would pony stand on the same stage as some of Disney's finer films?

5: would Disney welcome the fandom of bronies they'd be getting if they bought out hasbro and aquired ponies?

1.No.

2.maybe

3.Probably,more of like short animations instead of movies

4.maybe

5.yes?

[gamecubeguy214 2,512]

I hope not. I DO NOT ponified Disney princesses and mascots. Elsa working at Cloudsdale? I don't think so.

[Concerned Bystander 2,902]

Even if Disney did acquire Hasbro (God forbid), MLP would be subsumed into the massive machine and would end up on the Disney channel with a similar profile to things like 'Recess' or the 'Little Einsteins'.

 

Any film that came out of that pairing would more likely be straight to DVD than anything even close to any of Disney's finer films.  MLP may be a reasonably large franchise, but it's too much of a narrow niche to get the kind of expense and marketing that Disney ploughs into its bigger projects with a more universal appeal.

[BennyBoy 21]

1 - No, I think that they would have enough respect for the franchise and it's community and leave it to the people who are making it already, who are obviously doing good without their influence. Sure, money, but I do have faith in the people to know when to leave something alone and when it's good for the taking, for example, a small but good franchise that they could work off of without a fuss.

 

2  -No, I think they're just fine as they are now. Besides, people like the fact that they aren't just princesses, they are characters with a story to tell. Twilight herself said to her friends that she was more that just royalty, and for a while, the only way to know for sure was her wings. Comparing disney and mlp, I thick that mlp does better in characterization with their characters, royalty or not. They also know their target audience, and what they expect, children and adults alike. 

 

3 - That's obviously milking the cash cow, seeing as they're only picking princesses and not other characters like Applejack and her family, or Rainbow Dash and hers, or even side characters who deserve a film focusing on them and their origins and background. For example, the episode, "Pinkie Apple Pie." I loved that one because it detailed the closeness of family, and it was interesting to see them on their journey but still make it through together. I don't thick Disney will try to pull that off using princesses. 

 

4 / 5 - I thick that Hasbro owns this one, and they should just leave them be. Let other people taste success, even if it was like them. I know that personally, I would like movies from big names if they were okay, but they had to be made by that big name. If Disney made mlp, that would be different. But hasbro own all the generations of mlp, and they are known best for it. 

[TheAnimatorOfficial 567]

The one thing that worries me is if they will put MLP on Disney Junior. I know it *technically* has a similar age audience but c'mon. The show is a lot closer to Star vs. the Forces of Evil or Gravity Falls (even) than Sofia the First.

 

Honestly Disney needs to scrap that stupid "XD" channel and bring back all the cartoons on Disney Channel or AT LEAST bring back Toon Disney. MLP can go on that channel.

Edited June 5, 2016 by TheAnimatorOfficial

[Batbrony 16,043]

I don't see it happening, at least not as long as Transformers keeps making over a billion dollars every movie.  Let's be honest, that's Hasbro's most valuable IP at the moment, not MLP (no matter that MLP is clearly superior to those wretched films, but hey, money makes the world go round).  Same reason the X-Men won't be going back to Disney and the MCU any time soon; they keep turning enough of a profit for Fox that there's absolutely no incentive to sell.  But yeah, so long as they're doing things with their IPs and not making money off of them, Hasbro won't sell jack to Disney.

[ChikaChan 7,323]

R.I.P mlp fanarts if that happens </3

Edited June 6, 2016 by Princess-Moonlight

[NeonCobalt 256]

Would they, given the opportunity? Absolutely. Should they? I see no reason for them to, honestly. MLP/Hasbro in general is doing fine on its own. I wouldn't necessarily panic if it did happen, because Disney usually gives total creative freedom to the brands they buy out, meaning that Marvel is still controlled by the same people as it was before, and Lucasfilm is still controlled by the same people it was before (minus of course the departure of George Lucas, but he was going to retire anyway).

[HoovesOnIce 74]

I personally think that if Disney bought MLP it would be a good thing.  Disney tends to advertise their things right and not incorrectly like Hasbro does. Disney also doesn't take down fan made things as much as Hasbro does which would really help the bronies.

[Twilight Frost 271]

Disney doesn't have enough money to buy every company they want. They don't have the money to buy Hasbro, remember, hasbro owns Wizard of the Coast. They are too large of a company. Then again, they did buy marvel...so maybe,. But I doubt they ever could do it. 

[Shanks 10,816]

1. If given the chance yes, Disney is becoming increasingly monopolistic buying up all kinds of stuff. They bought Marvel and Lucasarts within the span of a few years or so. They are doing great with for the most letting Marvel do their thing, but their record with Lucasarts has been a bit more mixed. I think it is a bit too soon to panic over something that is not even so much as rumored to happen yet.

 

2.Probably not, Princess Ponies probably would probably change very little if at all but MLP could possibly change for the worst and since Disney is one of the worst companies when it comes to copyright we will also likely see a significant increase in C&D's and I could even see them trying to do what Sega did a while back and try to clamp down on the R34 which probably won't work and will draw unnecessary attention to it.

 

3. Possibly though it would most likely be a low budget direct to DVD release.

 

4. No, Disney is barely even a shadow of its former self. It cranks out the occasional good thing every now and then, but most of what it is doing now would disgust and horrify Walt Disney.

 

5. Probably not, they would likely be very wary of them due to the negative image many people have of them. Partly due to this and Disney being so insanely out of touch these days, they would probably just pretend bronies didn't exist for the most part and mostly go for the "target" demographic and may also try to go after clop for similar reasons though as Sega learned the hard way with Sonic porn that will probably not work out very well for them if they try it.

[Fhaolan 4,483]

Disney also doesn't take down fan made things as much as Hasbro does which would really help the bronies.

 

This is a 'swings and roundabouts' thing. Disney goes through extended periods where they are *extremely* paranoid about fan-created content. To the point of C&D'ing daycare centers for having Disney characters painted on their walls, and going after cosplayers and conventions for trademark infringement. The shutting down of the Star Wars Extended Universe had some old-time fans worried that Disney was about to crank up into another litigation period. And it doesn't help that Disney has a lot of bored lawyers on hand. More than Hasbro as Hasbro hires outside legal firms to deal with that stuff. Disney has a large, ever expanding, legal department in-mouse.

[Wind Chaser 4,768]

If Disney bought Hasbro, it would offer them a vertically-integrated supply chain for merchandising and toys. Instead of having to negotiate licensing contracts with outside companies, Disney would have an entire supply chain of designers, manufacturers, and distributors under their direct control, at the ready for their next princess, Star Wars, or Marvel merchandising blitz. Intellectual properties such as MLP and Transformers are just little bonuses that I think they'll keep around, but I doubt will expend too much time and effort on. I don't doubt in my mind that Robert Iger or any number of Disney investors have had a wet dream of calling the shots at a toy company. They would be truly conquering another medium.

 

However, I think the reason why they don't do it is because Hasbro may be overvalued to them. No matter how good individual franchises can do, traditional toys are a shrinking market. Disney's bread and butter right now is in feature films and it would be wiser for them to stick to licensing deals or invest in a rising, new-tech toy company than to grab a company like Hasbro that is clinging to the last strands of a has-been business strategy. Their marketing deal with Sphero to make a smart BB-8 toy was a phenomenal start and I hope the world's largest licensor can keep up the innovation.