Hey guys,
@Otakuninja2006 here with another new timeline, this time, instead of being a TL that completely derailed from it's original plan(readers of my other TL;
TL-2K23, are well aware of that), this is a TL that will ACTUALLY stick to it's original plan, which was a alternate and bigger animation renaissance that begin in the 80s, but really takes off in the 90s. Basically, the PoD is that MCA is actually successful in their pursuit of Disney and the TL goes from there, so without further ado, let's go!
Alright.
EARLY-1984???
By this point, Disney was down bad. The company had experienced a worsening decline over the past decade, but now, it was at the point where they had to live or die. Several companies where in the process of bidding for Walt Disney. Gulf+Western, FREAKING MARRIOTT, MCA itself. Other than that, there was attempts at hostile takeovers, Reliance Insurance and Saul Steinberg was planning to takeover Disney with the intention of dismantling the company and selling it off for parts.
A hotel chain owning Disney? Get real.
MCA was also intending on buying Walt Disney Productions in our world, but Lew Wasserman was too stubborn, insisting that he remained president of the company despite Ron Miller wanting to stay president, so the deal was called off. Lew's stubbornness is what also caused a potential deal in 1986 to merge with RCA and gain control of NBC to collapse IOTL, but here, what if..........In an sense of wisdom, Lew actually allowed Ron to at least be in charge of the Disney part of the company?
Pass the popcorn.
This is the story of how an once-revolutionary animation studio that by the mid 80s, were fighting for it's life, turned back into an animation major, and fought the good fight with an increased animation renaissance. This IS the story of.................
AN ANIMATED ODYSSEY!
And trust me, things are going to get......BIG!
I'll say!
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After the MCA deal was made, Disney remained somewhat separate from Universal Pictures, but some changes were made, firstly, they laid off some staff, secondly, they created an new animation television unit, thirdly, they sold off Disney's theme parks where Universal already had a park, but some, like Disney's parks in Orlando and Tokyo were retained.
Studio layoffs are a requirement for something this big, especially if they're keeping Disney and Universal separate and making a TV animation unit sooner.
Honestly though, I can see Universal Studios Hollywood being their California theme park in exchange for Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland sticking around.
Another thing that occured was that The Disney Channel, Disney's family-friendly premium cable channel launched the previous year in 1983, was revamped as a basic cable channel named Calliope, based on the USA Network's children's block. The network aired all of the children's programs on the Calliope and Cartoon Express blocks as well as family-friendly stuff from Universal, Disney and Paramount's libraries, becoming the first competitor to Warner Communications and Viacom's Nickelodeon channel, which was recently revamped to boost it's ratings.
Not only does this mean Disney material stays on The Disney Channel's replacement, but we also have Woody Woodpecker on Calliope. Oh, and a boatload of Hanna-Barbera reruns, which I'm sure will mean nothing for a media mogul from Atlanta...
The first plans in their animation units were to release The Black Cauldron, The Great Mouse Detective and Oliver and Company as planned, however, The Black Cauldron woud be released completely uncensored under the Universal Pictures part of the growing MCA conglomerate, albeit the film would be marketed exclusively towards teenagers and adults. In addition, Walt Disney Universal Television Animation would be formed with the following shows coming out within the next few years being Mickey Mouse and Friends and surprisingly, an animated series based on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which Universal had the rights and ownership to.
An edgier Black Cauldron? I can gel with that.
Starting the WDUTA division with a Mickey Mouse revival and an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series? I'd be hyped for that.
With this development fresh in the minds of many, the general public was shocked, yet interested about this, while the rest of Hollywood began planning their own counterattacks, while some would begin planning to enter the animation field or return.
Things are about to get interesting.........
My thoughts exactly.
MID/LATE-1984, I THINK?
In the aftermath of MCA's shocking buyout of Disney, various people from Disney's animation and live-action units(the latter of which was folded into Universal's film and TV studios, leaving Disney as an animation company as well as a theme park unit) were laid off. This gave potential for many competing studios to poach the former staff.
I can see MCA's point on keeping Disney's animation and theme park units active, while folding the live-action stuff into Universal Pictures.
One company in particular would be an new startup film studio created by former Paramount executive Michael Eisner with the partnership of Gerry Anderson and Jim Henson called Hollywood Pictures, which was founded after he left Paramount Pictures.
That's already some noteworthy talent. As an upstart, Hollywood Pictures has some good foundation.
Upon hearing that many staff members were let go, he hired many of the live-action staff and even much of the animation stuff to build up his studio. The first film to be released by Hollywood was the British film What Waits Below, in 1985, while Wildside and most notably, The Golden Girls, were the first TV series to be released by Hollywood's TV division. The animation side of things also had a few things come out with The Wuzzles, The Adventures of the Gummi Bears and Little Muppet Monsters were early projects under Hollywood Pictures Animation Studios. Regardless, it looks like Hollywood Pictures could become a major studio just like Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Universal Pictures.
Gummi Bears, Little Muppet Monsters, The Golden Girls, and possibly future seasons of Muppet Babies. Amazing.
On the other hand, what other animation talent wasn't taken by Hollywood Pictures were being eyed by other studios. Warner Bros., Disney's historical fierce rival in the animation industry, used this as the perfect opportunity to get back in the game in a big way and took most of whoever wasn't hired and began development on an new series of Looney Tunes shorts alongside plans for an new universe of animated series based on their DC comics, including shows based on the likes of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, The Justice League and others as well as new and original ideas.
The new Looney Tunes shorts have potential, especially since hiring former Disney talent was what gave us the Looney Tunes to begin with. But would there still be an embargo of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, and The Flash? If they're off the table, who does The Justice League focus on?
They also announced plans to sell a stake of their cable networks to Viacom, as well as sell Atari, and most controversially, DC Comics to Marvel in a merger that was successfully passed, however, WB retained the adaptation rights to DC's comics.
I'm glad that WB retains the adaptation rights to DC Comics, but I hope WB keeps Nickelodeon and MTV at the bare minimum.
Many furious DC staff split from the newly formed Marvel-DC Comics to start their own comic company named Vertigo Comics with initial titles being the remains of Charlton's comic titles(and Vertigo even brought the Charlton comics DC already brought like Blue Beetle) as well as new comic titles such as Watchmen, Hellblazer, Swamp Thing(an series that was brought into the Vertigo umbrella). After Marvel-DC began mass wiping any series that was deemed "unfit" for Marvel-DC, Vertigo picked up many of their titles.
Well, this narrows the stars of The Justice League down a bit.
Paramount also saw a way to get back in the field. By keeping Jeffery Katzenberg ITTL, Paramount itself announced plans to reenter the animation by announcing the purchase of Walter Lantz's animation studio, only for Walter Lantz to reject their bid and sell everything to MCA, who was dealing with the Disney deal, so with that, MCA now owns Mickey Mouse, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Woody Woodpecker.
Wow! I didn't think that would happen, but it's great that Oswald and Mickey are reunited.
Despite that, Paramount would hire some animation talent from not only DIsney, but also from other places and even got with Hearst's King Features and Harvey Comics to revive Famous Studios with plans for an new Defenders of the Earth and Richie Rich series as well as plans for new animated films. In addition, Gulf+Western wound up selling Sega to an Japanese company called CSK.
This implies that Popeye, Casper, and Little Audrey are once again affiliated with Paramount, on top of everyone else from King Features and Harvey. This absolutely gives Paramount a step up.
Also, if Paramount still has a stake in the USA Networks, we get even more Calliope programming from their library.
MGM/UA, an studio with their hands just as deep in the animation field, announced plans to sign a deal with reowned animator Don Bluth to fund, co-produce and distribute his animated films, including An American Tail, The Land Before Time, as well as others, including an plan for an adaptation of Beauty and the Beast. In addition, MGM and Bluth announced plans to bring back Tom and Jerry, Droopy and Barney Bear in a series of new shorts, movies and series.
Since Universal is already elbows-deep in animated characters, I can see MGM/UA sticking with Bluth after releasing NIMH. It helps that mid-to-late 1984 is the best time for An American Tail to be released by a different studio.
Also, new Tom and Jerry shorts animated by Don Bluth. Where's my bottle of apple cider?
Columbia Pictures and 20th Century Fox so far hasn't really announced any new plans for animation, but it's safe to say that silence could give way to some news soon.
At this point, the events of this TL is starting to take hold. What occurs next, we should all see.
I have a feeling that Columbia and Fox should jump on board this train while it's still at the station, because if they're left behind, goodbye.
