After Fox Takeover, Disney Now Owns All Three Walden ‘Narnia’ Movies
Is it finally time for an official box set of Walden Media’s Narnia films?
History Lesson:
Walden Media produced all three Narnia movies. Disney distributed The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and Prince Caspian (2008) before stepping away. Fox distributed The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010).
Now, thanks to a $71.3 billion deal that has been years in the making, Disney has now acquired most of 21st Century Fox. The mega-merger includes Fox film and TV studios, which released The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader under the banner of 20th Century Fox in 2010. Ten years later, the Dawn Treader is sailing back to Disney with the company’s acquisition of Fox and its properties.
Now that all of these Narnia films are owned by the same company, fans have some hope of seeing them released as a complete box set. While box sets have been available in European countries in the past, the Disney/Fox merger clears away obstacles for offering an official set containing all three films in the future. This is just a hope. It has not been announced.
This deal also opens the door for all three Narnia movies to possibly appear on Disney’s upcoming streaming service Disney+, as well as another streaming service now largely owned by the House of Mouse: Hulu.
What do you think of the Fox/Disney merger and its connection to Narnia? Do you wish Disney was involved with future Narnia adaptations? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
This Fox/Disney merger is insane. It's like antitrust has just disappeared and no one cares anymore.
I do wish in a way that Disney was still involved just because it means we wouldn't get a reboot and the series could finish properly. Then again, I don't trust Disney, not after the ditched Narnia in the first place.
A box set would be cool, even though I already own all the DVDs.
I would love a new box set with special features and additional content. But mostly I would love Disney to return to Narnia and finish the series with our four Pevensies that we've grown to know and love. But like many I am disappointed in Disney backing out years ago, but I personally blame the egos of both Walden Media and Disney for not coming to a better release date for Prince Caspian than between Indian Jones 4 and Iron Man! I'll be watching from the shadows to see what happens with this merger.
My Christmas wish list for next year just got longer by one item.
Sadly i doubt the Narnia aspect of this Fox merger deal even registers on Disney's radar, especially not in comparison to the huge implications for Marvel Studios in regaining key characters and the massive boost to their Television strategy in acquiring further stakes in Hulu and Sky.
Given that North America seems to be the only region that hasn't already had a Narnia Trilogy Boxset, and that the ones released over here in Europe and elsewhere haven't exactly been flying off the shelves in the 6 years since they were made available, i kind of doubt that Disney would consider it a worthy investment to do so.
I guess maybe if the whole Netflix thing really takes off they might consider a quick cash in, but even then id be surprised to see anything more than a cheap re-packaging.
Did they know Iron Man was going to be a hit though? I'd barely heard of the character before the movies came out.
There is a little more news on this front. AV Club is reporting that Disney is now shutting down Fox 2000, which was the Fox arm connected to Dawn Treader.
Links:
https://news.avclub.com/disney-is-shutting-down-fox-2000-and-taking-a-buzzsaw-t-1833478748
Source of Fox 2000's involvement with Dawn Treader ("Development and production matters…"):
https://variety.com/2009/film/markets-festivals/fox-to-develop-narnia-3-1117999226/
Disclaimer: Links may go to sites that are not entirely family friendly.
I think they had high hopes for it. Already in Iron Man they set up the makings of the MCU as we know it today (I'm a Marvel fan so I was very familiar with Iron Man before the movie). It was probably a test. At the very least, it would be a big challenge to any other film because superhero movies always attract moviegoers. Think of the general success of the X-Men movies and the original Spider-Man trilogy, and they were arguably mediocre movies. I just believe that if Walden or Disney had moved their holiday movies at the time (what were they…Waterhorse and Enchanted?) and left Prince Caspian as a Christmas movie then things would have been different. Disney might have still had the success they wanted and not backed out of the project, leaving Walden to pick up the pieces with Fox, which rarely works out.
I agree. They should have acknowledged that the competition with Iron Man and Indiana Jones, along with less familiarity with that book, contributed to a lower gross that was still in the top ten for that year.
Disney will probably make a boxed set whenever Netflix finally releases their Narnia adaptions, however, I don't think that Disney will do it before then because their strategy is to promote whatever properties they own completely. I think this is one of the reasons they abandoned the Narnia movies (and announced it just in time for Christmas – a wrong move). Disney tends to do best making things where they have freedom to drastically change the storyline and Narnia is not one of those things. Plus, they didn't completely own the rights and characters so it wasn't as economically profitable for Disney.
I didn't really realize this was the reason at the time, I had thought Disney executives just didn't like Narnia, but having ten years to think about it expands my mind a bit.
I don't think Disney's involvement would have made any difference to VODT as far as the final product is concerned.
I'm not sure. I very much enjoyed VODT and still do. But I can distinctly remember watching it for the first time in theaters and thinking "this feels different." It's hard to describe what makes it different to me. The best reasoning I can come up with is that it felt somehow "less magical" than the previous two movies. At the time, I attributed it to Disney's absence. I still don't know for sure, but I do wonder what it would have been like if Disney continued.
Disney and Fox's main jobs have been to produce the Narnia movies. That means they provide money, warn the filmmakers if they're spending too much money and take action if they aren't making enough money.
I agree that the VODT movie felt different from the first two. But I don't think the producers had much to do with it. I think it had to do with the directors since they were much more directly involved with making the films.
Very true. I hadn't thought about it like that. Perhaps, in the end, all we were missing was Caspian's phony Spanish accent. lol
I bought all three films on blu-ray, although none of them are extended editions. At first I didn't like Prince Caspian at all, but later I began to be intrigued by certain parts of the film such as the location and acting. I have to say that the blu-rays have good bonus features. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe blu-ray was quite an improvement in picture quality over the DVD. I am afraid that Prince Caspian is still my least favorite even though I now own it. I thought the other two were more enjoyable for acting and general appearance of the films. The story adaptations were somewhat weak for the Prince Caspian and Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but that's not a reason to completely dislike them. I am curious– did the people here like the three films enough to buy them all?
I thought the VODT movie was pretty lame on the whole but there were a few parts that I really loved and there's no longer a dvd rental place near my home, so I ended up buying it even though I don't think it's good enough to own strictly speaking. LOL.
I think Disney will certainly release a box set of all three films when Netflix is in the middle of their Narnia launch. It’s a classic move on their part. Let Netflix promote the brand new series and Disney can make a quick buck off the buzz. Plus it’s kinda petty and Disney can be very petty. I think
This would be a nice little Jan in the side especially after Netflix washed its hands of Marvel.
Actually I think all three movies are worth owning for the bonus features and the wonderfully clear picture. I think Voyage of the Dawn Treader wasn’t all bad since it had some good acting and it was visually attractive. I wouldn’t say it was completely “lame” but rather that the story needed much improvement in being closer to the books. It needed more of C.S. Lewis original plots and concepts.
I would be very pleased if Disney would take advantage of the opportunity and finally release the Extended Cut of Prince Caspian that was shown on ABC Family, even if it had to be relegated to a 'Disney Movie Club Membership DVD Exclusive, like they did with Ducktales: Volume 4. Doesn't have to be a 4-disc deal at all, just the movie. I just wish they'd make the Extended Cut officially available. Bottom line is: The extended cut for Prince Caspian does in fact exist, and I think Narnia fans would appreciate getting to relive the extended cut – this time without all the commercial breaks. Narnia fans? Feel free to sound off! I want to see this happen!!!
The first two film will be available on Disney+