Disney Acquires Marvel Entertainment

As Disney creeps closer to global domination, the latest acquisition does not surprise me one bit. Marvel Entertainment has agreed to a deal with Walt Disney, which will give the Mouse house controlling shares of Marvel. The deal is said to be around $4 billion, and gives Disney control of over 5,000 Marvel characters, including Iron Man, Spider-Man, X-Men, Captain America, Fantastic Four and Thor.

The movie rights along for the said characters are worth this deal.

[Techcrunch]

Toy Story 3 Teaser Trailer

Okay, now I know we all love Pixar movies, and one of the biggest is getting a new sequel.  I am looking forward to this since it seems like they kept the whole cast together.

Disney's guide to Home Theater Setup

I like the 1940s Disney animation shorts. They may not get to the hilarity level of Chuck Jones and Tex Avery's work at Warner, but some of them are really good. This How to Hook Up Your Home Theater short is new, but it feels like one of them and summarizes perfectly the dangers and absurd complexity of modern big home theaters, from impossible-to-open audio cable boxes to the sound system—with "center channel, left and right speakers, bit more to the left and bit more to the right speakers, surround speakers, surrounding surround speakers"— to huge screens. [Cartoon Brew via Dark Roasted Blend via Gizmodo]

Pixar's Wall-E looks fun

OK. I love animated movies and especially CGI movies, and nobody is better than Pixar. This movie looks like it'll be an absolute riot. I'm looking forward to it even more now.

Blu-Ray Only Titles Available On Region-Free HD DVD

Interesting story coming from the WSJ today about the HD format war that I thought should be known.

• Many titles from Sony, Fox and Disney which are Blu-Ray only here in the U.S. are available in HD DVD in other countries.
• Since HD DVD is region-free you can order those movies from sites like Xploited Cinema and don't need to worry about them playing on your system.

Blu-Ray also can get HD DVD only titles, but there is a little catch:

"Some titles that come out exclusively on HD DVD in the U.S. come out on Blu-ray overseas, such as Universal Pictures' "Bruce Almighty" and "Hollywoodland," but consumers must be sure they are buying from a region that works with U.S. players. For Blu-ray, the U.S. is in the same region as almost all of the Americas and Southeast Asia." And the statement that really got my attention was "Still, most major high-definition titles available overseas seem to reflect a switch to HD DVD, rather than the reverse."

It's looking more and more like I might be picking up an HD DVD player!

[WSJ via Gizmodo]

Microsoft & Disney Bring Xbox Live Movies

E3 has already produced some surprises.

Two of the biggest giants have joined to together to bring Xbox fans 'The Little Mermaid'. In all seriousness, Microsoft and Disney & ABC Television have teamed up to bring on-demand movies and TV shows to Xbox Live. Here is the press release:

Beginning today, consumers of all ages will have access to a growing catalog of new and classic movies from The Walt Disney Studios including titles from Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures and Miramax Films, on Xbox LIVE Marketplace. Xbox 360 owners will be able to rent popular Disney films on demand as they become available, such as Bridge to Terabithia, Miramax Film's The Queen and Touchstone Pictures Deja Vu.

The site has already gone live and you can download to your hearts content!!!
Hit the jump to read the entire press release. [Mania]