Disney Just Can't Wait to Be King

Disney has, over the years, experienced its share of fantastic periods of prosperity. Beginning in 1937 with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and going all the way until the mid-1960s, the company saw massive success on multiple fronts from the likes of movies, television, and even theme parks with the opening of Disneyland in 1955. In the 1990s, Disney released classic after classic on the movie front while also expanding its presence on television while also debuting Disney's Animal Kingdom at Disney World and Disney's California Adventure in the early 2000s out in Anaheim. For lengthy stretches, Disney has always found a way to be the king of just about everything in entertainment.

But are we just now entering the greatest time period in Disney history? I think so.

Now, I understand that every hardcore Disney fan will have their own opinions and thoughts on this topic, but here me out on why I think the best is actually yet to come for Disney in the not-so-distant future.

First of all, let's start with Disney's ever-growing presence on television. It's obvious that they own ABC and ESPN, two networks that exponentially grow year in and year out. Beyond those two power networks, though, Disney has quietly made Disney Channel and Disney XD some must watch networks for a wide variety of demographics. Look firstly at Disney XD. At the time of this writing, the network is preparing to fire up its second season of the popular Star Wars Rebels series. They also just kicked off a highly anticipated animated Guardians of the Galaxy series alongside the continued presence of Marvel on the network every day. Over on Disney Channel, the original film Descendants was previously released to high ratings and a cult following. Disney's television workload will inevitably continue to grow over the coming years. ABC and ESPN grows seemingly every day as well with popular shows like Scandal, Modern Family, and Monday Night Football bringing in an enormous audience every week. Disney television has never been better and will only continue to improve in the ratings and in quality of entertainment.

Moving to the movie front, as I wrote about on a previous post, I believe Disney animation is currently in the its third Golden Age with the recent releases of hits like Tangled, Frozen, and Big Hero 6. Additionally, Pixar has never been more popular with the recent phenomenon Inside Out and the highly anticipated The Good Dinosaur on the near horizon. Plus, Pixar has sure fire hits coming up in the next few years as well with the release of Finding Dory, Toy Story 4, and The Incredibles 2. For Disney itself, 2016 will see the release of two new animated movies; Zootopia and Moana. Furthermore, with Disney's recent fascination with live action remakes of some of their animated classics, in the coming years, audiences will be treated to the likes of The Jungle Book (2016), Alice in Wonderland: Through the Looking Glass (2016), and Beauty and the Beast (2017). Some additional live action remakes include Pete's Dragon (2016) and among the announced but not dated remakes are Mulan, Dumbo, and a sequel to Mary Poppins. Disney animation also has Gigantic coming up in 2018 from the songwriters of Frozen. I think it's rather clear that Disney has a few highly anticipated films coming up over just a matter of three or four years, and I didn't even mention the fifth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise due up in 2017.

Then, there's also this small franchise that Disney recently purchased that may end up making the studio a little pocket change called Star Wars. This December will see the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, perhaps the most highly anticipated movie of all-time. After this one is released, though, Disney isn't done; in fact, they're putting the pedal to the medal when it comes to this lucrative franchise. Next year will see the release of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, a spinoff set in the time period behind episodes three and four, and then the studio will release the second installment in their new trilogy in 2018. They will also see the release of the the third film in the trilogy in probably 2020 as well as some intriguing anthology spinoffs like a Han Solo movie and a Boba Fett movie.

Disney also owns another little studio you may have heard of as well: Marvel. The comic book studio has never been hotter with the recent success of the worldwide phenomenon, Avengers: Age of Ultron. In Marvel's Phase Three (roughly in the time frame of 2016-2020), audiences will see the likes of Captain America: Civil and Doctor Strange in 2016, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 and Thor: Ragnarok in 2017, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War Part 1, and Ant-Man and the Wasp in 2018, and finally, Avengers: Infinity War Part 2, Captain Marvel, and Inhumans due in 2019. Needless to say, Marvel is going to be making a lot of money for Disney.

In addition to all of that, Disney has also conceived an ambitious plan to enhance its theme parks on both coasts over the next couple of years. At Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios, Star Wars Land is coming to guests that absolutely cannot wait to see this new expansion come to life hopefully in 2019 (breaking ground will probably occur in 2016). Furthermore, at Disney World, Pandora: The World of Avatar will soon be coming to Animal Kingdom in late 2016. The presence of Frozen will be expanded in the summer of 2016 at Epcot's Norway Pavilion in addition to the expansion of New Fantasyland at the Magic Kingdom in the last couple of years.

Financially, I don't think there's ever been a more profitable time period for Disney than the time period they are just now beginning to enter in to. Only time will tell if I am right or not with this prediction, but to me, it just seems like there's never been a better time to be a Disney fan. For now, just sit back and watch the maestros go to work. I am thoroughly looking forward to everything the company has coming up for audiences to enjoy on every front. For Disney, they just can't wait to be king; for the Disney fan, I just can't wait to enjoy.

-Cody Fleenor