Beyond The Simpsons: What Animation Assets Disney Will Own by Acquiring Fox

Beyond The Simpsons: What Animation Assets Disney Will Own by Acquiring Fox

December 6th, 2017

Jerry Beck

It’s not just The Simpsons, Family Guy or Bob’s Burgers. If the rumored Disney buyout of 20th Century Fox goes through, Disney will end up with a fortified cartoon library that will probably double their animation assets.

For starters, they will be acquiring the rights to Crusader Rabbit – the first cartoon series created for television (in 1949). They’ll also pick up much vintage Saturday morning stuff – like the Planet Of The Apes cartoons, Journey To The Center Of The Earth, Fantastic Voyage, The Hardy Boys, Dr. Doolittle… Fox Kids originals like The Tick and Peter Pan and The Pirates, Bobby’s World and Life With Louie.

One thing they will not get is the Terrytoons (Mighty Mouse, Heckle & Jeckle, Deputy Dawg, etc.). Twentieth Century Fox distributed those theatrical shorts (and later TV series), but Terrytoons was an independent studio. Owner Paul Terry sold the library to CBS in 1955 (CBS/Viacom/Paramount still own those rights today).

However Disney would acquire a slew of theatrical features, including Ralph Bakshi’s Wizards (1977) and Fire and Ice (1983). Disney could add Ferngully: The Last Rain Forrest, Once Upon A Forest, The Pagemaster, Don Bluth’s Anasatasia and Titan AE, and of course the Blue Sky studio and their assets: The Ice Age Movies, Robots, Rio, Epic, Horton Hears A Who, The Peanuts Movie – and the forthcoming Ferdinand (which will go good with the 1939 Oscar winning original short).

They would now own The Book Of Life (which would pair nicely with Coco), and of course their Animation Domination Sunday night line-up: Amercian Dad, King Of The Hill, Cleveland Show, Futurama… and a whole bunch of primetime one-season wonders: Sit Down Shut Up, Bordertown, Allen Gregory, and on and on.

Does anyone else sense a revival of the Toon Disney Network is in order? I do.

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.