Cy Guy's Journal: 80 minutes of ads for a kids movie?

My wife and I were excited to see that Disney was bringing back 'family movie night' on ABC this Summer. For both of us that brings back memories of youth watching a movie with (our respective) families after Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, or 60 Minutes had ended.

However, apparently families with young kids are not the target audience Disney Corp. has in mind. For Saturday June 7th, they will have Finding Nemo, which runs just 100 minutes if you watch it uninterrupted. But if you don't own the DVD and want to watch it on ABC instead, you'd better give the kids a can of cola with dinner, because the movie will start at 8 PM Eastern Time and run until 11 PM. I can only assume that the additional 80 minutes will include some cast commentaries, as well as a preview of WALL-E, but what is the point if the kids fall asleep while Marlin and Dory are still stuck in the belly of a whale? You're just going to have to try and rent it or add it to your NetFlix queue so the kids can see the rest of it.

I had such great hopes for Disney when Steve Jobs became it's largest shareholder, I guess my trust was misplaced.

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[johndiii]

"Apple"? Strange name for an electronics company. What do they make, electric fruit juicers? ;-)

One would expect a large shareholder to exert some influence on the company. Jobs' major successes have been the building and rebuilding of the Apple brand, and maintaining it. Disney's brand was family-friendly entertainment and valuing that over mor expedient means to commercial success. I'd have expected Jobs' influence to extend to perhaps re-burnishing that somewhat tarnished aspect of Disney, at least

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[johndiii]

As a director of Disney, I'd expect him to participate in strategic decisions, but not much more than that. Of course, I'm sure that he keeps his own counsel regarding such decisions - but I can understand why Cy Guy would hope for a more positive direction, in terms of restoring the family-friendly brand.

New Slashdot Moniker!

[johndiii]

"Di$ney" :-)

It's for intro, breaks, and LOTS of commercials ..

[tomhudson]

They're going to tack on (16*3=48) minutes of commercials. 8 minutes every half-hour, 6 minutes network ads and 2 minutes local ads. Then add the "filler" material (preview, closing credits) and you've got a full hour of "blech!"

Re:It's for intro, breaks, and LOTS of commercials

[Cy Guy]

That still leaves 20 minutes unaccounted for.