Disney now owns our childhood

Where were you on that fateful day, October 30, 2012?

You know the one I'm talking about. The day the earth moved, shifting on its axis, when millions of voices weren't silenced, but instead exploded onto Twitter to vent outrage or glee?

Yes, that was the day that news came out of Disney buying Lucasfilm (and all that it owns) for $4 billion.

Believe it or not, I was actually in an office meeting. I had a dead spot in the meeting while the others were looking at things that they needed to talk about and I fired up my phone and checked Twitter. I'm sure my eyes widened when I saw the first thing that popped up.

Twitter became a madhouse for the next two hours at least. The productivity of nerds (hey, that's a great name for a band!) all across the country probably plummeted toward zero at a lightning pace.

All for $4 billion.

Is this a good thing?

Opinions are divided on this. Many Star Wars fans have been disillusioned for years about how George Lucas has pretty much made the franchise unwatchable with the prequel trilogy. Jar-Jar Binks is almost a curse word in nerd circles.

On the other hand, while many around the Net were making jokes like this:

others seem to remember that Disney has actually done a pretty good job with other companies that they've purchased. The Marvel Comics movies have been very good since Disney bought the comic company.

Personally, I'm actually optimistic, though I realize they could ruin a good thing with Episode VII on its way in 2015. On the other hand, it was already ruined, so could it get any worse?

What hits me more is just how much of what I grew up with is now owned by Disney. I grew up reading Marvel Comics, and while I also read a lot of DC (owned by Warner Bros), Marvel was huge in my life. They are part of Mickey's empire.

ESPN (and ABC along with it)? That was my major sports network growing up.

Disney also owns the Muppet Studios, so the muppets are now part of the empire.

A major chunk of my childhood, all under one huge umbrella.

Still, it's not all bad. At least they haven't bought Hasbro.

Yet.