Has the DC / Marvel Film Crossover Finally Happened?
Chip n ‘Dale Rescue Rangers broke new ground in featuring a DC and Marvel superhero in the same movie. But is it a true cinematic crossover?
Fans clamoring for a cinematic crossover between the DC and Marvel Universes could hardly suspect it would finally happen in a Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers movie. In its ocean of cameos, DC and Marvel characters get prominently featured as themselves with no equivocation about their identities. But did this legendary rivalry really come together to make cinematic history in this movie? Well, the answer lies in how their corporate owners act about certain depictions and will let audiences know if a fully-fledged crossover might be right around the corner.
Viewers can not miss either appearance in the film. A Batman similar to Ben Affleck’s appears glowering over ET in a film-within-a-film titled Batman Vs. ONE While that’s just a quick gag, the Disney-owned Marvel character has much more screen time. The obscure Marvel heroine Tigra appears in her Avengers: United We Stand incarnation as a regular celebrity convention. The 1999 cartoon is often called the worst cartoon Marvel ever made and is suspected by many to be why the 50-year-old hero hasn’t reappeared in either animation or joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Little did anyone suspect she would be the first Marvel character to share the screen with Batman.
Seeing these two characters in the same movie might seem impossible to film fans, but comics fans know DC / Marvel crossovers have never been out of the question. From 1976 to 2004, DC and Marvel co-published a variety of crossovers between their characters featuring everyone from Superman to Galactus. However, increasing industry competitiveness and disagreements over how to split sales seemingly shut the door on future corporate crossovers. That change in policy happened before Marvel got bought by Disney, whose fiercely protective branding only makes it harder for other companies’ characters to “cross over.” And is especially true for ones owned by Warner Bros., the studio that is one of Disney’s top rivals at the box office.
However, there has been past cooperation between the two film studios. Chip n ‘Dale: Rescue Rangers draws a lot of inspiration from the 1988 masterpiece Who Framed Roger Rabbit, right down to having Roger appear in the movie. That film made history by having two major studios come together to feature their characters in one major motion picture. Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse shared the screen while the Ducks, Daffy and Donald, fought a musical battle. It was the Multiverse of Madness of its time, and it only happened because Disney and Warner Bros. worked out how many seconds each character shared the screen. So, it’s only natural that Roger Rabbit‘s spiritual sequel would want to showcase that same breadth of animation cameos from different studios.
But Rescue Rangers’ credits raise the question of whether Warner Bros. agreed to the use of Batman in the film. At the end of the film, a list of copyright acknowledgments lists every property whose appearances got signed off by their rights holders. Even Disney-owned properties like Peter Pan spirit 101 Dalmatians get that acknowledgment there. Yet, ET and Batman’s corporate owners are nowhere on the list, meaning there’s a possibility Disney used them without the studios’ permission.
Chip and Dale’s joke about a “non-corporate brand-specific soda” in the film points to the hazards of using a trademark you do not own in a film. But a quick scan of YouTube will let anyone know that one can get away with it if what you’re doing is a parody and commenting on the source material, which the Batman Vs. ONE scene certainly does. Still, studio executives can get territorial about such jokes.
That said, Disney has a history of using characters without consulting their rights holders. For instance, they refused to acknowledge the Great Ormond Street Hospital’s copyright claim on Peter Pan for years while it was still arguably valid. In Batman’s case, Disney used their shared ownership of the 1966 Adam West Batman series with Warner Bros. to use a transition from that show in another Disney IP-palooza, 2018’s Ralph Breaks The Internet. In those end credits, they only credit the subsidiary ownership of the property. So, it’s more than likely Batman made his appearance in Chip n ‘Dale: Rescue Rangers without DC’s input.
And if DC did not sign off on Batman appearing in the same film, that means Rescue Rangers is a proper Marvel / DC crossover. Otherwise, Robot Chicken, South Park or Family Guy would have broken that barrier on TV already. However, the appearance of an obviously non-Disney character in a Disney movie without the original owner’s permission points to a troubling development. With studios relying on their collective IPs to stay relevant, an entertainment giant such as Disney using others’ IPs without asking could pave the way for future legal troubles. The two studios probably would not risk the bad publicity and high legal costs such a case would require, but it’s safe to say that the friendly corporate atmosphere of the 1980s is firmly a thing of the past.
To see Tigra appear alongside Batman, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers is streaming now on Disney +.
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