Disney uses its theme parks as it tries to make its newest princess a star
Featured, Jason Garcia, News — By Jason Garcia on November 11, 2009 at 5:57 pm
Princess Tiana talks with guests during a meet-and-greet at the Magic Kingdom. (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
The Walt Disney Co.’s newest princess doesn’t arrive in movie theaters for another month, but she is already easy to find at Walt Disney World.
Theme-park guests can meet Princess Tiana and watch her perform in a musical riverboat show. They can buy Tiana dolls, undergo Tiana makeovers, and eat Tiana’s Magical Kisses — bite-sized, white-chocolate-covered graham crackers. They can even get vouchers for a child’s ticket to Tiana’s movie.
The in-park promotional blitz, extensive even by Disney standards, is part of a company-wide push to pump up The Princess and the Frog, the animated film that is one of Disney’s most important movies in years.
>> See pictures of Princess Tiana at Walt Disney World
Set for nationwide release on Dec. 11, The Princess and the Frog is Disney’s first attempt in more than a decade to add a new heroine to its stable of fairy-tale princess — a wildly lucrative franchise that now generates an estimated $4 billion in sales across Disney’s entertainment empire.
The Disney princesses are particularly important to the company’s theme parks. They are, for example, the focal point of the sweeping expansion that Disney World plans to begin work on next year in the Fantasyland section of its Magic Kingdom park.
The possibility of expanding that franchise has Disney pulling every lever it can to ensure The Princess and the Frog is a hit.
“They certainly want to take a hard swing at the plate on something like a new princess,” said Doug Mitchelson, an analyst who covers Disney for Deutsche Bank Securities. “The financial performance of this film could be vastly outweighed longer-term if the appeal to kids is strong enough to sustain it in the parks and with consumer products.”
Tiana's Showboat Jubilee makes its way down the Rivers of America at the Magic Kingdom (Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel)
Disney has a long history of using its theme parks — which drew an estimated 118 million people worldwide last year — to gin up interest in upcoming film releases. Characters from Pixar’s 2009 release, Up, began greeting guests at Disney’s Hollywood Studios two weeks before the film was released.
But the marketing push for The Princess and the Frog is both larger and longer. The most obvious example is “Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee,” a lavish parade and musical revue now performed three times a day in the Magic Kingdom. The show, in which characters from the movie march through the Liberty Square section of the park and onto a waiting riverboat, where they perform several songs, began more than six weeks before The Princess and the Frog’s scheduled national release.
There are scores of smaller examples. Tiana merchandise, from cookbooks to school kits, is stocked in gift shops alongside similar items featuring Snow White, Ariel and other princesses. At Disney’s Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutqiues, which peddle princess makeovers that cost as much as $240 a child, girls can now choose to be outfitted with Tiana dresses, tiaras and wands.
Elements from The Princess and the Frog, which is set in New Orleans, have been added to the holiday overlay at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort. Disney plans to have the characters appear during Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. And various giveaways will launch in the parks through November and December featuring The Princess and the Frog fortune cards, bookmarks and more.
Many of the same elements, including Tiana’s Showboat Jubilee, have also been added at Disneyland in Anaheim, Calif.
A Princess Tiana doll (AP)
Dara Trujillo, manager of merchandise synergy and franchises for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, said The Princess and the Frog has been rolled out in the parks about three weeks earlier than is typical for a new Disney movie.
“The most beautiful thing about The Princess and The Frog is the fact that the word ‘princess’ is” in the title, Trujillo said. “When you say the word ‘princess,’ our guests automatically get it. They can’t wait to see what the princess looks like, what her personality traits are.”
John Frost, a veteran observer of Disney World and publisher of The Disney Blog, said the in-park marketing blitz is the biggest he could recall since The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which was released in 1996.
“It has been done before, but not at this level,” Frost said. The early reaction, he added, appears upbeat. “I see lots of little girls running around in Tiana dresses, and the comments on my [message] boards are all uniformly positive.”
Disney is going to extra lengths to promote the movie beyond the parks, as well. At a fan convention earlier this year, Disney screened the first 30 minutes of the film, which has been made in a conventional, hand-drawn animation style. And it has scheduled an advance screening at its studio lot in Burbank, Calif., which is not typically open to the public.
The company is anxious to make Tiana a star. Under Chief Executive Officer Bob Iger, Disney Co. has focused on developing signature franchises that can be exploited across its various platforms, from television shows to theme-park rides to video games.
The approach, which emphasizes properties such as the princess and fairy lines and Pixar’s Toy Story and Cars films, has helped to reduce Disney’s dependence on some of its oldest characters. Five years ago, more than 60 percent of the company’s licensing revenue was generated by Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh; this year, they are expected to account for less than 40 percent.
But while the princesses have emerged as one of Disney’s most profitable brands, they lack fresh faces. Disney hasn’t introduced a major animated princess since the 1998 film Mulan, and none has emerged as a true star since Jasmine, of 1992’s Aladdin.
Making Tiana especially important: She is Disney’s first African-American princess. If the character catches on, it will help Disney diversify the princess fan base.
“The princess line of properties has over the last five years been one of our best-growing line of properties, and I think this is fresh content and a natural means of invigorating that even further,” Disney Co. Chief Financial Officer Tom Staggs said during an investor conference earlier this fall.
Mitchelson, the Deutsche Bank analyst, said the ancillary potential of The Princess and the Frog is so large that the best measure of its success won’t be box office results — it will be consumer-product sales.
“To the extent that The Princess and the Frog is only considered modestly successful from a film point of view, that doesn’t mean it won’t be quite successful from the perspective of broadening the princess franchise,” he said.
Jason Garcia can be reached at jrgarcia@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5414.
Print This Post
Tags: Bibiddi Bobiddi Boutique, Characters, Disney World, Fantasyland, Magic Kingdom, Princess and the Frog, Princess Tiana, Princesses
Tweet This
Digg This
Save to delicious
Stumble it
26 Comments
The movie will flop. The majority of people that I know have said they will not see this movie based on the content of the movie.
Great, Please stay home! You and your kind.
What IS the content of the movie…and why is it so bad?
If you ask me it’s just like all the other Disney movies, full of magic. No one cried when Mulan came out. Us Hispanics are folding our arms waiting for a princesita…wait…we got Dora, nevermind. Anyway, I will definitely watch this film and buy the doll. And I’m 27 – and not black…so BUYA!!!
What IS the problem with some people? Such ugly, racist remarks, and over a Disney movie/doll! Unbelievable. I’ve seen previews for the movie and it looks cute. I hope all the kids who see the film, buy the doll, etc., enjoy themselves.
I have no comment !
Apparently Skip has the impression that children study crime statistics and base their decisions on who is good or bad on the results of those studies.
I like this idea, its a little origenal. this time disney is not copying an idea from somewhere else.
Keep hoping.
The movie sounds cute and the new princess is adorable.Can’t wait to take all three of my princesses to see it.
Starflyer59, the people you know won’t go to see the movie based on the content of the movie? Do you mean because of the racial background of the main characters? If so, how sad is that!?
As for kids and race; if a child thinks people of a certain racial/religious/national group are all “bad,” it’s more than likely because that child was raised by his/her parents to think that group is “bad.”
Thanks Pachacutec
It doesn’t have anything to do with race or the color of someone’s skin. There are things in the movie that we just do not support.
There are alot of movies that come to theaters each year and we skip seeing them because there are things we don’t agree with or support.
Does that make me a racist if I don’t want to see a movie or agree with it’s content?
I will not get into here because you will just attack me.
You have already labeled me a racist and I never even mentioned anything about race or the color of one’s skin.
There are just themes in the movie that we do not support.
I apologize if you find that racist. But It has nothing to do with race.
A couple of questions:
What are the themes in the movie you are referring to? Your argument would have more merit if you explained.
Who are you referring to when you say “we”? Does “we” refer to your family? A religious group? Disney stockholders? Again, this would help people to understand your original comment. Thank you.
And I promise not to attack you. This is America. You have the right to your opinion and you have the right to choose whether or not to go and spend your money at the movies. To me this looks like a good film and I am sure I will take my family to see it, but that is my choice. Your choice would need to be respected as well.
Why can’t we all just get along?
Children everywhere ask this question each and every day.
Why would we want to take away their fantasies, happiness, dreams and wide-eyed innocence?
Too bad we as adults are so jaded that we can’t enjoy the simple pleasures in life — like a “feel good movie for the whole family”.
What is more important than spending time with your children and watching their faces light up when they smile or laugh?
Bravo for Disney!
Thank you for adding another character to your princess line up.
We will definately be seeing this movie, and buying the dolls and other merchandise — and our kids are teens! I am disheartened by some of the ridiculous commentary above. You are exactly the people I do not wish to associate with.
When you don’t see color, you begin to see the real beauty of men.
Starflyer59:
Is it the underlying themes of voodoo, etc, that you find questionable? I did not find anything racially offensive in your original comment and applaud how you responded to the assumptions made about what you said. I believe we as parents should be fully aware of what we expose our children too. Having said that, I am looking forward to watching the movie with my girls, but am preparing for any questions that may arise.
I agree with Jeremy. There are underlying themes of voodoo in this movie that I do not agree with. My husband I are raising our children to be Christians. However, I will be taking my daughters to see this movie for severalreasons. First, I believe that it is important to show children many different examples of beauty. We are not all alike, but I want my children to understand that we can all still feel that we have beauty. Second, I want my children to see a face that looks like theirs, and their mother’s, grandmothers’, etc. Finally, I embrace the opportunity to expose my children to different ideas. Like Jeremy, I will use this as a teaching moment. We will probably discuss several different religions. Children are often exposed to things that we, as parents don’t agree with. That is unavoidable. It is our job to make sure that we turn even those moments into oppurtunities to reinforce our values.
Whew! Sorry about that. Apparently I had a lot to say on the subject.
I agree that as parents we do need to be careful what we expose our children to, but I also believe that children need to know the difference between reality and fantasy. Most children can differentiate between the two if they have a strong influence from their parents and if parents take the time to discuss issues and situations that the movies present. I applaud you for exposing your children to different ideas as I think that is very important in their development. You are a Christian family and we are Jewish. My son desperately wants to see Disney’s Christmas Carol and I am more than happy to take him.