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Has Walt Disney Pictures abandoned its plans to produce sequels to “National Treasure” & “Alice in Wonderland” ?

Jim Hill

It’s been a while since JHM last did a story about the various
domain names that The Walt Disney Company has registered. Me personally, I
always love the research phase for pieces like this because they then allow me
to peek over the horizon. See what the Mouse possibly has planned for the future.
Like — say — this domain name that the Company registered on March 15th …

… which suggests that Disney Theatrical is perhaps toying
with the idea of reviving its first major production for the stage and then bringing
Belle and the Beast back to Broadway someday soon.


Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc.
All rights reserved

Conversely, given some of the domain names that The Walt
Disney Company opted not to renew on April 15th …

… it would appear that that live stage version of Walt
Disney Animation Studios‘ 1941 release which Disney Theatrical has had in development
for the past few years isn’t ever going to get off the ground.


Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

That’s what’s really intriguing about The Walt Disney
Company and its domain names. By keeping close tabs on which domain names the
Mouse has recently registered as well as the ones that Mickey has just let go
of, you can then get a sense of which projects are being fast-tracked and/or
are not going forward.

Take — for examples — the  two would-be DVDs that Walt Disney Pictures
Home Entertainment let slip away on March 12th …


Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

… which suggest that 2007’s “Book of Secrets”
will now be the only “National Treasure” sequel that Walt Disney
Studios will ever produce.

Likewise Disney’s decision to delete its domain names for …


Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

… on May 1st suggests that all of that talk back
in the Spring of 2010 about how Joe Roth was trying to persuade Tim Burton to
shoot a sequel to “Alice in Wonderland” turned out to be just talk.

And there’s the Company’s April 24th decision to let …


Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

… go. Which suggests that the Mouse is finally (for the
time being, anyway) out of the “High School Musical” business.

Mind you, not all of the domain names that The Walt Disney
Company recently opted not to renew have to deal with movies which the Studio
won’t be producing and/or show that Disney Theatrical won’t be producing. In
the case of …


Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

… these are alternative film titles that Walt Disney
Animation Studios once considered for  “Bolt,” “The Princess and The Frog” and “Tangled” but now no longer needs.

That Disney would discard domain names like this only makes
sense from a business point of view. But then there are the domain names like
…


Copyright 1988 Touchstone Pictures / Amblin Entertainment. All rights reserved

… which the Company registered back on April 3rd which
raise far more questions than they answer. I mean, when I see a domain name like …

… I have to assume that something like this (which was
registered back on April 22nd) has to do with the still-under-construction expansion
of WDW‘s Magic Kingdom.


Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

But is that the same conclusion that you folks reach? Do any of you Disney insiders have
alternate theories and/or additional info that you’d like to share?

Your thoughts?

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