Over the past few weeks there have been several high profile stories out there about how the Walt Disney Company will be building on the lessons that it learned with the “Hannah Montana” & “High School Musical” franchises. So that the June 20 – 23rd roll-out of “Camp Rock” will be the biggest thing yet for the Mouse House.
Well, when Mickey says that he’s going to borrow from the “Hannah Montana” & “HSM” playbook, he’s not kidding. Take — for example — these four domain names that the Walt Disney Company registered back on April 6th:
- CAMPROCK2.COM
- CAMPROCK2.NET
- CAMPROCKTWO.COM
- CAMPROCKTWO.NET
Copyright 2008 Disney. All Rights Reserved
We’re still more than two months away from this Disney Channel Original’s multi-platform debut — when “Camp Rock” will air on the Disney Channel, ABC (as a special edition of “The Wonderful World of Disney”), ABC Family, Radio Disney and Disney.com in Disney XD — and the Mouse is already talking sequel.
Wait. It gets better. In support of “Camp Rock” as well as their third studio album (which streets in August) , the Jonas Brothers will be hitting the road this summer. From July 4th through Labor Day, Joe, Nick and Kevin will be on a 38-city North American tour. And at several stops along the way, a Disney Digital 3D production crew will be filming the brothers’ every move.
Why For?
- JONASBROTHERS-MOVIE.COM
- JONASBROTHERS3D.COM
- JONASBROTHERS3DCONCERT.COM
- JONASBROTHERSCONCERT3D.COM
- JONASBROTHERSCONCERTMOVIE3D.COM
(L to R) Kevin Jonas, Joe Jonas, Nick Jonas chat with Jimmy Kimmel during their
recent appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.” Photo by Michael Desmond.
Copyright 2008 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved
If all goes according to plan, the Jonas Brothers 3D concert film will follow right in “Hannah Montana / Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert Tour” footsteps. Meaning that the Disney Digital 3D production will be released to theaters sometime in late January / early February 2009 for a limited engagement.
Speaking of “Hannah Montana” … The movie version of that popular Disney Channel series finally begins shooting next month in Tennessee. Just last Sunday, hundreds of people traveled to Nashville with the hope of being cast in this Walt Disney Pictures production. Which will detail what happens when the Stewart family makes a long overdue return to Buford County.
As for the rest of the “Hannah Montana Movie” ‘s story … Well, as Jason Earles — who plays Miley’s older brother Jackson Stewart on this Disney Channel hit — put it in a recent interview:
“Hannah Montana” co-star Jason Earles.
Copyright 2006 Disney. All Rights Reserved
“(What) with the (writer’s) strike … there’s a couple of versions of the script floating around. So it’ll be exciting to see where we land.”
Which perhaps explains the multiple domain names that the Walt Disney Company has registered for the “Hannah Montana” movie back on March 13th. Which include:
- HANNAHMONTANAFAMILYREUNION.COM
- HANNAHMONTANAWELCOMEHOME.COM
- HANNAHMONTANAOFFTHECHARTS.COM
- HANNAHMONTANAULTIMATECHOICE.COM
- HANNAHMONTANAWHEREITALLBEGAN.COM
- HANNAHMONTANACROSSCOUNTRYADVENTURE.COM
- HANNAHMONTANACROSS-COUNTRYADVENTURE.COM
- HANNAHMONTANAOLDFRIENDSNEWBEGINNINGS.COM
(L to R) Billy Ray Cyrus, Jason Earles, Miley Cyrus, Mitchel Musso & Emily Osment.
Copyright 2006 Disney. All Rights Reserved
Which suggests that the script for this May 2009 Walt Disney Pictures release is still very much in flux. And then — to further confuse the situation — check out this other domain “Hannah Montana” -related domain name that the Mouse House registered:
- HANNAHMONTANAILFILM3D.COM
Which makes one wonder. Did Disney grab this domain name to help support the August 23rd release on the DVD version of that “Best of Both Worlds Concert” (Which — FYI — will be in 3D) ? Or is the Studio seriously considering making this “Hannah Montana” feature film a Disney Digital 3D release ?
Which — I know — seems somewhat likely. But let’s remember that — just last week — John Lasseter announced that all of Pixar & Walt Disney Animation Studio’s upcoming CG films would be Digital 3D releases. And then when you consider some of the other domain names that Mickey has registered recently (EX:
- STEPUP3-D.COM
- STEPUP3DMOVIE.COM
(L to R) Lajon Dantzler, Harry Shum Jr., Robert Hoffman, Christopher Scott and Adam G. Sevani in “Step 2 the Streets.” Photo by Karen Ballard. Copyright 2007 Touchstone Pictures and Summit Entertainment, LLC. All rights reserved
… it’s clear that the Studio is giving very serious thought to expanding its Disney Digital 3D operations beyond the current assortment of CG animated features & specialty concert films.
So what do you folks think? Is it really such a smart move for the Walt Disney Company to plan so far ahead with its tween friendly franchises? Does it take some of the fun out of these films to learn about all of the advance planning that the Mouse does on some of these projects?
Your thoughts?