Monday Mouse Watch: How the “High School Musical 2” DVD will help Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment mend fences with the mega-retailers

Jim Hill

17 years ago

Never mind about all of Zac Efron’s fancy footwork in “High School Musical 2.” This morning, it’s Mouse House executives who are dancing in the streets.

The way I hear it, the suits back in Burbank are positively giddy over the record ratings that this “High School Musical” sequel received. With over 17 million viewers tuning in on Friday night to catch this Disney Channel Original. Which makes “High School Musical 2” the most watched basic cable telecast in history.

But — out of all of the departments & divisions at the Mouse House — do you know who’s happiest about “HSM2” ‘s astounding success ? Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment.

And — no — it’s not because WDSHE is already eagerly looking forward to those millions of “High School Musical 2” units that they’ll be able to move in the coming months. But — rather — because this “High School Musical” sequel is now Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment’s get-out-of-jail-free card. A way for Mickey to mend fences with mega-retailers like WalMart & Target.

“And why would the Mouse now be on the outs with the Big Boxes?,” you ask. Four words. “The Tinker Bell Movie.”

Photo by Jeff Lange

Let’s remember that — just 15 short months ago — that Disney Consumer Products announced with much fanfare that “Tinker Bell and the Ring of Belief ” (i.e. A WDSHE home premiere which was being produced by DisneyToon Studios) would be turning up on store shelves just in time for the 2007 holiday shopping season. And that this DVD — along for the three “Tinker Bell” sequels that DTS already had in the works — would help turn the “Disney Fairies” franchise into a “Disney Princess” -sized powerhouse.

Soooo … Because the Walt Disney Company said that it was putting together an unprecedented promotional campaign for “The Tinker Bell Movie” (Which was to have featured planes, trains and buses with new “Powered by Pixie Dust” paint jobs …

… as well as a cover story for “People” magazine. Where — for the first time ever — Tink was supposed to talk) …

… dozens of retailers made commitments to the Walt Disney Company. Agreeing to be the Mouse’s promotional partner on “The Tinker Bell Movie.” Which virtually guaranteed that this home premiere would be one of the best selling DVDs of 2007.

Until — of course — John Lasseter saw a work-in-progress version of “Tinker Bell and the Ring of Belief” and then decided that this DisneyToon Studios production wasn’t really up to snuff. Which was why John ordered that this direct-to-DVD project be completely reworked. Which effectively pushed back the release date of “The Tinker Bell Movie” until the Fall of 2008.

Now this decision may have won John lots of fans in the Disneyana community (Who see Pixar’s Grand Pooh-Bah as a real champion of the return to quality at the Mouse House). But the pushing back of the “Tinker Bell Movie” ‘s release date was an absolute disaster for the folks at Disney Consumer Products. I mean, these folks had literally spent years mapping a massive promotional campaign for that “Disney Fairies” -related DVD. Doing everything from changing the release date of the Platinum Edition of “Peter Pan” from October of 2008 to March of 2007 …

… to persuading the U.S. Postal Service to release a stamp with Tink’s image on it in the weeks just prior to “The Tinker Bell Movie” appearing on store shelves in the Fall of this year.

What’s that you say? You don’t believe that the Walt Disney Company would actually resort to this level of planning, particularly in support of a “Disney Fairies” -related DVD. Okay. Then take a gander at the image below. Which is a slide that was shown at a Disney Consumer Products presentation at the 2006 Licensing Show. Which outlined for potential licensees the “Engage & Excite” portion of the “Disney Fairies” franchise launch. Which was originally supposed to have occurred from July 2006 to June of this year. And (if you’ll read the slightly enlarged type) …

… included the Tinker Bell stamp that I mentioned previously as well as a “Tinker Bell Movie” teaser that was to be tacked onto the 2-disc Platinum Edition of “Peter Pan.”

Anyway … All of Disney Consumer Product’s carefully crafted plans got knocked into a cocked hat by Lasseter’s decision to push back the release date of “The Tinker Bell Movie.” And the way I hear it, the mega-retailers were furious that that best selling DVD that the Mouse had originally promised them for the 2007 holiday shopping season now wasn’t going to show up ’til 2008.

Now add to this the fact that — due to Walt Disney Studios significantly cutting back on the number of movies that it would be producing each year as well as DisneyToon Studios’ output for the past year basically being reduced to nothing because of all the political in-fighting that was going on between Lasseter, Ed Catmull and former DTS head Sharon Morrill — Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment was having trouble coming up with sufficient new titles to feed to the Big Boxes. Which meant that Mickey was now in danger of losing its primo shelf space at consumer electronics giants like Circuit City and Best Buy.

Which is why the folks at Disney Consumer Products are now said to be absolutely thrilled with the ratings that “High School Musical 2” received this past weekend. Given the record number of people who tuned in to watch this Disney Channel Original on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights … Well, that virtually guarantees that a DVD version of “HSM2” will soon be able to move millions of units.

Which (not-so-co-incidentally) was exactly the sorts of sales figures that WalMart, Target, Best Buy & Circuit City were hoping to get from offering their customers “The Tinker Bell Movie.” But now that the DVD version of “High School Musical 2” can be dropped into that late November / early December sales slot that was left open when John Lasseter ordered that the release date of “The Tinker Bell Movie” be pushed back … The people at Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment & Disney Consumer Products are suddenly breathing a lot easier.

Mind you, not everyone at the Mouse House is thrilled with how well “HSM2” did this past weekend. I’m told that the folks over at Walt Disney Pictures (Who have already begun preparing “High School Musical 3” for a Spring 2009 theatrical release) now figure that they’re going have to spend millions in order to get Efron, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale to appear in the third & final film in the series. Which (according to the logline description of HSM3’s plot that I’ve recently been shown) will feature both the senior prom as well as the high school graduation of everyone’s favorite Wildcats.

But what do you folks think? Is swapping the DVD version of “High School Musical 2” for “The Tinker Bell Movie” really a fair trade? Which WDSHE title do you think will actually sell better at the Big Boxes?

Your thoughts?