Monday Mouse Watch : Is Lasseter looking to tune up the way Disney markets its feature-length toons?

As the folks at Walt Disney Studios will tell you, making a
good movie is really only half the battle. You then have to find the proper way to promote your motion picture.

I bring this topic up today because of some interesting
rumblings that have been coming out of the Burbank lot lately. It would appear
that – in the wake of “Bolt” ‘s under-performance at the domestic box office
last year – John Lasseter asked for a review of that motion picture’s
marketing.

You see, it just didn’t make any sense to John that a film
that was as well reviewed as “Bolt” would then fail to find a fairly sizable
audience.  But – then again – given that
the teaser poster for this WDAS release featured a stylized lightning bolt …

… rather than the extremely cute dog, cat and hamster that
Disney’s artists had created … Well, one has to wonder if this really was the
smartest way to sell “Bolt.” Especially since the inspiration for this
particular image seems to have drawn from a teaser poster Disney’s marketing
department created for “Hercules” …

… Which – let’s remember – didn’t exactly set the world on
fire either when it was released to theaters back in June of 1997.

Given Disney’s Marketing department’s recent tendency to build
promotional campaigns for the Studio’s animated features around supporting characters
that test audiences have responded strongly to (Like Morcupine Porcupine from “Chicken Little” …

And/or Tiny the T-Rex from “Meet the Robinsons”) …

… rather than these film’s title characters … Well, Lasseter
has reportedly begun to wonder if Disney’s marketing department really has what it
takes anymore. Especially in the wake of
the tepid response that “The Princess and the Frog” teaser trailer received last
year.

Where – once again falling back on their same old tired
bag of tricks – Mickey pushed a comical supporting
character into the spotlight (in this case Ray, the Cajun lightning bug) and
left Princess Tiana & Prince Naveen in the background.

Given how much is riding on “The Princess and the Frog” ‘s
success (i.e. the revival of the Studio’s hand-drawn animation unit, that Tiana
will be the first ever African-American Disney Princess, and – most important
of all — that the Company’s Consumer Products division is counting on this new
set of characters to re-energize its $4-billion-a-year Disney Princess
franchise), John has allegedly asked the Studio take a far more targeted, innovative
approach for the promotion of this upcoming animated feature.

Actress Anika Noni, the voice of the title character in “The Princess and the Frog,” receives her very own Princess Tiana
doll at last month’s American International Toy Fair in NYC. Copyright 2009
Disney. All Rights Reserved

Which – on paper, anyway — is what the Mouse’s Marketing
department is now doing. At the American International Toy Fair last month, Disney Consumer Products screened
a variety of clips which showed how spirited and resourceful Tiana was. Which
would (in theory, anyway) prove that this character was the perfect Disney
Princess for our politically correct age.

Meanwhile, this past weekend at WonderCon, Walt Disney
Animation Studios held a promotional panel for “The Princess and the Frog.” Which
– given the testosterone-heavy audiences that typically attends events like
this – talked up the movie’s special effects by showcasing the sequence in this film where
the evil Dr. Facilier uses black magic to turn Prince Naveen into a frog.

But will this more targeted approach actually help “The Princess
and the Frog” connect with its would-be target audience? I know that a number
of Disney Marketing execs (who were already stressing about Fox’s decision to move up “Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakel” ‘s opening from March 19, 2010 to Christmas Day) began chugging  Maalox late last week when they learned that Warner
Bros. would be pushing back the release date of Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock
Holmes” from November 1^st to December 25^th.

“And why should this news upset the Mouse’s promotions department?,” you
ask. In the wake of what happened with “Twilight” (i.e. that box office phenomenon opened on the exact same day as “Bolt” and then seriously ate into the would-be audience for this new animated feature), Disney’s Marketing department has now become hyper-sensitive when it comes to the topic of release dates. And what with Warners moving this Robert Downey Jr. movie to
Christmas Day … Well, that’s now just become another thing to worry about when it comes to “The Princess and the Frog.” Can this new hand-drawn Disney Princess film really stand up to a CG Alvin and the Chipmunks
sequel as well as a new Sherlock Holmes flick starring Iron Man?

Which is why there’s been talk of Mickey moving up “The Princess and the Frog” ‘s release date a few weeks. Which won’t make Robert
Zemeckis (i.e. the Academy Award winner behind ImageMovers Digital) happy. Given that his new performance capture picture for Disney, “A Christmas
Carol” opens on November 6th.

“And how is the Mouse going to market that movie?,” you query. Given that Jim Carrey will be playing seven different roles
in this time-traveling holiday tale … Well, that’s just how Disney is going to
promote “A Christmas Carol.” Not some much as yet another production of Charles
Dickens’ much-loved story. But – rather – as a star vehicle for Mr. Carrey.
Whose CG version of Mr. Scrooge will look something like this:

Look for the first trailer for “A Christmas Carol” to hit
theaters / the web sometime in April. And if that trailer fails to get significant
buzz going for this ImageMovers Digital film, look for both Lasseter & Zemeckis
to start leaning heavily on Bob Iger, Dick Cook and Oren Aviv. Insisting that something
drastic be done about the way Disney Studios promotes its non-Pixar animated releases.

Your thoughts?