Monday Mouse Watch : Wanna peek at Bob Iger’s vision for the future of the Walt Disney Company? And is “Ratatouille” really starting to fade in the Hollywood rat race?

Jim Hill

17 years ago

You want to be able to look into the future? Particularly the Walt Disney Company’s future?

Okay, then. What you need to start doing then is staying home on Saturday nights and watching ABC‘s “The Wonderful World of Disney” movie anthology series. During which you should pay particularly close attention to that TV show’s title sequence.

“And why should I do that?,” you ask. Well, for over 50 years now, Disney has been using the title sequences of its weekly TV series to give viewers a brief glimpse of the future. Beginning with the “Disneyland” series (Which originally began airing on ABC back in October 1954) …

… which gave the public its first up-close look at the “Happiest Place on Earth.”

Given how quickly the public was to embrace Disneyland, Walt and his staff at the studio were quick to recognize the promotional power of television. Which is why they used weekly series like “The Wonderful World of Color” (Which debuted on NBC in September of 1961) to help keep the company’s Anaheim theme park in the spotlight. Always making sure that Sleeping Beauty Castle was the first thing (and then the last thing) that viewers would see each week when they tuned in to catch Disney’s latest show.

But again, recognizing that TV was a great medium for getting people excited about future projects … Once the corporation committed to spending $100 million to build a brand-new Vacation Kingdom down in Central Florida, Mickey not only changed the name of its Sunday night show to “The Wonderful World of Disney,” it also swapped out the shots that you saw in that TV program’s title sequence. Now — instead of seeing fireworks behind Disneyland’s Sleeping Beauty Castle — you saw shells exploding over Cinderella Castle at WDW’s Magic Kingdom. All with the idea of showing TV viewers where they plan on spending their future vacations.

This “glimpse of the future” tradition continued with the next incarnation of Disney’s weekly TV series. When this program changed its network, name and night in September of 1981 (Now airing on CBS on Saturday nights, the show was then simply known as “Walt Disney“), its title sequence featured a CG Cinderella Castle which then transformed into this wireframe version of Epcot‘s Spaceship Earth.

Then — in the late 1980s, as the Mouse was getting ready to open Disney-MGM Studios — the title sequence of the company’s weekly TV series was changed yet again. This time around (For an ABC-based revival of the show), as the camera zoomed around the world, visiting various Disney resorts, it eventually finds Sorcerer Mickey from “Fantasia” standing high atop Spaceship Earth. With a flick of the wrist, the Sorcerer’s Apprentice then sends a magical lightning bolt streaking across the night sky. Which transforms a regular old water tower into Disney-MGM’s original icon, the Earfel Tower.

Which bring us to the latest incarnation of “The Wonderful World of Disney.” Which continues one of the long standing traditions of a weekly Disney TV show, in that — as part of this program’s “Disney Extra” bonus feature — …

… it hypes recently-opened theme park attractions like Disneyland’s “Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage,” Epcot’s “The Seas with Nemo & Friends” ride-thru & “Finding Nemo — The Musical” at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and/or promotes upcoming releases like the 2-disc Platinum Edition of “The Jungle Book,” which be debuting on DVD on October 2nd.

But you know what I find particularly fascinating about this most recent revival of the “Wonderful World of Disney” TV series? The title sequence for this weekly movie anthology is really our first up-close look at Bob Iger’s vision for the future of the Walt Disney Company. Which isn’t so much tied to the physical world (i.e. Building new theme parks in Asia). But — rather — built on trying to persuade the company’s worldwide customer base to go online and enjoy Disney’s vaste array of characters there.

Obviously, we’re not talking about Walt Disney (or even Michael Eisner) ‘s version of the Mouse House. Though — as this TV show’s title sequence gets underway — you do see one tiny little screen that features an image of Steamboat Willie, the images that are shown here (More importantly, the order in which these pictures are presented) suggest a very different agenda is being serviced these days.

Take — for example — the first real image that you see in this title sequence for the revived “Wonderful World of Disney” TV series. It’s a brief clip from “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” in which Will Turner says “They’re coming” to Capt. Jack Sparrow. This (of course) serves as an example of all those family-friendly franchises that Iger and Disney Studio head Dick Cook are so anxious to put into production these days.

Right after that, it’s a veritable parade of Pixar characters, with Crush telling Squirt that “You so totally rock” and Mr. Incredibles saying “It’s showtime.” Then Lightning McQueen winks to the crowd as he soars through the air in slow motion. Which demonstrates Bob’s resolve to make the most of Disney’s $7.4 billion acquisition of Pixar Animation Studios.

Mind you, the real giveaway that we’re now looking at Bob Iger’s vision for the future of the Walt Disney Company comes at the very end of this title sequence. When all of these little computer screens that were previously showing memorable moments from Disney & Pixar films now fly through a starlit sky and form a perfect recreation of the home page for Disney.com.

Iger is really committed to making sure that the Mouse takes advantage of every opportunity to get the Disney.com web address out there. Don’t believe me? Then take a closer look at those two photos of the Disney castle that I’ve posted above. In the bottom third of both of those image captures, you’ll notice that the Disney.com/wonderfulworld address has deliberately been positioned for maximum exposure.

Anyway, getting back now to how the title sequence for the “Wonderful World of Disney” ends with a perfect recreaction of the Disney.com home page …

… Which (appropriately enough for Iger’s vision of a perfectly vertically intergrated corporation, where all divisions of the company now work together to help support Disney’s latest projects & products) is hyping “Ratatouille.” Which — to be honest — could actually use a little extra hype right about now.

To explain: What with “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” dominating at the box office this past weekend (That Warner Bros. release took in an estimated $140 million during its first five days in domestic release) and “Transformers” still coming on strong (That Paramount Pictures / DreamWorks release sold $36 million worth of tickets this past weekend) … Well, that didn’t leave a whole lot of elbow room for Brad Bird‘s latest at your local multiplex.

“Ratatouille” did manage to pull in an estimated $18 million over its three weekend in domestic release. Which normally would be considered a very respectable amount. But then when you compare how this Brad Bird film is doing right now in comparison to how other Pixar productions were doing at this point in their initial domestic run …

*Film Title*	Initial Domestic Gross 17 days into theatrical run
“Finding Nemo”	$191.4 million
“The Incredibles”	$177.5 million
“Cars”	$156.6 million
“Monsters, Inc.”	$156.3 million
“Ratatouille”	$143.0 million *
“Toy Story 2”	$126.2 million (wide)
“A Bug’s Life”	$83.4 million (wide)
“Toy Story”	$72.3 million

* Includes estimated box office totals for this past weekend

… not to mention what’s going on with the number of theaters that “Ratatouille” is now being presented in …

*Film Title*	Number of theaters film is playing in during its first weekend in domestic release	Number of theaters film is playing in during its third weekend in domestic release
“Toy Story”	2,281	2,476 (+195)
“A Bug’s Life”	2,686	2,748 (+162)
“Toy Story 2”	3,236	3,257 (+21)
“Monsters, Inc.”	3,237	3,461 (+224)
“Finding Nemo”	3,374	3,425 (+51)
“The Incredibles”	3,933	3,683 (-250)
“Cars”	3,985	3,949 (-36)
“Ratatouille”	3,940	3,625 (-315)

… We’re not exactly talking about conditions that lend themselves to films that then go on to break box office records. Then when you factor in the per-theater averages that other Pixar films saw during their third weekend in domestic release …

*Film Title*	Per-theater averages for film’s third weekend in domestic release
“Finding Nemo”	$8,287
“The Incredibles”	$7,201
“Monsters, Inc.”	$6,563
“Cars”	$5,896
“Toy Story 2”	$5,603
“Ratatouille”	$4,970 *
“Toy Story”	$4,341
“A Bug’s Life”	$4,073

* Includes estimated box office totals for this past weekend

… You have to admit that “Ratatouille” isn’t exactly cooking on all burners right now.

The good news is … The earlier, much bleaker box office estimates for this Brad Bird film (Which suggested that the initial domestic gross for this new Pixar film would top out somewhere between $150 – $170 million) were wrong. Having already sold an estimated $143 million worth of tickets to date, “Ratatouille” should have no problem blowing through the $170 million barrier.

The bad news is … It’s now looking less & less likely that “Ratatouille” will be able to equal “Cars” domestic box office total. In fact, in an interview with Reuters yesterday …

Disney’s domestic distribution chief, Chuck Viane, said the movie now appears on track to top $200 million, overall.

… But how far above $200 million? … No one at the studio really wants to say at this moment.

Look, let’s be honest here, folks. At this point, all that really matters is what “Ratatouille” earns by Labor Day. If this Brad Bird movie can (to borrow a phrase from “Finding Nemo”) “just keep swimming” for the next seven weeks and eventually makes almost as much as “Cars” did domestically last year, Wall Street isn’t going to raise a fuss. The investment community will be happy to give Pixar a pass, not really question that animation studio’s “Eight Hits in a Row” box office record.

If — on the other hand — the stubby little legs that “Ratatouille” has developed to date don’t actually carry this film past the $200 million point … Well, this Pixar production started off life by missing its opening weekend box office estimates by 20%. If it ends its domestic run by doing 20% less business than “Cars” did back in 2006 … There’s no way that Wall Street will overlook something that significant. Those are the sorts of numbers will get the investment community asking questions like “Is Pixar spreading itself too thin these days?”

So if you really want this Emeryville-based animation studio to avoid the scrutiny of the investment community … Now would be a very good time to buy another ticket to “Ratatouille.” Otherwise, this Walt Disney Pictures presentation of a Pixar Animation Studios film may really have a tough time coming out ahead in this year’s version of the Hollywood rat race.

Your thoughts?