Given that this company’s mascot is a giraffe, you’d think that Toys ‘R’ Us would be better at sticking its neck out. Particularly for a great retail partner like the Walt Disney Company.
To explain: For the past three years, Mickey Mouse has put a lot of time and energy into developing a very strong relationship with Geoffrey the Giraffe.
Mind you, it’s not like the Mouse really had a lot of choice in this matter. Given the retail might that this corporation lost when Disney sold off its own chain of stores to the Children’s Place back in 2004. Which is why Mickey then had to get in bed with the “Big Boxes” (I.E. Enormous retailers like Target, Wal-Mart and Toys ‘R’ Us).
And — of those three — the one corporation that Disney worked hardest at at forging strong ties with was Toys ‘R’ Us. It did so by by doing things like making TRU one of Radio Disney’s main promotional partners. Allowing that retail chain to sponsor RD’s hugely popular “Birthday Shout-Outs” feature as well as doing on-air giveaways of Toy ‘R’ Us gift cards.
Disney also helped design Toy ‘R’ Us’s feature shops. Which were basically smallish stores that were located right inside of your local TRU. These feature shops would then sell exclusive Disney merchandise which was tied to a particular upcoming feature film and/or DVD release.
Over the past six months, the Cinderella feature shops have proven to be quite popular with TRU customers. Which is why you had someone like Lisa Albove (I.E. The director of sales and marketing for Disney Consumer Products, North America) saying things like:
“Toys ‘R’ Us has been a great retail partner and always supportive of our initiatives, especially with Cinderella last year … Our Cinderella feature shops and gift with purchase promotion resulted in strong in-store presence and ultimately helped drive growth for the franchise.”
Of course, one of the main reasons that Lisa was seriously sucking up in the above quote was because Walt Disney Pictures had really been hoping that Toy ‘R’ Us might then be willing to help out with the promotion of the studio’s April 14th release, “The Wild.”
Copyright Disney Enterprises LLC
To be specific, what Disney wanted TRU to do was to “persuade” one of its vendors to create some “The Wild” -themed toys. To be really specific, what the studio wanted Toys ‘R’ Us to do was start selling a plush doll of Bridget, the giraffe character that actress / comedienne Janeane Garofalo voices in this computer animated feature.
Mind you, Disney thought that they had this TRU thing in the bag. Given that there’s a gag in the middle of this CG film that’s a veritable valentine for the retail chain’s Times Square flagship store.
To give you a little background as to how & where this particular gag fits into “The Wild” ‘s storyline: Samson the lion (voiced by “24” ‘s Kiefer Sutherland) has to mount a rescue mission in order to save his hot-headed son, Ryan (voiced by Greg Cipes). So the King of Beasts recruits some of his pals from the Central Park Zoo: Nigel the Koala Bear (Voiced by Eddie Izzard), Larry the Anaconda (Voiced by Richard Kind), Benny the Squirrel (Voiced by Jim Belushi) and the aforementioned Bridget. This quintet of animals then stow away inside a garbage truck and make their way down to the docks. With the hope that they’ll then be able to find a boat which can take them all over to Africa. Which is where Ryan has just been sent off to …
Copyright Disney Enterprises LLC
Anyway … As these five animals are headed toward the harbor, the garbage truck that they’re riding in rolls through Times Square. Which means that Samson, Nigel, Larry, Benny & Bridget are now about to ride right past the Toys ‘R’ Us flagship store.
So picture this: Here’s Bridget, goggling at all the lights in Times Square. When suddenly — there towering over her on Toy ‘R’ Us’s four-story-tall projection screens — is an enormous animated version of Geoffrey the Giraffe. She stares up at him … and he stares down at her …
Copyright Disney Enterprises LLC
I’m told that this particular sight gag always gets a big laugh whenever “The Wild” is screened. And given that this particular piece of that motion picture could easily be snipped out and then dropped into a Toy ‘R’ Us commercial that actually promotes the Times Square flagship store … Well, I guess you can see why Disney Studios execs thought that they had a virtual lock on getting TRU to produce a Bridget the Giraffe plush.
Unfortunately for Disney, Toys ‘R’ Us executives weren’t content with seeing just one brief snippet of “The Wild.” As excited as they may have been about that Bridget-meets-Geoffrey moment, these TRU execs still wanted to see the entire film before they committed to producing a Bridget plush that could then be sold in all of their stores. Or — at the very least — just at their Times Square flagship store.
So Disney screened a work-in-progress version of “The Wild” for Toys ‘R’ Us executives about eight months ago. And after seeing this admittedly-unfinished film, I’m told that these TRU execs politely passed on the opportunity to produce any Bridget plush. Saying — in essence — that they didn’t think that this CG feature was going to do well enough at the box office to warrant its own toy line. Or — in this case — a single piece of plush.
Which wasn’t exactly a surprise to Disney executives. Given that they’d reportedly gotten virtually the same response from the execs over at Target, Wal-Mart, Hasbro and Mattel.
So what does this say about “The Wild” ‘s chances at the box office next weekend? Well … I know that this doesn’t exactly bode well for this new CG motion picture. All I can say, folks, is don’t be so quick to write this one off.
I mean, let’s remember that “Hoodwinked” got truly awful reviews when it opened in theaters back in January. But — to date — this Weinstein Company release has earned over $50 million. And if a project like that can find an audience … Well, I guess that there’s still hope for something like “The Wild” as well.
But what do you guys think? Is “The Wild” really a rush-out-and-see-it-on-the-big-screen kind of film for you? Or more of a wait-’til-this-DVD-finally-goes-on-sale-at-Wal-Mart sort of flick?
Your thoughts?